How do you cut firewood?

[Ramshead]

I have been using a Bahco Laplander for solo hot tent use. Would probably find a bigger saw if I were using a large stove.View attachment 19622

 

[Biggs300]

My hunting buddy and I have a large Seek Outside stove for our SO 6-man tipi. This year we will be using a Coghlans folding saw and a Fiskars X11 on next week's CO elk hunt. I've been using this combo for the past 4 or 5 months around the house and they are excellent individually, and work well together. If you can't pack both, the small Fiskars X11 splitting axe is fairly light weight and has proven to be very useful. Both are probably a bit of an overkill for the large SO stove but, I'd rather be hunting than cutting firewood.

 

[hunt_or_bust]

Wyoming saw here.... love mine...a little heavy but works damn well and it's sweet having the bone blade.

 

[Nick Muche]

I have a Stihl, it really gets the job done.

 

[justin davis]

Yea im with Nick. Chainsaw to buck up the wood then an ax to split it!

 

[Brent1321]

Back packing stoves are stick stoves, no axe or saw needed. Just use hands, works fine and no extra weight penalty.

 

[Brock A]

I have a Stihl, it really gets the job done.

Haha. This was going to be my answer.

 

[gmajor]

I use a laplander saw. Cuts amazingly well, wish it were a taaad lighter though.

 

[Colo4x4XJ]

I use a Sven saw and it works incredibly well. Packs down to noting p, weighs nothing and stays sharp. Faster than breaking them by hand, you can get bigger diameter pieces for longer burn times. Quite simply if I was concerned about carrying an extra few ounces then I wouldn't bring a tipi with stove...just saying.

 

[poisonarrow]

I use a Silky Accel saw.

 

[Justin Crossley]

I have a Stihl, it really gets the job done.

I was wondering when someone would say that! Thanks for the help. HaHa!

 

[Trout bum]

I use a Wyoming saw on longer base camp type trips. On shorter trips I just angle the wood on a rock and break it into stove size pieces. Small, medium and large stacks. When I use the saw, I saw 80% of the way through larger wood and break it so it leaves a piece that I then break off on a rock to get starter kindling or medium size pieces. Just have to protect the eyes and protect the knees by breaking wood at a safe angle. Learned that the hard way.

 

[Heather Stomper]

We have used stoves from the Kifaru Para stove to Kifaru Large box stoves to a variety of home-made designs. They all work best with dry wood, obviously.

The guys I hunt with nearly always carry a saw like the Gerber folding saws or a Wyoming Saw and a small hatchet like the Gerber. A note on the Wyoming Saw blades; newer replacement blades have no 'set' in the teeth. When cutting larger diameter wood the bind terribly and are a frustrating proposition at best.

We have found by cutting larger, dead-standing wood and splitting it, we can spend an hour or so early in the hunt and put up enough wood for our camp for 4-5 days and never worry about wood again. As the wood stacked in the tipi sits, it just gets dryer and burns better as time goes on.
Our policy is to never swing the hatchet or ax in the backcountry. We usually cut a nice 2-3" diameter stick to use as a baton and drive the hatchet thru our wood to split it. That way, there is minimal risk that the ax slips, bounces or glances off and takes a chunk out of a finger, foot, shin, whatever.

Further, at the least the hatchet usually goes in the day-hunt pack in our neck of the woods. The Pacific Northwest is horribly wet as those who live here will attest. The little hatchet can be a real bonus in a bivy situation when you need dry wood for a fire. Much easier to break up and split your way to dry material than trying to find dry enough wood for a fire.