Malamute
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# Posted: 29 Jun 2025 10:37am - Edited by: Malamute
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Quoting: MtnDon Seasoned dry splits nicely. Frozen wet also splits good. Some wood is difficult because of many knots or interlocked grain. I often toss a difficult knotty piece of ponderosa on the burn-n-dispose junk pile rather than fight it with the maul. No shortage of trees here.
We had some pitch pinyon that was extremely pitchy and nearly impossible to split and too large to fit in the stove door at a buddies place. I ended up cutting an X into the top and leaving it out in the sun a year or more, it then split better instead of spitting the wedge back up into the air.
At my place I kept some full rounds for zero and below nights, one split if needed to fit in the stove, but since I started making fires wrong (upside down) I use much less wood, I still have a fair pile of full rounds left from building a place to sell and my own little place about 20 years ago, mainly door and window cut-outs.
The majority on my firewood has been construction waste/leftover pieces or mill slabs, the first cuts to square logs up into lumber. The mill let me get loads of it since I bought all my rough cut from him. Before injuring my back I could load the 16' flatbed with about 1 1/2 cords in an hr and a half, and cut it to stove size pieces either right off the trailer, or with a helper to throw it on the sawbuck. I only have to split small amounts as kindling, its effectively already split. I pick the thicker slabs when loading.
Making fires wrong greatly changed my wood usage and requirements, much less need for full rounds/logs/felling trees etc.
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