How to Build Your Dream Cabin in the Woods by J. Wayne Fears

Author:J. Wayne Fears
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing (Perseus)
Published: 2011-05-19T04:00:00+00:00

WOOD WISDOM

Whether you heat your cabin with a fireplace or a wood-burning stove, you will need a supply of firewood. Also if you have an outside fire ring or cook in a bean hole you will need firewood for those as well.

At our cabin, early spring is when we start cutting and splitting firewood for the coming winter. It is looked upon as a fun family activity, and the results are a woodshed full of seasoned wood and a warm cabin for the next winter.

Before using a chain saw to cut firewood or for any cabin building or land management task, study the chain saw safety information in appendix 2.

Many claims have been made about the heating value of wood. It is difficult to give a precise answer on a wood’s heating value because of these variables: (1) moisture content, (2) density, and (3) type of wood. A green or freshly cut tree may contain as much water as burnable material. If you burn green wood, a lot of energy is wasted in boiling off water, and it is dangerous due to creosote buildup in chimneys. Dried wood is easier to burn and more of the heat produced is transferred into the cabin instead of passing up the chimney as steam. If wood is moist and resinous, for example, fresh cut pine smoking may occur, which can ruin household belongings and form creosote in your chimney or flue. It is recommended that all firewood be thoroughly air dried before use as fuel.

The type of wood, hardwood or softwood, used for fuel affects its economy. See the firewood rating chart, appendix 3. While the heat value in terms of BTUs per pound does not vary greatly between hardwood and softwood, the density does. Less dense softwoods do not give as much energy per volume as hardwoods such as oak and hickory. In addition, the density of a wood is important since wood is usually bought by volume. The most common unit is the “cord,” that is a stack of wood 4 feet wide, 4 feet high and 8 feet long. Sometimes wood is sold by the truckload, which is a highly variable measure. A rule of thumb is that a half-ton pickup truck is capable of carrying ⅓ cord of wood. To find out what fraction of a cord you are buying, use this formula: height of wood X width of wood X depth of wood divided by 128. The answer is the fraction of a cord.

The tighter the wood is packed, the more wood for your money. The denser the wood, the fewer trips you will have to make to the woodshed next winter. The relative merits among some firewood are illustrated in the table in this chapter.

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