There is something bucolic about chopping your own wood, letting it dry for months, and then using it in the fire. This is not always a sustainable way of life for people who still like to enjoy a bonfire on a cool summer night, though. Without log splitting services, cutting firewood to size requires an incredible amount of time and physical labor. Here are the four stations that firewood processing services go through once the lumber reaches their machines.

Log Deck

When trees are cut down to be turned into firewood, their branches are removed and they become long trunks. Most of the firewood you see bundled in stores comes from a trunk that has been split rather than from branches. The log deck is the bed of the commercial log splitter that supports the weight of the log, which can be several hundred pounds. Heavy duty log splitters are able to hold and split even the widest of trunks.

Saw Station

Once on the conveyor, the logs are cut to a more manageable size. The saw station cuts logs into rounds in only a couple of seconds. One type of processor is called a guillotine processor, which combines this step with the splitting step. The sawing is responsible for the length of your firewood, which determines how large your log cabin fire will be, or how tall your tepee-style fire can be.

Splitting Chamber

When rounds are split, they fragment into any number of pieces. Depending on the size of the firewood processor, the round may create anywhere from two to eight pieces. Larger wedges can split rounds into as many as 16 pieces. This step is most similar to that which some people like to do themselves: using an ax to split wood into wedges atop a stump.

Outfeed

Still on the conveyor belt, the now appropriately-sized wood can be shipped anywhere to be sold. Some companies may ship loads off to be racked, bundled, or seasoned. Some brands may even offer different moisture contents in their wood. Firewood-for-life.com states that seasoned firewood will have a 20% moisture content. Moisture contents affect the rate at which wood will burn.

Firewood processing services are the mediators between the trees being chopped down in the forest and the barcode being slapped on the bundle. The machines used in these services save time and money by eliminating as much physical labor as possible, allowing companies to maximize earnings. If you're looking to purchase your own processor, reach out to Brute Force!