I find that maple splits on its own anyway. The cracks will go the whole to the center on maple rounds that are fairly dry. In the IS, size doesn't matter much. I prefer 3-4" splits for over night burns as it gets up to temp faster and I can close the air down sooner.
I split pretty much everything. I find the stove is sensitive to moisture levels and at times, split size. Smaller splits work better in the stove. Now, maybe it's a function of the stove design and the 'interesting' chimney setup. (6" to a 90....then 8" to another 90 outside to an 8" SS chimney that doesn't clear the roofline) It's what I've found works best with the burning situation.
I've got a rather good size stack on pallets of mostly ash in 4 foot lengths up to maybe 24" diameter. They have been top covered and in the sun and wind since last summer. Many have cracked to center for the full length and about 2/3 are bark free with the bark released on the rest. Nothing seems soft and I don't see any bugs except spiders. Don't think I'll split it next year either. What do you all think I'll wind up with ? I don't think it's rotting but according to Firewood Bandit it's got like 46 years left until dry. Reason I'm asking is I'm planning on having quite a bit "nest egged" like that. The stacks I'm making now have ash, locust, hickory and mulberry in again 4' lengths. You can see clear through the stacks as only the tangent points are touching. Sorry this got long. Just trying to validate my plan.
It's anecdotal at best.. however.. When we purchased this property in 2010, they didn't account properly for property taxes. Our mortgage went from around $605 per month to $1200+ We had it timbered and that brought us $5500, which alleviated the problem. We weren't woodburners at that point, but in the spring of 2012 our Fuel Oil furnace took a crap. $700 for repairs, 150 gallon minimum delivery @$4/ G That's when we purchased and installed a used stove and new chimney. We burnt for 2 years off of the tops left on the hill.. that's when I learned that maple will rot.. while the ash withstood the test of time. I lost a lot of wood because I didn't know any better. All wood will rot.. given time.. but some obviously faster than others.
As long as you take those ash logs down and CSS them 2 years before you plan to burn them, they'll be fine IMO
I think you'll be more than fine. I've got a bunch of ash that I need to split. It's sat all spring and summer and the bark is starting to peel off. It's getting cracks on the end pretty good. I'll tackle the splitting and stacking one I get the wood shed complete. Hopefully doing that S and S in the next couple of weeks. Ash send to hold up pretty well. I have a couple smaller rounds in the woods on the ground even with bark on for 1.5 yrs and it's solid.
