The ideal load of firewood ?

[bczoom]

turnkey4099,

Since there are so many names, definitions, interpretations... of what each pile of wood is, I believe states have instituted laws on how wood can be sold.

I've heard (can somebody confirm) that Ohio has a law that all firewood must be sold in measurements compared to a cord of wood. They've stated a cord as being 128 cu/ft of wood. People have to use that reference to a cord and then sell as full, 1/3 of a cord (as I call a face-cord)...

 

[slowrev]

The old definitions of a cord that I learned was a stack 4x4x 8 long or 128 cu ft. Around here a face cord is 2x4x8. But most wood seems to be sold by the pickup load, which can vary greatly.

Ben

 

[nobull1]

In our area most people sell what is called a processed cord which is a 8' length cord of wood cut and split.The problem is it is usually about 110 cubic feet after all is said and done.When you buy your wood in 8' lengths you lose about 15-20% after cutting and splitting.So the problem is do you charge more and sell less cords than you bought or give less and sell as many as you paid for.I myself sell 128 and charge more and most of my customers can do the math so it works for me.What some others do is sell you a 8' cord that they cut and split for you.That's where 110 cubic feet comes from.Now the federal gov't Weights and Measures say a cord is 128 cubic feet and less than that is not a cord regardless if it 8' or cut and split.Now to confuse it even more if you buy 8' "big wood" you "could" break even after cut and split.But if the wood is "small" you could lose even more.In our area most of the wood is medium. I sell my wood for $200.00 plus tax of $30.00 delivered for 128 cubic feet. Now to fill a oil tank here is about $630.00 cdn or about $500.00 US approx.So you can buy almost 3 cords of wood or one tank of oil.

 

[Bird]

Brian, I don't know about Ohio, but Texas has a law just as you described. You can read about it here.

 

[turnkey4099]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( turnkey4099,

Since there are so many names, definitions, interpretations... of what each pile of wood is, I believe states have instituted laws on how wood can be sold.

I've heard (can somebody confirm) that Ohio has a law that all firewood must be sold in measurements compared to a cord of wood. They've stated a cord as being 128 cu/ft of wood. People have to use that reference to a cord and then sell as full, 1/3 of a cord (as I call a face-cord)... )</font>

Yes states do have regulations on how wood must be sold. Every one that I know of specifies cords or fractions of cords. I know of no other measurements specified in regulations.

Harry K

 

[Youare]

I do believe the "cord" volume of wood measure came from the days of hand cutting pulp wood. A true cord was a pile of 4' long wood piled 4' high and 8' long with square ends.

As others have noted once a piece of wood is split it takes up more room than when it was in the round. Also someone who stacks split wood tightly will have more pieces than a loose stack.

The volume of a cube 4'X4'X8' is 128 cubic feet but the weight of a cord is based on a volume of only 70 cubic feet allowing 58 cubic feet for air spaces.

I am sure that a cord od wood from two different sources will yield two different size stacks and that the same volume of wood can be restacked and not equal the same size pile.

With the rising energy prices there will be more people selling fire wood and some will be more "honest" than others. The best thing is to inspect the merchandise before you purchase it and check out the reputation of the seller with a couple of references.

Randy

 

[beenthere]

I think a lot of old time pulpwood cutters would have to disagree with the 4' lengths (that was a southern length for some of the hand wood operations that dealt with pine cut for naval stores i.e turpentine, etc.). The pulpwood cut by hand in the north was 8' in length, long before machines entered the picture. But don't mean anything by it other than to set the thread straight. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

There used to be contests by loggers to throw pulpwood sticks the farthest, among other things.

Maybe some of that old history can be found on the web. I used to read about it in a forestry library in the 60's from old magazines and logging articles.