How small do you split your pieces?

[groundup]

Outside of a backyard bonfire I never burn any wood, I just sell it and have been doing so for a few years.

So, my question is to what size should I be splitting my wood?

I usually do some real small say 3 inches across and some larger, almost needing two hands to pick up.

My thinking is then the customer has some to get the fire started and then some bigs to keep it going all night. It doesn't matter how small to me, because I figure the smaller the piece the more air space there is and therefore more volume. The larger pieces also don't require as much time splitting so it doesn't matter to me what size.

What's your rule of thumb?

 

[Wolfcsm]

Outside of a backyard bonfire I never burn any wood, I just sell it and have been doing so for a few years.

So, my question is to what size should I be splitting my wood?

I usually do some real small say 3 inches across and some larger, almost needing two hands to pick up.

My thinking is then the customer has some to get the fire started and then some bigs to keep it going all night. It doesn't matter how small to me, because I figure the smaller the piece the more air space there is and therefore more volume. The larger pieces also don't require as much time splitting so it doesn't matter to me what size.

What's your rule of thumb?

When I was selling wood, I had folks that wanted a mix of large (all night) pieces and smaller ones. Others were interested in smaller ones. You could even run into folks that can not pick up a 20LB or larger piece of wood. I talked to the customer before I loaded the truck as to whet they wanted.

I myself split both large and small. I have some that are 10 inches across - the all nighters. Others are down to 2 or 3 inches across.

Hal

 

[redheadwoodshed]

I would talk to my customers.I only have about 8 custmomers who are fairly regular, some want different sized pieces, but on average I'd say a 3x5 inch or so is a good size.I say that because even someone who isn't all that strong can still handle it.

 

[carlseawolf]

I only cut and split for myself, but anything under 5" round gets left as round .
The lenght of my firewood is about 12"

 

[Kensterfly]

I don't do retail...yet. For personal use I like to split a variety of sizes. I may split a large log in half, then one of the halves into quarters (or smaller.) Depends on the size of the round. I like a good mix for the above reasons. Smaller for easy starts or relights.
Large for long/overnight burns.

 

[openloop]

I try to keep them all around the size of my palm. That being said EVERY piece gets at least one split. In my experience the logs with bark the whole way around take twice as long to dry as split logs, even if its only halved.

 

[Kensterfly]

I'm pretty much with you on that, 'Loop. Though, if it's under four inches or so I don't bother splitting it, even with bark on it. The bark on a limb that size will be thin and it will dry just fine in a year or so. Bigger limbs, for the most part, always get split. Sometimes there will be a real twisty limb that I don't bother with. It goes into my uglies pile. After a while the bark will fall off and it will season fine in two or three years. (I'm talking oak here, which is the only wood I have, with a little bit of hickory occasionally.)

I've had three year old, unsplit/no bark post oak that makes a killer overnight burn.

 

[avalancher]

I split wood two different ways, depending on whos pile it goes on. For my own firewood, I bust em up as big as possible. In fact, if it will fit in the door of my stove, I leave it alone.

But for wood that is for sale, I have a rule of thumb. If I cant pick it up with one hand and heave it the 30 feet from the splitter to the pile, it needed to be split again. I fielded way to many complaints by including "all nighters" in the early days of my wood selling, and now stick to the one handed approach. While my hand may be considerably bigger and stronger than the grandmas that buy wood from me, I can be assured that if I can pick it up and throw it 30 feet, they will be able to pick it up with two hands and carry it into their home.

 

[zogger]

What I can grab easy with one hand on-end is my normal wood, then I always slice some of those into thirds from each big round, just to mix in some smaller morning wood. Most of my all niters are large round chunks intact. Get the longest burn time from those, last all night, good coals in the morning.

Small rounds, again, if it fits in my hand on end (and I don't have huge hands) I leave it intact, larger than that but still smallish, split in half or quarters, just depends...

Everything gets mixed together, species and sizes.

For sale though, at least two sizes, or three really, split some much larger for longer burn times.

Back in the day, I really only remember fireplace burners wanting whole rounds. Actually made more on that wood, with less work! Fine, they want longer pieces (less cutting) and unsplit (less work again), they pay more! Bwahaha no idea why they liked that, but take the money! I guess ambience burners can spend a bit more than serious "need to keep from freezing or paying the oil/gas/electric bill guys so much".

You have to identify your customers, just ask them, what size stove, what can it handle, etc. We used to get from wood cookstoves (short pieces split small) to normal room heaters (say 16") to furnaces (18" to 24") to fireplaces (usually 24" but some wanted three footers!), all take slightly different wood. And some people are way more picky about species than others. Just depends, learn your market, ask them directly what they prefer.