Stacking the knarlywood

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Realstone

Realstone

Lord of Fire
Jan 20, 2012
852
Southern ON
realstoneflooring.ca
This thread is not a 'how to', but rather a 'how do I?'. Split some sugar maple today, you'd think it was elm the way it was splitting, all thatched & stringy. The following pic does not do it justice as they look kinda straight & even.

So, how does one stack splits with a lot of character?

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A small crowd of locals gathered to watch.

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I would have died with that stuff , i don't have a splitter just a wedge and sledge.
 
Sometimes you end up putting the pieces together like a puzzle to make 'em stack. Or drop the real uglies between rows. The last silver maple we split looked like that.
 
I have a similiar problem and I was working on a solution today. I'll let you know how it turns out tomorrow.
 
That is about what you get with hedge! I always have a pile of uglies and a stack of decent cordwood. I grab off the ugly pile when I plan to be around and don't mind stoking the stove, shoulder season or when I just want a nice, loose loading for high heat output. But grab the premium stacked stuff when I want a nice, tight loading for a slow overnight burn - or extended period when I don't want to putz around with the stove.
 
I'm working on the to maples we took down recently as well. I had split all the limbs with the fiskars then moved on to the trunk. Amazing how triwsted and knarly the trunk is. I ended up having to get a splitter and it reminded me of the pics people post of elm. Stringy and struck together, hard to split. Ended up with a lot of pieces like I see you have there. Haven't stacked any of it yet though. Plan to tonight
 
es332 said:
I would have died with that stuff , i don't have a splitter just a wedge and sledge.
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The splitter is borrowed. In this case, I am grateful to have it.

Gark said:
Sometimes you end up putting the pieces together like a puzzle to make 'em stack. Or drop the real uglies between rows. The last silver maple we split looked like that.
Click to expand...
Going to try that today. Pics to follow.

bsa0021 said:
I have a similiar problem and I was working on a solution today. I'll let you know how it turns out tomorrow.
Click to expand...
Can't wait to see your solution :cool:


Corey said:
That is about what you get with hedge! I always have a pile of uglies and a stack of decent cordwood. I grab off the ugly pile when I plan to be around and don't mind stoking the stove, shoulder season or when I just want a nice, loose loading for high heat output. But grab the premium stacked stuff when I want a nice, tight loading for a slow overnight burn - or extended period when I don't want to putz around with the stove.
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Good advice. Unfortunately I don't have the room for an ugly pile stack so I may have to get into some creative puzzle solving. This may be like solving the 'polar bear in a snowstorm' puzzl ;)

swagler85 said:
I'm working on the to maples we took down recently as well. I had split all the limbs with the fiskars then moved on to the trunk. Amazing how triwsted and knarly the trunk is. I ended up having to get a splitter and it reminded me of the pics people post of elm. Stringy and struck together, hard to split. Ended up with a lot of pieces like I see you have there. Haven't stacked any of it yet though. Plan to tonight
Click to expand...
Pics! :)
 
i'm sure most of us have experienced this with many hardwood species. i can recall rounds of maple, ash, cherry, oak, hickory that were demoralizing to split by hand. i had an ash dropped near my house with lots of branches and it was as hard to split as any elm i ever encountered. depends on how the tree grew and what kind of stresses it was under.
 
Save the really nasty stuff for the top. I stack back to back to back so there is plenty of surface area to hold the uglies. Stacking on pallets makes for unique opportunities too. A big square surface can easily accomodate funky pieces in the center.
 
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it happens to all of us, because at some point or another no matter what species of wood you are working with, you are gonna get some ugly splits. I do as you and others suggested, figure out a way to stack them in as best a manner as you can. Criss-cross the ends of your rows just as you would with any other wood, but it's going to take more time because you have to 'fit' the wood together. I always criss-cross two splits deep on both ends of the stack and every 8 to 10 feet, I criss-cross again to help stabilze the row. I also make my stacks two rows wide and leave a space between the rows for uglies and chunks. Gives you a good hiding spot for the little, knarly uglies that you just can't seem to get to fit anywhere else. I've also seen that other members here make a "box" out of pallets for their uglies. Works good if you have the space and material to do it.
 
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Uglies are one of the big advantages to stcking in round piles. The center can be filled with uglies. Search for holz hausen on this forum and you'll find a bunch of pictures.
 
We have a fugly stack of wood from our maple. It had lots of twisty pieces. The left side of the stack has the worst pieces. So it hasn't fallen down... yet.

IMG_0875web.jpg IMG_1045web.jpg
 
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BG, that stack looks pretty respectable for being a bunch of uglies! :p
 
Not when you see it closeup! ::-) It has a lean toward the front when you look at it from the side. It's two rows thick and I saved a lot of the worst for the top of the rows. Twas a pita to stack for sure.
 
just like the used car dealer photos in the local classifieds........LOOKS GOOD FROM THIS ANGLE! ;) Trust me BG, I have some of the same issues with my stacks, usually, we (being the stackers in this instance) see things we don't like with our work but the passers-by think it looks fine! >> As long as it stays up, you accomplished the job needed. Looks pretty good to me!
 
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Scotty Overkill said:
just like the used car dealer photos in the local classifieds........LOOKS GOOD FROM THIS ANGLE! ;) Trust me BB, I have some of the same issues with my stacks, usually, we (being the stackers in this instance) see things we don't like with our work but the passers-by think it looks fine! >> As long as it stays up, you accomplished the job needed. Looks pretty good to me!
Click to expand...


+ 1, I can pick my stacks apart all day long, but your's look fine. Perception & knowing what's really there I guess. A C
 
I stack the uglies in a little shorter stacks with a cross stack every 6 - 8 '. Nice part is ugllies stacked up leave lots of air space to help seasoning.
Shorter means less distance to fall :)
You have some good BTU wood, should burn nice & hot.

Few of us get all nice straight grained wood & have perfect stacks.
We do the best we can & re-stack when/if it falls over. ;)
 
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Hey- ANYBODY can make a good stable pretty stack using straight splits.. LOL
 
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Seems we always get several odd shaped pieces no matter what we cut. We simply just stack them along with the rest of the wood. Pictured below is some of last winter's cutting and this springs stacking. Lots of uglies scattered throughout those stacks. You can tell easily by looking close at the stacks and see how loosely some of it is stacked. That is caused by the odd shaped pieces.

Basically all we do is, say, we have one piece that has a large knot or something on one end, place it into the stack then place another one similarly shaped but going the opposite direction. Most times I try to not stack a lot of them in one spot but will sort of level out the stack and then place another one or two before leveling out again. Some of the worst stuff I just end up throwing out and then using them to hold down the cover, which is galvanized roofing.

One must also remember that you can do away with a lot of uglies with the method of cutting up the tree. I've seen some pretty bad cutting from some others and would really hate to even split the junk and then try to stack it. Then there comes the problem of putting those nasty things in the stove. If you are careful when cutting, you can't keep from all the uglies but you can prevent many.


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Backwoods Savage said:
Seems we always get several odd shaped pieces no matter what we cut. We simply just stack them along with the rest of the wood. Pictured below is some of last winter's cutting and this springs stacking. Lots of uglies scattered throughout those stacks. You can tell easily by looking close at the stacks and see how loosely some of it is stacked. That is caused by the odd shaped pieces.

Basically all we do is, say, we have one piece that has a large knot or something on one end, place it into the stack then place another one similarly shaped but going the opposite direction. Most times I try to not stack a lot of them in one spot but will sort of level out the stack and then place another one or two before leveling out again. Some of the worst stuff I just end up throwing out and then using them to hold down the cover, which is galvanized roofing.

One must also remember that you can do away with a lot of uglies with the method of cutting up the tree. I've seen some pretty bad cutting from some others and would really hate to even split the junk and then try to stack it. Then there comes the problem of putting those nasty things in the stove. If you are careful when cutting, you can't keep from all the uglies but you can prevent many.


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Oh boy, so many questions. Tell us more about proper cutting to avoid ugly splits, henceforth known as 'spluglies'
In pic #1, you have two rounds split, then restacked as rounds. Is that for space advantage?
Pic 4 shows a bunch of smaller rounds, unstacked on the ground. Are these not yet split? What's your minimum size for unsplits?
I wait at the foot of the mountain (of unstacked wood) for your reply.
 
Split the rest of the maple today & stacked about 2/3 of it. Here's how I dealt with some of the really odd shaped splits:

Place them in the pile,
Spluglies2.jpg


then surround it with half decent pieces
Spluglies.jpg


Here's the two stacks. Notice that all the good splits are at the close end of pic #1
spluglies5.jpg
spluglies3.jpg


What an unstable pile! Didn't dare go higher than 40" on pile 1. Pile 2 has a convenient fence behind it, so I may go 6'. The splits should dry real fast there. Both pile are in full sun all day though they face north/south, and the wind there is constant. A previous tenant there nicknamed the place 'Gusty Gulch'.
 
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I have a couple of stacks that have nothing but uglies. I don't care, the only thing is if I can get them in the door of the stove. The really knarley ones are good and seem to burn much longer than the good proper splits. Bring then on, I love the big uglies. David
 
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Realstone you did a damn nice job stacking those odd pieces! They'll get good air circulation because they're odd-shaped-plus Sugar Maple rocks! Good job!
 
Last week I answered a CL ad for free oak wood. Unfortunatly, half of the wood was cut into 4" - 6" pieces in an effort to make it easier for the property owner to move them (older gentleman). When i arrived, I told him I would cut the remining logs. So, I needed to come up with a solution to stacking these small pieces. As I mentioned yesterday, I finished my solution for uglies or in my case 4 - 6" pieces that were impossible to stack more the 2' high. Check out the pictures below. I wanted to retain the same space as my other racks which is why I didn't use skids. Might be a little elaborate but....
 

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Just like a puzzle you just need to find the right pieces.

zap
 
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