I finished installation of an efficient woodstove in our river-side cabin. 
It is a small woodstove, but we live in a small house. This should easily keep us warm so long as we keep it fed. Nice that we have electric central heat on the programmed thermostat I installed.
Extra nice that we don’t have to freeze or leave if the power goes down on a cold winter day, days, week, or weeks.
Living next to a river that never stops flowing and a forest over-full with pine-bark-beetle killed trees standing gives us a really comfortable feeling that we have two of the primary human needs handled for the long-term, with or without the power grid deliveries that make life so convenient.
ASSUMING our chainsaws can keep cutting the trees into firewood.
Not wanting to bet my life on that assumption, I just added a new tool to my kit. This is a 55″ 2-man crosscut saw in the Lance pattern. Two men can use this to cut down trees and saw into firewood length rounds. Combined with the splitting maul, sledge and wedges I have used over the past decades, this will turn forest thinning into firewood.
This hand hammered, Heavy-Duty Cross-Cut Log and Timber Saw is ideal for cutting medium to large logs. This Saw is intended for cutting green wood where it truly excels. It will also cut dry wood although the performance will be much slower.
Of the choices available, I selected one long enough to handle larger trees and suitable for fresh, green trees. Undoubtedly, I would also wish for one a bit shorter as well as one or two in the Tuttle pattern which is better with hardwoods and seasoned, dry wood like the beetle-kill that is so prevalent in our woods.
The thumbnail picture on the right is a Tuttle saw, now on my “Want List”.
Traditional Woodworker has numerous choices in log and timber tools as well as an entire online catalog of grid-free hand tools that represent the acme of engineering in woodworking without electricity.
Third on my want list is a hand saw that bridges a significant gap between the two-man saws and the axe. As one processes a tree into firewood, there is a whole lot of wood that is too small to be bothered with a 4-foot-long two-man saw, yet would take a lot of hacking with an axe to make it the right length.
This small pull-cut saw would be JUST RIGHT for those.
Combine that saw set with my wedges and sledges that I have A LOT of experience using and we have a lifetime supply of firewood for our woodstove.
Better still, being surrounded by folks who are betting their house heat on THE GRID, my hand tools represent an infinite supply of firewood, cut, delivered and stacked neatly for my use … completely independent of my ability to do the physical labor myself …
Ted’s Tiny Tool Rental Contract:
one for you, one for me, one for you, one for me…
