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#1
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log splitting - why?
I didn't grow up with cold weather or fireplaces. What's the purpose of splitting logs? Are they easier to handle and store with semicircular cross sections? Do they dry out more quickly with the interior exposed? Dunno but Grandpa used to do it?
Thanks, Sixto 95 S420 87 300SDL |
#2
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Unsplit logs don't burn as easy, they take up more space in the fireplace and drinking a beer on a cool fall afternoon while splitting is even more fun.
The other guess you had were correct, if you come visit I will give you an axe and let you split all day long, I'll supply the sloppy joes and beer and the chair for me to sit in and watch. |
#3
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Your guesses are correct - but note also that many logs don't split into nice semi-circular sections. If you have a big log you may split it into quarters or fifths or whatever.
By exposing more interior wood they do dry out quicker when split. And they burn better as medmech says, because bark and the exterior layers don't burn as well. Splitting wood is only "fun" as long as you don't HAVE to do it - as long as it's recreation, so to speak, it's ok. But it's dang hard work without a hydraulic splitter! Rgds, Chris W. |
#4
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it warms you twice....1st when you split it, 2nd when you burn it..
normally you split 4 ways or more if it's a big log.. |
#5
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#6
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$90 a cord, split for you already
__________________
You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman |
#7
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We grew up with a Nashua wood furnace, so we got to spend many Saturday mornings cutting dead trees for firewood. We split the wood for drying, stacking and better burning, as mentioned above.
My favorite tool was a Monster Maul, much more fun than a wedge, axe, or hydraulic splitter. Well, fun unless I wasn't careful and overreached so that the handle would hit the wood instead of the head; that was a real wake-me-up for the hands... |
#8
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Quote:
Out of the mud two strangers came And caught me splitting wood in the yard, And one of them put me off my aim By hailing cheerily "Hit them hard!" I knew pretty well why he had dropped behind And let the other go on a way. I knew pretty well what he had in mind: He wanted to take my job for pay. Good blocks of oak it was I split, As large around as the chopping block; And every piece I squarely hit Fell splinterless as a cloven rock. The blows that a life of self-control Spares to strike for the common good, That day, giving a loose my soul, I spent on the unimportant wood. The sun was warm but the wind was chill. You know how it is with an April day When the sun is out and the wind is still, You're one month on in the middle of May. But if you so much as dare to speak, A cloud comes over the sunlit arch, A wind comes off a frozen peak, And you're two months back in the middle of March. A bluebird comes tenderly up to alight And turns to the wind to unruffle a plume, His song so pitched as not to excite A single flower as yet to bloom. It is snowing a flake; and he half knew Winter was only playing possum. Except in color he isn't blue, But he wouldn't advise a thing to blossom. The water for which we may have to look In summertime with a witching wand, In every wheelrut's now a brook, In every print of a hoof a pond. Be glad of water, but don't forget The lurking frost in the earth beneath That will steal forth after the sun is set And show on the water its crystal teeth. The time when most I loved my task The two must make me love it more By coming with what they came to ask. You'd think I never had felt before The weight of an ax-head poised aloft, The grip of earth on outspread feet, The life of muscles rocking soft And smooth and moist in vernal heat. Out of the wood two hulking tramps (From sleeping God knows where last night, But not long since in the lumber camps). They thought all chopping was theirs of right. Men of the woods and lumberjacks, The judged me by their appropriate tool. Except as a fellow handled an ax They had no way of knowing a fool. Nothing on either side was said. They knew they had but to stay their stay And all their logic would fill my head: As that I had no right to play With what was another man's work for gain. My right might be love but theirs was need. And where the two exist in twain Theirs was the better right--agreed. But yield who will to their separation, My object in living is to unite My avocation and my vocation As my two eyes make one in sight. Only where love and need are one, And the work is play for mortal stakes, Is the deed ever really done For Heaven and the future's sakes |
#9
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It's so you can build your own splitter
__________________
past MB rides: '68 220D '68 220D(another one) '67 230 '84 SD Current rides: '06 Lexus RX330 '93 Ford F-250 '96 Corvette '99 Polaris 700 RMK sled 2011 Polaris Assault '86 Yamaha TT350(good 'ol thumper) |
#10
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Good way to get rid of those pesky neighbor cats that won't stay off the Benz, too
__________________
past MB rides: '68 220D '68 220D(another one) '67 230 '84 SD Current rides: '06 Lexus RX330 '93 Ford F-250 '96 Corvette '99 Polaris 700 RMK sled 2011 Polaris Assault '86 Yamaha TT350(good 'ol thumper) |
#11
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#12
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It's twice that a cord out here.
__________________
past MB rides: '68 220D '68 220D(another one) '67 230 '84 SD Current rides: '06 Lexus RX330 '93 Ford F-250 '96 Corvette '99 Polaris 700 RMK sled 2011 Polaris Assault '86 Yamaha TT350(good 'ol thumper) |
#13
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PaulC - Chips would burn way too fast. If you reduced the wood to a fine powder and aerated it, it would explode. At the other end of the spectrum, a big solid piece won't burn worth a darn. Has to do with the ratio between mass vs. suface area. If its important enough to anyone, I'll try to dig up a research paper that resides somewhere in my "fantasyland-type" filing system.
(Don't hold your breath, though. I've succeeded in hiding some stuff so well that I gave up trying to find it....) Cheers, Wes |
#14
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__________________
Proud owner of .... 1971 280SE W108 1979 300SD W116 1983 300D W123 1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper 1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel 1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified) --------------------- Section 609 MVAC Certified --------------------- "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche |
#15
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__________________
Proud owner of .... 1971 280SE W108 1979 300SD W116 1983 300D W123 1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper 1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel 1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified) --------------------- Section 609 MVAC Certified --------------------- "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche |
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