I'm an equal opportunity burner. Round, square, rectangle, triangle, chunks or whatever I have at the moment.
I haven't gotten to the point of knowing what I need/will need. I'm more mindful of size/species in regards to drying time right now, and try to have a mixture for burn times. But the mixture of split shape comes naturally. At this point I don't see myself thoughtfully trying to make certain shapes. While some are nice for stacking, I see stacking only as a means to and end (space and probably better/faster drying) and think stacking is for the most part almost a waste of effort. I do find threads like this interesting, to see the different perspectives and to see the thought process (sometimes a LOT of thought) that some people give to certain aspects of the woodburning process. To each his own, some people like the details, to some it's just a means to and end. If a certain shape really means or makes that much of a difference to be worth planning out, that's something to keep in mind. But if my mind starts to get too involved in such, I try to remember what the end result is going to be....ash and smoke, or lack of smoke....
Regarding "I haven't gotten to the point of knowing what I need/will need.": That is a lovely process that I thoroughly enjoyed and continue to enjoy. When I first started, I just whacked the crap out of everything and just tried to do it as fast as possible. It's great to see how your own process evolves over time and how these adjustments do affect your stacking and your process. I am burning wood from when I first started to split and I look at the splits in disgust compared to the relative uniformity they look now. Perhaps in two years I'll look at these splits in disgust as well! Nothing wrong with experimentating with different methods. That's the fun part. Regarding "stacking is for the most part almost a waste of effort": I'd say in my situation I need to stack neatly and somewhat organized given the extremely limited space I have compared to most hoarders. What I would give for a nice piece of land......Also by using separate holz hausen stacks I can keep track of when I built the stack, how long it's been drying, what species are in there......because after a while and 21 stacks you start to get confused.
I split more by size than shape. Maybe every other round I'll leave a split or two bigger than the rest thinking of overnighters.
What beautiful stacks, and a great strategy of making your stacks look so good the wife can't complain!
I understand the "journey" and experience of figuring things out...i will be there one day. I also understand needing to stack, and doing it for the space. So I have plenty of land to stack, but then again I don't.... My yard is big but not much for a processing area because when it's wet, the ground is muck and I don't want to tear everything up. The rest of my land is cow pasture or woods. I'm processing back behind my house along the woods/pasture edge now. Obviously I need to stack in the open for sun and wind, but that takes up land and grass for the cows. Plus cows love to knock over whatever they can....
Size of splits doesn't much matter to me, although I generally split a variety of sizes. To avoid spinning rounds around to get squares, I make certain to have a stove that has a big firebox. Then it doesn't matter so much to me personally. I'd much rather go split ninja crazy and get the job done.
Yep, Love the rectangular splits, about the size of a Railroad Tie, but then that is really convenient when you are bucking old railroad ties Bucked to 16” loads nicely N/S in our stove, I split some smaller to get the fire going, and some real small, then soaked in used motor oil, for kindling. A couple full size pieces fit nicely side by side in the stove, with room on top to fill in with chunks of worn out tires I believe in being a good neighbor, but a guy’s gotta keep his family warm, so it’s a conundrum that I am still struggling with Doug
Several years ago I offered to help out an old highschool classmate. She had a huge dead ash tree taken down and cut up in her backyard, and I offered to split it for her, and take about 1/3 of the firewood for myself and leaving the rest for her. I figure I help someone, get exercise doing what I love and get some firewood out of the deal. About 3/4 of the way through the job she sends me an irate text one night telling me I am doing it all wrong and taking advantage of her. Her main beef was that I was splitting too many of the pieces into rectangles, not wedge shaped. She accused me of taking too much wood (at that point I had taken one truck load out; there were easily 10 truck loads there). She also accused me of cutting the pieces of all different lengths and none of them were proper (whoever dropped the tree cut the pieces, it wasn't me). Her exact words were "I know proper firewood". I sent her a polite text back reminding her I did not do the cutting, the firewood pieces were fine regardless of shape and length and that I had taken only one truck load out. I then texted perhaps I should cease and desist as I was making her upset, and I wished her the best. Never heard back from her but she blocked my cell phone and unfriended and blocked me on facebook (oh, the humanity!), Later I found out she had some serious substance abuse and mental health issues. Sigh......I tried.
I like to get enough rectangular ones to build nice crib ends. A mix is good because I do find that it’s hard to get a fire going up and thru when the stove is stuffed tight with them. Having some triangular or other odd shapes can make it easier to gap in some air space for the wood to get going. Worse is when the log has a spiral grain that yields rectangles that are cocked by an inch. They are worse than useless for end cribbing.
Air space is good in the stove is good. About 10% of what I've been splitting the past few days is sugar maple, it has that slight twist. I'm not end cribbing, but even just blending it into the oak throws it off.
Sometimes it doesn’t matter. My Stepdaughter’s American Bulldog, is one of the Smartest Dogs I have ever seen, that doesn’t always stop her from doing something that she KNOWS is naughty Willow is not only Smart, she is Honest as the day is long. If she was naughty while we were away, she would put herself in her kennel, before we even came through the door, she wouldn’t wait to get busted. She would go to the back of her kennel (where it is harder to reach her) and not come out. She obviously knew she was doing something bad, but did it anyway. When she would finally come out, she would try to play the “I’m too Cute, to get in trouble “ card, which SOMETIMES worked Doug
