Finally had a chance to start splitting the larger oak rounds I’ve been working on. First time doing cribbed ends. As I was splitting I was thinking of the cribbed ends and saved some pieces for that. Only got about 4 of them split along with a bunch of smaller oak I had. Got about 3 face cords done. Those big rounds make a lot of splits but they are no fun to handle. But I can’t complain free wood from a tree company my buddy knows. The bar is a 20” for comparison. When we moved I lost my wood burner. While I don’t have a wood burner yet in the new house I’m really leaning to the Merrimack or the voyager grand. Any insight on those?
Nice Tony. Yes, those big ones do make lots of splits and they pile up fast but can be a bitch to move around. Cant hooks come in very handy for those and much can also be done with simple pickeroons. Just a hint on the cribbing. If you place all the splits right at the ends of the ones under them the piles will be stronger and will also look better. You can fill in between those 2 squares you made with other small splits or even with kindling too. Here's one picture (sorry that fella is in the picture) showing some cribbing work.
what ^^ he said, but a good start for a first time and hey its oak it needs to sit there for a while anyway. No knowledge of those stoves, sorry.
Hey Tony2Truck that's a nice score on the oak. Like CBVT I have no experience with those stoves either, so no help there. Backwoods Savage when Jill and I crib the ends on ours, we tend to pack them full, not with as much opening for airflow as you and Tony2Truck have. Should we be leaving that much open space for airflow as well? Don't think I have any good pictures of our stacks. Never really thought of them as noteworthy enough. But then again, I didn't know the FHC either.
Well Chaz sometimes they get filled and sometimes not. Just depends on what I have on hand as I'm stacking. It is not important. When I stack wood usually I've split right where I want to stack and the wood pile is right up to where I'm stacking so I just use what is right there. If it get filled, okay. If not, that's okay too.
You guys are killing me right now. It's Saturday and I have wood to split and stack but it's raining.... I really envy you guys right now.
Don't be, I've met him. He's a great guy and quite knowledgeable about all things firewood and wood heating.
Heh.. Right now I think Tony2Truck is the only enviable one. He has some nice oak, and good weather to process it. Have way too much snow here for me to do much of anything wood related. BTW, thx Backwoods Savage I understand what you mean about filling the stacks with what's at hand. When we split we generally split a lot of flat pieces for cribbing. Granted they are smaller splits, they work great for cribbing, but we don't leave airflow passages, even though I see many that do. Usually end up with 3 stacks by the splitter/pallets. 1.. Flats for cribbing ends 2.. regular splits, mostly triangular 3.. wierd/odd shaped splits. They are usually the top layer or 2
Those big rounds are worth the extra effort. I just spent the afternoon splitting up the ash I brought back this week. Similar in size, 33 was the diameter on the largest I dealt with. Splits that average 3x5 inches is what I cut. That big round produced 64 splits. Day and a half of hard burning for me. Good stuff.
Tony2Truck there's a lot of work and a whole lot of reward there, looks great! And the price was right. As the other guys mentioned, I am jealous of your weather even though I don't mind the snow. I've got a couple big boys too - waiting for the ground to go bare and firm up a little. Sugar maple in my case. The pics were a blessed day some weeks ago where the ground was form and clean enough for a little processing. This was yesterday, everything buried!
Hey Tony2Truck ,you got yourself some GREAT looking Oak there! The pics are real good ones, the more cribbing you do the better you get, and there is a good start at what you've done. And Backwoods Savage , as always you show us what we aspire to do and be. And we don't mind mind seeing you in the pic either.
Nice oak and yes they are large! That being said...just where is Tony2Truck from? Land of no snow in the pics, but does it have a name? General area is good enough, Tony. Regarding those info seek on the two stoves, it looks like they are both inserts.
I’m in northern Illinois we haven’t seen that white stuff for a while. It has been nice the last few days. Ground is firm in the morning but gets pretty sloppy once the sun gets on it. It’s a double edge sword with the snow that’s how I get all my “extra” money is plowing. We had a good streak there the beginning of February. A few days I didn’t even know the day of the week. Was a zombie from lack of sleep. Think the longest i was up was close to 48 hours.
I love big oak rounds. They are difficult to muscle around. But so much wood with little bark If I can roll the round to the splitter I try to tip it onto the foot of my huskee splitter then lower wedge. If it doesn't split in half, an iron bar can help finish the split. Real big ones I will use wedges on to quarter. I've even lifted a 48" round into the foot to split with the forks of my tractor One other thing that I tried that worked, is to roll the round right onto the foot of splitter without tipping it. Seems wrong but the splitter went thru the round no problem, leaving 2 halfs. It's nice when 2 or 3 rounds will fill an entire pallet.
