Large rounds, 6"-9" diameter

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chris5150

Burning Hunk
Nov 21, 2012
109
East Central WI
Any issues doing this if you let it dry for 2-3 years? My stove box is small, 1.8 cuft so maximizing burn times is essential. Most of the time I load the stove is for long burns, either overnight or while at work. I currently load the stove for overnight burns and will reload once during the night on cold nights and during the day I load it at 6:30 am and my wife restarts it with the few remaining coals at about 5 pm. Wood that I cut/split and stacked last winter (Jan/Feb 2013) mostly box elder I made into large rounds. I plan to burn that for the 2014/2015 heating season. Had about 25% of my wood in large rounds this year cut, split and stacked in summer of 2012 and had no issues, just wish I would have had more large rounds. Tried a few that were uncovered this winter that were cut/split and stacked Jan of 2013 and had lots of smoke and not the heat I desired.

This year I am spitting probably 75% of my wood in large rounds, 6"-8" height with a depth of 6-10", length 16". My thought is I can always split them smaller but no matter what I do, I have not been able to figure out how to split them larger! Any issues with doing this? BTW, I have ideal drying conditions, my house is basically located in a field with no trees or obstructions for wind or sun.

Tonight I was splitting some oak in large rounds for the 2016/2017 heating season.

Thanks in advance, Chris
 
rounds just take longer to season...if you have room and time to store then you are correct in assuming that they provide longer burn times.
 
chris5150 said:
This year I am spitting probably 75% of my wood in large rounds
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I think you must mean you're making large splits, not rounds. Unless you're whittling big rounds out of really big ones...

Short of a catalytic stove, denser species is a better way to get long burn times. Sure, big chunks of any species take longer to burn up but at best that's trading a brief period at higher temps for a longer period at lower temps, and if the fuel isn't burning fast enough to keep the stove hot enough for the secondaries function properly then a lot of energy will be wasted as unburnt smoke going up the chimney. Your big splits might make it easier to kindle a new load in the morning, and still be disappointing in terms of heat output.
 
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It is usually good to have some rounds but not too large. With splits, you can use some of those in large sizes too but for your size of stove, I'd probably figure on only one large round or split per load and load the rest with small to medium sized splits.

In our stove, as in most, we tend to load our largest piece in the bottom rear of the stove and this will definitely help to hold the fire longer. Also, for your sized stove, it very well may pay you to sort the wood. The longer drying stuff (and longer burning), like oak will take a long time to dry out but are worth it for holding fires and giving good heat. But beware, we give our oak 3 years after being split before we attempt to burn it. It really does take that long to dry. On the other hand, your box elder can be ready to burn nicely in a year but won't hold a fire that long. For fast drying wood, soft maple is hard to beat. It will hold longer than box elder but nothing like hard maple or oak or beech, etc.
 
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I agree with backwoods. We burn a lot of maple here during the day and before bed, but when it is nite nite I load it just as Backwoods says and everything is fine.
 
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The larger the piece, the more time it takes to dry. If all of your pieces are split large, there's a good chance a majority of your wood will not be dry enough. I like to have a mix of sizes and use the larger ones for overnight burns. Smaller pieces are used to get the fire going and get a quicker heat, like when I get up in the morning.
 
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Backwoods Savage said:
But beware, we give our oak 3 years after being split before we attempt to burn it. It really does take that long to dry.
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In Michigan, when it's cut green.

I cut some oak in September 13 (tree company cut a dead tree out and I scrounged it). Split some last week to see how it was drying and got 25%.

I know it's a good rule of thumb (and you will never burn wrong if you follow it), but it isn't true for every situation.
 
Are you really talking about big rounds meaning a round piece of wood fully covered with bark except the ends? Or are you talking about big splits meaning one or more sides are open wood?

My experience with drying the first one has not been that great; even ash after 2 years in the stack still sizzles while similar size splits are fine. My hunch is that the bark acts as a water barrier and the only drying happens through the ends which is very little surface for the water to evaporate. I now split every round that is more than 3" in diameter. (An electric splitter is great for that.)

For big splits, what the others have said.
 
Meant to say large splits. At this point I am 2 years ahead working on 3 years ahead. This past fall I was contemplating selling some wood as I had roughly12-13 cords of softer woods that had been drying for 1 year and another 1.5-2 cords of hardwood. This year I have been focusing my scrounging just on hardwood with some success. You have to jump on that stuff ASAP or it is gone.
 
I learned a valuable lesson this winter. Couple of years ago me and my buddy got a little lazy and started splitting everything into bigger sized splits to save # of splits required. We figured it'd be outside for 2-3 years - no problemo.

All the wood was dry by this year, but I continually had troubles getting the firebox truly full with all those really big manly man splits. I could have gone out with an axe and split some of 'em again, but that's not what I want to be doing at -20C. So, that was the last year for splitting BIG splits, we'll be back to splitting "regular" sized as before and make sure we have a mix of some bigger (but not huge) and some medium smallsplits to fill in all the nooks and crannies. Any round over 6" dia gets split at least once. Most splits end up about ~4" X ~3-4" give or take.
 
Hi Chris5150, if you have a small firebox and need to get lot of BTUs out of it, about the best option is to split you wood square on side and slightly smaller than 1/2 the depth of your firebox so you can stack the pieces 2 high. Then, have lots of small pieces to stuff in between to get a fire going quickly and char he big square pieces quickly so they start outgassing early in the burn. Also use the densest wood you can.
 
smokedragon said:
In Michigan, when it's cut green.

I cut some oak in September 13 (tree company cut a dead tree out and I scrounged it). Split some last week to see how it was drying and got 25%.

I know it's a good rule of thumb (and you will never burn wrong if you follow it), but it isn't true for every situation.
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Never said it was a hard and fast rule but as you stated, you will never go wrong if you follow it. Get in a hot and dry climate especially if it is windy too and wood will dry pretty fast compared to most places. But then, you won't have to burn much wood either.
 
Backwoods Savage said:
Get in a hot and dry climate especially if it is windy too and wood will dry pretty fast compared to most places. But then, you won't have to burn much wood either.
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So true

So I read that you had enough wood until 2018 or so (more than three years). Out of curiosity, how much wood is that in Michigan? I am trying to get on the three year plan, and I am a little overwhelmed by the amount of wood I am picking up and processing!!!
 
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