VideoTranscript

Scene #1: Deep in the bush cutting up a tree with a chainsaw

a) Sound of chainsaw, lots of tree branches, leaves around. Saw stops. John looks up and addresses camera.

Pan across bush with a variety of tree species. Voice over.

Shots of hardwood leaves and bark.

Shots of softwood leaves and bark.

Back to John in bush with chain saw.

Hi. I’m cutting firewood for next winter. Over the years I’ve learned that there is more to making good firewood than meets the eye. Like most people, I’ve had to make do with less-than-perfect wood and grumbled about it in the middle of winter when there was nothing I could do about it. Now I know how to prepare great firewood, but before I explain it, let’s talk for a minute about one of the first issues that arises: what tree species make the best firewood?

Dense hardwoods like maple and oak have a higher energy content per cord so they release more heat per firebox load. They also produce long-lasting fires and coal beds. That’s why hardwoods have traditionally been considered the preferred firewood, especially in central and eastern Canada. But people who heat with wood in the coldest parts of Canada have only softwoods like spruce and pine to burn and they still manage to stay warm.

Softer woods like pine, spruce and poplar are less dense, burn faster and do not produce a long-lasting coal bed when burned. Soft woods make excellent fuel for spring and fall when heat demand is lower. Also, the newer advanced technology wood stoves, fireplaces and furnaces can function well with a wider variety of wood species because of their better control of the combustion process than older conventional stoves.

Regardless of the type of wood you are processing, the first step is to make sure that the pieces are the right length for your stove. I figure the right length is about 7.5 cm (3”) shorter than the firebox.

Let me show you how to use the chainsaw bar as a guide to measure the pieces so they all end up the same length. Watch this.

c) John stops saw and addresses the camera again, holding up the piece he just cut.

Gestures with the piece of wood.

Puts down pieces and starts to walk away as camera pans to bush then fades.

Measuring this way, my pieces are all very close to 35 cm (14”) long, so they all fit. You could easily use the same technique to cut logs 40 cm (16”) or longer.

You might wonder why I cut my firewood so short. I have a couple of reasons. The first is that  I like to be able to load my wood north-south in the firebox or east-west, depending on the kind of fire I’m building. North-south for high-output, long burning fires for overnight in cold weather, and east-west for low output long burning fires for overnight in Spring and Fall. We can look at that issue again when we talk about stove operation. The second reason I like short wood is because it is so easy to handle.

I’ve got to split some of this wood now. I’ll meet you at the splitter.

Scene #2 In firewood yard with splitter, a pile of unsplit logs and a pile of split logs.

c) John holds up maul.

Demonstrates its use.

g) Splits the large piece, then turns to camera.

Demonstrates a one-handed throw.

Walks toward and past camera, off screen. Fade out.

As well as being more convenient to use, I find smaller firewood much easier to handle. I like to be able to pick up and throw each piece one-handed. I find processing and handling firewood hard enough without straining myself with big, heavy pieces. Even though I have to handle more pieces when they are small, each one is lighter and easier to manage.

Okay, let’s stack some of this wood.

Scene #3 At firewood stacks.

a) Pan low along stack of wood and up to John piling.

Points down and camera pans down to show the poles.

The purpose of stacking the wood this way is to get it up off the ground so the summer sun can warm it and summer breezes can blow away the moisture that comes out of the wood. The piles should be well apart so the sun and wind can reach them.

If I cut and stack the wood properly in the spring, it will be ready for burning the next fall. But if I take freshly cut wood and stack it in a wood shed right away, it won’t season in time for winter.

I’ve laid down parallel poles as a base to keep the logs off the damp ground and to allow some air to flow under the pile.

b) John piles wood as he talks.

Holds out one pie-shaped piece, then places it.

Demonstrates tapping the pieces into place to wedge them against each other.

There are a couple of tricks to building stable piles that don’t fall over. When you cut the wood short like I do, it makes for narrow piles, so you need some tricks to keep them upright.

The most important part is to get the base of the piles solid and stable. I do that by using these pie shaped pieces to form the base, and saving any unsplit small rounds for higher in the pile.

These split pieces wedge together as the pile rises, making it more stable.

c) John moves to the end of the pile to demonstrate the end treatment.

Quickly demonstrates crisscross end stacking.

Demonstrates tying the stake back into the pile.

To make vertical ends for your piles, there are a couple of options. You can build a sort of column on the end by crisscrossing pieces like this. But this approach leaves a lot of air space in the crisscross part and if you don’t build them very carefully, they can fall apart.

The alternative, which I prefer, is to drive a stake into the ground at the end of the pile and use twine to tie it back into the pile. This produces a stable end that is just as densely packed as the rest of the pile.

e) John throws wood from a stack into the back of a pick up truck. He turns and addresses camera.

Fade out as John loads the truck.

After being exposed to the sun and breezes all summer, the wood should be fully seasoned. That means its moisture content has been reduced from the 35 to 50 per cent it contained when it was first cut down to the 15 to 20 per cent that is about right for firewood.

In the fall when the wood is seasoned, it is time to move it to the wood shed at the house. That’s what I’m doing now. I’ll just finish loading the truck and meet you at the house.

Scene #4 At the wood shed

a) John backs the truck up to the wood shed and steps out. Speaks to the camera.

Shot of densely packed wood in shed.

John gestures to one side of storage, then the other.

Zoom out, then fade.

Here’s my winter firewood storage. It is the space under a deck with a roof to shed rain water. Winter storage should be fully sheltered from rain and snow and close enough to the house to be convenient.

You might wonder why I don’t stack the wood here in the spring after cutting and splitting. It sure would cut down on the amount of work involved. But the fact is, if I jammed green wood close together like this out of the sun and wind, it wouldn’t dry over the summer. It might even start to mould and decay before it dried. So despite all the work involved, wood must by dried in the open then moved to the wood shed in the fall.

It’s also not a good idea to put the whole winter supply in the basement because having that much wood inside can effect on indoor air quality. This is especially true if the wood is still damp, or has mould or fungus on it, which some firewood has.

I’ve arranged this storage area so that all the hard wood, mostly maple and birch, is on one side and the softwood, almost all poplar, is on the other. I use the softer poplar in the milder weather in fall and spring. The hardwoods are better in the colder days and nights of winter.

I bring in enough wood for about a week of heating into the basement at a time. Having a small amount of storage inside is a good idea because it allows the wood to warm up to room temperature before loading into the stove.

Well, thanks for joining me on this firewood journey from forest to wood shed. I hope you enjoyed the trip and learned something useful. Try some of the ideas we’ve talked about. I’m sure they will improve the efficiency and convenience of your wood heating experience.