Sourcing and buying fire wood

If you have the space, source and buy your fire wood in the summer.

Firewood dealers are far more generous on what constitutes a 'load' during the summer months as they are far less busy and glad of the custom.

You can contact your local tree surgery company and buy it green, then season it yourself.

This will take two years to season and you may well have to split it yourself who needs the gym when you can swing an axe in the height of summer?

Splitting wood

The axe on the left is a felling axe, it takes a lot of hard work to split with a felling axe!

The axe on the right is a splitting axe, designed for fire wood. You can use this with a sledge hammer for splitting tougher woods. On it's own, it's much better for splitting than a feeling axe.

Be wary of axes with fibre glass handlers, they really sting your hands and can shatter if you strike the handle.

This is a pile of freshly split green wood - Notice the lack of radial cracks on the ends.

Green wood can easily have a moisture level of 40% or more. Burning this will lead to tar formation and poor heat output. This will use twice as much fuel as dry wood. You can buy a moisture meter for just £15 and it's a good investment for a fire wood user.

Your goal is to only burn fire wood with a moisture level of 20% or less.

This is best achieved through careful management of your fire wood stock, on a two to three year rotation.

If you have a disused green house, this is the best place for your fire wood to season - With all doors and windows left ajar.

In the Bath and surrounding areas, due to the surge in fire wood use, the local fire wood dealers are struggling to keep up with demand.

The quality of fire wood delivered drops dramatically as the burning season progresses and dealers run out of the better quality seasoned wood.

In this modern age when you can buy out of season foodstuffs imported from around the world, it's important to note that fire wood is very much a seasonal product.

It is better to accept that the fire wood you have delivered, unless it's kiln dried, will require at least a years seasoning to reach it`s full potential.

Dry fire wood has twice the heat out put as poorly seasoned fire wood, therefore you use twice as much poorly seasoned fire wood to achieve the same heat.

If you have just had a wood burner fitted or you have low stocks, as a rule of thumb, you should have at least two years worth of fire wood on hand. Ideally three years worth on a rotational basis.