Bought a house with two wood burning stoves, how to split?

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Peak_Oil

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Nov 6, 2005
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I've found good deals on new oak rounds that I would have to split and stack to age for two years before they're ready to burn. They have it by the cord for $100 and by the ton. I want to do it by hand as a replacement for going to the gym.

With the previous homeowner's suggestion, I will probably go through 5-6 cords a year to heat with wood only, so that's probably ten tons of wood a year. To ramp up, I'd be splitting and drying 20 tons for the first three years before I throttle back to ten. I could be WILDLY wrong with that estimate, I'm going by a couple of internet resources that say how much oak weighs and how much I'll be going through to heat the house.

The rounds are 22" long. What do I need? Can I sharpen a splitting maul with paper wheels, or is that lunacy?
 
I'm no expert, but till one shows up, I'd say a maul and a sledge and two wedges would set you up pretty well, and an axe for the fun easy stuff.
 
Peak_Oil said:
I've found good deals on new oak rounds that I would have to split and stack to age for two years before they're ready to burn. They have it by the cord for $100 and by the ton. I want to do it by hand as a replacement for going to the gym.

With the previous homeowner's suggestion, I will probably go through 5-6 cords a year to heat with wood only, so that's probably ten tons of wood a year. To ramp up, I'd be splitting and drying 20 tons for the first three years before I throttle back to ten. I could be WILDLY wrong with that estimate, I'm going by a couple of internet resources that say how much oak weighs and how much I'll be going through to heat the house.

The rounds are 22" long. What do I need? Can I sharpen a splitting maul with paper wheels, or is that lunacy?
Click to expand...

yes it's crazy to sharpen a maul with paper wheels.
It's a fat wedge that powers through.


Maybe in LA you pay more than we do here, but for 100 a cord, you should get split dry wood delivered to your door and sometimes stacked for you too.


If yo're set on drying it yourself, you will need to buy some to burn in the meantime anyway.

You don't have to burn only rounds, there is a lot of wood in limbs too.

If it's your workout replacement, make up a cradle and get a good bow saw too for the limbs you can cut up.
 
A 6 or 8 pound maul and a 3 to 4 pound single bit axe. The maul doesn't need to be real sharp. Wedges are nice to have for real knotty wood. Don't use the axe to hammer wedges, but the hammer side of the maul can be used, or a sledge.
 
rent a heavy duty Power splitter at Home Depot for a couple days and crank it out. Then go to the maul. IMO
 
If you want to hate yourself with earplugs in for several hours and think about it every time you fill your stove, hydraulic splitter wouldn't be a bad choice.

If you want to gain some muscle mass, grab an 8 pound maul and put some mashed potatoes on the stove (you'll need them for after).

Actually want to learn some old time skills? Learn to split with a lighter axe. Tom Clark explains it better than
I do. Tom used a 4 1/4 pound axe I believe. Sparrow (a member here) uses an even lighter axe.

[video=youtube;_BxCmG5sG6A]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BxCmG5sG6A[/video]

[video=youtube;95Z2UXEFUIw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95Z2UXEFUIw[/video]

[video=youtube;7NfCAk4Mj6E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NfCAk4Mj6E[/video]
 
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$100 a cord isn't bad. We're paying @ $150 + split and delivered for fir/tamarak mix. CA has some pretty stringent regulations on wood burning stoves. Since you seem to be new to wood heat you might want to check and make sure the county/city won't come by and fine you for using a non compliant wood stove. Split using both sides of your body. You don't want to look like Popeye on one side and Olive Oil on the other.
 
First off congratulations on your new place :)
Second, I'd do it only by hand... Splitting wood is fun, good exercise, 'zen', and I absolutely love it!

My wife and I live off grid @ 5200' in the mountains of Montana, so we know a thing or two about cold weather ;)
We of course heat exclusively with wood that I process from tree to stove. We go thru around 6-7 cords a year, our stove is very efficient, but we also do a lot of cooking with it, so we go thru a little extra wood because of that.
For years I used an 8# sledge with a 5# wedge. Then I used a 3 1/2 DB for the smaller stuff.
3 years ago I got a Gransfors Bruks splitting maul and now that's all I use for everything.
Being that your splitting oak, your going to want to invest in a nice 'sledge and wedge' combination. Then maybe think about a nice splitting axe.
Or, maybe look into a vintage 5# rafting axe. A member here (Square Peg) recently got one of those for splitting and loves it.

If you have any questions let me know...
Now get out there and split some wood :)
 
Tom has some skill for sure and it's a great workout. If you have that much free time go for it. I would love to see Tom beat the machines from tree to stove. Or just the splitter for 3 hrs straight. How did those logs get cut so nice and clean? With a hand saw? Selective machine use I'm guessing. Ie. Chain saw!
 
cody1 said:
Tom has some skill for sure and it's a great workout. If you have that much free time go for it. I would love to see Tom beat the machines from tree to stove. Or just the splitter for 3 hrs straight. How did those logs get cut so nice and clean? With a hand saw? Selective machine use I'm guessing. Ie. Chain saw!
Click to expand...

Crosscuts leave a much cleaner cut in my experience with them, but aside. In a vacuum, tom showed hand tools and skill can beat complicated machines. Two people running a two way splitter could probably "beat" him. Well you're at it, have 3 teams working to put as much wood away as they can before tom is done, to show the truth (that hand labor is slower). in the long run, in lieu of actually fixing our stupidity of over consumption (not in a hippy way), machines will do more; especially if we turn a blind eye to the other facets of their "efficiency". An axe lasts a life time or two, and with a good draw knife you can make your own handles-- try running a hydraulic splitter without any complex input for that long. Hell, try running anything that runs on gas or electricity in stead of calories in the same vein. Pitting one guy against another without acknowledging all the "help" he got from other people machining parts or drilling and refining oil is much worse than wood splitting contests in a vacuum, I think.
 
You been over on reddit recently? ;)

G-pig said:
If you want to hate yourself with earplugs in for several hours and think about it every time you fill your stove, hydraulic splitter wouldn't be a bad choice.

If you want to gain some muscle mass, grab an 8 pound maul and put some mashed potatoes on the stove (you'll need them for after).

Actually want to learn some old time skills? Learn to split with a lighter axe. Tom Clark explains it better than
I do. Tom used a 4 1/4 pound axe I believe. Sparrow (a member here) uses an even lighter axe.

[video=youtube;_BxCmG5sG6A]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BxCmG5sG6A[/video]

[video=youtube;95Z2UXEFUIw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95Z2UXEFUIw[/video]

[video=youtube;7NfCAk4Mj6E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NfCAk4Mj6E[/video]
Click to expand...
 
Thank you gents for some good videos and ideas. I think I'll be a lot slower than Tom, but that's OK. I'm not looking to blow up the land speed record, just to get some exercise that will save my family some money. On the whole it looks like splitting wood will fit the bill for me.
 
Been splitting white birch as my main heat source all my life and I do it all by hand using a picaroon and maul. Get yourself a picaroon to save your back, it speeds up the work and reduces your caloric needs be elliminating the need to bend over to pick up wood to place on the chopping block. I use a 3 pound maul and a sledghammer to drive the maul through tough wood. I typically burn 6-7 cords a winter and only 1/4 tank of furnace oil. I wouldn't bother using a hydraulic splitter, too slow and expensive, and leaves more slivers on the wood than by chopping it by hand. Splitters are fine when there are two workers, but by oneself it goes slow with too much hunching over which is hard on one's back. Splitters like any machine need servicing and they do break down adding more costs to wood heating.
 
Our heat cost us 2 1/2 gal of gas a year, plus a little 2 cycle oil as well as a little bar oil.
That's it...
We heat our cabin for around 10 bucks a year. Livin' off grid ain't so bad :D
 
I have split wood my entire life. Get a maul and an axe. Grab a couple of files to sharpen and bend your knees when you swing.
 
G-pig said:
Crosscuts leave a much cleaner cut in my experience with them, but aside. In a vacuum, tom showed hand tools and skill can beat complicated machines. Two people running a two way splitter could probably "beat" him. Well you're at it, have 3 teams working to put as much wood away as they can before tom is done, to show the truth (that hand labor is slower). in the long run, in lieu of actually fixing our stupidity of over consumption (not in a hippy way), machines will do more; especially if we turn a blind eye to the other facets of their "efficiency". An axe lasts a life time or two, and with a good draw knife you can make your own handles-- try running a hydraulic splitter without any complex input for that long. Hell, try running anything that runs on gas or electricity in stead of calories in the same vein. Pitting one guy against another without acknowledging all the "help" he got from other people machining parts or drilling and refining oil is much worse than wood splitting contests in a vacuum, I think.
Click to expand...

I hear ya. I have split plenty of wood both ways to know which uses less energy. Personally my time is worth much more than the cost of a split cord delivered. With all the Beatle kill in Colorado, that you can cut for free, I can buy a cord split, delevered for $85. And the guy doing for a living uses a power splitter.
 
Split and delivered firewood sells for $200 to $250 around here. I bet it's expensive in the L.A. area, too.

22" length sounds pretty long unless you have a really large stove. A lot of guys are looking to do the minimal amount of bucking and splitting when they sell you wood. So they buck 'em long and leave the splits large, too. Also, don't buy green wood by the ton - you're buying water. Buy it by the cord.

Try burning some wood this winter and find out what size wood works best in your stove. Then try to find wood that already cut to the proper length or have some custom cut.

If you cut it short, split it small and stack it crosswise there's no reason you can't have wood completely dry by next winter, especially with your warm CA summers.
 
When we had our old Ashley stove, I cut my rounds into 22" sections.
The stove we have now actually accepts 22" pieces, but I cut them into 18 1/2" sections so I can fill the stove all the way if need be. It's a top loader, so they have to be a little shorter than 22" to fill it up all the way.
 
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