Properly seasoned firewood has a moisture content of less than 20%. Wood loses nothing else of consequence during seasoning; just water. Leave wood stacks for at least 6 months while the wood cures. Cover the wood stacks with a tarp or shelter to prevent rain from soiling wood.

Damp wood burns at a cooler temperature, resulting in incomplete combustion, more smoke, and dangerous creosote build-up in the chimney (a fire hazard). Excess wood smoke can decrease air quality both inside and outside the home, contributing to breathing issues. In short, avoid burning unseasoned wood!

You can throw an unseasoned piece of wood into a hot fire and it’ll “burn” — kind of. The moisture inside will boil and be forced out in steam, which cools the flames and lowers combustion temperature. Oak, one of the best woods for fires, takes two to three years to fully dry.

Firewood should be split is 3-6 inches wide and 16 inches long, which is optimal for household fires and stoves. Thinner firewood will burn too quickly while thicker logs take too longe to season (dry out). Outdoor fires have fewer log size restrictions and any size firewood can be burned.

It is a good idea to split pieces less than 6 inches in diameter because this increases the exposed area of the wood. The greater the surface area, the faster wood dries and the better it burns. Pieces 3 inches and smaller should be used unsplit.

In Conclusion. The bottom line is that you can split both wet and dry wood. The latter is usually easier to split, though many people prefer to split the former so that it dries out more quickly. But if you use a log splitter, you shouldn’t have trouble splitting either wet or dry wood.

For most people, an 18-inch chainsaw is an ideal length for splitting firewood. For indoor fireplaces, you want a 16-inch pice of firewood when all is said and done. However, if you’re starting with massive tree trunks, then you may want a 20 or 24-inch chainsaw to get through the thickness of that wood.

Split Firewood Produces More Heat With a greater density, split firewood has more “stuff” to burn than whole logs. Using only whole logs consisting mostly of bark won’t produce much heat, assuming you’re even able to light it. For maximum heat, it’s recommended that you use split firewood.

Firewood doesn’t necessarily need to be split to season but splitting wood when it’s green can help speed up the drying out process. If you’re looking to season your wood as fast as possible be sure to cut the logs to length and split them prior to stacking.

Smaller pieces of wood get hotter faster and therefore burn faster and better. The smaller the fireplace area the smaller the wood needs to be to get to the ideal temperature to burn properly.