Every year since 1989 I’ve cut firewood at our rural Manitoulin Island, Canada home, and over the years I’ve settled on an approach that works well. I used to cut firewood alone, but these days I’m lucky to work with my son, Robert. Together we cut, split and stack almost 10 face cords a day using the methods you’ll see here. Some of this firewood is for Robert’s house, some of it for my house and workshop. Seeing how it’s done through video is an excellent way to learn, and the two videos below give a quick glimpse of the specific ways we saw and stack the wood.

Firewood sawing video: Click below to see how I mark logs for consistent firewood length, and how I use a long-bar chainsaw for easier cutting and longer times between sharpening.

Firewood stacking video: Over the years we’ve found that stacking firewood in round piles is faster and works better than typical square piles. They’ve stacked firewood like this in round piles in Europe for centuries, and we’ve found it makes sense. Click below for a quick time lapse video on how we do it here.