Split Size

[cptoneleg]

Split size.....hmmmm....I think that depends on the size of your fire box and your burning habits. Everyone is going to be a little different. Me, small fire box on both my stoves, so I split small. But I am old, and don't sleep much, and love tending my fires. That's why I don't have a BK

Yea old get up 5 to 6 times a night to go to the bathroom why not tend to the fire I'm in the same boat.

 

[tfdchief]

Yea old get up 5 to 6 times a night to go to the bathroom why not tend to the fire I'm in the same boat.

Hehehe. see.....it all depends. Me and cptoneleg split small so we have something to do when we get up in the middle of the night.

 

[etiger2007]

I've got a chitload of red oak going on 3 years old ,what do you like about it,as i haven't burned any.By the way you've got a cadillac supply of natures finest to burn when the time comes,gives ya a good feeling just lookin at it.

My red oak seasoned for a year, it was split small like 3 to 4 inch splits in diameter. It gives off way better heat than anything else I burn. My only problem is I was splitting so small the intense heat was short lived. I threw in a monster split of red oak yesterday at 4:15 pm amd when I got up for work at 4:30am I still could see some coals through the window. Red oak is pretty easy to get going in my book as well, everything I burn is under 20% moisture content. I have only been burning wood since January of 2011 so I really stocked my wood supply up for a couple years.

 

[Kevin Dolan]

View attachment 64107View attachment 64107View attachment 64108
These are the splits Im talking about I have a ton of four inch splits and smaller

Those pics are great and have helped me with sizing my wood. I just moved from and Old timer stove, which i used for 25 years and loved, but not epa approved so insurance started bugging me. I now have a Jotul 400 and the firebox seems to be half the size of the old timer. I have 3 years worth of wood ahead for the old timer and have had to resplit a bunch and chainsaw to shorten. I have read a bunch of posts here which have been very helpful. At first I thought i had to get everything around 4 inches but have since learned that I need a variety of sizes depending on stage of fire and desired length of burn. That is why I am happy to see that 8 inches is probably the best max size.
kevin

 

[Ashful]

One recent thread in this forum was full of people comparing burn times to the number of splits they load in their stove, and had me wondering if I was the only guy who didn't know what the "standard" size split was. Six splits from one guy might be twice the wood of six from another, I thought.

Since I'm doing all my splitting by hand, the size of my splits has a lot to do with the difficulty of the wood, and how many rounds I've already split that day / how tired I am. I usually go for something I can pick up with one hand, and never really checked it with a tape measure. When I have something that's really difficult to split, I either rip it with the chain saw or just use it large, stuffing some smaller stuff under it in the stove to help it along. Not sure this is the best way to go, but it seems to work.

 

[begreen]

There isn't a standard size split any more than there is a single sized stove. 5 splits could mean 3, 7" wide splits on the floor of the stove and 2 inverted splits to fill in the V gap on top of them. Or it could mean a fairly small springtime fire of 3" splits stacked lincoln log style.

 

[Dakotas Dad]

I tend to split to a size I can pickup by the end with one hand. Mostly. I always end up with some smaller, and make some bigger on purpose.

The biggest problem I have seen with splits as big as the first pictures is that if they are pretty close to the size of the fire box in length, getting them through the door and then turned.. can be a problem, and always happens late at night over a large very hot coal bed.

The manny has a pretty good sized firebox, and this year I am bucking everything to 18", as that will go N/S in it. I was doing 20" for the Homestead, and just always running E/W unless it was punks/uglies/shorts. It would only take about 12" N/S.. and I didn't want to mess with that..

 

[firefighterjake]

There isn't a standard size split any more than there is a single sized stove. 5 splits could mean 3, 7" wide splits on the floor of the stove and 2 inverted splits to fill in the V gap on top of them. Or it could mean a fairly small springtime fire of 3" splits stacked lincoln log style.

I'm working on crafting some government legislation though to define a standard sized split as 4 by 6 x 18 inches.

 

[Dakotas Dad]

I'm working on crafting some government legislation though to define a standard sized split as 4 by 6 x 18 inches.

I think it best to go with a cubic inch measurement..

Also, I think it best to go with a 16" length.. keeps "cord" dividable by "rick" dividable by "split".. Already enough confusion there now..

 

[Flatbedford]

I'm working on crafting some government legislation though to define a standard sized split as 4 by 6 x 18 inches.

Call it a dictionary split.

 

[oldspark]

Those splits look huge to me, my Summit at 3. something is a small fire box (to me) and your splits would be a pita to work with.