Firewood Market

[clemsonfor]

most of the south burns red oak, white oak, an or hickory

 

[mvwicker]

I spent the long weekend at my cabin, mostly hiking and cutting brush but also turning two trees into firewood. I burn about 1 cord per year, mostly red oak and hickory with some pine mixed in. There is plenty of fallen timber still on the ground from major windstorms in the past few years, so all you need is a way to haul it off the hillsides and a place to cut and split.

Some of the red oak is like armor plate, the splitting maul just bounces off. This still amazes me. I don't have a hydraulic splitter, just a maul (a very good one from Gransfors Bruks that holds a razor edge), but the parts near forks are really tough.

I saw a sign near my place offering firewood for $40 per truckload, which I guess is about 1/3 cord or "rick" or "face cord", you load and you haul. With all the windfall in the national forest, they probably sell mostly to city folk and suburbanites and people too lazy to gather their own. For me, the attraction of cutting my own firewood is the exercise, plus of course the "free" heat at the end.

Wood burning bans make sense upwind of sensitive areas, like Yosemite, or in densely populated areas with poor airflow like the Los Angeles Basin. Still, such restrictions are annoying, especially when solutions exist (catalytic stoves, for example). My place has no restrictions, except open fire bans during extreme droughts.

 

[cqaigy2]

i find the oak is something of a challenge as well. I kinda make my palms burn when it smack it with the splitting maul. It take about 2-3 swings to get a piece knocked off, then the rest goes much easier. Im going to cut a couple of firs tomorrow while the sap is low for next years firewood. I'm somewhat annoyed by the burning bans too, but i know that when my Mother was very sick, the smoke would bother her, so i wouldn't burn the stove so i kind of understand the health aspects.

 

[turnkey4099]

That's the ironic part... even those with permitted EPA Cat equipped stoves fall under the ban...

Many had protested and the powers that be said it would be a logistical enforcement nightmare to let one neighbor burn and another not based on the model stove.

As to the inversion layer... not really a problem in the much of the banned area which is coastal. The air district, which only covers the Bay Area counties said the real problem is the smoke causes problems a 100 miles away in the foothills... which ironically, do not have to follow the Bay Area restrictions...

I know Olympia WA has also had wood fire bans... maybe, it is just a West Coast thing?

Nope. I'm on the eastern edge of washington abut 300 or more miles from the coast. The county north of mine has been under a ban for a week (supposed to end tomorrow).

Harry K

 

[turnkey4099]

Encourages wood burning!! of course it does!! Its carbon neutral I don't see the problem. This is the problem like with gun control you have idiots spouting what they think but are to stupid to realize what their talking about!!

The SAME amout of carbon is released if the wood is burned vs letting it rot in the woods or a dump or the guys yard.

<snip>

Carbon nuetral? Yes and no. Yes talking long term, no for the short term. I have burned more trees in my lifetime than would have rotted in the same time.

Harry K

 

[turnkey4099]

His point is rick means nothing. Its not an actual measure of anything. It can be regional and have a different definition in different areas. Cord is a defined volume, yet most areas for timber its not legal anymore to sell this way as you can be still taken with old hand scale methods (and board feet is not much better as there are 3 scales of measure there) and cord definitions like solid wood in the cord or cord which means wood and air.



Rick has a definition I am sure but not really a forestry recognized one that I learned in school. People refer to "face cords" and some call a face cord a cord???

"Rick" does have a dictionary definition, actually several. And it agres with my "3 stick" thing. I put that in ther because so many people think that "rick" is a standard measure - it isn't anywhere as it does not specify the third dimension.

Yes, I have been in discusions where some have tried to pass of that fake "face cord" as a full cord, e.t., I cut 5 cords yesterday" and when questioned find they mean face cords. Then wen asked to define "face cord" they start the hemming and hawing.

Harry K

 

[turnkey4099]

locust is one of the best woods you can get, so I have read over on the hearth.com. I have about 25cuft that I cut this fall and have put up for next year. it was standing dead I think 2 years, and was already around 20%MC when I split it. So if it gets crazy cold this year I may pull it out and burn it this year, well some of it. The stuff is dense as all get out, and density is what makes heat.

Yep. It's one of the few woods that weighs almost as much dry as it does green.

Harry K

 

[turnkey4099]

They don't make them like that anymore!

He has me by 10 years but I still split by hand although about 5% gets run through the splitter, knots, crotches, stringy stuff.I also have neighbor down the road who looks to be quite a bit older than me still doing it.

Harry K

 

[turnkey4099]

Someone mentioned people too lazy to cut their own wood. I have the topper in that category - my neighbor.

He took his family camping up in the mountains of Idaho for the 4th of July many years ago. Needed campfire wood. Did he drive around the logging roads picking up dead stuff along the roads, may 30 minutes to get his trunk full? Nope, not him. He came back 60 miles to beg some off of me!!

Harry K

 

[lutt]

Lutt; Sounds like you and I are speaking the same langauge. I am curious as to what tree species is common down there?

Red oak,white oak,hickory,ash,locust,cypress,tupelo,sweet gum,river birch,willow,elm,cedar,and pine. There are some more I cant remember all of them. The oak,hickory,ash, and locust,or thorn trees is popular for burning. We def. speak the same langauge,I have worked with some guys from your neck of the woods, there good folk. LUTT