Fire Wood Size?

[jil101ca]

What size do you split your wood? Our wood appears to be from trees about 8 inches diameter and split in half. We find that it doesn't really burn that good in the wood stove, just seems to smolder. If we split these logs into half again then they burn ok, nice and hot. I am assuming that the logs that are only cut in half are too big.

[Sgt.Sausage]

In my experience, it's not the split. It's the seasoning. We like to let ours dry for a full 2 years before burning, better if you can get 3 years. Anything I've ever burned that was cut this year and burned next (1 year or less) isn't quite dry enough and doesn't burn well. When well seasoned I can throw entire 8-10 inch round logs, no splitting necessary, and they'll burn great.

[timfromohio]

I keep a range of wood sizes on hand. Smaller splits for start-ups, big chunks and rounds for extended burns. Like Sgt. Sausage said, degree of seasoning does matter a lot. Still I find smaller splits help on start-up. Makes sense as you have greater surface area of the fiberous portion of the wood exposed with a small piece. The fiberous portions start burning faster.

[Beeman]

What species of wood are you burning?

[jil101ca]

it's a mixed, popular, birch and maple,

[artificer]

How long since the wood has been split? Firewood doesn't really dry well until it is split. What species?

I made the mistake of being nice, and not rejecting a load of dry cherry that was "split when needed." Basically it was/is still wet. Maybe not green (30%MC or higher), but still above the typical 20%MC for "dry" wood. Old split (2-3 years) firewood is going to be down 12-15% depending on location.

In order to get this wood to burn, I have to split it into 2-3" squares. Once I have a good roaring fire going, then I can put on some larger pieces with bark. If I have too little fire it will go out with the larger pieces.

I can take almost any size wood from last years pile, and put it on coals, and it will start. As long as 1/2 of if doesn't have bark, it'll burn. (oak, hickory, maple)

If you have an accurate scale, you can test the moisture content of the wood. Weigh one or more pieces of wood. Put into a 225degF oven for several hours. Weigh again. Put back into oven for 15min. Weigh again. If weight is the same as last weight, calculate MC. If it dropped, keep weighing/drying until it stops changing weight. Moisture content = (initial weight-final weight)/initial weight.

I would agree with others... your wood is somewhat wet.

Michael

[RiverPines]

We have a small box wood burner thats fire brick lined. I agree with the rest here but also, even if well cured, a large unsplit round wont burn good for me unless I have a good bed of hot coals. My stove is so small that a large round piece smothers the coals unless they are big, hot and well spread throughout.

We start with small slits on top of kindling and gradually use bigger till the coal bed is well built up. It also works better for us to burn one soft with one hard or one split with one whole. One piece of wood alone results in a diminished coal bed thus a fire soon to go out if you dont check it and feed it.

[J-jay]

A stove with a lot of draft will burn most all wood. I put green wood in some time to slow the burn time.

[Drew Cutter]

Its the wood your using that the problem. You need to use wood like oak , hickory for real heat . I would probably add clean burning coal to make up for not use hard wood.

[freeinalaska]

I burn whole spruce rounds up to about 10 inches in diameter, anything much bigger I split in half, or even bigger maybe quartered. I fel it's as much the seasoning as the split. Of course split wood seasons faster, but the 10" rounds are perfect. If I'm not going to split the rounds I will score two sides of the logs with the saw before I buck them and this seems to aid in seasoning.

[cfabe]

I agree it's probably the seasoning not the split. Do you get moisture/sap sizzling out of the ends when you burn them?

[jross]

Seasoning is important. I cut up one or two year old blowdowns that usually have rottened at the stump, causing the tree to go down. There is moisture in the wood because it comes from a dense swamp with heavy cover, but not sap, since these twenty degree days are cracking it up pretty good and it burns well. I use a flue pipe thermometer to make sure the temperature is out of the creosote zone. I prefer 4 inch splits in our stove, using bigger splits for overnighters.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

it is splitting that speeds the seasoning as well as being stored under cover even if it is just a tarp (if it has snow on it it is wet and needs time to dry)

even a dry pile of wood that gets rained on needs several dry days with air movment to fully dry back out

i cut a mulberry about a 60 foot tall one 24 inches in diamater at the base that was very wet in april split it in may to 4"x6" x16 inch peices and kept it under tarp by november it was plenty dry to burn

but like stated it lost a lot of weight alomst half of it's weight was water from its spring weight to burn weight

also like said you can get one rip roaring fire with a bunch of wood split small and it starts easier , i try to keep the small peices for staring up in the morning.
i feel like a lot of good wood is overlooked int he 1.25 -4 inch in diamiter range it is easy to cut , doesn't need splitting and because you can get so much in the stove and it has a huge surface area you can get a very hot fire

[pheasantplucker]

I like to get the fire going pretty good and hot an hour before it's time to shut down for the night. I'm burning ash or oak or walnut or hickory or combination...These are usually pieces split to around 5-7 inches across (diameter)...Then I put a monster on for the night and shut down the airflow, so it burns slow. If it's seasoned, it shouldn't matter as long as you have a good bed of coals going.

[jil101ca]

The wood is not green, it's been seasoned for 2 years but it was stored outside before we bought it and was very wet from all the rain we got last summer. We bought 10 cords and put it in the basement where it has been ever since. The wood has no sap coming out it while burning. It does burn better and hotter being split smaller and the stove will burn a larger split log on top of the smaller ones.