Much like a few others mentioned, for me it depends on the species. 2 inches for the premium hardwoods (ironwood, black locust, hard maple, beech, hickory etc), 4 inches for the junk woods (willow, pine, basswood etc).
I used to use all the small stuff 1 1/2 dia, and would split over 4-5". At that time I was splitting by hand. Now with the glut of firewood I don't keep anything under 4" and I split everything to help drying. Now I'm using a super split so its fast so whacking one piece is quick and easy. Another down side of keeping the smaller stuff is it tends to have more crotches and depending upon species its more crooked. I'm to the point of keeping the best stuff, ugly crotches stay in the woods along with small stuff. I burned about 50 brush piles this fall and still have about a dozen left. I believe its good to leave some brush piles for cover for wildlife. At times depending upon where I drop a tree I might just leave the top as it falls. This is also good for wildlife, the deer seem to love to bed down on the south side of the tops not that I want more of those pests around. Contrary to what many of you think nothing goes to waste in natural world.
You know I cut all dead standing Red Oak so I cut down to 3-4 inch as it’s dry and ready to burn. I split down to 5-6 inch. Anything under 4-3 goes into the chipper or mulcher for chicken coop or flower beds. Nothing gets waisted. Also make brush piles along my trails for wildlife. The BXM32 says 3” chip but it takes most 4” branches with out complaining.
I just took this one for ya. We have a lot of small stuff inside right now, a lot of that is 1 inch. That's the wifes work, and I am not going to complain about her size if she doesn't complain about mine! Well something like that ...
This.... The primo stuff like locust, beech, hickory, oak, sugar maple... I'll cut and keep it all down to 1.5" diameter. I'll split it if I can. If but, it suits inn the stacks for a long time. Or I can burn in in campfires. For low btu stuff like poplar, basswood, pine, I'll only keep to 3-4". Mid grade stuff 2-3" is where I stop. I usually end up with a lot of little stuff for camp fires, along with some mega chunks that either are a pita to split or too gnarly to bother with fur the stove. The campfires don't care though.
My wife feeds the stove while I'm at work. She loves the little pieces like that too. If I leave monster splits like I like to load, then she will leave those alone and take from the stacks to find smaller pieces. That little stuff I'll fill the top of the stove up with when I have to load it up full as well.
Depends on where you're cutting. I am picking at an oak in the woods where the top fell between a mess of other trees. It's just not safe trying to cut in there while balancing on other branches, so I left a lot of wood I would have taken otherwise.
I've thought about getting a Wallenstein chipper, I've used both manual and self feed chippers and there is where I'm stuck, the manual feed seems to be so much slower, have to stand by them and push the sticks in. But the cost of the self feed is quite a bit more. I can rent a self feed chipper that takes 5" stick for $135/day. I can rent it for alot of days for the price of one of these babies. I guess I'll keep an eye out for a used one and hopefully find one that way. I see your model is no longer made, and the feed chute is vertical on yours while the new ones are about 30-45 degree angle from the horizontal. You happy with manual feed? ever try a self feed one?
They still make theBXM32 but boy has the price gone up. I paid $2400.00 5 years ago now $3866.00 I have used both self feed and manual as I do clear house lots from time to time. For around the property I find the 32 more than enough it sucks 1” brush into the mulch hopper so fast it’s scary at first. And the chipper does self feed most branches unless it has a lot of small stuff sticking out then it may need a push or two.
A lot of the response have nailed it already. If its in your yard, why not use it for heat? Either in the form of winter wood or fire pit wood. If you're gathering in the woods, the snob kicks in and you tend to be more selective by not wasting time bending and carrying smaller diameter pieces.
About the same here...and if I can pick the round up from the end one handed, probably not gonna split it. What size I cut down to, and decide to split, or not, depends a bit on the wood species too...and how "limby" it is...if its 2" wood and gonna take much time to make it into firewood...next!
Cut down to about to one and a half to two inches diameter use those pieces to fill in the voids when stacking.
Yeah, I guess it depends on how far you need to move it, if it’s worth it. If you can’t get your truck close enough, well........
I have another Kubota, a B2400 that is fitted with a set of home made forks that make transporting a good quantity of pole (or limb) wood very easy. It is so much lighter than the skidloader and does much less damage in areas where you can't don't want to tear up the grass. The trick is the correct fork length...too long and the leverage of the weight can overcome the curl-ability of the bucket. Too short and you can't carry enough.
