I use an M12 hackzall with a pruning blade like you mention in my yard all the time. but that's at the yard. at home. Isn't the whole point of camping to do things the old fashioned way?
Cutting fire wood without chainsaw
- Thread starter signcrafter
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Id use a chainsaw and tell them to get stuffed. But that's me. The sound of chainsaws buzzing in the woods is pretty natural around here.
Otherwise, just get firewood with your chainsaw out in the woods somewhere, buck it, split it and bring it to the campsite.
Otherwise, just get firewood with your chainsaw out in the woods somewhere, buck it, split it and bring it to the campsite.
kippieland
Well-known member
I agree with everyone else. Bow saw. Just remember to sharpen it when you feel like they aren't working as well. A nice axe is helpful for little stuff. Chain saw for bigger work.
PCO6
Well-known member
I use a portable buck saw when camping.
http://www.leevalley.com/us/garden/page.aspx?c=&cat=2,42706,40721&p=44171
http://www.leevalley.com/us/garden/page.aspx?c=&cat=2,42706,40721&p=44171
ClineWrench
Well-known member
No replacement for a bow saw in my opinion. No batteries to go dead so you can cut as much as you need.
sawin
Well-known member
The saw in your link looks like a corker. Stronger and fold-up to boot. I like it.
Have a couple of old wooden frame saws that this was certainly modeled after. I like them much better than the "modern" designs.
Might have to consider this one just for the portability.
volleyball
Well-known member
Bring cut up wood with you.Or I vote electric. They are $50 and are great. You can test it out before you go. A few beers and a person is usually louder than an electric.
St-rider
Well-known member
I've used that blade with my sawzall. Worked pretty well.
PCO6
Well-known member
What's nice is that it takes up next to no space when it is broken down and it's very light both of which make it great for camping. Plus it works well.
Surprised no one has mentioned this, what you actually want is a one-man or two-man crosscut saw. Properly sharpened (which is a big deal) they cut much easier than a bow saw. One-man crosscuts range from 3' to 5', while the two-man saws range from about 4-1/2' to 8'+. Ideally, you want the saw length to be 2x the diameter of the tree +6", so in other words a 1' tree needs a 2'6" saw, a 2' tree needs a 4'6" saw, etc.
There are very few of these being made new today that are worth anything. The very best crosscut saw blades are tapered, so that the cutting edge of the blade is thicker than the back of the blade -- this makes the saw run easier in the cut. The tooling to produce taper-ground saw blades economically all disappeared around 1950 or so, so the best saws were made prior to that. So, you're probably looking at ebay or craigslist -- unless you already have one hanging over your fireplace?
Try craigslist, you can probably find something inexpensive. Expect to pay a little for a good sharpening job, but unless you use it every day, it won't need to be sharpened that often.
There are very few of these being made new today that are worth anything. The very best crosscut saw blades are tapered, so that the cutting edge of the blade is thicker than the back of the blade -- this makes the saw run easier in the cut. The tooling to produce taper-ground saw blades economically all disappeared around 1950 or so, so the best saws were made prior to that. So, you're probably looking at ebay or craigslist -- unless you already have one hanging over your fireplace?
Try craigslist, you can probably find something inexpensive. Expect to pay a little for a good sharpening job, but unless you use it every day, it won't need to be sharpened that often.
cashishift
Well-known member
I just used my pruning saw blade today.. worked awesome.
Sawzall is one of my favorite tools
Sawzall is one of my favorite tools
I just used my pruning saw blade today.. worked awesome.
Sawzall is one of my favorite tools
on the idea of pruining saws you could try this
http://www.silkysaws.com/Silky_Saws/Wood-Working-Saws/KATANABOY-with-500-extra-large-teeth
rslaback
Well-known member
Are you staying for weeks? Everywhere we camp usually has roadside stands that people use for kid's college fund or allowance at around $4 a bundle. It would take a lot of bundles to make it worth it to me to traipse around back country for an hour a day and drag it all back to the campsite just so I could hope it would burn.
But that's just me.
But that's just me.
Nick Danger
Well-known member
Who makes a good bow saw?
The first bow saw I used was stamped metal with the teeth flush to the blade. It binded in the wood every time. I didn't use it again. Years later I used a different bow saw, and it was much better. The teeth were bent out so the cut was wider than the blade, and it was sharp.
The first bow saw I used was stamped metal with the teeth flush to the blade. It binded in the wood every time. I didn't use it again. Years later I used a different bow saw, and it was much better. The teeth were bent out so the cut was wider than the blade, and it was sharp.
catalytic
Well-known member
I have felled, bucked, and split a lot of wood with a chainsaw and also with hand tools. A bucking saw (the old school-looking type that you can use two-man) is a much superior tool to a bow saw in my opinion. It's surprising how fast you can cut wood with a good, tuned up bucking saw -- search youtube for logging competitions for example. Note that this is different from a (much more flexible) felling saw, which I would not recommend unless you are exclusively felling trees.
http://www.crosscutsaw.com/
for example.
http://www.crosscutsaw.com/
for example.
619DioFan
Well-known member
You say you have kids ?
you only need 3 things to get your firewood supply -
Hand saw
beach chair
cold drink
Give the saw to the kids , you sit in the chair with your cold drink , supervise
That's how my dad did it. worked out ok for him.
you only need 3 things to get your firewood supply -
Hand saw
beach chair
cold drink
Give the saw to the kids , you sit in the chair with your cold drink , supervise
That's how my dad did it. worked out ok for him.
Outlawmws
Well-known member
What you want to know is who makes a good blade unless your frame is ****. I bought a Fiskars bow saw decades ago, and when I bought it I also bought the coarsest nastiest blade I could get for it. Swapped blades and never looked back The original blade is still new.
As good as the saw is however, It NEVER goes camping with me, see my previous posts...
geojag
Well-known member
Those pruning blades work pretty good on wood <4 inches. I have cut much larger when I had a sawzall in the truck and a tree was across the road. If you manage to bend them, the blade is pretty well done.
Finding a good bow saw is going to require research and time, unless you are incredibly lucky no hardware store near you will have a bow saw worth attempting. If there is a store that has backpacking supplies nearby, you might call and see if they have a Sven saw (comes apart and stores in frame), they are decent but I think you could cut faster with the sawzall with pruning blade.
You can cut a lot of wood with an ax too, just be careful, and remember you don't need to cut through, just weaken it till you can break it.
Finding a good bow saw is going to require research and time, unless you are incredibly lucky no hardware store near you will have a bow saw worth attempting. If there is a store that has backpacking supplies nearby, you might call and see if they have a Sven saw (comes apart and stores in frame), they are decent but I think you could cut faster with the sawzall with pruning blade.
You can cut a lot of wood with an ax too, just be careful, and remember you don't need to cut through, just weaken it till you can break it.
OP
signcrafter
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- May 9, 2012
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Just 5 days. But wood is 5 bucks for a small bundle usually. Most if it is soft wood also that burns quick so you can go through a few bundles real quick cooking and sitting at the fire at night.
The pruning saw attachment for your cordless sawzall would work fine, just as long as you've got somewhere to charge the batteries.
Personally all I ever take camping is a small folding pruning saw and a hatchet. I can usually get loads of firewood very easily with just this. I don't usually bother cutting the wood right through either, I just notch it and snap it. Busting the wood over a large rock was mentioned before, but I prefer to just use a forked (or double trunked) tree and jam the log into that to snap it. Notch the timber with either the saw or the hatchet, jam it into a tree fork and start bustin'. Works great.
egnorant
Well-known member
Big ditto on this!
We were lucky that we had 3 boys, a bow saw, ax and a machete.
Most of the wood we used was just gathered. Often it was cut to length by banging it on a rock or tree. Yes we even took a particularly large log and ran with it on opposite sides of a tree...often to be "flung" back on our butts to try again with more resolve.
You are camping! Put some emphasis on the process of gathering the wood to teach that not everything is point and click.
volleyball
Well-known member
You forgot the most important thing
OP
signcrafter
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Trust me the kids do work and gather. We do go out and gather wood but it's nice to find a bigger(6-10") log of decent length and drag it back to the site and cut it into lengths and then split it. Most of the wood we find is usually pine or other soft wood and burns quickly so we can go threw a decent amount of wood in a week to cook and sit by the fire. Usually we start the fire at supper time and keep it going till around midnight or so.
We do gather and teach the kids about camping but also there are times when you want to relax and do things the easy way. And we have gone a few times now when it was over 100 and high humidity so you want to gather wood and cut and split it as easy as possible on those days. We usually got up early and went out and got wood and cut and split it before leaving camp for the day. I almost broke down and bought fire wood those times!
I really like human-powered stuff, but at this price, I'd be shopping chainsaws...
https://www.lehmans.com/p-156-two-man-crosscut-saw.aspx
https://www.lehmans.com/p-156-two-man-crosscut-saw.aspx