Firewood making is a lifestyle, a hobby or something necessary to keep you and your family warm. There are tons of equipment for firewood makers on the market. We have written a couple of articles about that (see links below). But this time I decided to have a look at a professional firewood maker. One of those who makes firewood for those of us who are too lazy to make it ourselves. 
Part time firewood cutting
When the old hardwood sawmill went out of business the owner, Mattias Kling, didn´t give in. He purchased a secondhand firewood processor that he installed in one of the sheds in the sawmill yard. He added a log feeding table to feed the processor, and a conveyor for the processed firewood. Eventually it was a mini factory that can be operated by one man. But of course, when his son, Carl, helps with the logistics around the processor the production increases.
As a former sawmill owner Mattias already had the necessary contact to get wood. He made a deal with another sawmill to buy birch pulpwood which he mainly uses for the firewood. Heating with firewood is quite common in south Sweden where he is active, so selling the firewood has never been a problem. Also, this is just a part time job beside other businesses that Mattias is involved in. He is an entrepreneur!
Container or sack – it´s your choice
When I visited the firewood “mill”, the processed firewood was dropped directly into a small hook-lift container that take 12 cubic meters (tipped measurement). But Mattias can also deliver in 1 cbm sacks on pallets. The customer chooses depending on the volume he wants.
Each sack hold 1 cbm (0,29 cord) firewood.
When using pulpwood as raw material the production varies between 15 – 20 cubic meters tipped measurement (3 – 4 cords) per day, or approximately one of these containers. On a yearly basis, it differs between 500 – 1 000 cubic meters, tipped measurement (100 – 200 cords) depending on demand and other types of jobs he takes on.
Film and more info
It´s a bit difficult to describe the measurements as we here in northern Europe uses cubic meters (cbm) and e.g., in north America cords are used. When we talk about production of firewood like described in this article, or woodchips, we use “tipped measurement” meaning that you just pour the material into a container or a sack = not stacked! So, to compare and convert tipped cubic meters into cords you first have to convert tipped cbm into stacked cbm. That is, according to the firewood man in this article, done by multiplying the tipped cbm with 0,7. Then, you can either use a converter that you find on the Internet, or use another factor like 1 cbm = 0,29 cord, or 1 cord = 3,46 cbm. (Pew, who said this job was easy?). I may have misunderstood something, it wouldn’t be the first time, but I hope I got the figures more or less right in the article.
Enough with the math’s!! Here is a film from the firewood plant:
Here you can read about the Timber Croc and the Kindling Cracker.
Film and photos: Per Jonsson
