Firewood and how to split it

When I bought this house, I had a fireplace for the first time in my life. Fun! And also a whole bunch of new stuff to learn. I’ll save for another post the expensive repairs to the fireplace and chimney that were needed before we started using it. For now I’ll focus on the art and science of wood splitting.

What kind of wood should you burn? Most fireplace experts will say “hardwood,” but what is that exactly? It’s not quite true that hardwood is hard and softwood is soft. In general, hardwood comes from deciduous trees like oak or maple, while softwood comes from evergreen species like pine or cedar. You can read a more comprehensive explanation here.

To save yourself a lot of hassle, you want your hardwood to be the right length. The length depends on your fireplace, but 14 to 18 inches long is usually ideal.

Why split wood? First of all, the logs obviously have to be a reasonable width to fit in the fireplace. Second, those logs need to dry out. New “green” wood contains a lot of moisture; it used to hold the circulatory system of the tree, after all.

Split wood should dry for around a year before being burned. If you burn the wood early, before it’s fully dry, you might hear the sizzle of moisture escaping and see water boiling out at the end of the log. More importantly, the wood won’t burn as well and might produce more smoke.

We inherited from the past owners a giant woodpile in a fairly chaotic state. Some wood was split, some not. Some was pretty good for burning, some had sat so long that it had rotted. So I’m working on whipping the pile into shape.

When you think of splitting wood you might think of the dramatic swing of an axe, dividing a log cleanly in one swing. I ended up adopting a method that’s less impressive but, I think, safer and easier. I use a device called the Kindling Cracker, which is kind of an upside-down axe.

I put the log to be chopped on the Cracker and then hit the top with a sledgehammer until it splits. With this method even older kids can get in on the action (with supervision).

I also have these two wedges for tough cases. If I have a log that has cracked but I can’t get it to split, I can insert a wedge and hit it with the sledge to try to break it open. That’s a tedious way to do it but it usually works eventually.

The Kindling Cracker only goes so far, though. The iron ring around the top is just under nine inches wide. Unfortunately I have a lot of logs bigger than that, so I’m looking at options. Basically there are three escalating levels of power: manual hydraulic splitters, electric splitters, and gas-powered splitters. 

So far I’ve tried the Central Machinery hydraulic splitter, with mixed results. It works by pumping two handles to push a piston that forces the log against a wedge at the far end. On the plus side, it can handle a larger diameter log than the Cracker (though technically the manufacturer’s recommended diameter is 6.5 inches). And it has more power than me whacking a log with a sledgehammer.

This method does have some limitations. It really needs both ends of the wood to be flat and parallel to each other, so the hydraulic plunger can have full contact with the wood. If the log is too long, I’m out of luck unless I saw it down. If the log is too short, I can use another piece of wood as a spacer, but then I’m likely to crack my spacer piece before the log splits.

I’ve split a lot of the wood in the pile, but I still have some large pieces left. So I may end up renting the gas splitter and seeing if more power can finish the job.