Stove full of nails

It's almost June and I've got the woodstove going. 40 degrees Fahrenheit is a tad cool. It will warm up into the 60s later today, but that's later. Hard to believe we've had some 90 degree weather with nights cool enough to keep a fan going.

To keep the stove going I've been cutting up pallets. In some ways they work out pretty well for this time of year. The wood is dry, puts out a lot of heat, but doesn't build up a lot coals. Later in the day when it warms up the stove can die out and we won't overheat.

The big downside is that pallets are full of nails. I've been cutting them up with my electric chainsaw. That worked well, until I hit a nail. It was getting to be pretty rough going until I located my chain file. A quick touch up and I was back in business.

My kitchen woodstove is full of nails and staples. The next time we have a few days where I don't have to run the stove, I'll clean it up. It will go in a metal bucket outside until I'm sure all the coals are dead. The ash/nail mix will then go into an empty dog food bag. Those bags are pretty tough so nails won't poke out when the whole mess goes into the trash.

Back in the old days they used to burn down old houses just so they could sift through the ashes for the nails. Those were painstakingly collected for reuse. We forget how mass production has reduced the price of something as simple as a nail.

-Sixbears