Timber Harvesting and Billet Chopping
Keeping furnaces, kitchen stoves, and cremation pyres roaring requires a constant supply of combustible fuel. Without fuel, iron smelting and cooking stop completely, bringing workshop progression to an abrupt standstill.
The foundation of fuel production begins with tree felling in the surrounding forests. Chopping down mature pine and oak trees yields heavy timber logs. These logs must first be carried to the outdoor wood stockpile and sliced into manageable wooden billets at the sawhorse or chopping spot.
Each wooden log yields multiple billets, which serve as the primary raw ingredient for both structural carpentry and domestic fuel. Always maintain an axe with good durability to minimize the stamina expended per felled tree.
Chopping Spot Recipes and Firewood Conversion
Once billets are secured, interact with the chopping spot in your work yard to execute the firewood recipe. Splitting one billet yields a bundle of chopped firewood, which directly converts into raw fuel points when loaded into appliances.
Different appliances demand varying amounts of fuel to operate. A standard kitchen hearth consumes modest fuel points to bake bread or fry vegetables, whereas industrial furnaces require dozens of fuel points to maintain the high temperatures needed to melt iron and glass.
Never dump high-grade carpentry lumber or polished beams into furnaces as crude fuel. Keep your fuel supply strictly confined to basic chopped firewood and leftover wood scraps to conserve valuable construction timber.
Storage Organization and Workshop Fuel Flow
As your industrial footprint expands, carrying firewood manually between chopping blocks and smelters becomes tedious. Constructing dedicated firewood sheds and storage bins near your furnaces allows craft stations to draw fuel automatically.
Position your chopping station and fuel racks centrally within the work yard to reduce walking travel time. Later in the game, assigning a zombie worker to a permanent chopping station guarantees that your fuel bins stay topped off without manual intervention.
With an automated fuel cycle established, you can queue massive batches of iron ingots, ceramic bricks, and cremations overnight, returning to finished products every morning.