For the most of my wood burning career I have been behind on having dry wood. It’s cut and split as fast as I can to get the years wood ready. Now that I’m starting to get ahead I can think about what I’m doing more. I originally went with triangular splits for whatever reason. Recently I have found that square or rectangular splits stack better and fit tighter in the stove. I have heard mention from other members that square is is better. I’m curious if others intentionally make split shape or am I over thinking it?
I try of minimize triangular splits, using the x27. They seem to stack better, without much reduction in air flow.
I make and prefer square for the same reasons. Easier to do with straight grained big rounds aka trunks. Worked on a big white oak today and was relieved once I got beyond the wavy grained limb attachment area.
Make square or rectangular splits whenever you can. There will always be triangular splits. Then save the square and rectangular for corner stacking. Also I like what I call "1 splitters". Small rounds that if split right down the middle, making semi circles, or half rounds. Those will stack well, depending on if there's branches or knots, or not. I find elm, ash, maples, poplar, hickory, red pine, and oak are better for this. Other species can suck for this. Honey locust, spruce and yes with a lot of branches don't work as well.
for me here recently ive been trying to steer away from triangular pieces and goin to more rectangular pieces at about 20 inches in length
I like to have a varied assortment of all types of splits, as well as numerous size splits. Square splits look cooler, and stack better, but sometimes they won’t quite fit in the available spot in the stove. Some species tend to split like a pie, so it’s inevitable you’ll end up with both. Unless you split exclusively Oak.
I too prefer square or rectangular splits. Not only do they stack better but make the stove loading better as you can get more in for those long cold nights in January.
I try to make some box shaped splits with larger diameter rounds of oak as they seem to be last longer especially for overnighting and even more especially in colder weather. Dunno about burning hotter or better , just a little longer. Keeping in mind too much bigger can/might take longer to dry.
I have used rectangular splits in the past because they stack easy and make stable corners. I was hand splitting then and it was easy to slab 4 sides and split rectangles from the square that was left. Since getting a splitter it seems that I take the straight grained rounds and split radially into wedges. These also make stable corners and leaves the center area of the stack for less uniform pieces . A whole wedge cures quickly. It also starts easily because one end is thin and then provides longer burning from the thicker side. The thinner part of the wedge splits easily onto kindling if you need it. We don't customarily burn overnight here because it normally isn't necessary so no need to tightly stack the burn box. We use mostly Doug Fir here so, along with our mild climate, this has influenced my splitting and stacking style.
Trapezoidal is the optimal shape by far. You have the stability of a square with the aesthetic appeal of triangular. Nah! Just kiddin'... I swing the maul until it's a good size, square or rectangular don't matter to me one bit. Go split wood and enjoy.
