Again, a bit of polite conversation and you never know what you might achieve, especially if you have the transport capability as well.Now that you've secured your supply you need to prepare the wood into something that will fit in your smoker and make pure smoke. If at all possible I prefer to use hand tools such as a axe and a hatchet to make wood chunks.
The reason for this is that there's no change for any chemicals or oils to be passed onto the wood during the cutting. Yes, I agree that it makes it difficult to have perfectly shaped chunks (these tend to have a greater surface area in touch with the heat source and therefore smolder more easily) but at least I know that my wood is pure.
The worst thing you could do is use a chainsaw. The chain is on a chainsaw is continually lubricated by oil and any wood that you are cutting is bound to soak up some of the oil and this will give your food the taste of petroleum. Now I have heard some people use an un-lubricated chainsaw and I suppose that this is fair enough but it does mean that the chainsaw will only be good for a few cuts before it starts to overheat.If you use a saw of any kind, it always pays to put a sheet on the ground over where you are sawing because then you catch all the sawdust too.
Sawdust is well worth hanging onto for any cold smoking activities that you might want to do.Before chopping any wood however it may be your preference to bark the wood. Frankly I prefer my wood chips with the bark on because I think it doesn't compromise the flavor and I eliminate quite a lot of work. This really is your choice.
