Split Frozen or Thawed Wood - Slightly OT

[hrhofmann]

I have a lot of wood to split for firewood sometime this winter. It is currently frozen. Is it easier to split frozen or thawed wood, assuming that moisture content is the same in either case?

[Jim Elbrecht]

IMO- if it is a splittable wood- ash, oak, maple, etc- then the frost helps. If it is elm, knotty, or punky then frost hurts.

Most of my splitting was done with a slitting axe. [not a maul!] On occasion I would resort to a sledge and wedges. For the worst of the worst I liked the grenade style wedges with a couple hickory wedges to help once it started.

Jim [enjoying propane heat these days. It is about the same cost as firewood and no cleanup or splitting]

[hrhofmann]

Thanx. I took down one 48-yr-old Maple and one 47-year-old Ash tree this year, loads of free firewood. Will leave the wood outside in the below 32F environment until I get to splitting it. I have 2 or three days of already split wood to burn up first, then will take on the mostly Ash wood next as that is closest to the house.

[Bob F]

If it hasn't been split, and was just taken down this year, it is unlikely to be dry enough for clean burning this year.

[Jim Elbrecht]

-snip-

Depends on the stove- but if hr(bob) has an airtight I agree with you. Older, less efficient stoves burn hotter and handle wettish wood easier. Either way- keep an eye on that chimney for creosote build-up.

The splitting will hasten drying- but I wouldn't burn a lot of it this year anyway if it is an airtight stove.

Jim

[hrhofmann]

It's a 25 year-old Sears heatolator type of fireplace. Glass doors and outside air pipeline for make-up combustion air, 3 layer of metal chimney pipe where outside air flows down thru the outer layer and then just above the fireplace makes a u-turn and mixes with the combustion output air and goes back up to the top which is several feet above the roof line. The outer layer of the pipe just gets barely warm as the outside air goes down. The combustion air comes in thru a 4" pipe that looks like a metal clothes dryer pipe, has a screen on the input on the side of the house that looks like a dryer vent hood to keep critters out. The roof cap also is screened. I keep things pretty well cleaned out before starting up the fireplace each fall. I can heat the entire house to 71F as long as it is above

10F outside. I use the "On" furnace blower setting if the house becomes too stratified, but since the fireplace is on the next to lowest level of a 4-level split-level house, the heat pretty much rises naturally, only the basement is chilly, and my wife and I don't spend all that much time down there except for laundry or when I have a project to do. The wood is pretty dry as it was cut down early this year and the trees were not very healthy to start with and the wood has been out of the rain, but in sunshine for 6 months now.

[clare]

Well, speaking from experience with rock elm, most definitely frozen. Split like glass. Thawed you REALLY worked up a sweat!!

[clare]

It's not ready to burn this year!!!!!! Ash and maple need to sit, split, for a year before burning to be at their best.

[clare]

Still not ready to burn this year. Split it and stack it for next year. A chimney fire waiting to happen.

[hrhofmann]

Well, wood from both types of tree have been burning for a month now with what I would consider very good heat output and no smoking.

[Harry K]

My only experience with frozen goes way back into the 40s and 50s. We heated then with pine and fir. Frozen pine 2' rounds would split just by dropping an ax blade twice in the same spot - didn't even have to swing it. Easiest splitting I have ever doen.

Harry K

[Jim Elbrecht]

-snip-

-snip-

I'd certainly keep a close eye on it-- but I used to burn fresh ash, beech & maple in a Franklin style fireplace/stove. They burn hot and not all that efficiently--- but I never had a bit of creosote in my chimney.

Lived there 6 years. Checked the chimney every fall & could always see the liner all the way up. The only seasoned wood I ever burned was old, untreated, telephone poles of red cedar & locust.

Jim