Splitting logs the easy way... My office (out in my barn) is kept at 65 degrees by a blower that circulates air from the heated first floor. If I want it to be warmer (and I do!), I start a fire in my little wood stove. That stove is really small – perfect for my little office – but there is a drawback: it needs really small little logs, no longer than 16", and ideally under 5" diameter.
For quite a while this made no difference to me. We have two large stacks of firewood, one of hardwood and one of softwood. Until this week, I'd been picking the smaller pieces out of those stacks and making out just fine. I was helped in this process by the fact that my little wood stove doesn't consume very much wood – just three or four logs will last all day long. But earlier this week, I ran out of the little logs. Yikes!
My first thought was to take the old-fashioned approach: shorten the logs with a chainsaw, then break out either the axe or the hydraulic log-splitter (I have an attachment for my tractor). Both of those are more work than I really wanted to put into it, but I like being warm ... so a few days ago I was ready to go to it.
And then I had a brainstorm.
I have a bandsaw with an 18" throat. That means I could cut up any log under 18" in diameter – that would be all but a very few of the logs I have. So I tried it – and it worked amazingly well! In no time at all, with very little work, I had a nice pile of logs perfectly sized for my little stove.
My bandsaw is my new best friend! :)
