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Source: https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/q/20434
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

<p>Given we are in a non-life-threatening situation, splitting logs is often beneficial.  However, I feel things get murkier in a survival situation. I have brainstormed about this for a while, here is the best I got:</p>

<p><strong>Survival: Wood Splitting Pros</strong></p>

<ul>
<li>increase surface area exposed, especially useful if wood is scarce in the current environment</li>
<li>better burn since its drier</li>
<li>less smoke would not give away your position as easily as an unsplit, wetter round (assuming goal is evasion)</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Survival: Wood Splitting Cons</strong></p>

<ul>
<li><p>a lot of effort for a questionable benefit, maybe the person is better off just sliding a large unsplit round into the fire little by little</p></li>
<li><p>potential for injury, (probably not a big risk factor, but it's another moving part nonetheless)</p></li>
<li><p>minimal smoke could be a disadvantage in terms of visibility to rescuers (assuming we want to be seen)</p></li>
</ul>

<h2>Question</h2>

<p>Is it worth the effort to split logs in a survival situation? Ideally, I would like to have a clear-cut (excuse the pun) answer, but if it depends, maybe we can walk through some basic conditions. Also, let me know if my logic was on-par in my lists above; maybe there are other considerations I didn't think of.</p>

<p><strong>Further Clarifications</strong></p>

<ul>
<li>Survival time-frame: uncertain</li>
<li>Is help coming?: uncertain</li>
<li>friendly/unfriendly territory: friendly, not evasion</li>
<li>other concerns: availability of wood, and other concerns will be optional. These may be important in some situations, but in the interest of simplicity I will allow the answerers to stipulate their own assumptions on things like this.</li>
</ul>