For those of you who may realize that size and photos can be a little bit of guesswork, just get something like a dollar bill for reference....just an FYI and can't wait to see! Nice post idea BeechNut
Some guys with big 3 cu ft stoves can fit some pretty big chunks Those of us with 1 cu footers large might be like 6 inches and I kinda like a mix of sizes. I'm not waiting 10 years for the center of a 14 inch chunk of white oak to season. Even if I had a stove big enough to put it in.
Ill play but its getting dark for pictures of splits and I just sat down. I can play around with sizes of splits considering much of my wood is standing dead and is often stove ready.
It is really difficult in a picture unless one uses a tape measure so you can see the actual size. But what one uses for big might even be a small one if he has a large stove. It really depends upon the size of the stove and the size of the firebox door. Our door and firebox is relatively small so if you look at this woodpile (actually a deer blind) the most common size here is what we use. On the top, you will see a couple of rounds on the RH side and those tend to be what we put in the bottom rear when stoking up for night time burning so I guess we could call those our large pieces. Small can be any size below that.
My curiosity is really how many big pieces do you cram in? Like 'small being 2x2 medium 4x4 big 6x6 and up for overnights?
Cram in whatever you want. Short fire, don't cram. Long fire, cram. For the longest fires we tend to put the largest piece (either split or round) in the bottom rear then fill with whatever you want. Oak or something similar for long burn times. If not too many coals, we may put a soft maple in front bottom as this will help get the fire going quicker.
Ok i guess it comes down to technique of putting wood in rather than size. Contrary to what I thought was size being smaller burns faster yes but then the smaller it can be the more crammed is possible or tetris play. In retrospect im trying to still look at this as inside the box. Keep it in the confines and it should work well. Just don't load up one wood specifically up to the gills.
FatBoy85. There's a thread here somewhere called stove Tetris. Check it out! It's amazing how some of the group packs there stove. I'm gonna give it a go this heating season.
p Picture 1 and 2 are my all nighters. 3 and 4 are how all my mill blocking is split. pic 5 is what I consider big. pic 6 medium. pic 7 small which I make a few just for filling in any gaps when I pack her to the gills.
I have variety of every kind of size, the basics run big to small to wide to thin. But Ima read up on tetris.
Well, I say...size doesn't matter... That is if you have a Woodstock Ideal Steel. Put a bunch of small stuff in or a few bigguns in. Set the air accordingly when ready, go to bed...The air control is very precise , like setting your cruise control on the car. I make random sizes when splitting, usually from 3-4" up to 5-6 inches. and try to cut 16-18" long. I can fit up to 22" E-W
