There’s no two ways about it, the cold weather is coming in. Yes, even to the Isle of Wight.
Of course, for many, central heating has its place, whether oil or gas-powered, but even if you’ve got that, there’s nothing to beat a log fire blazing away to warm the cockles of your heart.
Get your Isle of Wight logs
Delivered: 1 bag logs £95; 2 bags logs £185; 3 bags logs £275; 4 bags logs £360
Stacking service: £15 per bag
Nets: £5 each collected or 8 nets for £39
Kindle: 3 nets for £10 collected or delivered with bag order.
Kiln Dried Logs
Delivered: 1 bag £110; 2 bags £215; 3 bags £318; 4 bags £420; 10 nets £70; 20 nets £130
Nets collected: £6 a net; 8 nets £47 or 8 nets and a net of kindle for £50
Oak milled logs and softwood logs
Delivered: 1 bag Oak Milled logs £80; 1 bag softwood logs £60 each
All prices inc VAT
To many, the art of getting a good fire blazing remains a mystery.
The secret of a good fire – dry logs
Do you want to know the biggest secret to getting a deeply satisfying fire? You’ve got to start off with the right material – seasoned and dried wood. It makes all of the difference from a fire that is just burning, to one that gives great, glowing results.
The difficulty is that not all suppliers sell you fully dried logs – and the more moisture the logs have, the more you’re going to struggle to get your fire roaring.
Whitefield Woodyard – now Chessell Woodyard
Luckily Chessell Woodyard’s new location, Newport Road in Chessell, is in a great position for drying logs as it’s in a open location and the wind zooms over the fields, whipping through their logs.
Frankly they’re more than a little obsessed with providing what they proudly claim are the best logs on the Island.
Seasoned before splitting
They tell us that they’ve invested in aerated bags designed to keep the logs dry. Two sides of the bags are built from a fine mesh, so with every gust of wind that blows past on those open fields, the logs get dryer.
The split logs are drying in the aerated bags for at least two months, having first been seasoned after they’re felled for at least a year before splitting.
They’ve got a great supply of logs, doing so much work with the forests across the Island gives them a big leg up with this.
How can you tell a dry log?
Want to spot dry logs like a pro? Here are two tips on telling if they’ve been dried:
- Look at the end grain of the log. You should see small cracks going from the centre of the log
outwards. - Sound is another. When you knock them, a higher-pitched, ’empty’ sound should ring from the log. Think Xylophone. Damper logs won’t have a ring about them, producing a duller, flat sound.
Our thanks to Chessell Woodyard for sponsoring for this feature. Please support them, as they and other businesses taking paid promotion enables you to continue reading On The Wight for free.
