Does anyone semi-split?

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JoeyD

Minister of Fire
Hearth Supporter
Jun 15, 2008
531
South Jersey
Not me, but someone thinks its a good thing. He also thinks cherry is worth more then red oak. "It is fully seasoned and semi-split ready to be burned now no waiting": (broken link removed to http://southjersey.craigslist.org/for/1237635981.html)
 
OK, I'll play. What the hell is semi split?

It's either split or in rounds.

KC
 
Also what does "It is unrotted quality firewood with no dirt shoveled into the mix to make it look bigger" mean?

At least you don't have to be insured and licensed to cut it down ;)
 
Is that like semi pregnant? You either are or are not.
 
Semi- is a Latin prefix to a verb, noun, or adjective meaning "half" so the rounds are probably split in half.
 
Most people would probably call my woodpile "semi split". The 30-NC can hold a bunch of wood so I split everything really big. On most nights three splits are a stove load. If I need smaller stuff I re-split it as needed.
 
There is a piece of knotty elm out back that is semi-split. I hammered it with the maul for 15 minutes, made a little headway in several places on each end, but gave up. I am ashamed and plan to finish the job, but for now it is semi-split.
 
I agree with wood duck. Occasionally, if I can't completely split something with the maul, it partially splits from the top. I don't want to spend a lot of extra time hitting this 4" branch, so I give up. I figure, its better than not cracked open at all.
This happens with y's a lot.
 
LLigetfa makes the most sense here so that's what I'm thinking too.
 
gzecc said:
I agree with wood duck. Occasionally, if I can't completely split something with the maul, it partially splits from the top. I don't want to spend a lot of extra time hitting this 4" branch, so I give up. I figure, its better than not cracked open at all.
This happens with y's a lot.

Y's are a problem but I have learned to spilt them from the bottom right through the heart after I trim some from the sides of the Y. So I end up with two halves of the Y. I'm not saying they are easy that way but they do split that way and leave the semi-split category sooner. I have a vert/horiz hydraulic splitter that I save most of my Y's for but some of them are to big to lift and ungainly when the splitter is in vertical mode so the maul and wedges become the only route.
 
My dad just got some maple delivered from a tree service and the rounds were quartered. Each quarter was still huge ( 24" across ) the guys told him they split them because they could not load the rounds in the truck. My dad still needs to split them. So they are split but need to be split smaller.
Just a bad description, and a bad price :-)
 
I am fairly certain that a woodseller selling "semi -split" implies that the wood will be barely split. Maybe quartered. You will need to split it down further to burn it and some buyers will be upset about that unless it is made clear up front by calling it semi-split.

I sort of semi split. I split all of my wood to be the size of the largest split I want to put in my stove. As I load it into the woodcart to bring it in for burning, I split it down to match the weather and heat demand. Middle of winter I will want more big splits and shoulder seasons I burn almost entirely little 3" splits.
 
My first thought was what are the chances it is seasoned and ready to burn being semi-split? That and it would be kind for expencive for a cord in this area.
 
I semi split all the time . If we cut a tree and take it away i split the rounds in 1/4s or 6ths so we can load them . If i load a tree with the machines John i still 1/4 the rounds when i dump the rounds in the yard right away so it can start drying . We split a lot of wood here and i like to stack my 1/4erd rounds in a row and split in horizontal mode . My sons are still small and cant lift large rounds . John
 
Highbeam said:
I sort of semi split. I split all of my wood to be the size of the largest split I want to put in my stove. As I load it into the woodcart to bring it in for burning, I split it down to match the weather and heat demand. Middle of winter I will want more big splits and shoulder seasons I burn almost entirely little 3" splits.
I split everything that can be split so yes, I have a lot of semi-splits. I use the 6" height of the wedge on my splitter as a gauge so anything under 6" diameter gets split in half. Bigger than that and I split into quarters up to the point I have 6" faces.

When I stack, I try to mix up the sizes so that I have a good variety to choose from when unstacking. If at burn time, I have too many large splits, I resplit as needed.
 
And cherry is good, but not better than oak.
 
I guess where he from people load half a truck of fill dirt and put a few piece of wood to fool the unwary buyer. I would be upset if I bought a truck load of wood and half was dirt
 
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