Esa Kujala has always relied on Palax firewood processors

Esa Kujala has been making firewood all his life – already in his childhood home there were Palax machines, and he also has always had one. Making firewood became more professional six years ago when Esa started the business under his own name, continuing at the same time with his day job. First, Esa started with a hand-fed circular saw machine Palax C700 Combi, then with a manually controlled Palax KS 35 Ergo chain saw machine.

He makes firewood on the terms of his own day job, so the annual production volume varies each year. For example, last year he made a thousand loose cubes with the KS 35. He delivers firewood to nearby municipalities and households in Northern Finland (the Oulu region), all the way to front door if necessary.

“The good thing about a firewood processor with a chainsaw is that it takes care of logs of various sizes. The logs that I use vary from thin to thick ones”, Esa says. “I have been very satisfied with the KS 35. Everything has worked just fine and Palax’s after-sales service has been excellent. Chainsaw chains and bars are also durable. I made 1,500 loose cubes with one chainsaw bar.”

Making firewood keeps in good physical condition

In addition, managing and thinning his own forest, also for the firewood, is keeping Esa busy, as well as his actual day job as a rescue swimmer for a maritime rescue helicopter. Over the decades, the rescue swimmer’s duties have taken Esa to very demanding conditions – such as the sinking of the passenger ship Estonia in rough seas in 1994 – and therefore, he must maintain his physical condition at all times. Working hard with firewood production has proven to be a good exercise: Esa’s KS 35 Ergo model is controlled with mechanical levers and he feeds all logs into the machine with his own hands without an infeed table.

For this reason, an automated production line is not at least yet Esa’s goal but upgrading the machine has come to his mind. He thinks it is possible that he would next return to the circular saw machines, and therefore at the Hankkija customer days in Kempele, Finland, he was happy to learn about the benefits of the new C750.2.