Lisa Gergets

brian lee wrote:ive only used one once, however a friend of mine builds log homes ans uses them regularly, they work very good. I do offer a piece of advice, wear chaps, or some kind of padding on your legs especially below the knee, the wjzard throughs the bark back and it stings like crazy. If you have a lot of logs it becomes unpleasant.

Ah yes. I can see where it would. I'm bothered by the saw chips hitting my legs!

My husband and I have cleared about two acres out of five, and we're thinking of doing our own build site grading, stump removal, etc. for the entire site.

Have any of you attempted this and succeeded? What equipment did you use?

The land is currently clear of all brush and we are working on taking down the last of the trees that need to go this week.  We won't be grading until next spring when the ground thaws, so we have lots of time to research.

We're going to be debarking around 60 Aspen to build our cordwood home, and are considering using The Log Wizard to make this a bit faster and easier.

Have you used one of these for debarking? What's your opinion?

I guess I should have been even MORE specific. LOL My bad!

I'm not looking to find out whether aspen is suitable for cordwood - I know that it is and it is used almost exclusively for cordwood masonry structures in Canada, simply because of it's prevalence.

What I am looking for is advice from people who know the look of aspen and can tell me, in relation to these particular logs potential use in cordwood masonry, if any of these look to be unsound for that use.

Thank you, and I'm sorry for the confusion!

Dale Hodgins wrote:They are all suitable for firewood. Aspen burns quickly, so good for a rocket mass heater, probably not so good for a stove where you want the wood to last a while.

This wood  tends to be very wet when cut, so if you're doing it on your own land, it might be wise to cut it and split it right there in the bush, then retrieve it when it weighs half as much, by midsummer. When split immediately, the bark will often pop off. This bark tends to burn smokey, so best to leave it in the bush.

Ah, I should have been more specific. I'm wondering if it would be good for cordwood masonry.

Here are a few pictures of our aspen. Which of these would you say is usable for cordwood masonry walls? Note that many times, these discolorations "develop" and get darker for several minutes after we make the cut. Does the sugar in aspen oxidize, and that's what's causing this?

These are pictures of logs with no overtly rotten areas - just these discolorations and marks. Also, there is no discernible difference in texture in any of these logs as you'd see with rot where the cellulose is breaking down.
Your advice is greatly appreciated.

Hello Permies,

My husband and I are in search of a used, but in-working-condition chainsaw mortiser for our timber framing project starting in the spring of 2018. Something along the lines of the Makita 7104L is what we're looking for.

If you have anything, please let me know. Of course, we'll pay for shipping!

Bryant RedHawk wrote:

I would find some cattle troughs to fill with a borax solution to soak the sections in for around a week, then air dry them before using in construction.
This will prevent most bugs and it will prevent fungi from making your wood a nice home.

RedHawk, what does the solution consist of - how much borax does it take to be effective at eliminating the mildew and bugs?

I need your advice about aspen. We have about 40 sixty-foot-high aspens that we'll be using for our cordwood. We haven't taken them down yet, as we just closed on our five acres on July 17th, and still have about another two weeks of land clearing before we can begin felling. When we do take them down, we'll be sawing them into 20-inch sections for our walls.

Questions that I would love to have answered:

Split or whole for cordwood?

How to lay them out for drying over the winter?

What to look out for in terms of bugs, rot, mildew, etc.

Easiest way to debark - whole log or 20-inch sections?

And anything else you can think of in terms of advice...

It seems that aspen is the choice for many because of it's easy availability in most places...let's make this a comprehensive aspen thread!