Split wood sizes?

[Skier76]

woodheat.org references this a few times in various areas of its site:

Split the logs to a variety of sizes, from 3" to 6" at the largest cross sectional dimension. Most commercial firewood is not split small enough for convenient fire management.

(broken link removed to http://www.woodheat.org/tips/biglistoftips.htm)

Any thoughts on this? I haven't really given my wood supply a good measure, but I'd say there are some splits in there that aree larger than 8". Back in the day, with the ol' non EPA stove, big peices were ideal for long burn times. Have things changed with the newer stoves?

 

[BrotherBart]

Back in the day, with the ol' non EPA stove, big peices were ideal for long burn times. Have things changed with the newer stoves?

Nope. The big'uns are still the best for long burns.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I agree with BB. I like the larger splits during very cold weather.

 

[Skier76]

Excellent. While I don't mine splitting wood, I didn't want to create more work (splitting) to create more work (more frequent stove loading.) Thanks guys.

 

[BrotherBart]

factors= smoke in room, nature of exhaust @ chimnitop, not excluding CO content vs excess O2, & particulate emissions highly quantified by chimni cleaning
i still wonder if all the overhead burners are supposed to be flaming

Buy a wood stove someday and get back to us on this.

 

[firefighterjake]

I make sure to split up a large assortment of different sized splits . . . most probably would fall in the 3-6 inch range, but I do have a number of larger ones (more like 6-8 inches) which I split in roughly square to rectangular shapes . . . those are my "over-night" burning splits.

 

[begreen]

The majority of our splits fall into the 6-8" range. We just use the smaller splits to get coals established. But this is with softwood. Doug Fir burns too quickly when burning small splits.

 

[savageactor7]

With our new EPA stove smaller splits seem to work out better for us. If you took an 8" round and quartered it the preferred splits are that dimension.

 

[Skier76]

Thanks everyone. Sounds like I'll have to do some experimenting with splitting down some of those larger splits. I can start doing that when I move some of the wood from the pile, to near the house for burning season.

 

[begreen]

The trick to getting bigger splits burning in the F400 is to put a couple shorter 1-2" sticks, N/S with a gap of about 6-8" between them, under the bigger splits. That will let air get underneath them. Otherwise, stick to 4-6" splits maximum and it should burn well.

 

[Skier76]

Excellent advice BG. I'll give that a shot.

 

[daveswoodhauler]

Ran into the same issue last year, as my dealer provides split wood, but its way to large for my stove....I usually resplit 75% of it, but I do leave 1/4 or so of the bigger stuff and throw in for the overnighters. I think having a good mix of sizes works well, as sometimes you only want to start a small fire to take the edge off...good luck, and thanks for the feedback on the trailer.

 

[Skier76]

I think I'll end up doing some extra splitting and seeing what works out best. I'm glad I started this thread.

No problem on the trailer adivce! If you need more, feel free to shoot me PM.

 

[TessiersFarm]

I split mine fairly small, keeps peace with the wife when she has to load it. I do keep some larger for myself for the overnight burns. Rather have a quiet house than warm, but thats married life.

 

[JeffRey30747]

I split most of my wood fairly small, too. Most of our woodburning season here would probably qualify as a "shoulder season" to those of you who live farther north. Many days, we let the fire go out during the day so I build a fire a night and rekindle a small fire the next morning. I try to have a ready supply of small, thin pieces that will light off more quickly. Smaller pieces seem to fit and burn better in the Oslo than those I would have used in the older non-EPA stoves. Also, two years of house building have me runnning tight on my wood supply so I have purposefully split small to aid in seasoning.
I do some hand splitting with a lightweight maul but anything that is temperamental gets tossed aside to face the hydraulic beast. ;-)

 

[boostnut]

factors= smoke in room, nature of exhaust @ chimnitop, not excluding CO content vs excess O2, & particulate emissions highly quantified by chimni cleaning
i still wonder if all the overhead burners are supposed to be flaming

Buy a wood stove someday and get back to us on this.

Wait a minute, are you saying this guy has 4400+ posts on this site and isn't even a wood burner?

 

[KeepItNatural]

I think the validity of having a variety of sizes of split wood speaks to the vast spectrum of burners out there. Many people on this site seem to be keen on larger pieces, but if you're a consistent burner you don't need as many smaller pieces to start your fire. I'm sure we've all at some point in time attempted to build a fire with pieces that were simply too large. You need to start small in order to get big.
I know in my home, we have an insert in our fireplace. And since this is my parent's house, they aren't as comfortable with burning overnight or leaving the fire unattended for any amount of time. Therefore, we don't burn for the same amount of time as others might. Having a variety of sizes of wood is good for us, we can estimate how long a certain number of pieces will burn for bases on size, and again as I wrote a little earlier in this post, we build a fire quite often, rather than keep it going.
Granted, I would rather have a woodstove and burn much more often to offset our use of oil, but since that choice is not mine to make, we make do with what we have and I do my best to put a dent in our oil consumption. In any event, the variety of spilt sizes is most likely to accommodate a larger number of burners out there who are newer to this than many of the people here on this site. We all adopt our own styles and habits based on what suits us best, so I think the tips suggested in woodheat.org are just that, tips from which we can modify and adjust as suits our individual needs.

 

[Bobbin]

As the Lady of the House I appreciate smaller splits mixed into the season's supply. It's nice to be able to toss in a few smaller splits to kinda rev things up quickly without having to put in major weight bearing exercise to fill the woodbox. Any lady who is "on board" with a wood stove should be accomodated with smaller splits. Trust me on this.

One of the things we have promised each other is that we'll burn at least one/two "dinosaur bones" a day.

 

[firefighterjake]

factors= smoke in room, nature of exhaust @ chimnitop, not excluding CO content vs excess O2, & particulate emissions highly quantified by chimni cleaning
i still wonder if all the overhead burners are supposed to be flaming

Buy a wood stove someday and get back to us on this.

Wait a minute, are you saying this guy has 4400+ posts on this site and isn't even a wood burner?

Color me surprised as well.