Tricks of the Trade

I tend to think of our woodlot as a private Home Depot, each stand its own aisle. The species and successional stage dictate both the wood’s future use and harvest schedule: a stand of…

In the last column we discussed tips and tricks for hand splitting gnarly firewood. Hand splitting is cheaper than a gym membership but may not be practical based on the type or amount of wood…

Tucked behind all too many woodsheds are unsplit rounds that stand as evidence of defeat. Many of these blocks have been tossed in frustration after dozens of hits, each one eliciting…

Recently, I taught a chainsaw safety course in which a student asked, “Where does all the bar oil go?” It occurred to me that this is a topic that gets relatively little attention,…

For woodlot management, an ATV can be invaluable, providing property access, pulling trailers and other heavy loads, and, with a bit of modification, also serving as a mobile toolbox. While…

Brainstorm is a style of live-edge clapboards that vary from 10 to 14 inches in width and offer a classic, rustic look. Lore suggests that brainstorm siding originated with an Adirondack…

Your beloved chainsaw engine is essentially a fiery air pump. The process starts by drawing in fresh air, compressing that air, and then adding a dose of fuel and a spark – resulting in…

One of the most common questions that foresters get is, “How old is this tree?” Often, the response is less than satisfactory, as the forester carries on about site…

Forestry often involves the blending of technical solutions with ecological knowledge. Such is the case with scarification of the forest floor, which is typically done in conjunction with a…

Axes and crosscut saws have survived in the American mind as evidence of our utilitarian relationship with forests. Most of the crosscut saws I see today are hung above mantles or serve as a…

A few Northern Woodlands readers have confessed privately that what started as the innocent acquisition of an old axe has evolved into a full-blown obsession. Like any obsession, management is…

In the Spring 2022 issue, we tackled the task of removing a broken axe handle from the eye of an axe or maul. Now we’ll begin the process of hanging (or hafting) the axe. 1. Fit the eye.…

Sitting on the passenger’s side floor of my pickup are three broken axes/mauls, all succumbed to the same fate by excited friends and neighbors who had “wooded” and snapped…

Using a bucking stanchion not only keeps the wood off the ground (and your chainsaw out of the dirt) but also allows you to cut multiple logs or slabs at once. The design I use is sized so…

A friend recently showed up at my workshop complaining that his chainsaw was “bogging” and wouldn’t run at full throttle. He assumed the issue was related to fuel delivery…

For foresters in the Northeast, spring means mud season. In addition to making timber harvesting more difficult, operating heavy equipment during mud season can be detrimental to soil and tree…

A decade or so ago I had the opportunity to try out some of the early battery-powered electric chainsaws. I wasn’t impressed. They were heavy, underpowered, and had a pitifully short…

Woodland bodgers were the itinerant greenwood craftsmen of western Europe who moved around the forest in search of good stock for making furniture. Their forest office provided coppice wood…

In the last issue we looked at a few handy devices for smallscale, low-impact logging, including the skidding cone. One alternative to the commercially available skidding cone is a homemade…