Build a Log Deck for Splitting Firewood

Reader Contribution by Dave Boyt
Published on February 7, 2014
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Seasoned Firewood

“Have all your firewood cut and split by the Fourth of July,” the old-timers say. That sounds good in theory, but in actual practice, we are doing well to get the wood cut and split a week before we need it. Fortunately, we have a plethora of seasoned sawmill slabs to mix with the green firewood when we need a good fire. In past years, I scoffed at anyone who cheated by using a hydraulic log splitter, but now that I’m pushing 60, it is the preferred way to make little chunks out of big ones. I figure ten gallons of gas for the saw, tractor and splitter is a fair trade-off for a year’s worth of fuel, when my neighbors are paying $800 a month to stay warm.  Even though our southwest Missouri home is passive solar, we still burn two or three cords per year, and I’m always on the lookout for better (easier) ways of getting it done.

Sawmill Slabs

The slabs that come off my portable sawmill are a great way to get a lot of firewood in a hurry, and they are easy to split.  Many years, we burn only slabs, though the bark makes a lot of ash.  If you have a trailer with a wood bed and don’t mind a few chain saw marks, it is a quick and easy matter to stack the firewood on it, and just cut down through the stack to the length you want.   With a 40” bar, I can cut from both sides of the trailer, and split it as I offload.  To save time and work, the whole process takes place next to the firewood storage, so the wood goes straight from the splitter to the pile.  This year, however, I sold so much slab firewood that we found ourselves in need of a way to cut and split round wood.

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