Uploaded May 2013 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
I took this video in late winter. We planted over half a mile of hedgerow and last winter major management was required as they had grown to think and tall. The main species are hawthorn and blackthorn. We had half a dozen piles of cuttings each the size of a VW motorhome.
The raw wood can't be just burned as it is, its too wet. The thinner stuff dries out quicker and can be burned after a month or so if you get a good fire burning first with previously dry wood. We also save fat from the kitchen, sounds disgusting but if you slow roast a big joint of lamb or pork, handfuls of fat run out and the best use for it is burning. Better than using diesel, and better to burn this waste fat rather than put in the general waste to go to landfill and feed rats and seagulls.
We considered chipping it but that would have required almost as much effort and much money. We processed it by cutting down and de-thorning all the wood of 1 inch diameter and over, the mibni axe is perfect for this although a big knife or small billhook would do. All the thicker wood has now all been sawn to the correct length (my cubit) to fit into our wood burning stove, and stacked. After drying over the summer it will warm our home. the smaller wood was burned off, using some dried willow from last year as kindling, and the ashes applied around the apple trees. This is a lot of work and my wrists ached at night, but he exercise did me good and we have won about a third of next winter's fuel for our woodburner stove from what was otherwise just waste wood from hedgerow management.
I find the Gransfors Bruks mini axe (Kubben or pocket axe) very nice for this sort of job, very good ergonomics and dangerously sharp edge from new.
I took this video in late winter. We planted over half a mile of hedgerow and last winter major management was required as they had grown to think and tall. The main species are hawthorn and blackthorn. We had half a dozen piles of cuttings each the size of a VW motorhome.
The raw wood can't be just burned as it is, its too wet. The thinner stuff dries out quicker and can be burned after a month or so if you get a good fire burning first with previously dry wood. We also save fat from the kitchen, sounds disgusting but if you slow roast a big joint of lamb or pork, handfuls of fat run out and the best use for it is burning. Better than using diesel, and better to burn this waste fat rather than put in the general waste to go to landfill and feed rats and seagulls.
We considered chipping it but that would have required almost as much effort and much money. We processed it by cutting down and de-thorning all the wood of 1 inch diameter and over, the mibni axe is perfect for this although a big knife or small billhook would do. All the thicker wood has now all been sawn to the correct length (my cubit) to fit into our wood burning stove, and stacked. After drying over the summer it will warm our home. the smaller wood was burned off, using some dried willow from last year as kindling, and the ashes applied around the apple trees. This is a lot of work and my wrists ached at night, but he exercise did me good and we have won about a third of next winter's fuel for our woodburner stove from what was otherwise just waste wood from hedgerow management.
I find the Gransfors Bruks mini axe (Kubben or pocket axe) very nice for this sort of job, very good ergonomics and dangerously sharp edge from new.
