Start Preparing Firewood Early

We can’t stress enough the idea of “PLANNING AHEAD”.  Start your firewood preparation early enough and you will reap the rewards.  During the summer, when the thought of lighting a fire is the furthest thing from your mind, well that’s when your preparation for winter needs to be well underway!  And there are no hard and fast rules on time.  It will vary and is affected by where and how the wood is stored and what the weather is like.  Our damp climate doesn’t help, but that’s something we can’t change so you just need to start earlier.

Step 1: Start early!  Don’t think you can cut down a tree and split your logs on the 27^th September and burn those logs on the 28^th September and you’re going to have a blazing fire – you’re not.  So start in good time; ideally late spring when the weather conditions are going to be most favourable for drying.  The moisture content of deciduous trees peaks in April and May so it is best to cut down your trees into lengths during the winter months so that they are already drying.

Step 2: Once conditions improve in early spring, cut your lengths into rings with a chainsaw. Cut the ends of the logs as flat and square as possible for splitting.  For smaller lengths and limbs, a log saw bench is definitely worth considering.  Hartnett Products has a number of log saw benches for sale - for smaller branches and limbs, the 450mm electric log saw is perfect. If you have heavier hardwoods which are still under the 7 inches in diameter, then the heavy duty 500mm electric log saw is a really impressive machine.   Or for the much bigger lengths of timber choose between our 13HP Petrol Log Saw or our 700mm PTO driven Log Saw, both hugely popular and able for anything.  These are much, much safer than a chainsaw and so much easier to use.  Well worth the investment.