Skyrim:Chop Wood

Get paid to chop firewood. Quest Giver: Radiant Location(s): Radiant Reward: 5 Gold per Firewood Disposition: 0→1 (quest giver) ID: FavorJobsChopWood Suggested Level: Any Difficulty: Easy

Wood chopping block

Radiant Options

This is a radiant quest which you can receive from any of the following people.

Quest Giver	Quest Giver Home	Map Marker	Region
Aeri	Aeri's House	Anga's Mill	The Pale
Ganna Uriel	Steamscorch Mine	Kynesgrove	Eastmarch
Gilfre	Gilfre's House	Mixwater Mill	Eastmarch
Grosta	Heartwood Mill	Heartwood Mill	The Rift
Hert	Half-Moon Mill	Half-Moon Mill	Falkreath
Hjorunn	Solitude Sawmill	Solitude Sawmill	Haafingar
Hod	Hod and Gerdur's House	Riverwood	Whiterun Hold
Horgeir	Horgeir's House	Dragon Bridge	Haafingar
Hroggar	Alva's House	Morthal	Hjaalmarch
Hulda	The Bannered Mare	Whiterun	Whiterun Hold
Jorgen	Jorgen and Lami's House	Morthal	Hjaalmarch
Temba Wide-Arm	Vilemyr Inn	Ivarstead	The Rift

Walkthrough

Easy Money

If you talk to one of the quest givers, they will offer to pay you for chopped firewood. Alternatively, you can also chop the firewood first and then sell the firewood to a quest giver later. You are paid five gold per unit of firewood.

Find a Chopping Block

As a general rule, wood chopping blocks are easily found near the quest givers. Otherwise, they can be found in almost any military camp or Khajiit traders caravan camp, and also at the following locations:

Get Chopping

To chop wood you must have a woodcutter's axe in your inventory (one can usually be found near the wood pile). Activating a wood chopping block will then cause you to produce firewood at a rate of two units every eight seconds, with a limit of six units per activation. After you have produced six units, you must activate the block again or leave the woodcutting session.

It is also possible to have a follower chop firewood for you, even if you don't have an axe. This can be advantageous as the camera doesn't go into free roam mode while the wood is being chopped (which happens when it's done by you). By having someone else do the chopping, you can keep your view focused on the wood pile and activate it every thirty-five seconds to keep more wood coming. If a second wood chopping block is nearby, you can even chop wood simultaneously to double production while only adding an extra couple of seconds to the equation.

Achievements

An Achievement is related to chopping wood:

• Hard Worker (10 points/Bronze) — Chop wood, mine ore, and cook food
  • To obtain this achievement you do not need to sell the firewood, or even talk to any of the quest givers. Simply activating the wood chopping block is sufficient.

Notes

• This quest does not have any stages or objectives.
• This quest can be repeated indefinitely.
• If you don't have a woodcutter's axe on hand, you can ask a follower to chop wood for you. Just approach the wood chopping block and talk to your follower. When you have the option "I need you to do something for me", click "use" on the wood chopping block. To retrieve the firewood, trade items with the follower.
• There is apparently no limit to the amount of firewood you can chop at each wood chopping block and then sell. One (painfully slow) way to get the money to purchase a house is to chop the required amount of wood. For the house in Whiterun, for example, you will get 5000 gold if you accumulate 1000 pieces of firewood. This takes approximately 24 hours of game time when the time scale is set around 10, or 25 minutes in real time. At the standard time scale, it is possible to chop 150 pieces of firewood in 15 real-time minutes, which is a pay rate of 3000 gold per real-time hour.
• Money you earn from chopping wood is fixed and is not affected by your Speech skill. This makes the quest one of the few ways to make money without increasing any skills, which will help control your level. This is useful when wanting to train in a certain skill as many times as possible. It is also one of the few ways to earn money without doing any questing, merchanting, or crafting.
• With the Hearthfire add-on, doing this quest for Aeri, Gilfre, Grosta, Hert, or Hod will increase their disposition such that you'll be able to cut your own lumber.
• Because this is a favor quest which affects the quest giver's disposition, it will count towards the "Help the People" part of the thane quest for the quest giver's hold.
• Each unit of firewood weighs 5, and a full "use" of the chopping block weighs 30. If you are close to being overencumbered, this is something to consider, should you be chopping wood far from someone who will buy it.
• Swinging the woodcutter's axe at a chopping block won't produce firewood; you must activate the animation sequence.
• You can use firewood samples found in the wilderness (for example, Autumnwatch Tower has three firewood scattered over the floors of the tallest tower) to use in this quest, as well.
• Some objects in the game world look like wood chopping blocks, but aren't. If it lacks one or both piles of wood along the sides of it, it is not a wood chopping block. The most easy way to distinguish usable wood chopping blocks from unusable lookalikes is to roll your crosshairs over it and see if the "Activate" prompt appears. If it doesn't, it's not a chopping block.
• Chopped wood can be sold to general goods merchants, though at a much lower price than someone on the list above.