Firewood

It's missing a dimension. Volume can't be computed til it's paid for and stacked. If you bought a "face cord" sight unseen, you have no idea what's gonna show up. Like I said earlier, cookies nailed to a sheet of plywood is as legitimate a measure of a face cord as anything.
 
If you ask the length, all you know is what the seller tells you is the length. And at any length, or mix thereof, the seller is telling the truth...it's a face cord. But the buyer has no idea what the real volume is. It's an inherently ambiguous unit of measure.

With a cord, the volume is 128 cubic feet. Full stop.
 
Some people stop by, give you $80 cash, and load up however much they want in their 6ft bed that already has a toolbox or cooler and stuff sitting in there, and say nothing about length or volume, and don't come back for the rest of the "rick" you set out for them.
 
So how do you get that 128 c.f. stack. Cut exactly 16 inches or 2 feet so it comes out even? I think the 16 to18 inch length is an enforced standard here if someone wants to complain. I know a guy who had a bunch of rookie cutters. Some cut about 14 inches, some close to 20,

I never bought any or sold much firewood. Too much work for the money unless it is a pretty mechanized system. I have burned a hell of a pile of it though.
 
Actual length(s), % of void, wood's density and composition, humidity... All that influences deeply what is really sold and all that is either unknow or hard to figure out at best when one want to buy some.
Trust ? Yea, sure...

It isn't much more easier for the seller if he wants to set an actual fair deal.
We just don't know exactly (by far) how much energy is packed in there, because it's what maters at the end.
 
Decades ago I sold the stuff for $40 a pick up load which is about 1/2 cord .I once told a customer the wood was free he was just paying for the labor .As a young journey man electrician I made about 10 bucks an hour and about the same selling firewood .The later was much harder work .
That was back when they tried to turn NW Ohio into Kansas .Thousands of acres of prime hard woods fell to the mighty D8 Caterpillars .As such finding wood for me was rather simple . Dozer piles every where .Did it all with a Poulan s25 DA and a PM 610 McCulloch and I still have those saws .
 
FTR: standing dead ash sucks to split by hand. There, I said it. And we're talking a tall, slender (18-20") tree, not some extra knotty thing grown in an open area.

Best wood overall I've found for both splitting and burning is black locust, by far. Oak and maple take at least 2 years to dry out. Even dead ash is no fast drier. Locust is relatively dry when freshly cut, dries out decently fast and of course doesn't rot for years if it somehow escapes the wrath of your stove for a few seasons.

:rockhard:
 
Huh. I'm not super experienced with ash, but I found it fairly easy to split, and well dried, even sitting dead in a field. Oak's the worst for holding onto water. Seems to hold onto water forever if it hasn't been made small.
 
Never had a problem with Ash, unless it was cut alive and I tried to do so before the needed full 9-12 months to cure. And I split by hand.

Add-on: My recent move put me in a lot with lots of dead and decaying oak and honey locusts. That should make for some fun this fall/winter.
 
Yes, those responses echo what is the normal assessment of ash, but for whatever reason, I just don't see it that way. Carry on!
 
I just cut and split some english elm. Wet as anything, being as it is spring here. Easy to split
Branch wood about 10' was about 40-50 years old, dense!
I kept some nice branch unions as the internal colouring is beeeyootiful!
 
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  • #595
Dad's been working on a downed oak...asked me to get his 371xp started. Hell no, not gonna happen. He's 82, has no business touching a saw that big.
Went and cut it up myself, 4 logs he can haul out with the tractor.
Had 2 standing dead ash at the south woods l also went and cut. 1st one, l was screwed, 14" dbh, leaning into an Oak. Got it off the stump, its hung, will pull it down. 2nd was smaller and had a good lean, clean drop if I swung it 15°....yup, pulled it off, ain't lost my touch.

Used my dual port (by me) Jred 2171 full wrap today. Damn, l love that saw.

Ed
 
I was complaining above about ash being hard to split by hand...I have a dead hickory to take down tomorrow, hickory is of course great firewood but I haven't split much of it at all, maybe none, so just wondering what y'all think about hand splitting hickory? No big deal or, Don't do it!
 
Dad's been working on a downed oak...asked me to get his 371xp started. Hell no, not gonna happen. He's 82, has no business touching a saw that big.
Went and cut it up myself, 4 logs he can haul out with the tractor.
Had 2 standing dead ash at the south woods l also went and cut. 1st one, l was screwed, 14" dbh, leaning into an Oak. Got it off the stump, its hung, will pull it down. 2nd was smaller and had a good lean, clean drop if I swung it 15°....yup, pulled it off, ain't lost my touch.

Used my dual port (by me) Jred 2171 full wrap today. Damn, l love that saw.

Ed
So let me gets this straight, you are denying a man the joy of running a 70cc saw in the twilight years of his life. If you were my son you would be quickly written out of the will and your city slicker cousin who has absolutely no use for a chainsaw would inherit the 271xp. :P:lol:
 
Guy who did my brakes traded for a log truck load of firewood , was glad to do it really. Asked and asked for a length spec and never got one. Have had quite a bit of tree length forwarded and ready ... Finally get the number 18' 9" ... Cut most of a load to said spec working on and in the pile (not my favorite way but can be done if careful) , he came up with his big excavator today and moved the cut pieces into a sweet pile all ready for the Log Truck. Point A and B are less than a half mile apart on a back road.
 
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