How to Split Firewood: Maul vs Splitter, Tonnage and Drying

Cut rounds about 3 inches shorter than the front-to-back depth of your firebox, or no longer than the maximum log length printed in your stove or insert manual. That leaves room to load pieces at an angle and keeps wood off the glass and door gasket. Sixteen inches is the most common length for wood stoves and the standard assumption when firewood is sold by the face cord; small inserts and fire pits often take 12 to 14 inches, and large fireplaces and outdoor fire pits can take 18 to 20.

Check your splitter too. Electric splitters such as the Sun Joe LJ602E 5-Ton Electric Log Splitter and BILT HARD 6.5-Ton Electric Log Splitter accept logs up to 20.5 inches long, and the Sun Joe LJ10M 10-Ton Manual Hydraulic Log Splitter manual splitter takes 18 inches. Cut consistently: a measuring stick laid on the log or a paint mark every 16 inches before you start bucking saves fitting problems later. Choose a chainsaw bar about 2 inches longer than the log diameter, as the chainsaw bar length calculator explains, and wear full protective gear while bucking (see the chainsaw safety guide).

EPA's Burn Wise program says firewood should have a moisture content of 20 percent or less, and recommends splitting, stacking, covering and storing it for at least 6 months. Wet wood wastes heat boiling off water, produces more smoke and fine particle pollution, and builds creosote in the chimney, which is a fire risk. Freshly cut green wood is commonly well above that level, often double or more.

• Test with a moisture meter on a freshly split face, not the end grain or bark side, which dry first and read low. A basic firewood moisture meter costs less than a single face cord.
• Signs of dry wood: cracks (checks) radiating across the ends, lighter weight, bark that loosens, and a hollow knock when two pieces strike each other.
• Signs of wet wood: hissing or bubbling from the ends in the fire, heavy weight, and a fire that smolders instead of flaming.

Dense hardwoods like oak are commonly given 1 to 2 years to season, while softwoods and lighter hardwoods such as pine, poplar and ash often reach 20 percent in 6 to 12 months in a sunny, breezy stack. Your climate matters as much as species: wood dries fast in hot dry summers and slowly in humid, shaded yards.

A splitting maul is a heavy wedge-shaped head, commonly 6 to 8 pounds, on a long handle, designed to burst wood apart rather than cut it. A splitting axe is lighter, commonly 3 to 6 pounds, with a sharper profile that suits smaller rounds. A log splitter uses a hydraulic ram to push the log into a wedge (or the wedge into the log) with a rated force in tons.

• Maul or axe: no fuel, no noise and the lowest cost, such as a Fiskars X27 splitting axe or an 8 lb splitting maul. It suits straight-grained rounds under about 12 inches and a cord or less a year for a fit person. Knotty, stringy or large rounds turn it into hours of hard work.
• Manual hydraulic: the Sun Joe LJ10M 10-Ton Manual Hydraulic Log Splitter gives 10 tons from a hand pump with no fuel or cord, but only takes rounds up to 8 inches across and is slow.
• Electric (5 to 7 tons): the PowerSmart 7-Ton Electric Log Splitter and BILT HARD 6.5-Ton Electric Log Splitter run from a household outlet with an 18 to 20 second cycle and no exhaust, for rounds up to about 10 inches.
• Gas (20 tons and up): the SuperHandy 20-Ton Gas Log Splitter, BILT HARD 22-Ton Gas Log Splitter and Full Boar 28-Ton Gas Log Splitter handle big hardwood rounds with faster cycles, for anyone splitting several cords a year.

The electric vs gas trade-offs are covered in electric vs gas log splitters.

Required force rises steeply with diameter. The figures below are common guidance for straight-grained, seasoned wood, the same table the site's calculator uses. Tough, stringy species such as elm and sweetgum need about 35 percent more, and green wood about 25 percent more.

For big piles, cycle time matters as much as tonnage. Cycle time is how long the ram takes to extend and return. A 7 second cycle, like the BILT HARD 22-Ton Gas Log Splitter, splits roughly twice as many rounds per hour as a machine cycling in 15 to 20 seconds. The SuperHandy 20-Ton Gas Log Splitter lists 7.5 seconds and the Full Boar 28-Ton Gas Log Splitter 10.9 seconds, while the Champion 8-Ton Compact Horizontal Gas Log Splitter runs 20 seconds with auto-return (about 180 cycles per hour) and the electrics run 18 to 20 seconds.

If you split one cord a year for a fire pit, a slow electric is fine and quieter. If you heat a house with 4 to 6 cords, a fast gas splitter saves whole weekends. A cord is a stack 4 feet high, 4 feet wide and 8 feet long, or 128 cubic feet of stacked wood.

Wood splits along its fibers, and the end of every round tells you where it wants to break.

• Follow the checks. Cracks radiating from the center on the end of a drying round are the easiest line. Place the maul blade or splitter wedge along the longest check.
• Split from the edge on big rounds. Instead of striking a 20 inch round dead center, take slabs off the outside edge a few inches in, working around the round until the core is small enough to halve. Owners commonly report this works better than center blows with a maul and reduces stalls on a splitter.
• Avoid knots. Branch knots run across the grain. Orient the round so the split line runs through or beside a knot rather than across it, or set the knot-heavy piece aside for last.
• Crotches and stringy species are the hardest. Forked sections and elm or sweetgum tear rather than pop apart; they often need a splitter or can be cut into slabs with a saw (called noodling, cutting along the length of the round) by an experienced operator.
• Split the top of the tree first, meaning set rounds with the end that faced the crown up when using a maul, which many splitters find breaks more easily.
• Frozen wood often splits more readily with a maul, one reason many people split in cold weather.

For most wood stoves, pieces 3 to 6 inches across at the widest point burn well and dry evenly, with some smaller kindling split from dry, straight pieces. Rounds under about 6 inches can often dry unsplit in a good stack, but splitting them in half speeds drying. Larger pieces hold a fire longer overnight but take longer to season. Mix sizes: small pieces start a fire and bring the stove up to temperature quickly, and larger pieces sustain it.

Drying needs air movement and sun, and protection from ground moisture and rain:

• Get it off the ground on pallets, rails, cinder blocks or a firewood rack, so the bottom row does not wick moisture and rot.
• Stack in single rows with the ends facing the prevailing wind and gaps between rows, in the sunniest open spot you have.
• Cover the top only. A roof, board or tarp over the top keeps rain off, but wrapping the sides traps moisture. Leave sides open.
• Bark side up on the top layer sheds water.
• Stack loosely, and cross-stack the ends of each row (or use end braces) so it does not topple.

Keep large stacks away from the house. Firewood against siding invites termites, carpenter ants and rodents, and in wildfire-prone areas Firewise USA guidance is to keep firewood at least 30 feet from structures. Buy or cut firewood locally: many states restrict moving firewood because it spreads invasive insects such as the emerald ash borer. A dump cart or wheelbarrow such as the Gorilla Carts Poly Dump Cart, 1,200 lb, 6 cu ft makes moving split wood to the stack far easier.