Snap Wood

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Look closely ... this is "snap wood."


Not a tree species, but a name given to the process of cutting up a small tree for firewood, where one makes each cut deep enough so that a long section can be easily "snapped" by hand.

Some care must be taken to leave enough wood at the end of making each cut so that the whole tree can be hauled easily without breaking up. If your stove takes 16 inch wood, make your cuts 12 to 14 inches apart, as the remaining hinge of wood will break with the wood's grain, rendering a somewhat longer stick.

For years, whenever I cut up pole sized firewood, I remember Frank Farrin, who first told me about snap wood. In fact, no one else has ever mentioned snap wood before or since. I recall him at the store, foot up on the newspaper rack, describing how Alva Bridges (someone correct me if I'm wrong) would get in his firewood.

If anyone else out there is running low on dry wood, find a small dead standing pine or spruce and make your own snap wood.

- Jay Robinson, 2020

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