Steven P

I'll agree with Stubby here about getting a bulk load of logs. I don't however know your set up, your new house might be a small city centre terrace with a yard, it might be detached house and acres of land. You migh have a log store outside at the moment, there might not be. But to answer your question, 1 bag will last about a night. They are priced for the occasional fire, such as a few over Christmas week and the odd weekend and where buyng a bulk load would be more expensive or inconveniant to having to store half a load till the next winter. If you had a fire on each night, £6.50 a night it soon becomes an expensive thing. These bags are bulky in a retail shelf and have to pay their way... so the pice is high. Bulk delivery, comes from an out of town yard generally, with much smaller overheads, and so are a lot cheaper... but you need to store them and keep them dry.. which is where Stubby comes in with building a log store. You might also consider getting a hatchet or small axe, again a money saving thing that pre cut kindling is another process, adding a cost to log.. which you have anyway it soon pays for tself. There are a lot of log suppliers out there, and you can look on places like Gumtree where there will be the occasioal advert for logs but these generally need splitting, however can be free too. It also might be that a local log supplier if asked nicely could deliver smaller amounts if you don't have space to store them - probably at a premium but not as much as Wicks

Every time we get locked down, yes.

I feel a bit insignificant here, only a 5kw stove but that heats the house mostly. Defenitely depends what you put into it though, had oak in there (free of course) yesterday and today and that got quite toasty, on soft woods it takes a bit longer to warm up but I get more of them. This year I suspect we will be burning a lot of wood, both of us at home all day. Every day. Having to talk. In normal times I burn wood in the evenings and use coal when I go out to work - got a dual fuel stove on purpose and this heats a 3 bedroom semi. Pure finances come into play here too, I cannot store enough dry wood in the garage for a ful winter and so to buy fuel, smokeless coal has more heat than dried logs for the money. I would go for insulation as soon as you can. I am in the process of doing under the floor this week and you can stand one foot above the insulation and one above none and I canactually notice the differnce in the warmth of the floor

I'm with the other answers here, you won't get anything for free. Sort of. You might get stuff free to you if it makes sense to do so, for example I got a transit van of logs the other day because that tree surgeon was on the way to the tip, and dropped them off to avoid paying the comercial rate at the tip - financialy better for him. So if it is convenient for their jobs I get logs. The next thing to consider is that for free you can rarely pick and choose what you want. Currently I have a load of Scotts Pine to cut and split and a load of Laylandi.. I doubt I willever get oak, thorn or fruit trees for free. Going back to the argument of the giver getting a deal, it might cost almost as much to process as it would that you can sell them for for a small amount of wood, less hassle and cheaper to ti it somewhere. My other source of logs is tipped down the road and I have to collect it, extra hassle but I get the odd hard wood, often have to dig it out of a pile of wood chip. So if you are willing to accept that 'free' is really meaning costing less for the tree surgeons and what goes with that you shold be OK. If you ask the right way you should get some, and be prepared to put in the work to add value to go from a tree to a log on the fire

You might want to be a bi more specific since we are all going to post what we own at the moment. What are you going to be doing with it? Do you have a budget? Do you need it to be rechargeable or so that you can change the batteries (handy if you are an hour from home and the batteries die), How bright exactly - when was the last time you bought one and how bright was that (the light intensity has increased, you might have been using 100 lumen torch, 150 lumens would be great, might be that you had 300 and 150 would be rubbish) and so on. Narrow it down a bit. Me? I need one for running through woodland trails in the winter, so I got a bike light, think it is 450 lumens, cheaper than a dedicated head torch for the power but I had to make a head strap out of a go-pro head strap, it does me quite well for running downhill cross country through the woods at that power. I would avoid fancy bits and pieces, had a couple and they never lived up to expectation.

If it is Vermiculite board, you can just cut a piece the same size, or for a one off purchase might be cheaper to buy one ready cut than a whole sheet to cut yourself. If you don't quit get the right size, maybe a bit big, you can cut it to size easily. Wood burning stoves are quite simple internally, nothing special about the parts so long as they all fit it will work. For example, you can get glass, bricks, grates, and so on all from others apart from the manufacturer. For mine, after market baffle plate (steel), second grid (manufacturer), glass (after market), bricks (I made, 1st set replacements I bought from manufacturer), and it still warms the house

Google reckons about £30 an hour for skilled trades such as Electrician, Brickie, £25, Labourer £12 to 15, plus profit for their company, £600 is quite high. (I had 2 roofers half a day for £300 inc vat a couple of weeks ago) Keep advertising, word of mouth and so on, if you get forgotten about the next guy will get the work

It takes me more time to move the logs about as they dry than actualy splitting and cutting them. I don't have the space for a big pile so after splitting they get stacked, and then when dry, stacked inside the garage for the winter. I would say that the main advantage of a barn is you don't have to handle the logs as much and therefore saves time

I can't say what is was but in our house, the old owner had Harleys, alarmed the garage but not the house. 13A fuse in the garage labelled 'blaster' One of the sites where I worked alarmed their buildings and 3 months later had to put "wear ear defenders when entering" because of the number of times the alarms went off before you could reset them (3 or 4 doors to a building, 100 buildings, had to remember which door the alarm panel was behind - fixed with a code to the signage) Point here is that if you are getting an alarm, make it unpleasant to be there when it goes off... but make sure you can reset it quickly if you have neighbours. However also going with the make it take too long, too lit up, too noisy and too many cameras option too. Consider their attack as well. Are they going down the front of the house or jumping the back wall, where do you need to strengthen to make it trickier

If logs are > 20% MC they will also burn

If it is in the stove when it is burning then no problem whatever it is. Not sure exactly what you are describing, you might want to limit how long logs with the mold are in the house. I wouldn't be too worried about it - my logs have a full range of things growing on them and they all burn just as well as each other. Just reading you other comments, you might ask to get your logs delivered in March when they are freshly split and then store them yourself for the summer - might be cheaper 'unseasoned' and you will probably end up at this time of year with logs the same MC

I'll assume this is a serious question just for a moment. The question keeps saying "should I buy this, should I buy that", so adding it up what the budget might be, £40 for a winch, £20 for a new rope (I wouldn't use a climbing rope in a winch, too stretchy) and 'some wedges', 3 or 4 at £8 each? £25. plus postage, £5 each? Adds up to about £100 of "should I buy" with a quick google search, might be more, might be less. I'll assume that you have some 2 petrol made up else add another £6, also assume that yuo have suitale PPE - helmet, chainsaw prof trousers, gloves, boots etc (else add another £100?). Taking the tree to the tip? add £50 to hire a van. So a basic cost £100 to buy the stuff he wants. How much would a professional charge to fell this tree? £200 if it is simple maybe? Fell it in one go, he can chop it up. My point here is the leap from what he want is willing spend to buy the kit to getting a fuly insured and competent tree surgeon in isn't atually that great. Just the willingness to 'should I buy' stuff puts my mind in doubt that this is serious. The other option is that he wants to fell other trees and wants the kit.. in which case some sort of training might be handy, and a bigger saw

Leaf blower? I just use the mower, it picks them up, cuts them up a bit, and puts them in the collecting bag. Mind if a leaf blower will annoy the neignbours more....

That's the point, the logs as they dry send their moisture out into the air creating warm moist air. Warm air rises to sit just underneath the roof. If you could measure it, it will be more moist under than above the roof. If this is a problem for you then create more air flow under the roof so this moist air can escape and be replaced by drier air from outside. A cheap fan can do this, I wouldn't bother, it wouldn't cause me any worry.

That condensation under the roof, the moisture comes from where..... If it drips back on the wood it's only going back where it started. If it worries you a lot you could get a -probably- cheap solar / battery powered fan to run on at dusk to create some air flow under the roof, will dry the wood out qucker too

Are you looking for lumps of wood or for wood chip? If it is wood chip then a call around the local tree surgeons should see you get more than enough... but you might need to be prepared to accept a couple of tonnes at a time. Great for the garden to put under the flowers to supress the weed though.. let the neighbours have some too and hardwood lasts there longer than soft wood. Might not be able to specify a type and delivery but if you are able to wait until a suitable local job happens it should be free. Curious, I have never smoked food - what is wrong with softwoods? I assume each has its own flavour but why not?

Axes - My X17 has got through about 8cu m since Christmas, and I think 5 logs that it wouldn't go through - these are now in the wood slowly rotting down for the insects. Much better than the heavier generic felling axe and the cheap maul - not sure I want to splash out on an expensive maul though (in order, the Fiskars is the best, the free felling axe we took of a thief is second best, and then it is a even split between the maul and B&Qs hatchet to be honest). I am not picky about the wood I collect. Listening to you all though, might have a look at the X25 later in the year. Now to the OP and his question about splitting the wood has had from his shed and his photos.... Nice fire by the way. The kinks within the wood are knots. This are where the side branches come out of the side of the tree. In finished timber it is less obvious what they are but on a fresh log very obvious because you can see the branch. Imagine the trunk of the tree, the fibres in it are running up and down and splitting that is just splitting the fibres from its neighbour. A branch is the same except the fibres in the branch run in the direction of the branch - in other words at right angles -ish to the trunk. The fibres in the trunk still go up and down though, and your first pic below is showing them running around a side branch - giving the funny shape. The second pic shows clearly the side branch and split in half lengthways. I might get corrected with a better technique but,... second pic below as an example. Remember the technique is to split the fibres apart and not to break through them - use a saw to cut across the fibres. If you split the log as you have with the split along the line of the knot / branch it will split OK. If you try at 90 degrees the axe will get stopped by the fibres of the side branch running in the other direction (try it one way then the other you'll see what I mean). Your axe will probably laugh at a small twig like in the 2nd photo... if it is on its own, but when it is 'buried' in a log its strength appears to be 10x stronger. So if you get stuck with a piece of wood, often turning it will get you a better split and if it is a big side branch split it out from the log, then prop it up on its pointy edge, branch pointing upward and then split the branch not the trunk.. just beware that the log could get a bit unsteady. Not sure if that makes sense. But, don't worry about it, logs aren't always pretty, and if it goes in the fire it burns Now back to axes......

I like the calculations - I'll come back here and read this properly another time, but they are all missing out one part of the equation, which is better value for money. I am sure you will have noticed there is no straight answer to this. There is a premium added to kiln dried logs of course, and different suppliers will give you a slightly different volume of logs in a 'ton', builders bag or whatever (also the same supplier, depends how they are feeling). Hardwood isn't just hardwood, softwood isn't just softwood and if you look at the tables different woods have different amounts of energy in a volume (though by kg, and at the same water content they are all pretty similar). We buy logs by volume and not weight, a quick check for an example (ignore units) - Ash was "30" weight, oak was "45" for the same volume... but clearly there is more wood in the oak. So got to really compare like for like., If you get the same wood at the same moisture content, air dried will be better value, however... a supplier will tend to sell kiln dried, or air dried as far as I can tell and so making a direct comparison of value becomes even harder. So yup, we can tell you which will give you the best energy output by kg, but you are going to need to take these numbers and apply them to your local prices to work out which is best value.

We all have to start somewhere and while a shed isn't generally ideal fire wood, you can still learn from it. If I had nothing, a shed to take apart I would buy a bow saw, a cheap hatchet ad a sharpening stone. Most of the shed wood will be pretty much kindling only. Use the saw to cut it to length, the small axe to split it, and the sharpening stone to keep the axe sharp. If the budget was a little bigger, get a Fiskars X10 (?) axe, a saw again and a Fiskars sharpening tool. Then you can start to add to that as your budget gets bigger and you get larger logs to split - I have an X17 I think and that will go through most things, I have a maul and hate it (it has never spit anything, breaking the wood through brute force). Next step up is replace the saw with sometihjng with some power - ask in the chainsaw section for advice there but lke all tool advice there are snobs who will want you to have the best and the lucky who have got away with a 2nd hand chansaw for £10 for the last 100 years. Chainsaw is a big investment by the time you get protectinve clothing (trousers, eye protection, maybe a helmet, gloves, ear defenders) added to the cost. Norwegian Wood is a great book to read

Not an expert here. However. Are all your logs to be the same legnth or do yuo have clients that specify a 25cm log and some that specify 30? If so this makes it a bit safer, a 27cm log can go into the 30cm pile for example, a 35cm log can be cut to 25 and this adds al larger factor of safety if needed. I'll also assume and knowing what logs I pick up that some will be undersized - if this is not an issue, I guess cutting threm undersized will aso not be an issue. Just trying to make that 5cm end to cut off a bit longer. If your secs are tight though, I would be tempted to split the -slightly oversized- wood first keeping it in a seperate pile and with these thinner logs you can get a bench circular saw or siimilar (with suitable guards and guides, hold the long end and cut off the small pieces with thst.

Kind of glad the wood is worthless, its gong to keep me warm all next winter Sold some in the last few weeks (my excess) which will pay for the coal I'll burn to.. so not quite worthless.

I'd go with Ratman, eliminate the simple - like what you burn - first

Reading this, there are 2 options for strangr smells. Ones that sould be inside the stove and ones that sould be outside the stove. There shouldn't be a smell from inside the stove coming to the outside of the stove. I guess inside stove smells should be easy to work out. Put smethng selly in the stove and see if you can smel it when the door is shut! If this is the case then one f the jonts needs sealing better and that could be your 5" to 6" connection, it could be thr connetion to the stove, it could be the door seal but you will ahve a starting point then. Sometimes if I put bread in the stove, yo can smell toast outside.... and this could be ideal since it stars no smell and ends up with smell so you dont cotaminat the room before you burn it (otherwise, put your smell in a plastic bag, seal it up, put it in the fire the next day) Outside stove smells - nothing to do with the connection. Could be a hot metal smell, could be dust, or cleaning products, could be builing materials getting too hot (plasterboard in the ceiing?). If it is outside stove smell and it is recurring then there is something not quiet right, maybe you are burning the fire to hot biut I can't think what else it might be. Just to note, mine wll smell when I have a good hot fire n it - a hot metal smell (assumng you have had the stove for a while, new stoves stink as any paint r finishes cure) Dampers: I have 2, 1 for top air, one for bottom air into the fire box, not really. Top air burnes off fumes from combustion - how wood burns. Bottom air is for coal though cannot hurt to also have top air. However in the comments Damper refers to a chimney damper, a metal plate in the chimney that closes it off, reducing the draft and so the fire

Thanks, at £15 a time for the battery, £50 for the saw, £15 for the charger - adding a few batteries is going to put it in the range of gumtree or e-bay second hand top branded electric saw with a wire. I mostly cut firewood to length at home so that might be a better option. If I had some of their other battery kit I might consider it more.

Painted stove? so scrapping it off a new stove is maybe not acceptable? I'd go for the get the stove nice and hot and see what you can scrape off with something non abrasive - perhaps a wooden spatula? Get quite bit off like that... and getting the stove hot will help of course, when you have the windows opens for the smoke to get out. When it's mostly off you can use something like an old cotton T shirt rag to wipe more off. It might take some time, scrape, clean, wipe, let it heat get hotter, repeat. Thinking to my cooking, when it's as clean as you can get it like that, let it all cool, wet it and perhaps try a dishwasher tablet - mildly abrasive but shouldn't scrape up the paint like wire wool could and see how that works. Needless to say, do that in as small an area as you can