The Fall Routine: Splitting Wood

Las weekend I cut, split and stacked all the firewood that we cut down late last winter (see More on that coming in future posts) and during the summer.

While I have rented a log splitter in past years, I found a 4-ton electric log splitter on sale at Canadian tire and decided to give it a try.  I was concerned that the 4-ton version wouldn't be powerful enough but was pleasantly surprised.  The splitter easily split even the biggest logs over 14 inches in diameter.  The biggest problem was knots but with a bit of clever planning these tough logs can be mastered.

This model is quite compact, and hence, I placed it on our picnic table to get it up to a more comfortable work height.

Safety

There are a few tips to stay safe when using the splitter

1. Wear safety glasses or a face shield
2. Use  as short an extension cord as possible and low guage wire or you will find that you will be constantly tripping a circuit breaker, and over heating the splitter.
3. Be sure to open up the air release value before you start splitting - and close it just before storage.
4. Keep your fingers out of the way
5. Do not defeat the safety interlock system - that is having to push a button and a separate lever at the same time.

Log Loading Tips
Through trial and error you will determine the the best way to load the logs to get the best splitting result.  Here are a few tips to start with:

1. Load the widest end of the log against the knife side of the splitter
2. Load any logs not cut straight with the longest side downwards

Demonstration
I am kicking myself for not video tapping the operation of the splitter but I found a excellent demonstration on the model I have on YouTube:



Related Posts:

Burning Firewood: Not all Wood is Created Equal

Tips to Dry Your Firewood Correctly

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Burning Firewood: Not all Wood is Created Equal

Even when properly seasoned, some wood species don't make very good firewood or should I say fuel. The two charts below provide a listing of common species of wood and their fuel value.

Generally speaking, you'll get best results burning the highest density (heaviest) hardwood with the highest BTU (available heat) content that can be found in your area. Here are two charts, the first one organizing various species by BTU content ( 1 MBTU = one million btu), and the second organizing the same species alphabetically for easy lookup.

What the chart is saying is that some wood species given up more energy, thus heat, when they burn. NOTE: Double click on the above chart to get a larger more readable image.

Related Posts:

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Tips to Dry Your Firewood Correctly

Firewood terminology is a bit confusing. Green wood is always too wet to use as fuel, but "seasoned" wood may or may not be dry enough to use as fuel. For proper burning and heat production, you want your wood to be both seasoned and dry.

Freshly cut wood is referred to as green, and is very wet, containing up to 80% moisture by weight. To dry out the wood to 20-25% moisture content so it can be used as fuel, you season it by cutting it up into short lengths and stacking it out of the rain in such a way that air can circulate freely to carry away the water as it evaporates out both ends of each piece.

Remember Granddad's wood shed? The open slat walls allowed air to circulate, and the overhanging roof kept the rain off the wood. The seasoning process generally takes around 12 months, depending upon the species of wood and the airflow, humidity and temperature of the woodshed. Once the wood has evaporated down to 20-25% moisture content level, it is seasoned, and ready to burn.

Seasoned wood doesn't always stay that way: wood is cellular, and will reabsorb water like a sponge. If you get dry, seasoned fuel wood and stack it out in the rain, it can soak up enough water to revert to its original water content in just a matter of hours. When this happens, your seasoned wood needs to be re-seasoned until it is once again dry enough to use for fuel, which can take several weeks.

You can read about the importance of avoiding burning green or wet firewood in an airtight woodstove I a previous post.

Store the Firewood Correctly!

Just throwing a tarp over the wood just isn't going to make dry wood for you. Make a bologna sandwich on some nice fresh bread. Cut it in half, wrap one half tightly in plastic wrap, and put both halves in your refrigerator for a few weeks. Compare the dry, crusty half with the bag of soggy goo, and you will be looking at a good demonstration of why your woodpile won't season properly if you cover it with plastic tarps.

This is also the reason woodsheds traditionally have open slat sidewalls: as moisture evaporates from the wood, air circulation is necessary to carry it away. Your tarps create a mini-ecosystem where the evaporated moisture condenses on the underside and rains back down on the woodpile, where it is reabsorbed.

If a tarp is your only option to keep rain off your firewood, drive tall stakes a foot or two from the four corners of your woodpile and drape the tarp over the stakes so air can flow through the woodpile beneath it. Take a few pieces of wood and stack them on top of the pile at the center under the tarp so rainwater won't puddle, and fasten the tarp to the stakes so the wind won't blow it off.

Related Posts:

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