I split these myself after leaving the Yew six years to dry. There is also other more recent prunings which I will have to check. I also have 1.25 m3 in a bin as well so I don’t have traipse to the garage with a wheelbarrow. The Yew was beautifully dry and is a dense wood, probably as good as oak and an bit.
I had the flue swept Spring 2021 after 8 years. There was next to nothing found. I just burn our own wood, but intend to use the lounge inset wood burner much more this winter with the new heat pump as background heating at 35C for as long as possible. Can’t wait for the Solar PV and PowerWall 2.
The yew trees were very tall and maybe 80cm at the base. The tree surgeon didn’t want them, so cut them into 150-200mm thick logs. It was necessary to find the weak point between the knots. The Fiskar 2.5kg splitter did a good jobs sometimes with the help of a sledge hammer.
A 50% premium according to your link. I suppose it would have been good to have planks.
Possibly a bit too fancy for modern tastes as a veneer, (I think ProAc made some Tablettes in yew) but because of the fine grain it is a valued timber for woodturners. Small pieces can be used for lace bobbins, a piece 6 inches long and perhaps 7/16 square can be turned into a pen. I’ve just found adverts for single blank at £2.49.
Sadly, I sold off my father’s pen making equipment some time ago. I’ve tried to find the few pens that I kept, they must be in a safe place…
You average tree surgeon doesn’t have the equipment or skills required to plank a tree properly in order to use the timber for anything other than firewood. They usually can, on the other hand, log it for you with a chainsaw easily enough.
Have placed an order for a trailer load of mixed wood logs at £120
The trailer looks to be around two square meter size.
Being a mix of wood i guess it may burn a bit quicker (?)
But the good news is the logs are neatly chopped to easy fit in the stove and they were chopped a couple of years ago and in dry storage since.
He also sells oak logs too, will ask him how much when i see him.
Mixed wood sounds like it will include a lot of softwoods. While these will burn well if properly air dried, hardwood has a higher heat content and are worth the extra money. I have burned both for around 30 years and have access to lots of free softwood but I normally supplement it with oak.
I thought as much.
Will order some oak logs too, his logs are dry and ready for burning.
There is plenty of room in my log store, and i intend to load it up to the gunnels.
That sounds fair value - is it a fairly big regional supplier or small outfit? Just wondering if they might deliver to my area - some oak might be nice.
Funny you should ask, the logs haven’t arrived yet, and don’t know when they’re coming. He’s probably just busy and forgot my order, although this guy is the brother of my friend who live near me, and she has sent him a reminder.
Really hoping they arrive on a dry day, will need to spend an hour or three wheelbarrowing them around the back to my old shed, that’s been up-cycled to a super de-luxe log-shed, and stack 'em in
The trailer load arrived here today, took me a couple of hours of wheelbarrowing it around the back to the log shed, sorting it out, and stacking it.
The quality has left me a little disappointed, it’s a mixed load but mostly oak, however more than half of it is obviously too high in moisture to burn this coming winter. The moss growing on some logs is a giveaway.
About 40% of it seems quite dry and from a different source than the wetter logs.
Have another trailer load coming tomorrow, this time it’s the better quality oak which i’m really hoping is dry and ready to burn, he said it is, although only a tenner more to buy sounds like i may get what i pay for…
The tree was chopped down and logged 5 years ago, but it looks like most of these logs have been left outside since, it’s not sap but rain water damp, some are covered in moss and smell of rot, < 50% do seem very dry and lighter in weight.
I think the poor old oak tree had a parasite problem:
I had a bunch of hornet coloured bugs appear in the house from some wood in the log basket left over from winter - took me a while to figure out where they’d come from but later realised bark was powdery and found holes underneath. I assume they were delivered like that but signs were minimal at the time. I think to some extent it’s inevitable some will get affected when being seasoned.
You have to wonder what tiny passengers might inadvertently come into the house.
Yes… btdt and some of them look quite frightening. There’s nowt like lying there on the coach, in the dark, at night, watching telly and this thing hovers up into sight next to you. Je**s! One of the advantages of kin dried.
Yes, I assume so, unless some of the bugs are partial to that too!
The issue with kiln dried (well not just that) is the idiots at certain places which sell it and store it outside in the rain so it starts to rot or is covered in mold/fungi.
