Knot? Maybe Not

Our sole heat source is wood, and always has been, so we split a lot of wood.  And like many other skills of days past, you need the right tools, and you need practice.  It isn’t just brawn, although brawn comes in handy.  In fact, we are entertaining buying a wood splitter, but learning how to do something like split wood with hand tools is a skill worth knowing.  Not unlike many other homesteading skills, a milking machine is nice – but what if you have no power, or gas for your generator, and you don’t have a clue how to milk your cow by hand?  You’re sunk and right back on that learning curve.   I really liken skills like this to learning to drive, automatic transmissions are wonderful things, but I think it should be mandatory to know how to drive a stick shift first.  It gives you more understanding of how your vehicle works or doesn’t.

When my husband cuts trees into firewood, his objective is to just get the rounds into manageable sizes to haul back to the woodshed.  He most often uses a double-bitted splitting axe, or a splitting maul and wedge for the tough customers.  Any rounds smaller than 12 inches in diameter are left whole.  We want our wood seasoned before we use it, so splitting the rounds helps immensely in this regard.  Unseasoned wood does not put out much heat, and it is a fire hazard.  Simply put, it isn’t worth doing that way.  I don’t even like our seasoned wood drawing humidity in our woodshed, so I move it in at least two weeks before I plan on using it.

We switch roles once the wood makes it to the woodshed.  After that I take over, transferring the wood to the house and splitting it further if needed, either for the furnace or cookstove.  My tools are a single bitted splitting axe, hatchet, or if need be a splitting maul and wedge.  I took some photos of various pieces of wood to show how I assess them for splitting or not.  We burn predominately Douglas Fir, but other woods we come across like apple, cherry, alder, and maple, split about the same, so hopefully this post will be helpful if you have different types of wood than we do in the Pacific Northwest.

This piece is clear (no visible knots) so if I wanted to split it smaller this would be a good candidate.  I am doing all my splitting in the basement so I have to keep ceiling height in mind when swinging an axe.  I also split wood as I go each day, most of the time while I am building a fire in the furnace and waiting for it to get rip-roaring.  I don’t want to leave with the drafts open, but depending on air conditions outside, the fire may not draw fast, so it may take 5 minutes or it may take 10.  I listen to the fire, and I go outside and watch the smoke from the chimney to see when to begin to shutting  down the drafts.  So I can either stand around or I can split wood and make up kindling.

Besides splitting, I am also gleaning more from the wood.  When I turned this piece around I found a nice, light coating of  pitch.  This makes excellent kindling.  This tree was damaged in an ice storm before and the pitch is a sign of where it tried to heal.  So even though this piece is already small enough to fit in the furnace, I will split this pitch off and commit it to the higher use of kindling.

This solid piece of pitch is from my pitch stash and only to be used sparingly.  As in, shave off one or two tiny pieces sparingly, to use in conjunction with kindling to get the fire going.  A piece this size would keep me in starting pitch for months, it is that hot.  A good reason to set it aside and not throw it in the fire.  It would burn too hot, and it would be a waste.  You learn the heft of your wood, with fir if it is heavy it probably contains a lot of pitch, set those aside for future kindling pieces.

This piece has knot (former limb) and will split the easiest if you hit it with the axe at the arrow, staying away from the knot.  Make sure you are splitting from the top, meaning the top of tree or in the case of a fire wood piece the smallest end.  A tree splits in nature from the top, that is the weak point, so use that knowledge to your advantage.  Strike the wood with your axe on the outside edge at the arrow, it should split easily.  If it doesn’t you should examine your technique and sharpness of your axe.  Splitting wood with an axe is similar to hoeing the garden, or cutting grass with a scythe.  All require proper technique and sharp tools.  And practice.

This tree was a hooter, growing on the outside of the stand, so it was full of limbs, making it harder to split.  Some are so full of limbs, we leave them as dead standing snags for wildlife instead of trying to make them into firewood.

This one is a toughy, I might be able to pop off a sliver at the arrow.  Or maybe if I use the wedge and maul between the knots I could split this one.  Usually though, pieces like this get set aside and Hangdog will rip it with the chain saw.  With just a groove from the saw it would split much easier with the maul.  And pieces like these burn for hours, the knots are very dense wood.

This particular tree is clear, and very easy to split.

This size would fit in the furnace as is, but since it is clear and easy to split, it is a good candidate for the kitchen stove.  Popping this into 8 or 9 pieces of firewood would take a couple of minutes and I have an arm load of wood.

This one too can be split a little more than in half, yielding 3 pieces for starting the furnace fire or maybe kitchen wood.  If a piece splits easy I usually go ahead and split it for the kitchen.  It keeps.  And it’s nice to have split wood ahead.

Nothing beats wood heat if you have a steady supply of wood.  It does warm you more than once!