Cordwood 2021-One Man Logging (The best way to spoil a good walk)

With many areas off limits to vehicles due to flooding rain earlier in the year, I took a walk into my old "logging camp", and ended up spending the afternoon stockpiling a few logs to get started on the next cord.
This area was burnt in the 2019/2020 summer bushfires and its been interesting to note a few differences in regeneration between this area and others over the last year or so. The fire in this particular section was much more intense (a larger bush corridor, as well as denser undergrowth) than the area I visited for "Ironbark" and "Bloodwood". This spot took several months longer to start reestablishing and had much more growth of introduced herbaceous and woody species, which have (mostly) since died off, to be replaced by native pioneer small trees like Wattles and Kurrajong. By comparison, the "Bloodwood" spot started establishing a ground cover of grasses, and has been much easier to manage.
The larger trees, in this case a Grey Gum (E. punctata) and a Tallowood (E. microcorys), have been interesting to watch. Both have different methods of dealing with fire- the Grey has smooth, thin, even bark that was quickly shed when burnt, the Tallow has fairly thick insulative fibrous bark that can stay attached for years, but both species sent out new shoots from the trunk and branches at about the same rate.

[@guyvanderveken5041]

Excellent content, I really enjoy the format

[@kurts64]

That's awesome to hear mate, cheers!

[@voodoosausage4137]

Beautiful video - bordering on therapeutic! Your axe work is immaculate too. Must watch more of your channel. Thank you!

[@kurts64]

Thanks for the kind words mate, glad you enjoyed the vid!

[@Southernlandbushcraft]

I love the sound of an axe in the bush, classic. loving the vids mate.

[@kurts64]

G'day mate, same, I'd much rather an echoing axe than a saw. Thanks for checkin out the vids, and commenting. Cheers!

[@pulse2162]

8:08 I'm loving the "doonk doonk" sounds coming from the wood pile that you made😂😂😂

[@brettbrown9814]

Thanks Kurt. Six great videos in a row. Lucky us!

[@kurts64]

Cheers Brett I'm still on the learning curve with the vids and my gear is pretty limiting, so that's cool to hear. Feel free to make any suggestions too. Thanks mate!

[@KevinsDisobedience]

I love you establishing shots. I’m a sucker for those, and you do them as well as anyone. That closing shot though-you silhouetted against the sunset, damn!

[@kurts64]

Thanks mate that's cool to hear. For me the landscape is a big motivator. Often guilty of just stoppin work and staring off into nowhere..

[@KevinsDisobedience]

Dude, your felling notches are beast mode!

[@kurts64]

Haha, I had to edit that second one though, fire-hardened wood is a pain. Probably only a 30 seconds or so but it felt like I was gettin nowhere with that little husky

[@skinnybearthedogs2654]

I have never seen a burnt tree standing before and I wouldn't have suspected the flora to regrow so fast after a fire neither, it's amazing. That's really a beautiful place you are living in and it's always a pleasure to watch you swing an axe, good job !

[@kurts64]

Thanks mate! These eucalypts are pretty well adapted to fire so will bounce back pretty well. The smaller ones that do die though, become incredibly hard and make great firewood for the saw. In "another short trip" I was cutting some trees only about 3 inches thick, and it still took a dozen hits to get through. I can't wait till spring, should see some wildflowers start to appear.

[@southafricanaxeenthusiast9144]

@@kurts64 Same with pines if they're not too young. you can see the burn in the ring when you fell, so you can tell which year it it burnt. We fell invasive pines in the drakensberg mountains. fire rings are part of the data collection.

[@kurts64]

@@southafricanaxeenthusiast9144 g'day Neil, I was under the impression pines didn't cope with fire well at all. Very interesting! We have some native and introduced plantation pines in Aus, but in my area tend to be fairly small compared to the eucalypts, so don't handle heavy fire that well. The drakensbergs look like an amazing place to work!

[@southafricanaxeenthusiast9144]

@@kurts64 These are mexican pines Pinus patula. I'm no forester but seems the little guys under 2 years would get burnt out.

[@kurts64]

@@southafricanaxeenthusiast9144 that was one benefit of the fires here, clearing out all the overcrowded/ hard to reach areas. Tricky part is getting back in there often enough to control regrowth. Even after only 18 months there's already areas getting hard to access, but hey it's an excuse to be out in the bush. Btw thanks for commenting, it's cool to hear about other parts of the world

[@samulikilpinen1233]

The serenity of your videos just makes me zone out, great stuff as always. Also nice that you wrote about the different wood species and regrowth after the fires, that stuff is very interesting because it's almost an alien consept here where forest fires aren't that common.

[@kurts64]

That's awesome Samuli, thanks man. Glad you checked out the description. For us here bushfires are just another part of the bush, and there's many species that actually rely on fire to germinate. These last ones were something else though, and they went on for months. Have you got any more vids planned?

[@samulikilpinen1233]

@@kurts64 I was thinking about a follow-up video to the budget handle tune-up, hanging and testing the axe. Other than that I guess I'll do a wrap-up video about the cordwood challenge now that my one rick is done. That one rick fills up my woodshed so I'm done making firewood for myself this year because I don't really have space to put more. About the forest fires, our pine trees actually have some natural protection to fire so often if we have a larger fire, the old, bigger pines survive it.

[@kurts64]

@@samulikilpinen1233 congrats on filling up the woodshed. I'm lookin forward to seeing how the axe turns out, and the wrap up vid. Choppin in minus 15 still spins me out!

[@MichelleMakesStuff]

I was confused about the wood you were chopping, as it looked pretty dead but had leaves on it. Thank you for the informative description about how they’re adapted to fires. Very interesting information. And really nice chopping, of course

[@kurts64]

Thanks Michelle, both are very hard timber but that charred tallowood was something else! Cheers for watching, and commenting!

[@Joey-L]

Great way to spend a day. I was in withdrawal for some good axe content. This helped.

[@kurts64]

Cheers Joey! There's definitely worse ways to spend a day. Haha, glad to help! Are you in the UK, is it spring up there now?

[@Joey-L]

@@kurts64 I'm in Canada, fully into spring now. One of the best times to get out and chop before the heat and humidity of summer.

[@kurts64]

@@Joey-L Canada looks bloody amazing, some incredible landscapes up there. Are the bugs out yet, or not till summer?

[@Joey-L]

@@kurts64 Not just yet but soon. The real concern right now is the ticks. Its been a real problem the last few years.

[@kurts64]

@@Joey-L I hear you, we've had some shocker tick years recently. "De-tickin" has almost become another hobby. At least its cheaper than axes and knives!

[@mickaeldeguil5924]

Je suis vraiment admiratif de ta précision...tu places le fer au millimètre 👍. De plus,tu donnes du rythme...les coups s enchaînent rapidement...ce n est pas le cas de tous ceux qui font le même genre de vidéo. Peux tu préciser depuis comme de temps tu fais ça?

[@kurts64]

merci mon pote, je joue avec des outils tranchants comme des machettes, des couteaux et des haches depuis que je suis enfant et j'ai beaucoup de chance de pouvoir les utiliser presque quotidiennement pendant mon travail dans la brousse. merci encore d'avoir regardé et pour vos aimables paroles. très appréciée👍👍🪓

[@mickaeldeguil5924]

Tu es ton propre patron du coup ? Tu bosses comme bûcheron afin de virer les eucalyptus morts et tombés afin d éviter les incendies ?

[@bundufundi]

Hi Kurt, what's your overall impressions of the Lamaca and would you compare it to any other more easily available axes at all?

[@kurts64]

G'day mate, thanks for watching. I love it. The handle, length, weight, grind, and edge length tie in really well for an all-rounder, imo. I thought the cheeks would be thicker when I first got it- it's touted as a "high centreline axe"- so my first impression was of a fancy Rhineland pattern, but it's awesome. The only mod I've done was steepening the grind back to 20° after copping some edge damage at the factory 17.

[@kurts64]

Sorry, for comparisons I can't say too much as most axes I've ever used have been heavy Tasmanian patterns, so the Lamaca was completely different for me. From what I've seen online though, I'd say an oschenkopf iltis might perform similarly for a much cheaper price, Ben Scott has some vids on them and they seem to work very well

[@ivanlyons6466]

Another great video Kurt, gotta say though your script writer is getting paid too much for the amount of work he’s doing.😂. How’s the LAMACA going ?

[@kurts64]

Hahaha cheers mate! The Work axe has pretty much become a go-to. My axe collection is basically either heavy tassies or a HB boys axe, so the work axe fills the middle ground really well. I think you mentioned you had the Tui camp axe.. they would be a deadly pair I reckon