I am spliting and stacking some green oak for next year and I am spliting it as I go. At what diameter do you guys say good enough and just stack it. 6 inch? 4 inch? I know it will only help it dry out, but I would like to know what you all do.
What size rounds
- Thread starter liv2hnt
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smokinj
Minister of Fire
If I do not have to worry about drying time 6 inch would be the max size unsplit, I think it just packs better in the stove.
midwestcoast
Minister of Fire
I have almost exclusively slow-drying woods (Red Oak & Mulberry) and not too much sun so I split all my rounds, right down to the 3 inchers. It's a trade-off, the small rounds are great for overnight burns, but in my experience they are significantly slower to dry than splits. If I could wait longer for them to dry I might just leave'em round & pile them seperate.
To split the small rounds I lay them flat & whack them in the center with the Fiskars. That way I don't have to mess with a hatchet & risk loosing a finger if I miss.
To split the small rounds I lay them flat & whack them in the center with the Fiskars. That way I don't have to mess with a hatchet & risk loosing a finger if I miss.
precaud
Minister of Fire
I use 1/2 the width (for N/S burners) or depth (for an E/W stove) of the firebox to determine how big the rounds can be. For the Quad that's 6", for the X33 it's 4-ish. This winter I'll be burning nothing but rounds in the X33 - just go to the areas where commercial woodcutters were a few years ago and you'll find tons of them lying around perfectly seasoned. They lop off the branches and leave them splayed around the stump.
bogydave
Minister of Fire
midwestcoast said:
+1
I split birch rounds (Alaska's hardwood) down to the 3" diameter, dry better/faster & helps give me small stuff to fill in the voids when loading the stove.
Spruce 4", it still dries pretty quick.
Oak, I don't have the privilege to have any to burn here.
Thanks for the input all. I split some Black Jack Oak yesterday and the water poured out of it like a bucket. It may never dry!! I split it down to the 3-4 inch range as well.
Backwoods Savage
Minister of Fire
liv2hnt said:
By saying next year, some folks mean next winter. Regardless as to which you met, for splitting oak I'd split it pretty darned small because it takes a good length of time to properly dry.
I also like some rounds to hold the fire at night and have used up to about 6" with this stove. Previously I had used up to 10" rounds. However, keep in mind that we have more than a year or two for drying our wood before sticking into the stove.
Backwoods Savage said:
Let me clarify, by next year I mean the winter of 2011/12 and not 2010/11. Good to know about the use of rounds for overnight burns.
firefighterjake
Minister of Fire
A buddy who burns wood has a good philosophy that I tend to subscribe to . . . if he can easily grasp the round with his hand he doesn't split it . . . works out to be a 3-5 inch round in most cases.
firefighterjake said:
That is my take as well. If I can grab it one handed from the end, it stays.
I try to split everything i can that has bark on it down to about 4 inches. This year I made a separate stack of rounds 4 inches and less that will season longer. However i put some small rounds in the stove last winter that were seasoning for two years and they still sizzled. I now pass up a lot of wood smaller than 4 inches because they take a long time to season and have a lot of rounds and short logs stacked in the yard waiting to be processed anyhow.
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