Unexpected wood supply, unsplittable

[Ascobis]

Long introduction, short question.

This weekend I camped in a four-season no-vehicle area. Snow was forecast. I had packed a Whisperlite. At the trailhead I threw in my home-made sheet-metal stovelet just for fun (cf. Nimblewill Nomad) along with a hatchet and Bahco Laplander to feed it. I had adequate layers of clothes and bedding to hammock over snow. My plan was for a small fire just for enjoyment.

When I reached the site I had picked on the map I found that someone had chain-sawed a load of wood. Marks in the snow pack showed that the half-dozen chunks were left over from their bonfire party on the lake ice. This presented an opportunity to make a winter warming fire in front of a lean-to shelter.

I could not split those chunks of birch with my hatchet. The axe back in my car might have done it. Wedges didn't work. The wedges worked on a chunk of pine in the pile. I built a fire on top of the split pine then stacked the birch on top.

What would you have done? This is not a survival situation.

 

[C_Claycomb]

I may well have not bothered with a fire. I have tended not to bother with fires over recent years, even when there is a place and fuel available, unless I absolutely need one for cooking over.

If I was going to have a fire...
Splitting, not sure how you tried. I have had luck splitting slabs off the perimeter of logs when it hasn't been possible to split them through the center. Those splits are then used as wedges, which works much better than trying to whittle down 1" diameter branches for wedges.

If the wood really wouldn't split down and I wanted to have a longer lasting fire, I would go about building a fire on a raft of those bigger logs, and when they had started to burn, stack another on top, possibly with some smaller wood to ensure correct spacing of the big logs. A bit like what Mors Kochanski refers to as "the king of fires" but smaller.

 

[Janne]

No fire for me. I personally only make a fire for cooking, and then usually only in my Trangia using alcohol.
Why?
Less work, less impact on nature.

 

[KenThis]

I make small fires when I can while camping because I like them and to cook on. But I try to always make them in a firebox or in a proper fire pit.

If I had those pre cut pieces of birch log and I really couldn't split them I think I would have done something similar to C Claycomb above.

I would have taken on piece and trimmed the bark etc. off to make a flat edge. I would then have hacked a bit at this flat area to break the fibres and increase surface area. I would have balanced this piece between two others so the flat area was at the top. I would then have mad a small fire on this and hoped the log would eventually catch.
I can imagine also placing two smaller diameter branches and another round on top of this in a kind of pyramidal structure placing the small fire in the centre.

Another thing I have been playing with is my large scotch eyed auger.
I have been playing with blocks of firewood in the garden and it doesn't take much to drill an inch hole through a block of wood. Drilling two perpendicular holes works really well if going through the grain (not so much with the grain) to create a kind of rocket stove. This works really well if you drill more than one intake hole as it works more like a volcano kettle then. You'd only have to drill one block as it'd easily burn long and hot enough to get the others pieces of log going.

I hope this makes sense I find describing things like this in words so much harder than drawing a simple diagram...

 

[Janne]

Most of the fantastic, and fancy ways of doing a fire are a bit impractical when enjoying your time in nature.
Drilling holes, splitting huge wood pieces or even logs - fine if you have a mule or two to carry the equipment.

From the photos you should be able to get enough firewood for a small fire, if you forgot your carry-on burner ( liquid fuel or whatever)

I do not want to be critical, but to make a huge fire like that is wasting time, effort and not environmentally friendly.

If you need a large fire to keep warm while sleeping - badly planned sleeping system.
To rely on a fire to sleep warm and not get hypothermic/under chilled is dangerous.

Another important point I have is the churned up forest floor. That will take years to heal.
We are guests in Nature, and should try to have a zero impact on it. \
Go back in Autumn to the same spot and check how it looks like. Bits of Carbonized wood, coals left? Ground still bare and damaged?

By going back we can get very valuable lessons.

Sorry about the very negative points, but somebody had to say it......

 

[santaman2000]

I may be missing something but the pix you provided don't show wood that I'd bother splitting anyway; just burn it whole once the fire's hot. Make a fire with smaller wood you gather yourself then put the bigger logs on it.

 

[KenThis]

Most of the fantastic, and fancy ways of doing a fire are a bit impractical when enjoying your time in nature.
Drilling holes, splitting huge wood pieces or even logs - fine if you have a mule or two to carry the equipment.

From the photos you should be able to get enough firewood for a small fire, if you forgot your carry-on burner ( liquid fuel or whatever)

I do not want to be critical, but to make a huge fire like that is wasting time, effort and not environmentally friendly.

If you need a large fire to keep warm while sleeping - badly planned sleeping system.
To rely on a fire to sleep warm and not get hypothermic/under chilled is dangerous.

Another important point I have is the churned up forest floor. That will take years to heal.
We are guests in Nature, and should try to have a zero impact on it. \
Go back in Autumn to the same spot and check how it looks like. Bits of Carbonized wood, coals left? Ground still bare and damaged?

By going back we can get very valuable lessons.

Sorry about the very negative points, but somebody had to say it......

I think you may have missed the point of the OP.
I think you are also being a little closed minded about why/what some people like camping.
For some of us making a small fire whilst not strictly necessary is a large part of why we enjoy camping.
I'm all for 'leave no trace' something I strive to do, but to say that a small controlled fire properly managed is going to cause lasting damage is perhaps hyperbole.
Also I don't like to think of myself as a guest in nature but rather an integral part of nature. Whilst I don't necessarily want to damage anything whilst I'm out and about as I see it I have as much right to exist in the 'countryside' as anything else. I feel this is especially true in the UK and in South/West Wales as a lot of the 'nature' is actually either directly maintained by man or historically created by man. As an individual I try to be as responsible as possible but any ecological damage I might do with a small fire is miniscule compared to for example the damage done daily by virtually everyone with a modern day lifestyle.

 

[Robson Valley]

The OP is in Wisconsin. The campsite is marked on a map.
This is a 4-season campsite and walk-in, besides. No vehicles.
This is a clever way to protect much of the wilderness by encouraging users to stay in designated places.
This keeps all the fire ash, all the soil compaction, etc., in one place. Good trick, huh?

When management want to rest a location, they just leave it off the next printing of the map.
Edit out the trail(s). Parks Canada has been doing this for decades.
All you needed to do was keep every park map that was handed to you at the Park Gate.

To add to that, did you notice the picnic table? What a luxury! No grovelling on your knees.
That table was placed in the open, not under overhanging and very flammable conifer branches.

In the wilderness which surrounds my village for hundreds of miles, every flat spot I've ever found to camp on
already has a massive stone fire ring, built by previous users. Serves the same purpose as the picnic table.

 

[Janne]

I do not think I missed his point, the point being he was not able to split those log ends. You need a proper axe or maybe wedge them.
Guest/integral part - for sure, we humans are part of the World/ nature, but look what we have done to it so far as humanity....

The area around the fire is damaged, there is no way around it.

I have learned the majority of my 'ways in nature' from people that live integrated in nature, the Same.
Before that, I tended to make nice, large and cozy camp fires. Now, if I make a fire in nature, the scar on the ground can be covered with my two hands.
It is enough to get warmth and to cook on. and saves me wasting my energy in chasing large amounts of fire wood!


It is a well set up arrangement, with the seating. So much nicer to sit and eat. Maybe they could create a designated fire pit? That would keep the ask and soil damage to one designated spot.

 

[Janne]

Just thinking, what kind of wood was it?
Birch?

 

[C_Claycomb]

Fair bit of snow fell in the night there!

And yes, the gentleman mentions it as being birch.

 

[Janne]

Thanks! I split birch logs using a hatchet, taking off maybe one cm slices of wood from the side. Initially I use the hatchet and another log to batten, once I am through halfway inside the hatchet manages (usually) to finish on its own. Like you (C-claycomb) described.

Of course, not possible if there is a branch or knot there!

I do not know if the American Birch species are as easy to split as the North European one.
Or if they burn as readily when fresh as our version?

 

[Robson Valley]

Judging by the size, the wood color and the bark, I'll say the logs are Paper Birch, (Betula papyrifera)
probably the most widely distributed birch species across North America. We have 5 different species of birch, just in British Columbia.
Winters in Wisconsin are long and very cold. The jet stream of atmospheric circulation coming out of the Arctic makes certain of that.
Note that the OP says he was in there last week. The long and cold winter persists. This isn't sea-side.

I'll claim that the birch was cut fresh and is now frozen, harder than you can imagine for wood. I used to burn cords of it.
It can defeat any axe, no matter who swings it. On a warm day, paper birch splits almost as easily as spruce.
Let it season, follow a natural split and it pops open.
No big deal that there's some charcoal from the fire. It's in one place instead of 50, scattered all over.
I'll bet a mineral base, no organic duff, quite fireproof.

Do you see also the other reason for the firewood?
It's meant to stop or at least discourage the foragers from destroying wild life habitat by stripping the entire forest of trees of dead twigs and chopping down deadfalls.
The bug wood in the deadfalls is critical for birds. Insidious destructive practice. That dead brush piles up on the forest floor, gets buried in 2'-5' of snow and some small
mammals live in those piles under the snow. Good insulation.

I will be trimming 3m / 10' lower branches off my spruce trees later this coming summer.
Then we cut those in 2 and truck them all out to the forest to make artificial brush piles.
It's justifiable as habitat enhancement.

 

[KenThis]

I don't want to get into a piddling contest Janne but the OP asked for suggestions on making a recreational fire out of pieces of log difficult to split.
It seemed to me you got on a soapbox about not having big fires in nature because of potential damage.

All I wanted to do is explain not everyone goes into 'nature' for the same reasons as yourself and your blanket statements may not hold true for all.
Whilst I fully respect your knowledge and experience, and even envy your time learning in Scandinavia, 'bushcraft' is a broad church and there is room for other views to yours.
Just because you wouldn't do something doesn't make it 'wrong', it's more subjective.

 

[Janne]

He managed well to make a fire, despite the splitting difficulty.

If the original poster plan to go to similar areas (with possibly similar logs provided) it could be a good idea to carry a small supply of kindling or thin pieces of wood, to get a good start for larger logs. Or carry an ax in the car, assuming the car parking area is closeby.

 

[Ascobis]

[QUOTE="Another thing I have been playing with is my large scotch eyed auger.[/QUOTE]
Envy. That one guy sold his stock and now there are just welded ring things on the market.

 

[Ascobis]

He managed well to make a fire, despite the splitting difficulty.

If the original poster plan to go to similar areas (with possibly similar logs provided) it could be a good idea to carry a small supply of kindling or thin pieces of wood, to get a good start for larger logs. Or carry an ax in the car, assuming the car parking area is closeby.

As stated, I had an ax in the car. Scenario is "how to do this without an ax". Firestarting was a bomb: I used a bog paper roll stuffed with pine and cedar splits, soaked in wax, with a candle wick run through. The magnesium ribbon in the bundle was just for fun. Down-and-dead wood is plentiful in the area and I prepared a bundle of <1 mm, 1 to 2 mm, 5mm, and 1 to 2 cm stock just to have something to do. Left it there for the next lucky camper.

As stated and pictured, I stacked the big stuff on a smaller fire in a pyramid. Note that the two sections on the picnic table seat are the two snow-covered lumps in the last photo.

[Crabby after a day of "how do they stay in business when they act this way?]

I considered attacking the edges of the birch. Not stated above: I tried batoning my Fallkniven S1 across an edge but stopped before getting results because batoning is silly. That approach, taking off a side instead of splitting across the center, works well on oak and pine. Close-grained woods laugh at the attempt.

 

[KenThis]

[QUOTE="Another thing I have been playing with is my large scotch eyed auger.

Envy. That one guy sold his stock and now there are just welded ring things on the market.[/QUOTE]

I got mine from Dave Budd from these forums.
I specifically got it to make rocket stoves out of fire wood.
But I also intend to have a go at simple camp furniture at some point, some stools and maybe a table...

I think it's quite interesting that such equipment would have been part of some people's kit back in the day.

 

[Janne]

Together with a mule train, campain chairs and table, decent kitchen equipent...


I see no use for an auger while visiting mother Nature.

 

[santaman2000]

Together with a mule train, campain chairs and table, decent kitchen equipent...


I see no use for an auger while visiting mother Nature.

"Back in the Day" as Ken put it, they weren't "visiting" mother nature. Trappers without a mule train carried pack baskets full of heavy iron traps for months on their backs.