Collecting and Storing Firewood from Coppice

Cutting your own firewood from a coppice stool is one of the most satisfying jobs on a smallholding or woodland plot. There is nothing complicated about it, but the difference between wood that burns hot and clean and wood that spits, smoulders and coats your chimney in tar comes down to how you handle it after the saw stops. Get the seasoning right and a hazel or ash pole you cut this winter will heat your home beautifully next winter.

Cut at the Right Time of Year

Traditionally, coppice is cut between leaf fall and the end of February. Sap is down, growth has stopped, and the wood is at its driest and least sugary, which means it seasons faster and is less attractive to insects and fungal decay. Cutting in high summer is possible but you will be handling heavier, wetter timber that takes longer to dry.

Winter cutting also fits the wildlife calendar. Between March and August, nesting birds are protected by law, so leave standing stools and brash alone during that window. Before you cut, tap the poles and check for dormouse nests, and look for bats roosting behind loose bark. A quick check takes a minute and keeps you on the right side of the Wildlife and Countryside Act.

Cut close to the stool, leaving a clean, angled face that sheds water, and avoid tearing the bark down the side of the stem. Ragged cuts invite disease into a stool you want to crop again in ten or fifteen years.

Processing the Poles into Burnable Logs

Cut poles to a length that suits your stove or open fire — around 25cm is a good working default for most log burners, though 30cm suits larger grates. Consistency matters more than exactness: an even stack dries evenly, and awkward lengths leave gaps that weaken the whole pile.

Split anything thicker than your forearm. Splitting opens the grain, roughly doubles the surface area exposed to air, and lets moisture escape from the inside out rather than only through the end grain. Straight-grained ash, hazel and sycamore split easily with a billhook and mallet or a small axe. Sweet chestnut and oak are more stubborn and worth leaving in round sections if they are under about 10cm across.

• Keep the bark on — it slows drying slightly but protects the wood underneath from rain.
• Remove side branches and brash, which can be bundled separately for kindling.
• Leave the split logs in a loose heap for a few days so the cut faces start to dry before stacking.
• Wear gloves and eye protection; coppice poles are rarely perfectly straight and split unpredictably.

Building a Stack That Breathes

Air movement is everything. A stack that cannot breathe will grow mould, and mouldy wood is not just unpleasant to handle — it signals that the timber is staying damp and will burn poorly.

Start with a base. Pallets, old fence posts or a couple of sacrificial rails laid on the ground keep the bottom row out of the soil and away from rising damp. Then stack your logs bark-side up, so the curved surface sheds rain like a tiled roof and water runs off rather than pooling in the grain.

Leave gaps between logs. A common mistake is to pack them tight for neatness; instead, build in a gentle criss-cross pattern or leave a channel every so often so air can travel through the pile. Keep the stack narrow rather than tall — a metre wide and a metre and a half high dries far better than a great cube, because the centre of a big pile never sees moving air.

Position it in a spot with good cross-flow, ideally facing the prevailing wind, and leave a gap of at least 15cm between the stack and any wall, hedge or shed. Sun is a bonus, not a requirement; moving air does more of the work.

Cover It — But Not Too Much

A roof over the top is essential in the UK; sides should stay open. Drape a tarpaulin over the top of the stack only, weighted down with logs or bungee cords, and leave the ends and sides exposed. Never wrap the whole pile — that traps moisture underneath and creates the humid, still conditions mould loves. A simple corrugated sheet, a length of old roofing felt or a purpose-built lean-to roof all do the job. Brash laid over the top of the stack works too, in the traditional way.

How Long to Season

Plan on a minimum of a year, and be generous in a wet, sunless summer. Softwoods and ash can be ready in nine to twelve months; oak, sweet chestnut and apple are better after eighteen months to two years. Aim for a moisture content below 20 per cent — a cheap moisture meter pushed into a freshly split face will tell you where you stand.

• Restack anything that has gone green or furry into a sunnier, airier position and remove the affected pieces.
• Keep rough-barked, slower-drying species in a separate stack so you know what is ready.
• Rotate your stock: burn the oldest wood first and add new wood at the back.

Bringing It In and Burning It

A week or two before you burn it, move a barrow-load into a covered log store or a dry porch. Bringing wood straight from an outdoor stack into a warm room for a single evening is not enough — it needs time to shed surface moisture and reach room temperature. Dry, well-seasoned coppice wood lights easily, gives off good heat and leaves little more than a fine white ash. Sooty glass, smouldering logs and a smoky chimney are the signs that your wood is not ready yet — give it another season and you will be rewarded.