Eucalyptus Firewood

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Paulatic
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Re: Eucalyptus Firewood

Post by Paulatic »

VinceLedge wrote:In favour of Leylandii, a mate is removing a sizeable hedge of it and I have acquired a significant amount of firewood, win all round!
Perhaps this should be the fate of all Leylandii hedges?

Good luck with that.
I cut some down and it must of been cut at least 6 years before it made it to the hearth. Awful to split too.
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Ben@Forest
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Re: Eucalyptus Firewood

Post by Ben@Forest »

thirdcrank wrote:I've found it interesting to read how evolution has developed the eucalyptus in a similar way to some of the animal species which have evolved in Australia.

It seems not only to have coped well with fires but to have made them more likely (flammable sap) and more survivable (fire-resistant seeds


Such species are pyrophilic, they need fire to reproduce. It's part of the reason wildfires seem to be so bad in parts of USA and Australia - it's natural to have fires, it's not natural to keep building houses and towns into such environments.
pwa
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Re: Eucalyptus Firewood

Post by pwa »

Bonefishblues wrote:
Paulatic wrote:
ncutler wrote:The thing to avoid is a large tree cut at the base leaning precariously at 45 degrees against another tree ....... seriously dangerous to handle.

Known as 'mankillers' in these parts.

Well 'fellerkillers', anyway :D

I have dealt with hanging trees like that by winching the base away at 180 degrees to the direction of lean. You basically drag it away from the tree it is hung up on until it flops down to the ground.

Upright (still standing) dead trunks (with no branches) are often left as habitat for woodpeckers and the like, but obviously you make a judgement based on whether the trunk has any lean, and whether the public pass nearby.
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Mick F
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Re: Eucalyptus Firewood

Post by Mick F »

Paulatic wrote:
VinceLedge wrote:In favour of Leylandii, a mate is removing a sizeable hedge of it and I have acquired a significant amount of firewood, win all round!
Perhaps this should be the fate of all Leylandii hedges?

Good luck with that.
I cut some down and it must of been cut at least 6 years before it made it to the hearth. Awful to split too.
Exactly.
Leylandii isn't worth the petrol in the chainsaw.
Don't plant the damned things in the first place. Pointless trees which are of no use at all, not even for firewood.
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francovendee
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Re: Eucalyptus Firewood

Post by francovendee »

Mick F wrote:Here's a photo from the top of our woods of a dead birch that snapped off in January.
That's my Husqvarna sitting on the bench, and yes, that's our swing. :D
IMG_0248.jpg

Always on the look out for 'free' wood I was given access to a small woodland and told I could have anything that was dead or had been blown over in the gales. I found enough on the ground to keep us warm for the winter but decided trees lying like the photo were too dangerous. I thought I'd give a year or so they'd fall down and I could collect them.
Unfortunately the land was sold to a new owner so it never happened.
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Mick F
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Re: Eucalyptus Firewood

Post by Mick F »

What I did with that snapped-off birch, was to take off all the twiggy bits and cut the branches.
Then, I tried lifting it to feel the weight pressing down. It wasn't much, so with a hand-saw, I cut upwards about two feet off the ground, and when it was off, the broken bit was just hanging.

I cut off a length and then another, then went on top of the bank and felled the whole thing. Came down easily and predictably.

It was hollow on the back.
IMG_0273.jpg
IMG_0277.jpg
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ncutler
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Re: Eucalyptus Firewood

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No pasaran
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Mick F
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Re: Eucalyptus Firewood

Post by Mick F »

The chap's chainsaw was blunt. He should have had that tree down in a jiffy. It must be luxury to have so much flat empty area to work. :wink:
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Paulatic
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Re: Eucalyptus Firewood

Post by Paulatic »

There’s a man with a lot of time on his hands :D
Four paces from log to chopping block and that’s before the walk to go fetch the split log that flew off. Looks like another walk to the trailer too. Have you tried standing them in old tyre to split?
Happy in his work though. :D
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thirdcrank
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Re: Eucalyptus Firewood

Post by thirdcrank »

There's a couple of references above to this wood being heavy. Can anybody link to a table of the comparative weights of different types of wood.? I own a couple of chunks of what I understood to be lignum vitae but it seems that can refer to different species. There are probably some urban myths about this.
Ben@Forest
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Re: Eucalyptus Firewood

Post by Ben@Forest »

thirdcrank wrote:There's a couple of references above to this wood being heavy. Can anybody link to a table of the comparative weights of different types of wood.? I own a couple of chunks of what I understood to be lignum vitae but it seems that can refer to different species. There are probably some urban myths about this.


There is a list of green density volume to weight (m3 to metric tonne) in the FC Forest Mensuration Booklet 39 (now superseded but still easy to find). I presume its successor has it too.

Pretty much all species are around 1m3 =1 tonne. e.g. Scots pine is 0.98m3/tonne whilst oak is 0.94m3/tonne. What makes the difference is moisture content. So the m/c of SP is 149% whereas oak is 89%. Hence when it's dried whether for firewood (<25% m/c) or interior woodwork (<10% m/c) the oak, being denser and and having had less water to lose, is heavier - however when you're moving lumps about when it's freshly felled and green you won't notice a difference!

Unfortunately the species list of green densities only covers those regularly used in our domestic forestry/timber industries so lignum vitae isn't in there. It's a tropical hardwood, so if you find a list of the properties of those maybe?
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Re: Eucalyptus Firewood

Post by Jdsk »

Ben@Forest wrote:Pretty much all species are around 1m3 =1 tonne. e.g. Scots pine is 0.98m3/tonne whilst oak is 0.94m3/tonne. What makes the difference is moisture content. So the m/c of SP is 149% whereas oak is 89%. Hence when it's dried whether for firewood (<25% m/c) or interior woodwork (<10% m/c) the oak, being denser and and having had less water to lose, is heavier - however when you're moving lumps about when it's freshly felled and green you won't notice a difference!

What happens to the space where the water was... is it filled by air or by wood?

Thanks

Jonathan
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Mick F
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Re: Eucalyptus Firewood

Post by Mick F »

I move freshly cut wood, and there's HUGE differences in weight.
Willow cut green is as light as a feather in comparison to the dry eucalyptus. Eucalyptus is shockingly heavy and is hard work moving the lengths from the fell site to where I want to log it up. All done with leg-power and arm-power. No way I'm able to get a barrow there as it's on very steep land.

As for lignum, it's the only wood that doesn't float. If you want to fill a bath, try floating it. If it floats, it's not lignum.
Mick F. Cornwall
thirdcrank
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Re: Eucalyptus Firewood

Post by thirdcrank »

It's really just idle curiosity, triggered by the comments about weight above. One of the facts about lignum vitae is that it won't float in water, but I suspect if it's not an urban myth it's a police canteen myth that it's unique in not floating.
===================================================
I see MickF has posted while I was typing.
Cyril Haearn
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Re: Eucalyptus Firewood

Post by Cyril Haearn »

Whatabout balsa wood? MickF could plant some balsa trees up the hill, and report back in a few years

In the old days wood transport was done by chucking the logs into a river, say in Switzerland. A few weeks later they could be fished out of the water at Rotterdam, simples
..
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A wood near me is being cleared because the gigantic trees are being devoured by tiny beetles, plan is to replant, but nursery trees are hard to get because demand is so high (bleated the foresteress). Are other options available, just abandon the area for a few years/decades?

What might be done with the wood (pine/fir, up to 40cm diameter)? Looks solid, no damage where it was cut, growth rings, but apparently the bark beetle has done its destructive business
Last edited by Cyril Haearn on 3 Apr 2021, 6:27pm, edited 1 time in total.
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