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Last week we shared an ingenious hack for chopping firewood more efficiently and the tips box lit up with great tips from readers with wood-chopping experience.
Photo by sunpig.
Lifehacker reader Peter has been heating his home with wood for over 40 years. He wrote in with this tip:
An added bonus is to have a heavy solid base of concrete, pavement or a huge flat stone under the log, and a 2′ x 2′ square of 3/4″ plywood over that.
The concrete gives a solid non-bouncing base, and the plywood protects the splitting maul edge. No axe is involved in splitting. Axes are thin, lighter than a maul (2-3 lb.), and sharp for cutting across wood grain when felling a tree or cutting off branches. A maul is much heavier (6-10 lb.), duller, and designed to split along the wood’s grain. The heavy base under the log puts all of the maul’s splitting energy into the splitting, with virtually no bounce.
Mark enjoys chopping wood as a break from life in the office and is full of tips:
When splitting smaller logs than those in the bungee demo, if you get your axe stuck in, rather than struggle to get it out, lift the log up, still on the axe, to full height, flip it round and bring the axe back to your chopping block, axe back (rear) down. This forces the stuck log down onto the axe and usually splits it first time.
I notice the bungee demo was splitting rounds which were on the ground. I always split on a block, usually a large trunk, bedded on some hardcore which is then covered in a good layer of sawdust and chips. Reckon his rounds were too big for this but it is worth a note for smaller rounds.
For twisty logs that won’t split, I use a thing called a Wood Grenade. This is a cone shaped device with a clever, slight twist to the cone that, when driven into a log will split it.
You can find the “Wood Grenade” or variations at most hardware stores or order it online. Check out this example to get an idea of what to look for when you’re shopping.
John writes in with some tips on storing your firewood properly:
If you're a veteran to using a wood burning stove, this won't be much of a lesson but for the greenwoods out there—ha!—this'll save 'em some headaches. You need to store wood for at least a year to season it (or pay a premium when you buy wood for seasoned wood.)
Everyone talks about creosote [Ed. Note: unburnt particulate that can clog up your chimney and cause fires] and how one wood is better than the other but the real issue is drying. Wood needs to be bone dry. Store it so that it’s not sitting on the ground and cover it so that it doesn’t get rained or snowed on, but make sure the sides are open. Throwing a tarp over the whole pile won’t help you a bit, it’ll just turn your wood pile into a little greenhouse and make the drying time longer than it needs to be.
If you can place the woodpile [where] it’ll get a nice breeze most of the year, that’ll help things along. Everything you do when stacking and storing wood should be focused on drying it faster and keeping it dry. Don’t wrap it up in plastic! Don’t let it get rained on all year! You’ll have a big stinking pile of rotten wood and not a huge pile of home-heating magic.
All excellent tips, thanks for writing in guys! If you have a wood chopping or storing trick of your own to share, let’s hear about it in the comments.
Chopping wood is a satisfying, yet laborious, task. Give yourself an efficiency boost with this simple bungee cord organization video tip.
Photo by Muffet.
When chopping large diameter logs into more manageable and fireplace-friendly sizes, it can be a pain to keep all the pieces upright as you split them. Check out the video below to see how the simple addition of a bungee cord means you’ll spend more time chopping and less time setting up logs to be split.
Bungee cord or not, that guy is a wood-chopping machine. Have a tip or trick related to chopping wood or heating your home with it? Let’s hear about it in the comments.
