Most wood in a cord: Split or in the round?

[MikeInEburg]

Mike,

Pie are round, Brownies are square...

I don't have an iphone... Just a droid. Does the app use a picture or is it just a calculator?

But I knew the volume formula, I was being dense and forgot I guess...

Thanks,
David

Fortunately, chocolate chip cookies can be any shape you want.

The app is a calculator with easy-to-enter fields. There may be a droid version...

 

[Egon]

[ ( 22/7 x r1 x l ) + ( 22/7 x r2 x l) ] /2 might give a volume for a log??

old & forgetfull !

 

[KTurner]

I think the answer you're looking for is that "cord" is measured at the time of the transaction. So if you're selling a cord of logs, rounds or split, they need to stack to 128cubic feet to be called a cord. For example, 8' logs stacked 4' wide and 4'tall, or 12' logs stacked 3' and 3.5'. Now if the buyer decides to cut and split it, and it stacks to 0.75 cords or 1.25 cords, it doesn't matter - it was one cord in the state that you two agreed upon. The amount of wood or heating potential didn't change just by cutting, splitting or stacking it differently.

Keith

 

[KennyG]

If you take a cord of four foot long round wood and block it up split it and restack it you will not have a cord pile. The split wood packs tighter then the round. Also if you measure carefully you can see that a pile put up green will shrink in volume as it drys. It is only something like 1/32 of an inch on each sticks diameter but it adds up and a stack eight feet high in my cellar will settle by more then two inches as it drys.

A while back I was researching the german wood piles (Holzhaufen) but never got ambitious enough to actually pile one up. They claim that if you make one of these stacks 7 feet high, you can tell it's dried enough to burn when it shrinks over a foot in height. Hard to imagine, but I found that claim in several places.

 

[john_bud]

I believe that a single round four feet long and 3.2 feet in radius (unsplit) will provide the most wood in a cord - simply because no one can stack tighter than Mother Nature.

That would be true if you had a single log squared off that was 4x4x8 ft. But in practice logs with branches or forks or other things will make it "fluff up".

Probably the greatest stacking density would be from stacking bigger "perfect" rounds then filling the gaps with smaller rounds or split pieces. But I'm felling limbing bucking cutting splitting loading unloading schlepping and stacking by myself... I'd rather be done 2-10 armfulls sooner so I can collapse !

 

[vtsnowedin]

I think Kturner has it right. 128 cubic feet as sold when sold and the buyer can and should check the measure on delivery. On the other hand a legal cord is in many states "four foot wood in the round "set in law for the pulp /paper industry.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I seem to recall the old definition being a TIGHTLY stacked 4x4x8. Where the wood sellers get you is the BS of stacking the split wood so it leaves enough room for another stick of wood between each layer and you might get half a cord if properly stacked. The road side sellers that show the stack of wood with the split wood stacked at 90 degrees in each layer are really ripping folks off. Most of them will sell you a rick and call it a cord.

 

[MikeInEburg]

That would be true if you had a single log squared off that was 4x4x8 ft...!

My working definition of a cord is 128 cubic feet tightly stacked. The log defined earlier is just a tad over that in volume. Granted, this is a fully theoretical log. Cheers!

 

[dave1949]

I seem to recall the old definition being a TIGHTLY stacked 4x4x8. Where the wood sellers get you is the BS of stacking the split wood so it leaves enough room for another stick of wood between each layer and you might get half a cord if properly stacked. The road side sellers that show the stack of wood with the split wood stacked at 90 degrees in each layer are really ripping folks off. Most of them will sell you a rick and call it a cord.

I've seen the term "well fitted" used by old woods guys here to describe how firewood cords are supposed to be.

I think there is really only one way to accurately sell firewood, and that is by weight with a moisture correction factor. A ton of wood has about the same btu heat value--what is really being bought and sold--regardless of species if the moisture level is accounted for. The volume is not the same from one species to another to make that ton of wood.

Years ago when I worked on a farm, the grain elevator always checked the moisture level from down in the gravity wagon a ways, and that was applied to the weight on the scales. Wood could work the same way, but it would also be open to fudging with "friendly" moisture meters and scales. :laughing:

 

[clemsonfor]

a cord is a cord 4x4x8 a gallon of water or a gallon of ice is still a gallon

No its not, Ice expands!! Thats why pipes burst. A gallon of water frozen will occupy more space than a liquid gallon. Wood is different to.

A cord is defined as the amount of wood TIGHTLY stacked as normal in a 4x4x8 areas. SOLID wood in a cord varies i think folks use like 92cuft give or take of solid wood. Its been a few years since college and we dont use cords in forestery really anymore so i have forgotten? But point is there is air in that cord not a solid 4x4x8 block of wood. The size of pieces affects the air space in the 128 cuft. Large logs will have a different volume than small logs in the same area, i just cant remember which way it goes though.

It does seem when you split rounds you have larger stacks of wood when stacked though.