How To Split Firewood Smarter... A Better Idea For The Hydraulic Splitter
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- Опубліковано 26 лип 2024
- I got too soon old and too late smart when it comes to splitting firewood. But you don't have to wait until you're an old-timer like me to take this idea and put it to good use.
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One extra tip. I notice many folks toss their freshly split wood onto the ground and later have to pick it up (backbreaking) to take to the wood pile or indoors. Have a trailer or wheelbarrow right there and toss the split wood directly into that for moving. It seems a very small step but adds up when you're doing a lot of wood as we do in our 70's.
I used a wheel barrow or small trailer like you for a number of years. Then I bought a two wheel cart that is upright that has it's it's only rack at just about the height of the top of a wheel barrow. It has 20" bicycle type wheels. I drag it like a trailer by hand even in snow up to 8." I deeper snow I use a Jet sled until I get a hard pack I can use the cart in. I also put a "catch wing" on the off side to catch splits from large rounds so they don't fall to the ground. I don't like lifting the wood again or hitting the ground when there is a wet snow to stick to it. Cooler weather is the best time to split wood because there are so many fewer bugs.😁😏
I counted how many times I handle wood from cutting the pieces into fireplace length to finally putting them in the fireplace. Fourteen times. If you can eliminate one or two of those times, it all helps.
@@dustinpotter8312 got a link to a product page ?
@@danielroden9424 I am trying to find what what conversation you are referring to if it is putting ash on your garden or if it is a two wheel cart that I use for moving fire wood or a sled that I pull loaded with fire wood. The sled is a Jet sled. I purchased at Family Farm and home. I bought the cart 10-15 years or so ago and do not see it listed. It came in the "mail" and I had to assemble it. It is top heavy and I regretted buying it as it tips over easy but if I don't enter the woods with it it works well enough. I grab it rather than a wheel barrow while going up an incline because I can pull it over small bumps because of the larger wheels..
@@dustinpotter8312 just got my first hydraulic splitter this year after renting for the last 2-3 yrs. Started doing this method shown here this year. Also, I back the PU truck right in front of the splitter and put the splits right in the bed then when bed is full, drive to and back up into woodshed door. Everything done at waste level now from picking up logs to put on splitter to grabbing the splits off the tailgate to take to stacking them. Saves much strain on this 71 y/o back. Get you one or even a pair of log tongs to save your back from picking logs up off the ground also will save your back !
Thank you for not making this a 15 minute video like a lot of creators would.
I love it. The thinner the cross section, the faster it dries. That and easy to stack is a winner. Thanks.
I cut wood flat like that for years AFTER I bought my log splitter. The flat cut makes for better kindling, too. I would suggest that everyone to buy a 22 to 28 ton log splitter. I burned 6 to 10 cord of wood per year when I lived in Alaska for 50 years all hand split. Now my shoulders are ruined and I need shoulder surgery on both shoulders ... for pain reduction as they are too worn out to fix. This is what happens when you think you are stronger and tougher than you actually are. (And I was plenty tough). Save your body for times when you have to slit by hand (like no gasoline availability).
I split by hand. It keeps me in shape. There's no such thing as saving your body for when you need it.
@@Slingin_Bait I always thought that, too. After fifty years of splitting knarly spruce you will understand.
You have my sympathy regarding the worn out shoulders, I’m a landscaper and I have a very sore shoulder and a painful right hand. Pretty much everything I do aggravates both, I don’t want to give up my job so I live with the pain as best I can. I’ve just bought a hydraulic splitter, hopefully it will be a joy to use ☺️
I'm in the same boat. I'm reminded of an old carpenter who I worked with as a teenager. He said at least once a day " if you don't use your head your whole body will suffer." I had to learn that one for myself. Youth is wasted on young people. They haven't learned to appreciate it yet.
I’ve been doing this with my oak and wetter woods for years to give it more surface area to dry quicker. It works. Great video, you learn something new every day no matter how experienced you are. Great video.
Great vid, I’m 19 and I’ve been splitting wood and bucking it for a good 4 years now, and I have to say, this will help me for so many years to come!
keep at it young man, health work for our lost generation.
My co-worker and I run a wood yard alongside our tree cutting service, and we’ve been doing it like this for years now, simply because it’s easier for the customer to stack the wood… and they love it!
One concern with splitting flat is drying while stacked. The airflow between logs helps dry it for burning. As long as you don't stack too tight, flat is nice.
Most of the moisture escapes out the ends. The wood grain is basically thousands of tiny straws packed together.
@@jamesnm21 The cells making those straws contain the most water, and the air at the ends needs to be moving to drain the ends too. If the wood acts as a wall, the air moves slower across them vs going between the logs. You also see this problem when starting a fire, as the flames can't spread between logs as easily. This isn't saying flat split is bad, it's just a consideration.
Also when you stack it in the firebox. Flat on flat doesn’t burn great. Having real dry wood helps though
@@jamesnm21 moisture escapes faster out the ends, yes. But if you've ever stacked freshly milled boards flat on top of each other they will start to mold in a day, or sometimes even a few hours with no airflow. These split blocks are not as flat as sawn lumber so you would just have to be sure to stack them so there are plenty of air gaps. Maybe even pile them instead of stacking.
@@jamesnm21 i've been splitting like this for years , it is a non issue for drying ...... that said , if the wood is marginal for dryness and you need something to burn , the outside edges tend to be dryer and the center cut pieces wetter and i will separate the 2 and burn the outside edges first and later on in the season use the center cut pieces
When I had a wood burning fireplace, I split it into slabs just like you. I found that they burned better in the fireplace. I could stand two up parallel and get a fire going in-between them faster, since they were reflecting the heat back on each other. It was a vast improvement.
Bark on every piece with conventional splits slows drying because the under side of the bark is almost always trapping moisture, especially if your piles are not always covered. Your flat method still has bark on the pieces but the pieces with the most bark are thinner than conventional triangle pieces. As long as you have access to a powerful hydraulic splitter, your method seems pretty solid.
I like your idea. I've been cutting/splitting wood by hand for 45 years. Of course, with an ax or maul, its easier to split quarters because the half-piece presents an easier target. Seems to me it would be more difficult to split halves in half manually. But, in a hydraulic splitter, your method make much more sense.
Great tip..👍 every bit helps us old farts..😂
Grew u a lot like you , I learned early on a chainsaw splits the tough ones easily! But we had a pile of tough ones we called the mad pile , when we needed to work out things we went to the mad pile with a maul ! 😆😆😆
For simplicity, I call them pancake style. I can stack them in my wood stove. I’m in NM and it only takes one summer to dry. I found out pancake stack in the stove ( with low air) can almost last all night. We have a lack of hardwood here, so I use Mulberry. ( very hard wood with good BTU’s.). Flat is where it’s at. I used my splitter till I was 72. Got difficult to carry around those pieces. Also did them vertical. Much easier to sit and split, then grabbing another round to slide over and split. Good to see this. ( thought I was the only one!) lol!
Good for you. Seen this just before I bought my 25 ton splitter. Done all the larger rounds that way. I like it
Now at 70 years and arthritic wrists from wielding an axe for sixty of them, I decided to build myself a system that would enable me to go down into the woods, pull out a tree, cut it with a small Stihl electric saw and split with a box wedge splitter into one ton crates, stacked loose in an open front shed to dry for a year. Bring the box up to my house and the first time I do any lifting myself is when I take a log out of the box and five steps to the stove.
The box wedge splits into four pieces, adjustable but in my case 4"x4"x16". There is a bit of debris which we use to start the fire.
Covid lockdowns gave me the time to find all the scrap metal I had around the farm yard and develop a system arong our old Telescopic handler which has now done 12,000 hours. It cost $7000 dollars ten years ago and I could not do arb work without it. It also has an old muck grab which is good for logs as well as collecting brash. It has a 2.7 ton lift with the pallet forks. Also a 2 cubic metre grain bucket.
These are early videos and I have done a few more modifications since., mainly with the log lift to replace the crowd and tip idea which would work well with your straight lengths of pine but we have mainly Ash and Sycamore which are never straight!
Boxwedge splitter at work, bits and pieces fall through the tines now into a small bag for kindling
ua-cam.com/video/u04z8B0Domc/v-deo.html
Lockdown splitter
ua-cam.com/video/jccwWiVY4C4/v-deo.html
I been doing this for years, it dries by inches from the surface, this is the best way to split wood.
If you put a platform on side of the splitter , you can stage logs and put the unsplit sections on it while working each log. Saves the back. Less repicking up of partial splits. Also having a bin or barrow to catch the splits. I made a bunch of little sheds out of used pallets that I can move with my tractor. The pallet shed is set down at an angle on the operator side. The table feeds log form the opposite side.
So glad we got our wood splitter a few years ago, now that we're 66 yrs old, and it is a whole lot easier. Your method is definitely excellent, especially for stacking, and much more handleable for me, even loading the woodstove. I'm the one who wants to be warm in the house, so I'm the one who deals with firewood and woodstove. Handleable is what I want. This is a great help to me! Here in California, the laws have crept up from San Diego to Sacramento putting the breaks on, or limiting the use of firewood and woodstove, even outdoors in a fire pit. Our most conservative counties that are up here in the north I hope will push back this nonsense. As a matter of fact I need to write my supervisors about it. Otherwise, the possibility of outlawing firewood use, of charging us for well water per gallon, of taxing us per solar panel, and outlawing diesel fuel by 2040; if these all pass and we can't afford to pay, we're outta here! I would be already, but husband loves the mild winters. He doesn't want to work in the cold winters of the closest conservative state, Idaho, and that's as far as he'd be willing to move. He's got a point for himself, because he still works full-time mostly outdoors, but as for me, I'd like 4 seasons.
@Pam Baker Yes, I did notice his speech. When he had the Agrarian blog, I fell in love with the attitude, the blog, the commenting family, and it disturbed me a lot when it was gone; the others just never were the same as. But, nothing stays the same, and I'm so grateful for Herrick, Marlene, and family, seeing the boys grow up and have families. Our families are the same age. To my husband and me, Jesus is Lord, and we will go with the times here in far north California and ask the Lord what to do after the dollar dies, and this neighborhood we're in, in the country, at this point isn't what we'd call "community". I want to be near the children/grandchildren. I'd rather we were all in Idaho, but even that government changes. I watch a real estate guy from Ceour d'Alene, and he says that new arrivals are coming for the express purpose of living off the land, no matter what comes. In a way, a new sort of people; homesteaders. They're prepared for government collapse, and thus, for self and God reliance in the boonies. Attractive lifestyle to me. Montana is amazing. I listen to podcast Prepper 2.0 from west Montana, and have visited the area slightly. Gorgeous. Definitely made for self-reliance; a state even more conservative than north Idaho. Glad to hear from you Pam.
Cold winters are tough to take in the building trades. I endured them for 20 years. Couldn't always find inside work. Reason enough to stay in California. 🥶
@@elizabethjohnson475 I live in Idaho and it pains me to see comments like this. Tens of thousands of people like you have moved here in the last ten years and it has changed the culture so much. Well, actually, maybe they’re not just like you, as you say you are a Christian. I assume that means you would be more law abiding than a lot of these crazy people who race down the freeway going 90-100 mph, it’s insane! Idaho is also not near as conservative as it used to be, after a lot of the “conservatives” from other states have moved here. They are probably radically conservative for California, but they are so used to the liberal laws and tyranny, that they are all for making laws that seem egregious to Idaho natives. Idaho isn’t Idaho to us anymore! Don’t get me wrong, I would move if I lived in California, too, so I don’t really blame you. Wyoming might be a better idea, though. Less people and still pretty conservative, I think. A lot of wind, though.
@@elizabethjohnson475
SW Missouri
Book: crisis relocation.
Idaho is full, maybe try another state. Californian conservatives are quite proud of their so called conservatism, but they aren’t near as conservative as they think.
I always cut the triangular pieces with my hydraulic wood splitter. Had a friend come over and he was splitting as you showed in this video. I now do half triangular and half your way. I will split the pieces even thinner to make great kindling to start the fire. It does help getting air to the wood to dry by splitting both ways. Thanks!!
Great Idea! I have done the same for years. My fire place can handle 21” wood (3.4cu ft) and when layered with “handy wood” you can really fill it with ease. I believe it dries better and when it comes to splitting kindling it’s quick and easy. 👍. Good job on the video!
Yup 👍. Been splitting that way for years. Agree like it way better than the wedge shaped log. Fits a lot better in the stove as well!
I came up with the same thing. It stacks better and fills the stove for the night much better. Also for me it seems the whole process is faster, coming and going to the stove. A win all the way around. I have shown a couple of neighbors the process and they are using it now.
THAT’S GREAT‼️
And you deserve a thumbs up for that idea‼️‼️
We're apparently of an age an era, and a geographic area. I grew up feeding 2 stoves in a large, poorly insulated farmhouse, and I'm sure it is a coincidence but after I moved out Dad bought a hydraulic splitter. Now in my sixties I've got one too. Coincidentally the same model as yours, though modified. I don't have enough cartilage left in my shoulders to swing a splitting ax anymore. Great to know there's still a few woodhounds left in the general area. So long from the Adirondacks.
Been doing that for years. Works well!
Instead of splitting wood into triangles, I go the extra step and make them all hexagons. Looks SO cool.
😂
I have the exact same splitter, I also have a chunk stove (old school cook stove) that we supplement our heat with. Because the firebox is so small it is necessary to split the wood you were showing 2 to 3 more times, very time consuming. What I've found is to set the ram vertically, surround myself with logs and split them the way you did. Take 2 pieces, put them together and split again as necessary. Sitting on a milk crate while doing this saves this old man's back and knees. Doing it this way also permits me to use my feet to hold/guide the wood while keeping my hands a safer distance.
You and I have so much in common. I live in Los Angeles and my whole family lives in Loudonville NY and my brother has a Mechanic and tire shop in Troy. I know we don't have much use for firewood here in Los Angeles but I got in to fire wood for a hobby and burning it 15 years ago or so. I started splitting my fire wood in strips and stacking them to split again to make smaller pieces . I keep the larges flat chunks for my ends and it really works.
Serious question, they allow you to burn firewood in LA?
yap they sure do, for now anyway. @@the_atomic_punk487
I think this is great! I have small hands and now arthritis too so those easy grab pieces look really smart to me!
I like my wood chunks about 3x5 to 4x6 and then kindling from softwood. Took me years to think about having flat edges helping with stacking. Good video sir.
Split a lot wood in my time just like that , used them on the ends of the stacked row to keep from falling over, I think the pie shape gives more air space for drying.
I love wood heat, 36 yrs of heating with wood , made sure when I bought Land it had a fuel source, I have cut a few trees but most of the time I just wait for mother nature to provide & I'm the cleanup crew. Take what you get sometimes it's easy sometimes extraction is hard, up or down hill 😊🌲
That makes sense. I am going to try it. Thanks!
Thanks for the video. Now I want to see some splitting tips for us young bucks still working out way up to purchasing a splitter. Thanks for keeping the videos going as the gardening season dwindles down.
The only tip I can think of offhand is to get yourself a Fiskars X27 splitting axe. It's a remarkable tool.
First reply sent before it was completed. My tip would be do your hand splitting on the coldest day of your burning season. Its tough to get going, but the frozen moisture in the wood makes it more brittle.
I'd have thought the wide flat pieces would be hard to position in a fire to get the best burn- but I haven't tried it!
I split a similar but not as thin and then split the slab wood in half again. Really quick way to do it on a vertical splitter. Thanks for the video.
Great idea. Thanks for sharing
I use this same method with a splitting axe. I will make a series of straight cuts in a round, then make more cuts at 90 degrees, and end up with square-ish pieces that stack neatly!
I often have split wood like that as an experiment, thinking that the wood will season faster because it is only 2-3 inches diameter all over. More like 2.5 inches max. Also can make nice stacks but make sure you have airflow gaps. I would also split your splits in half so that they aren't so wide, but I will test some like you have done. But, you're using a wood stove and I am using only a fireplace and firepit. Stacking tight inside your wood stove can be a good thing; in a fireplace, I like to have some gaps in there for air flow/updraft.
Super idea. thanks much!
I do this already on the bigger wood. My splitter has a small shelf on both sides so I don't have to hold it with my hip and belly like you did. You should consider adding some to yours. They are very handy as well. My neighbors both added them to their machines after seeing mine in action. 😉
I agree with the flat splitting. I stack on a skid after splitting. Nice video.
CNY here , been burning wood since the early 70's but , I was my father's wood splitter .
Bought my first splitter 2 years ago , should have gotten one much sooner .
Great job! Love the more squared pieces.
Using your method for a long time. But I don’t start in the middle. I split across it then turn the round. If a slab is to tall I put it yo the side and when I get three then I split them together. Then each movement of the ram makes 3 chunks of firewood. Good video. Have fun splitting
Good idea. I’m going to try it.
Great video and a great idea sir!
Now why didn't someone think of that splitting method a long time ago? Definitely going to try it this fall. Just makes more sense. Thanks for sharing.
Love smart people!!! Keep the videos coming!!!
That is one hell of a good idea. Thank you.
I split some trees that way last winter and it's the best way ever.
Just started doing that a few years ago. Like it much better. Like the way it goes in the stove better to.
Smart guy. Thanks bud.
Great Idea!!!
Great idea!
I live in urban Seattle and I've been heating my home with wood since I bought my wood stove in 1987.
My wood comes free from nearby businesses that want to get rid of scrap wood ---an example in a lumber yard a quarter mile away. I picked up 600 pounds of 2x2x 16" sticks of wood (mostly today that I don't even have to cut to length on my table saw.
Then there's my free supply of water from gutter downspouts that eliminates my citiwater consumption.
Water is heated on my wood stove in the winter and in two quart plastic jugs in the sun in the summer.
The laundry dries on my clothesline.
I live frugally, and enjoy doing so.
I’ve split a lot of wood like that … not all but a lot … i refer to them as “books”.
I like the way they burn when loaded correctly. They’re great for an overnight “bunker” fire or, to maintain house heat once its up to temperature.
Generally I find they burn longer … if a bit cooler.
You are absolutely right about this. I do a couple of extra things.
Don't run the ram all the way down. Just crack the wood at first.
Rotate it 90 degrees if you want smaller pieces. Rotating it will help separate the pieces on the final stroke.
Also, I usually start from outside -in , rather than the middle first.
Same here.
Yup. I start at the edge, work across, rotate 90, repeat and lift the whole log off the splitter and toss into transport. The drop usually separates the pieces pretty well. You can blast through a cord pretty fast.
I like the way you describe it. Fast & a lot of fun when done properly.
With the splitter vertical & me sitting on a cut round piece.
i do this also. what i prefer about this method is i always end up with more smaller stuff , which comes in handy for starting a fire.
My suggestion for those burning wood is to look for ways to use a wheelbarrow to move wood around efficiently. I take wood up steps, through my front door and dump it in the living room in front of the wood stove. A 2x6 allows me to run the wheelbarrow up steps, with a block on the end to make the transition level from the 2x6 to the walkway.
I just set the 2x6 around the corner from the main entrance when it's not in use.
Great for bringing groceries in from the car and other loads, too!
Find ways to use that wheelbarrow.
I like the way you think. 👍
How does your floor hold up?
Bicycle trailer and a big tote.
One a day, usually.
My wife could kill me 😉
For dumping the wood on the floor in the living room, do you sleep on the couch a lot.
Sounds like a great idea.
I actually have a bunch of rounds I am going to start splitting today and found your video.
Handy intelligent wood
I like your idea
I’ve split a lot of wood and the past few years I do this more and more also. I think it may dry better as well- I think ?
Great video thanks
Great point!
I like the flat slabs too. Stacks easier, dries faster.
Save your back, and flip your splitter to vertical.
I use knee pads and just do the splitting on the ground. Have your wheelbarrow close enough to toss in the pieces.
Yep, vertical splitting just makes more sense. No need to lift that round at all. I built a small swiveling stool to sit right in front of the splitter. Pile of rounds on one side, my trailer or old VW pickup on the other side. Roll the round in place, split it up, and chuck the pieces into the truck or trailer. Then drive over to where the wood gets stacked, and pile it nicely.
Have not specifically tried the square splitting method, but I have ended up with a few pieces like that. Will have to try it this spring to see how it works with spruce, pine, birch and red fir.
@@corey6393 I do the same. Off the trailer, into the vertical splitter, then into the bucket of the front-end loader. Why lift the wood? We often get 16-20" rounds. No way I'm lifting those on a regular basis.
I prefer standing because you're already on your feet when you need to reach the next round and I can lift the entire split log off the splitter and toss into transport in one move rather than one piece at a time. This saves huge amounts of time. If I've got really big stuff I'll save it till the end and do it vertical.
Great video 💯
Very nice man!
my inlaws own a saw mill circa 1870. we burn slab wood from the mill in the wood stove. and ill be the first to say. the shape matters. Flate peices of wood leave different shapes of embers. They dont stay hott as long in the stove. I find this to be the case in many species of wood as well. When i use wood i split in the triangle shape vs the slab. the triangle give better embers.
I like you. But at first, I didn't care for the flat idea too much. But after reading the comments, I changed my mind. I could see using slabs for kindling for sure. But also, your method of handling one round, keeping it mainly together after each split, would save me a whole lotta dropping and bending over and picking up pieces over and over. Thanks for prying my mind back open. 😀
Cool stuff! I process a lot of firewood, but with a machine, so not an option for me. That makes a lot of sense when using a hand operated splitter, especially for handling and stacking it.
That was actually very intelligent :-) Well thought of.
It Is an awesome way of splitting wood. I started splitting it this way about a year ago. I started a bundle business and need it split like this to have more full bundles. But now everone knows! LOL!
The first thing I did when I got my log splitter is put a tray on each side , just big enough to catch the split wood so it didn’t fall on the ground . Saved my back a lot of pain 🙂
A lot of times you can just hold the log together until it's fully split and toss the whole thing into your pickup or wheelbarrow to break it up. Trays are nice to have when that doesn't work or a round is too big to do tge whole thing at once.
I have been splitting like that for about 5 years now. I find that hard to do with some rounds, especially knotty ones. I usually split in half first, then start with a triangle piece of the edge for a bigger round, might get 2 or 3 good slabs. I then hit them again if bigger than 8". I love those slabs for what I call a canyon fire. Stack up slabs on both sides of the stove, leaving the middle open for a couple pieces of kindling. Have the stacks of slabs lean in on the kindling. It works out good for starting a cold stove.
great idea
Got my sub on the first video, dude. Wish you were my neighbor. Flatsplit's also handy for processing when setting a fire.
I hear ya there but me and my brother's situation was that my dad had plenty of money to buy a log splitter but he thought it was better to make his kids use a mull and a sledge hammer to drive the mull through the log and some of that was nasty elm.
Well he bought a log splitter right after we moved out of the house, and so now when his log splitter breaks down, none of us will help him fix it :D We tell him to spend all that money he saved by having us manually splitting that wood in some seriously hot temperature with blistered hands, to take the log splitter to a repairman.
Not being mean to him... we're just being fair about it ;o)
I think I like your dad. I wanted my 3 sons to have the hand-splitting experience, and it was good for them (though I don't think they ever had to wedge-split any elm). I paid them for splitting, when the job was all done. Not a lot, but it was incentive. Now two of my sons live nearby, heat with wood, and use my splitter. One son is a mechanic and keeps it in good running condition. Thanks for the comment.
Yep been doing that when the wood allows, easier end stacks. 4 inches average for gripping otherwise. Pile it outside the door near the woodstove & a halfcord woodbox to have inside. Fill it on nice days to stay inside during storms.
I'm heating with wood this year in my new house, had a year. Cause gas was so expensive and the company was impossible to deal with...billing issues and getting straight answers.
We had a stove I the house I grew up in as a kid in Washington and I split big pine and other evergreen rounds with a hammer and wedge. I live in Missouri now with oaks and hickorys and I'm leaning to this idea more myself. It's been a crash course in fire wood collection and working with the stove I got. But flat peaces dry faster and can be quickly trimmed to fit my small fire box as I bring wood in for my few day stockpile
Hi Henrick ! Yes it is easier to one hand the flat pack I split mix of shapes ! I still like the triangle shapes as they present in the stove as round against straight, it is the larger diameter wood that gets the chuncking/squaring treatment, it also takes longer for green wood to dry as it is stacks closer as the square stuff allows, still no matter the shape it is the heat We are all after it is all Good : ) isn't it nice how many times keeps us all warn many times before any of Us get anywhere near the Stove ! Cheers!!! Rick Aurora Ontario Canada
Handy Wood looks good 👍
You just got a new sub
Outdoor Wood Burner, here.. the year I started splitting my wood into boards is the same year I was comfortable with my wife tending to the fire.. my wood stacks are beautiful, too.
Here's what we found, when we ordered a truck load of logs that was estimated to give us 7 cords of wood. When split, the first way you showed, then when the wood was stacked we got about 7 cords. When split your second way we got about 6 1/4 cords out of the same truck load estimated to produce 7 cords. This is because rectangular wood stacks smaller. So, if you're selling the firewood by the cord you need to know this. When we buy the wood by the truck load and sell it by the cord we want to maximize our income. Now, we didn't split it the way you showed, we used a firewood processor that made nice rectangular pieces, we quit using that processor. If you want to maximize the space you have to store the wood, rectangular is better.
I always have done some that way mainly for building my ends of my wood pile
Good idea. I would add it might speed up drying time also. After 22 years my stove finally ruptured. I bought a new epa rated stove and it is very finicky about what you feed it. It uses the same amount of wood so not sure what all the new fangledness is all about. I will start splitting it this way and see if it dries faster. I know one thing it will fit in that tiny firebox better.
Thanks I’m never to old to learn
One of the best comments I've ever had. 👍
Yes that's the best, do your self a favor install a shelf on the splitter really helps out
It's a good idea, and well explained & demonstrated - Thank You. You did miss mentioning 3 key differences your method results in:
1) shorter path for the moisture in the wood to travel before it can evaporate - this means the log will dry more quickly
2) greater surface area of split surface from which moisture evaporates, which adds to 1) and further speeds drying
3) as a consequence of 1) faster total combustion when in the stove. Depending on how well you control air flow and how willing to load the stove, this may be good or bad.
I intended to add that I have splitter envy - yours is MUCH better than those available in England: even though a 4t would suffice for the straight grained wood you demonstrated with, having the reserve power for a difficult piece is a great benefit. Also to mention that your method is heavily dependent on the firewood available - straight grain pine or ash, elm, maple, sycamore - all good. But spiral grain & knotty eucalyptus, lime, cotoneaster - forget it!
I agree when used that splitter I did the same thing, kind of. I would split the round in half and split the remaining half into handy wood. Stacks nice, drys faster and it's lighter.
Boonville, NY here👍👍👍👍
Good stuff
Been cutting some into shingle style for a few years. Some I'll split thicker to be the all nighter logs.
Work smarter.
WILL DO IT ! THX !!!!!+
I do the same thing it’s great
Great tip! But so funny to see in your background all neatly stacked TRIANGLE pieces! :)
ua-cam.com/video/IZX-rtVUPFU/v-deo.html
Not only does it make more sense, it means that you can more easily stack several larger pieces in your woodburner & lay the kindling on top when setting the fire, which is what many Scandinavians do.
that's the way I split my wood. been splitting rectangles for about 5 years now. PS I started doing firewood in the 70s. PPS I am also in central NY Canadarago lake and Ilion NY (Remington arms). your ends also stack better this way.
The triangular shapes makes it easier to dry when piled up, while the flat ones might take longer. You need air to flow between the logs for it to dry.
You're right of course, but there are ways of stacking that give more or less air around each individual piece. And depending on when the wood is cut and on the local climatic conditions and on the storage area available, it may not matter a damn....it just needs to be dry by the time it gets put into the stove. AND (there is another and) the flat splitting method gives greater surface area per unit volume and a shorter distance to the centre of the wood so that the flat-cut pieces will dry more quickly than quarter-cut will, WHATEVER the other circumstances.
Yes that is a good idea
Great idea that’s what I do
Probably fits better in the stove also, allowing more wood with less air gap equals more BTU’s per fill up.
When I have billets 10-12 inches in diameter I like to take a piece off about a third of the way in, then split the remaining piece in two. I really like those flat pieces for making up room in the stove, or to split them further for kindling
Good info, Prof. Kimball. I think the most revealing thing that this clip showed is that using a log-splitter somehow causes the user to start suddenly speaking with a slight Southern accent.
Slight. It’s a southern upstate NY accent. Everyone around here talks that way. 😆
@@herrickkimball I've watched dozens of your videos and have never picked it up before. Guess that doesn't speak well for my powers of observation.
@@Randy_Smith You actually have very good powers of observation. 👍🏻