What logs for a log burner?

Sooooo, my first call to a local managed woodland who are a 20 minute drive from me and charge £210 for 1M3 of seasoned ash delivered and stacked = “sorry we don’t deliver that far, we only like to supply people locally” FFS, welcome to the artisan intricacies of living in Stroud!!!

We bought a splitter between 3 friends, 5.5 tonnes IIRC. If it fails I cut in half with the chainsaw as Timber suggests. Some things I know are going to be problematic such as big knots I just chainsaw into little stove-size lumps. Still haven’t had to buy any wood in over 10 years and ignored a sign outside a neighbour’s house offering free wood to collect – too much wood in stock to be motivated enough to get the wheel barrow and chainsaw out.

@qwerty – these guys should be close to you https://elcombefirewood.co.uk

Not logs, but compressed wood briquettes instead.
I use these ones:

Hotblocks – Our British made Wood Briquettes

A pallet will easily last me a whole winter of a few fires per evening per week. They’re using offcuts and waste from their pallet building business. They burn really hot and clean, my sweep always comments on how clean my chimney is. Broadly tidier than logs, but you will get a few chips of a briquette when you load them up.

@teaandbiscuits My second call was to Elcombe who will do 1M3 of seasoned mixed hardwood for £185 and I get to move & stack them myself.

He tried steering me to kiln dried and I’ve settled for a net bag of kiln & a bag of Hotmax fuel logs to try out.

Being delivered tomorrow AM.

—thumbs—up—emoji—

Great! They arrive in a tipper pickup and just dump it out on the drive so its a workout to put it away but the wood burns well! I bought 1m3 last summer and we’re about a third through it.

If you’ve got significant amounts of timber to split then hire in a splitter.

For small amounts I have a fiskars xl27, it’s a weapon but I wouldn’t contemplate using it for more than an hour

Grenades are rubbish. If the fiskars won’t do it a grenade won’t. I have a proper forged wedge that is handy and far superior, they are worth having although you rarely see them. You’ll curse when it’s balls deep and going nowhere though.

If you must split by hand, pick your battles. It’s generally obvious what won’t split so don’t bother doing yourself in over it.

Firewood processing for yourself is a serious pastime. Start now for next winter.

if you must buy in don’t trust anyone to deliver properly dried timber. I see several suppliers locally, none of them store logs in a way that will season well.

In short, hire a splitter

I get to move & stack them myself.

Honestly, this doesn’t take as long as you might think. We get two builders dumpy bags of logs* delivered at a time (at £100 each FWIW, but we’re up north), I always think “ugh, I’ve got to shift all that” but half an hour later, done.

*and I don’t know what they are – they’re wood, I store them under cover for at least a year so they’re dry, I stack them next to the stove for a while so they’re really dry, they burn.

Firewood processing for yourself is a serious pastime. Start now for next winter.

As they say over here, firewood warms you several times.

Felling, cutting, splitting, stacking, moving and burning…

this doesn’t take as long as you might think

They’re dumping them on the road, but, my house isn’t on the road and includes a short sharp stint up one of the steepest lanes across a garden and then down two set of steps, and I’m still producing a faint line on today’s COVID test…

It’ll be reet.

@qwerty with that description I don’t think you’ll find anyone that will deliver to your door.

As for everyone complaining about moving less than a cubic m (builders bags are .64 to .8 of a cube) I used to hand fill the trailer due to shed location and then hand unload due to it not tipping, could be moving 25+ cube some days.

When we have to – seasoned red gum. It’s super dense and burns cleanly for hours. I mix this with anything else I get free. In reality thou – there is no natural gas where we are and the air pollution on still winter nights bits unbelievable. One of our kids has asthma so we’ve increased our solar and battery storage and run the heat pump flat out. Massive difference in her condition as a result.

When we have to – seasoned red gum.

Probably tricky to get where the OP lives 😉

Likewise, mine is homegrown Blackbutt, Gympie Messmate, Tallowwood, Turpentine, Bloodwood. Biggest risk is that the termites eat it before I get to burning it!