Are my splits too big?

[NRGarrott]

I'm getting ready for my 2nd year burning. I am concerned when I split this red oak last fall I split it too big. On one hand I really don't want to go back, split it again, and restack it. On the other hand I would rather correct a problem than let it go. I have a Quadrafire 3100i with a 1.9 ft^3 firebox.

 

[mass_burner]

as long as they dry completely, these don't seem too large to me.

 

[Tommytman]

If you're looking to burn it for winter 14/15, optimistically it will get 1.5 yrs of drying time. Red oak already isn't a great drier and those splits are pretty big. I would definitely replit. It's a lot of work yes, I've done it before. But on the bright side red oak is a great splitter and you can probably one shot all of those pieces with a maul. On the other hand it looks top covered and if getting adequate sun/wind it might not burn too bad.

 

[Jags]

Looks like you have a nice variety of sizes. Keep in mind - you can always make them smaller. Its much more difficult to make them larger.

 

[midwestcoast]

They don't look big to me. I assume you know Red Oak's rep for slow drying by now. It won't be great for the 14/15 season either way.
I'd use the time you would have spent re-splitting & re-stacking to just go get more wood & getting further ahead.

 

[NRGarrott]

Thanks for the advice. It is top covered very well, and about half of it was standing dead before I cut it up. It gets maybe an hour of sun a day, but there is always a decent breeze. I don't need it for this year, I just want to burn it. The rest of my wood pile is Craigslist scrounges that have been "precut" into firewood lengths. So they are all 10"-24", and I was in such a hurry to get them stacked, some are not cut down small enough for my stove yet. The idea of burning oak, all 17.5" long in my 18" stove is heaven after a first, bitter cold, winter in which all of the wood was wet, and wildly different sized, so that loading the stove was a pain in the ass.

Also I have a limited amount of time this week to work on it, and I just had a lady off craigslist call me. She wants to get rid of all of her old firewood. It has been sitting a couple of years. She converted to natural gas. Also her neighbor converted and wants all her old firewood gone. The only downfall is no picture, and she has no idea how much she has. The good thing is she is only 20 minutes away.

 

[Woody Stover]

Those splits don't look real big. It might get decently dry, especially if that is a single row. If it's several rows stacked together, that will slow the drying. Grab that dry wood from that lady, for sure. Any soft Maple you can get will still dry pretty well if not split real big and stacked single-row...

 

[Soundchasm]

I've found that the top layer of a cube of wood will be pretty decent, and going down and "in" will have more moisture. If you don't "have" to have it this winter, I'd use the dry lighter-duty stuff to get a good fire going and then throw in RO splits you cherry pick by either weight or sound or MM just so you don't have to wait forever to have dessert.

 

[Hills Hoard]

They look fine to me. I prefer bigger splits though.

 

[woodsman416]

Look good to me.

 

[NRGarrott]

So my craigslist deal turned out to a phony. I'll stop short of saying it was a straight up scam, but the pre-split firewood was slab wood that had turned to soil, it was so rotten you couldn't even pick it up. The neighbor's firewood was all tree trimmings with the leaves still on. I thought the nice lady just made a mistake, then i realized you probably don't buy a million dollar house on the water, and be so clueless you think tree trimmings and rotten slab-wood is burnable. I just politely thanked her and left.

 

[jeepnerd]

I split my wood so I can pick it up with one hand.

 

[bmblank]

I split my wood so I can pick it up with one hand.

I do the same thing, but during one family firewood gathering parties my brother in law took that as a personal challenge, evidently. I got some bigguns.

 

[xman23]

For the way I burn and my stove most of that would be in the kindling/ startup pile. I try to make the normal split with one side 6-8 inches and the wider side 4-6inches. Less splits, longer burn time. I can only get 3 or 4 in the stove.

 

[NRGarrott]

xman, When i was splitting wood I didn't own a stove yet. I was hoping to burn like you do. But I noticed for my stove and setup that a smaller size split seems to work better.

 

[Dix]

Thanks for the advice. It is top covered very well, and about half of it was standing dead before I cut it up. It gets maybe an hour of sun a day, but there is always a decent breeze. I don't need it for this year, I just want to burn it. The rest of my wood pile is Craigslist scrounges that have been "precut" into firewood lengths. So they are all 10"-24", and I was in such a hurry to get them stacked, some are not cut down small enough for my stove yet. The idea of burning oak, all 17.5" long in my 18" stove is heaven after a first, bitter cold, winter in which all of the wood was wet, and wildly different sized, so that loading the stove was a pain in the ass.

Also I have a limited amount of time this week to work on it, and I just had a lady off craigslist call me. She wants to get rid of all of her old firewood. It has been sitting a couple of years. She converted to natural gas. Also her neighbor converted and wants all her old firewood gone. The only downfall is no picture, and she has no idea how much she has. The good thing is she is only 20 minutes away.

Look at it, and decide. If its to big, resplit. Damned if it's free jump on it !!

 

[midwestcoast]

...So I thought the nice lady just made a mistake, then i realized you probably don't buy a million dollar house on the water, and be so clueless you think tree trimmings and rotten slab-wood is burnable. I just politely thanked her and left.

You could just as easily argue that the closer one is to owning a million $ waterfront home, the further one is from comprehending the details of scrounging & burning wood. In reality I'd bet the two are just completely unrelated.
Plenty of rich people out there with no common sense, and plenty with, well, plenty.

 

[blades]

Cl ads can be a toss up, 50% of the time it someone looking to get their property cleaned up for free. Then there is the megga score of a life time and some in between. Due to last winter scrounging has be come a nightmare around here. with a dozen others showing up for the same ad just too dangerous. and its pricy to go trucking around for less than a full load.

 

[Paulywalnut]

I've always split all oak smaller. Grey beech I'll keep larger because it does season differently. I'm at a point where it all seasons three years before I get to it anyway.

 

[Missouri Frontier]

Its much more difficult to make them larger

Gorilla Glue? or perhaps there's an app for that?