This video is about 1 or 2 minutes, and the relevant part is a little more than half way in:
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That would save some shin bruises. -
I know that some people actually do it that way. I've never had an extra tire lying around to try it. Looks like it would save the trouble of gathering up the splits that go flying left and right.Comment
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I have seen something similar with a piece of chain or a bungie cord, but it always look like they are splitting pine or some other soft straight grained wood. No way that would do almond, oak or walnut which is most of what we have around here.Comment
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On a more serious note, I have a question for all you wood experts. (If you want to skip my blathering and rant, just scroll down to the underlined text.) I’ll suffer all the ridicule you can heap on me for a serious answer to my novice question. But before resorting to ridicule, here are my creds.
I didn’t grow up in the city but neither on a farm with a wood stove as the main source of heat, so I’m not a complete rookie. To wit: I used to hand split wood as a teenager that my dad cut up for firewood and knew enough to wait for it to begin to crack before attempting to split it. I will never, ever try to split sweet gum, even with a mechanical splitter. I avoid poplar because I don’t want to add logs every 15 minutes. I will purchase kiln dried hickory slats for firewood knowing those suckers will burn readily but not for long while giving off tremendous heat. I know what green wood looks and smells like. I don’t burn pine or other coniferous woods in my fireplace.
We have lots of hardwood trees in our yard but prefer their shade value rather than their btu potential, so I am left to purchase fire wood. I am always annoyed when I buy what is advertised as ‘seasoned’ fire wood and then to listen to it steam and sizzle in my fireplace. 🤬 I end up seasoning it myself for next year and forgo indoor fires for the current fall and winter. I can’t decide whether these purveyors of wood are being deceptive or are just plain ignorant themselves. It’s probably some of both.
So, beyond looking for telltale cracks in the split wood and giving it the sniff test to eliminate green wood, how do you know that wood is not only seasoned but ready to burn?Comment
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Hard to describe. Telltale cracks help, but I pretty much go by how heavy the splits are for their size. Righ now I have a bunch of Walnut that I got cheap, and some older oak. The walnut is easily twice the weight of the oak for the same size split.
That said, the Walnut burns long in the wood stove but throws a LOT of ash.
Also, if you ask someone if the wood is cured they will always say yes
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I actually watched through to wood splitting in the tires. Interesting for sure. It still looks like work. and my wood comes in the form of pellets. I have not felt the need to split them as of yet.
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The tire looks like a great idea. I always have wood to split from cutting on the property but would require a smaller diameter tire. Even when i order split firewood a lot of it needs to be split again as the huge chunks don't burn well in the open fireplace.Comment
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I’ve thought about finding an old electric oven
and build a kiln drier. Load the oven spacing
the wood apart and set the oven at 260 degrees and heat the wood for 6 hours or less. Could even cut in a flue pipe through the top of the oven for humidity to escape. An oven insert would work better without the cook top. Operating the oven outside during the winter you’ll know when moisture becomes removed cause the flue pipe would stop steaming.Comment
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I wish my wood would split that easy…Comment
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