In my humble opinion, the size of the split should coincide with how far "ahead" you are in terms of your firewood. 3x3" to 5x5" is what I generally split my stuff, which is mostly oak. But being I'm 5 years ahead on my hoard, I've been splitting some of it at 6x6. Those bigger chunks hold longer fires and being I have a couple extra years for them to season, they're good and ready when the time comes.... Keep in mind, oak likes to take its good ol' time seasoning, it's just the way the wood is. So if you've got oak that you want to season faster, you're gonna have to split it smaller....
One thing though, you're going to need different sized pieces in order to put the puzzle together in the stove, fill in the gaps and pack it tight for a good long burn. When spliting I purposely make some smaller and medium and stack them right in the stack with the rest, so when I pull the wood out of the stack , I have all the different sizes I need to pack the stove nice and tight.
Your right The more surface area you can turn a log into the faster it will dry. The less surface area you can expose in the stove the longer it will burn. Catch 22 but packing them tight helps quite a bit. I burned a lot of 1" dimensional air dried (20yrs) oak and aromatic cedar last year. Stack em in there nice and flat and it wasn't much different than anything else.
Like has already been stated, smaller splits will dry faster. I like to make lots of different size and shape splits to allow for a successful round of "wood stove jenga" when packing the stove for those long cold winter nights. I have a stove that is a little smaller than the NC13 and the firebox is not very deep. I like to run at least 1 layer N/S in the stove to help keep things in place as the wood burns down. If everything is loaded E/W, often times the wood will fall against the glass allowing it too black up (the glass), it also screws with the secondary burn sometimes. Anyways, point is to cut some wood short enough to load N/S in your stove, which I think is ~11"-12"
+1 Various sizes from 2" to 6" As far as seasoning, you burn what you got But 1,2 & 3 yer seasoned wood , depending on type & climate , will burn efficient & cleaner. So getting ahead if/when you can , is a real good thing
From what I've seen tulip has a great potential,for storing water just under the bark. What I've been doing lately in an attempt to speed up drying is on big rounds with healthy bark I try to shave thin pieces of wood off with the bark. i think of bark like a natural Saranwrap. Splitting in a conventional fashion leaves the thickest part of the split with bark covering one side. Slicing it off in thin slabs helps the wood breathe and dry and allows the bark slab to dry faster. That's my theory anyway.
I have found that my stove burns way better if it's loaded up full with smaller splits vs full with a few larger splits. Plus I like the smaller splits as they take less time to dry as well I should add that I do smaller splits to make it easier for my wife to handle when loading the stove. Plus my kids help me stack the wood and bring wood in to the wood box so it's easier for them to handle as well
I split this this weekend it wasn't for me but I purposely split it small as small as I could of get it really Reason being it was cut the last couple weeks and the person I split it for plans to burn it this year. It's all ash with a mc of 23-25% I tried to reason with him but faced the years old misconception that split a couple of months is seasoned enough. Long story there. But I did what I thought best with good intentions in mind. If it was going to be burnt this year at least me splitting it small might help it dry a bit more than it would have. I offered seasoned would in trade of this wet wood but to no avail. Plus it would have been more work on me hauling it home stacking it yada yada
In my opinion, having had a few houses with wildly different sizes of burners, I suggest 30-40% of the splits stay near the max size of your stove. With that being said, I am assuming the wood is dry. I cut mine at 22 inches in length, and do not split anything under 10inches in diameter. The balance of mine is a mix of limbs, smaller splits etc that are useful for starting quick fires etc. In my old house, it was 18 inch and 6 inches, but roughly the same ratio as I wanted the large pieces for overnights. After a winter or two, you will figure out what works best for you.
My stove takes 18 inch length, so I cut to 17 inches, my fire box is square so I can load either way, NS, EW
So, it sounds like he is one that has believed the old wives tale that you can cut ash and burn it right away... Well, you can if you want to but the results aren't that good. Then I think back when I was sawing lumber. We burned the slabs most of the time. It mattered not if it was cottonwood, oak, ash, maple or whatever, it burned green so it can be done. However, this was not in a stove but outdoors in the air and generous amounts of gasoline were usually used to get the fires started.
Tulip poplar bark will slough off easy if left in rounds for a couple months. It grows a slime in the cambium layer, probably from the bark being like you've found saranwrapish, pretty slippery stuff. The water will leave the fresh split face just fine in a year or less, really no need for the extra effort in debarking it.
I wish my stove was square, N-S burns and loading are so much easier.. kind of hard to stack a pile of 12" and under splits. I cross crib oddballs in my pile just to have a few here and there. Most everything I cut is 20-22", sometimes there's a round a bit longer - I wait until those splits won't fit in the stove and half them, gives me a N-S base load
Most of my wood is 17" also but it has proven to be an akward size for an Ideal Steel; loaded N/S, the firebox is tapered so it cannot be filled. Loaded E/W, it leaves a lot (5") of room that is difficult to impossible to fill with splits. I am now cutting my wood 20", which is smaller than the firebox but wider than the door hole.... the plan being to fill the firebox E/W but have the splits bear on both sides of the stove edge to keep them off the glass. We will see how it really works out next year Brian
Well it's a combination of stupidity and family tradition I guess. The ole grand dad never stacked wood cut it that fall burnt it that season and wondered why creosote built up so bad. Must have been the species so don't burn that kind of stupidity. And amazingly it's still being passed down. Even when solid proof is given stupidity prevails and yet the story of ole grand dad comes back again. Ironically enough the wood in my previous post is a bro in law who listens to father in law and the ole gramd dad stories and still manages to pay $4000 a year for heating bill. After a certain point it's easier to listen but not do and sit back and relax knowing mine is dry and my bill is really low.
Without reading all the posts and perhaps posting a response that has already been suggested, I'll jump in. The smaller the splits the quicker the dry time is very true. Also, the easier it is to light a fire with smaller splits and the quicker the wood will burn with smaller splits. You'll be babysitting the 13, for sure! The larger the splits, the longer the burn time (nice) but takes a bit more coaxing to light and also longer dryer time....but less precessing time. Now unless you have good dry wood, 2 years split and stacked but 3 years will notice a big difference in stove performance, you can count on having your stove door open just to keep the fire going; no one wants that! Try to secure yourself some good dry wood and the size of the splits will come with personal preference once you start burning. Even if you can only get a small quantity of goo dry stuff; just so you know exactly how the stove should perform!
