Rob_the_Sparky

I've been using a cheap 6lb maul from screwfix for the last few years, bought as a set with a hand axe and a "wood grenade". I also have a 12lb sledge, a Fiskars wedge (one with a twist in it) and recently bought but not used yet x27. My experience is that the maul needed some work with a file to get it to work but I'm pretty happy with it now. I modified the shape a bit as well as giving it an edge of sorts. The hand axe is OK just needed sharpening but I don't use it much. Both are made from pretty soft metal though. The wood grenade is pretty useless but if desperate I can use it as a wedge in a crack already opened by the fiskars wedge or maul. Otherwise it just acts more like a giant nail and is a so and so to remove from the wood once it does split. The fiskars wedge is great for really knotty stuff but is a bit of a last resort as it is slow. The sledge I use on the maul and with the wedge, it is a bit OTT but it works Looking forward to trying out the x27 this season.

How small are we talking? I use very small stuff to light my 5kW at home (e.g. 10mm diameter and 200mm long) that I collect from garden prunings. Great for fire lighting but it burns very fast and occasionally I have used too much of it and the temperatures get rather high. Once had to open the door to calm it down. Not sure I'd want to try to run it regularly on this stuff due to this but not tried. It would also be a pain to handle in any quantity, which is what I'm guessing you are getting at above.

Sounds like someone needs to read Lars Mytting's book "Norwegian Wood".

I get a little ash on the glass on my CLearView, which has air vents similar to those described. Bit of damp paper and ash though and it wipes off very easily and builds up again fairly slowly.

A local tree surgeon drops off wood at my place on his way home for a small donation if he is doing a job locally. I only have one stove so he alone can deliver more than I can use in a year. I get the stuff he does not want himself so mostly softwood and stuff that is hard to split. I then cut, split and dry it all myself. The exercise and satisfaction of hitting lumps of wood with an axe is as much of the interest in the wood as the cheap fuel and enjoyment of the fire itself.

Clearview Pioneer 400 on 6" legs - very happy with it. Thought it looked a bit small for the room when specifying it but that was as big as I could get into the space I had. Actually about the right size, I don't have to throttle it down and the room can get really warm, sometimes too much so, and I keep the door open all the time to help heat the whole house.

Agreed, I'm getting arb waste (small quantities for home use) and my logs only did this outside in wet weather before I split them into rounds. They had the same pattern as well (mostly just under the bark) that I guessed was because this was the sap wood so wettest. I'm guessing that these logs are still wet under the bark.

Just to get people back to the real world for a moment about particulates and cars, exhaust emissions are only part of the picture: "Electric vehicles emit no NO2 but do produce small particle pollution from the wear on brake discs and tyres and by throwing up dust from roads. A recent European commission research paper found that about half of all particulate matter comes from these sources." From: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/aug/04/fewer-cars-not-electric-cars-beat-air-pollution-says-top-uk-adviser-prof-frank-kelly and anyway particulates are only part of the overall picture.

Mine works well but then my (small) burner has a flat top and is in a recess in the wall ~600mm wide, 1m high with the front of the burner level with the wall. I clearly need to get the air out of that recess and into the room so got a fan a few years ago. Not sure if it makes any difference to the efficiency but you can clearly feel the hot air being moved into the room.

I'm amazed how often photographers taken photos showing wood stacked up around wood burners. For example: https://www.spectator.co.uk/2018/05/michael-goves-stove-ban-is-a-direct-attack-on-country-life/ and even worse: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/12170394/Why-my-wood-burning-stove-will-be-the-death-of-me.html Little wonder you get people doing this if the main stream press uses photos like this. Particularly the second one...

I drive past you on the way home bu as I'm always on the way to collect the kids or other goblins have got there first never collected any. I do know others at work here in Guildford though that get their supplies by collecting from you. When you are splitting for home use time is not so much of a problem and using a maul on the tough stuff is good exercise for us office workers :) Free is free after all.