Another long rounds question

[Andy S.]

I've got a lot of next year's wood (Beech, Cherry, Honey Locust, Pine, Bradford Pear) stacked in rounds. It has been worrying me that there is little drying happening so I broke out the splitter. Since most of it is scrounged I have a lot of 20" rounds. I need 16. I wrestled with whether to buck it to length first or just split it and worry about the length later. I decided to split it long. I'm thinking I can use either a chain saw or a table saw if it is split. Does it matter? How do others do it?

 

[Chimney Smoke]

I cut some in half and deal with the slightly shorts and others I cut to length and add to my chunks and uglies pile.

 

[mass_burner]

Depends on how much there is of a certain length. If I had a lot of 20", I would cut in half first and stack 10" for NS burning. Not very much, I'd cut in half later with a small saw. Be careful with using a chop saw.

 

[Jags]

I would cut to stove length and split those. Take the 4" cookie and leave it alone. Makes for a nice chunk of fuel once it dries down.

 

[Andy S.]

I asked the question poorly. Would you split it long, let it dry and then cut it to length or would you cut to length before splitting? I split a bunch of it long and plan on cutting to length next year. Still have a lot more to process.

 

[Jags]

Cut to length, then split the 16" piece. Leave the 4" cookie alone, unless you want a whole load of chunks. The cookies can be stacked up in the stove to make a pretty dense fuel load (once dried).

 

[Shawn Curry]

Can you stack them the other way in your stove? I like mine about 16" - 18", because they'll fit the "short way", perpendicular to the door; plus it's just faster to use the bar of the chainsaw to eyeball the length. But my stove is wider than it is deep, so I can toss a couple 24" on top if I need to. And I often do, because I hate to have a bunch of little shorties hanging around; it feels wasteful to me. I'll just leave them long.

On the other hand, I probably spend extra time stacking, because I'll sort by length after they're split. All my stacks are double row, so the one row gets the long pieces, getting shorter to the other end, and the other row starts short, and gets longer. Wouldn't have that problem if I was really picky about the length, but I'd need another apple tote for all the cutoffs.

 

[Chimney Smoke]

I would cut before splitting.

 

[TreePointer]

It certainly is easier to split 16" rounds by hand than 20" rounds. Of course, with an hydraulic splitter, ease of splitting is not an issue.

The question you have to answer is whether handling and storing a 4" cookie is easier than handling 4" halves or quarters. I'd go with the 4" cookie that you get by cutting before splitting, but that's just my opinion based on my storage habits and burning needs.

 

[Andy S.]

Thanks for the feedback! I'll make cookies out of the rest.

 

[Craby]

I like to cut first, then split.
I find that scrounged wood often is haphazardly cut at all angles and I can split it better if it sits plumb on the chopping block and the top is also flat, so I use the chainsaw to cut the worst angle off.
Plus, cutting the splits with a chainsaw makes the splits want to buck and bounce around and spin during cutting, same with a table saw just more easy to control. I think it is much safer to cut the wood in it's largest form.