Branch diameter

Generally I don't split anything narrower than my wrist.

The wife and I have different opinions of what's worth splitting and what's not. She'll let anything under 6 inches in diameter go, and that includes splits of bigger logs that are about that size. I'll usually knock those apart into two splits anyway, leaving a nice stacking half-round. It works out that between the two of us working, we get plenty of hot burning smaller splits and some bigger pieces for overnight burns.

My unofficial "rule" . . . if I can palm it in one hand and toss it into the trailer it stays unsplit. If I need to use two hands I split it.

I split at about 4" diameter and under.

We save pieces down to around 2 inches. Everything smaller is left as brush to be cut as needed for kindling and starter wood.

I understand that not everyone enjoys playing pick up sticks in the woods and that's fine. Just sayin', those little rounds add up on the wood stacks.

What size to split, it depends. Red maple I'll split down to 3" or so. Oak, 2.5" or thereabouts. Little soft maple rounds seem to cure well, the oak not so much.

I'm clearing land and bucking live trees. It would be insane not to keep the limbs for fuel.

I'm a total novice. I'm going to try and not split <3" and see how it goes.

firefighterjake said:

My unofficial "rule" . . . if I can palm it in one hand and toss it into the trailer it stays unsplit. If I need to use two hands I split it.

Click to expand...

What if you're the size of Wilt Chamberlain?

Generally wrist size.

4" and smaller goes on the stack everything else gets split. I keep little stuff for kinling

It's gonna depend a lot on the species.

Locust and Oak needs split smaller than Pine and Ash.

But about 4 inches average.

usually 3" or 4" for me

3 inches is the smallest I'll split, but I do keep anything bigger than 2 inches.

I split down to about 3 inches because with my small stove the fire goes out pretty quickly, and I need lots of restarts from coals. Small split wood works best for this. I deicde to use or not use branches based on how straight they are, not how thick. If I have 1 inch straight, relatively unbranched limbs I'll cut them up because it is easy. On the other hand, 4 inch twisted, forked branches I might leave behind. it also depends on the cutting situation. If I have access to lots of large trees, I'll spend time on big stuff. If I have only one tree to process and enough time to cut it all, I'll take almost everything.

For me it has more to do with TIME than size for this application. If you need it within a yr split small. If you are 3-4+ yrs ahead leave some in the round. The farther ahead I get the larger my splits and rounds saved. Rounds last longer in the stove so I have plenty of 4-8" rounds that will burn just fine in 3-4yrs.

Wow, people here must like splitting! Wood like oak I won't split if it's smaller than 6", and ash / soft maple I'll leave at 8". I do have a large firebox though, so I'm not worried about what will fit inside.

For logs in the 4 to 5 inch range, I try to shave off about a half inch thick section with the splitter. Makes for some nice burning logs.

i'm with BobU. Now that I am working on year 4, I'm getting lazy, especially with pine, soft maple and sass. I've been sending smaller oak stuff to my neighbor's Fisher stove. Her kid can fool with it

Lots of great ideas here. Time...size of your firebox...how much wood is on the ground.
I like the idea of cutting a sliver off a 4-5" round. Opens the bark up but you dont lose a good sized round.

Wow... talk about a long hiatus, I haven't posted here in years. Mostly because I've been really busy... but I've been reading for the last few days just to keep in touch with fellow wood-burners...

Anyways, to the point, my time is valuable. I want to get the most burnable wood that I can onto my stacks in the shortest time with the least work possible.

Generally, if I can get wood on the stacks without splitting it I just saved myself a bunch of handling. I like to split out of the back of my truck if possible. I back the truck up to the stacks and split right on the spot. If I can take a piece and put it directly on the stacks it saves me time. Generally the size at which you draw the line is going to depend on your firebox size. Mine is "fairly large" but it's still an indoor, modern stove so it isn't "huge". I draw the line at 5" diameter. Anything larger than 5" makes it tough to stack other pieces around it to get a good burn.

As far as minimum size branches, I make a judgement call. If there isn't a "lot" of limbing to do and it's easy to just keep cutting the branches, I'll go all the way down to 1-2" diameter, it's all wood and it all burns. You just have to weigh the cost vs. benefit. To me the only real disadvantage of getting down to the small stuff is that there is a lot of limbing work to clean it up before cutting to length. However, some of the limbing is easily offset by the fact that I can throw the chunks into the bed of the truck without fear of them bouncing hard enough to damage the truck, so the small pieces save me work from carrying the chunks over to the truck... this is one heavily contested area, but ultimately, it just depends on each person's preferences...

I have been fooling around with my moisture meter this last year to save some time in the future now that I have some data... Birch and spruce is all I have to work with. I expect soft maple would _similar_ to spruce, but no the same. I would give up a non-essential body part to have a couple cords of oak up here.

Under 1.5" diameter, if it is safe to do I will cut it to stove length throuw it on the wood pile to season in one summer with intact bark/ full circumference.

1.5" to 2.5 ish 3.0ish inches I can zip or stripe the bark with my chain saw - sorta like shaving off a fraction of an inch with the splitter. Just enough to get the bark opened the full length of the piece so it can dry out.

Above three inches I pretty much have to split it open to get it dry enough to burn in one summer.

I draw the line at five inches anything bigger gets split

Depends how long you are going to leave it season. 6 inch rounds well seasoned burn well in my stove. It's all personal preference. Keep in mind a 4 inch round won't season as quickly not split as it will once split.

I think it has more to do with the stove. Epa ones tend to like smaller splits, or at least air wash epa stoves. With my furnace I am at about 7.

STIHLY DAN said:

I think it has more to do with the stove. Epa ones tend to like smaller splits, or at least air wash epa stoves. With my furnace I am at about 7.

Click to expand...

Could be but most any stove epa or otherwise could handle a 6 inch seasoned round. I would say it's more about shortening the time it takes to season the wood as far as splitting is concerned.