would appreciate your input as to when is the best time to split the wood for the winter stove. i've got lots of black oak and was thinking to either to cut. it and stack it and let it dry for a season before splitting it for burning or splitting it and stacking it and let it dry for a season.which is best? thanks bob.

-- bob mccaffrey (bobmccaffrey1@netscape.net), April 27, 2002

Answers

I cut about 4 cords black oak each fall, right after the leaves fall. But we don't burn until the following winter so I'm a year ahead. By then it will be seasoned as the summer sun does it's work. We stack it neatly at the woodpile and don't leave it laying all that time in the woods. DON

-- Don (dairyagri@yahoo.com), April 27, 2002.

Bob:

I think that you will find that firewood splits easier and dries out better if you buck and split it as soon as it hits the ground. Some logs will start rotting over the summer if not split immediately. Even if you buck the locks into firewood lengths and stack them, they will still be harder to split than if you split them green and then dry the wood.

I'm speaking generally here; I know nothing of black oak, but post oak, burr oak, pin oak, locust, ash, black walnut, river birch, hackberry and elm pretty much follow that script.

Mac

-- Jimmy s (Macrocarpus@gbronline.com), April 27, 2002.

From my experience, many years but not much each year since it is only a supplemental heating/cooking fuel, it splits easier and dries better if split soon after felling. April/May harvested wood is well dried by October. Just don't try to split elm unless you wear a size 3XL shirt and a size 6 hat. GL!

-- Brad (Homefixer@SacoRiver.net), April 28, 2002.

Brad:

LOL, I have a 3XL waist on am "M" frame, but I learned not to tackle elm barehanded when I was a pup. Nowadays it splits like hackberry if you will just stick it in the jaws of a big hydraulic splitter. Makes good firewood, too.

Look for elms that are dead long enough for the bark to be splitting and falling, but not so long that the branches are falling off. When cut and split that wood is ready to go.

Mac

-- Jimmy S (Macrocarpus@gbronline.com), May 01, 2002.

3XL??? I unfortunately and 4X, and 8 hat, and like to think I can swing a 8# splitting maul pretty handily, but this year, well let's say the ole elm tree taught me a lesson. . . which was, go borrow dad's 22 ton splitter, sure did wonders for the back. We usually start cutting early fall, mostly clear dead standing off a guys property, and this year got into a big stand of elm, burns good, locust is better if you can find it.

Also, I see these posts referring to a "baffle" in teh fisher line of stoves, I have a Papa Bear circ. 1978+, and my parents have the Mama, and don;t have anything that resembles, am I missing out on something here? thanks in advance

-- Chris (knight@team-ic.com), May 02, 2002.