Splits vs. Cut Branches & Drying Rounds

[skw]

1) Whenever I see someone's wood pile, it seems to consist exclusively of split logs. I am wondering what everyone does with the smaller branches. It seems a waste not to cut them up, and leave them in the round. For instance, I am aiming for about 10x3x3 logs for the stove I intend to buy. Anything 2-3" in diameter could be just cut to length. Anything 4-5" would not need as many splits. Am I missing something?

2) Now that I have experienced splitting green wood with an ax, I think I understand why people wait for the rounds to dry at least partially before splitting them. There seems to be a trade off here though. Wood will dry the best once it is split, but it will split the best once it is dry. How do people dry their rounds?Should I build a separate rack for the rounds?

 

[Woody5506]

I don't dry rounds, I find it to be an extreme waste of time and I never found much that split easier once dry. Now I split with a hydraulic splitter so it wouldn't make a difference anyway. I'm not trying to double my seasoning time.


I have a few small limbs to length in my piles that are unsplit, but 95% of what I cut will get split, regardless of diameter. Most stuff that's too small to split just gets thrown into my bonfire pit.

 

[jackatc1]

I leave any tops less than 3" in the woods.
But I split or at least crack one end of each round using the hydraulic splitter.

 

[firefighterjake]

1) Whenever I see someone's wood pile, it seems to consist exclusively of split logs. I am wondering what everyone does with the smaller branches. It seems a waste not to cut them up, and leave them in the round. For instance, I am aiming for about 10x3x3 logs for the stove I intend to buy. Anything 2-3" in diameter could be just cut to length. Anything 4-5" would not need as many splits. Am I missing something? A lot of folks that get wood delivered to them -- either processed already or in tree length or even free drop offs from a tree pruning company don't bother with the smaller stuff -- the branches and tree tops are either left in the woods (if this is a company processing the wood for sale) or is run through the chipper by the arborists . . . which is why a lot of folks don't have smaller stuff.

Folks that cut their own wood may also leave some of the smaller stuff behind in the woods since it takes more work and time to get the same amount of wood with a bunch of 2 inch rounds as it would with one large 12 inch round. I used to be like that . . . if it was small and more of a hassle to deal with the branches I would just get the big stuff. Nowadays I tend to have a waste-not, want-not attitude and tend to take stuff down to 2 or 3 inches as I can use those rounds to pack in the firebox on those wicked cold days.

2) Now that I have experienced splitting green wood with an ax, I think I understand why people wait for the rounds to dry at least partially before splitting them. There seems to be a trade off here though. Wood will dry the best once it is split, but it will split the best once it is dry. How do people dry their rounds?Should I build a separate rack for the rounds? I split with a hydraulic splitter . . . so I tend to split when I get a bunch of wood . . . and tend to split sooner rather than later to start the seasoning process. Smaller rounds are stacked along with the splits.

 

[Prof]

I tend to take the small stuff--I split anything that is over 3 inches. I find that small rounds of most species of wood will dry out OK enough to burn. Once noteworthy exception is birch--birch if unsplit or at least cracked, cut, etc. down one side will likely rot before drying out.

 

[Jeff in Maine]

If it is bigger than a golf ball it comes home with me. I spent about 4 days thinning a rock (sugar) maple grove in the last couple weeks. I have almost 2 cords of limb wood cut 8' long right now plus the trees they came from in a different tree length pile. I cut probably 40 trees that were 2" to 8" in diameter and they all went into the limb wood pile. The rest that I thinned out were normal sized trees,... they all burn and small wood is very handy to fill in my stove to capacity.

 

[hickoryhoarder]

I like 2 or 3" rounds. They dry just fine in my stacks. I like 4 or 5" rounds because of what you say: split them once.

Now, I'm not burning fires overnight. And those rounds are going on to hot fires. But they catch quick and burn hot and smokeless if seasoned a year or two.

On splitting green wood. I have bad elbows. So I'm real conscious of when to split. I stack things for 6-12 months, depending on the wood. Then split it. It depends on the wood. I usually wait at least a year on red oak. Beech is very tough to split new. Splits easily after a year.

 

[Chas0218]

1) Whenever I see someone's wood pile, it seems to consist exclusively of split logs. I am wondering what everyone does with the smaller branches. It seems a waste not to cut them up, and leave them in the round. For instance, I am aiming for about 10x3x3 logs for the stove I intend to buy. Anything 2-3" in diameter could be just cut to length. Anything 4-5" would not need as many splits. Am I missing something?

2) Now that I have experienced splitting green wood with an ax, I think I understand why people wait for the rounds to dry at least partially before splitting them. There seems to be a trade off here though. Wood will dry the best once it is split, but it will split the best once it is dry. How do people dry their rounds?Should I build a separate rack for the rounds?

The answer to number 1 is the smaller branch like logs will dry faster being smaller than the 10"+ sized logs that 3" diameter will dry as fast or close to a 3" split. Close enough where I wouldn't worry about drying the small rounds longer than the equivalent sized splits.

Answer to number 2. The reason you are having trouble splitting wood is that you are using an axe. You should be using a splitting maul or maul. There are splitting axes (I use one on smaller logs) that work very well. Friskars makes one that works great, just happens to be the one I have. The difference between the splitting maul and splitting axe is the weight and the sharpness of the splitting edge. The splitting axe is much lighter around the 4lbs. mark compared to 6lbs. splitting maul or larger. The splitting axe is also supposed to be sharper than the splitting maul. With dried wood the splitting axe buries into it easier in my experience and is harder to split than green wood. This is just my experience, I almost exclusively split and burn ash.

 

[Wood1Dennis]

I like a mix for the fire, I always look for rounds to fill out the fire box in high heat demand situations or to build smaller fires in the shoulder seasons. I always have rounds mixed in my wood piles. It depends a bit on what I am cutting. With any of the better hard woods I cut the limbs down to 1 1/2" or so, sometimes even smaller. On the lighter stuff I might leave the small rounds in the woods, but then again I usually leave all of the lighter stuff in the woods.
I find that it all drys fine. I typically get two summers of seasoning, by then it is all dry, rounds & splits. I pretty much only cut dead wood, and I split it the same year as it is cut. CSS on the seasoning piles one time and then into the basement when it is ready!

 

[Dobish]

i like my 3" rounds. they catch on fire very nicely and I can use them to practice my hatchet throwing...