Hey you smart guys with the wits to seize opportunity! I and everybody else need wood! Why dont you go into a short, sweet, venture and hire some of those poor unemployed guys holding the signs and start making cord wood more available??

-- Ann Fisher (zyax55b@prodigy.com), November 15, 1998

Answers

Cord wood: What is it? Where do you get it? What are people prepared to pay for it What is it used for? How hard is it to store? How skilled do you need to be to get/make it?

(I gather it's some kind of firewood. As someone who never really had the fun of playing with matches, that's about all I can gather.)

--Leo

-- Leo (leo_champion@hotmail.com), November 16, 1998.

"Cord wood: What is it? Where do you get it? What are people prepared to pay for it What is it used for? How hard is it to store? How skilled do you need to be to get/make it? "

I'm sorry...I really tried not to laugh when I read this:) You city folk make me smile:) Anyway, enough of me making fun, a cord equals a pile of wood 4 ft. x 4 ft. x 8 ft. or 128 cubic ft. You can also buy half cords which would naturally be 2 ft. x 2 ft. x 4ft. or 64 cubic feet.

As to where to get it, this time of year you will see signs around major cities saying they have cords for sale. You can also check with some grocery stores, check for sale ads in the paper and so on.

As for where to store it...you usually want some sort of rack (you can buy or make...I suggest making as it can be done from scraps...actually, if you want, I can take a picture of my holder back of my house for you to see how it is done) that has some sort of 1" - 2" clerance from the ground. This keeps it off the wet ground, stops SOME varmits from getting into the pile and so on.

As for skills...find a piece of property will allow you to cut and fire up the chainsaw.

Feel free to ask any other questions.

Rick

-- Rick Tansun (ricktansun@hotmail.com), November 16, 1998.

Rick......

The city folk make me smile too :-)

But your math made me smile even more :-)

2X2X4 is not 64. It is 16. A half cord of wood is 4X4X4 or 2X4X8.

Or if you want to get fancy 1X2X32

-- Craig (craig@ccinet.ab.ca), November 16, 1998.

Look for hardwood or a hardwood/softwood mix. Maple is a hardwood; pine and alder are softer. Hardwood has more stored energy.

-- Karen Cook (browsercat@hotmail.com), November 16, 1998.

Leo: How are you going to cook/heat those y2k retreats for the wealthy without wood? Long term, it's the only way to go. Anyway, you want hardwood -- maple, oak, hickory, beech. Stay away from softwoods, like pine, spruce, hemlock; they're resinous and do nasty things to your chimney, like coat it with creosote that leads to chimney fires. For next winter's use, you want it cut and split this winter/next spring, so it will be at least partially dry. Believe it or not, I have a neighbor who used to buy kiln-dried firewood. Then he stored it outside! Prices vary. In my part of the world -- extreme northern New England, seacoast -- seasoned firewood cut and split is going for $100+- a cord, delivered. Or you can buy it cut to length and split it yourself. Excellent exercise. My last batch was tree-length, but then I have a chainsaw and a death wish.

-- JDClark (yankeejdc@aol.com), November 16, 1998.

I was born in the boonies, but my parents never used wood to heat. So, in my ignorant zeal last week at my y2k retreat, I ordered 4 cords of wood. The man said one cord would never be enough for a winter, even if I only used it part of the time (like we're going to do this winter). He explained to me that a cord was 4x4x8', but the only wood he had left was "Rondin" (have no idea what it's called in english). It was cut in 16" length, not 4', which suited me fine since it's perfect size for the small fireplace. He didn't have any top quality wood left, only this "rondin" which is not as hard and burns a bit faster, but I went ahead and got it anyway, for $180 Canadian for 4 (modified) cords.

Guess who had to cord it neatly when it was delivered and dumped in the yard? My loving 2 brothers who stayed behind to paint my new retreat. They ain't so lovin' now..hehe. By the incredule reaction of my brothers, I guess I had under-estimated the size and amount 4 cords would be (blush) Oh, and I reserved 4 more cords from same man of top quality hard wood for next winter...Oh well, if I don't need the wood after all, I can always give it away.

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), November 16, 1998.

I can see cordwood as being something that a lot of people are going to want, and that our customers are going to want as part of the service. That means that -if this operation ever gets off the ground- we are going to have to either buy cordwood off someone else and let them make a profit, or hire people to do it in-house.

Someone has to go out and cut this wood: where from? Where do the trees that provide it grow? Do you need to own the land, or can anyone go to a govt forest and cut it?

--Leo

-- Leo (leo_champion@hotmail.com), November 16, 1998.

Craig - My bad. Math was never my strong subject:) (Besides, I live in the woods...I just cut as needed:)

Leo - "Someone has to go out and cut this wood: where from? Where do the trees that provide it grow? Do you need to own the land, or can anyone go to a govt forest and cut it?

Whatever you do, do NOT cut it from a govt forest unless you enjoy jail! You have to own the land, or have permission from the land owner to go in and cut.

Rick

-- Rick Tansun (ricktansun@hotmail.com), November 16, 1998.

Just for the record, these days a 'cord' almost always refers to a 'face cord' which is the 16" length of wood, stacked to fill a 4'x8' frame.

-- Jon (jonmiles@pacbell.net), November 16, 1998.

Watch out if you "buy" rather than cut it yourself. Unscrupulous salespeople will stack "short cords" in their lot, sell as full cords (or halfs, or quarters - everybody else gets these screwed up too - it's part of the scam). Some will "cut" 2 foot sections at 20" or even 18" if they think they can get away with it.

So you're not only not getting 2 feet of wood, your missing a few toes too!

But then, as your truck or trailer is loaded, not all the wood purchased is put in the truck. Some seems to "vanish" into their wallets - and since the effort of packing and restacking mixes wood up, you often can't tell you've got less than paid for.

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), November 16, 1998.

>>But then, as your truck or trailer is loaded, not all the wood purchased is put in the truck. Some seems to "vanish" into their wallets - and since the effort of packing and restacking mixes wood up, you often can't tell you've got less than paid for. <<

And you may not get all hardwood either; it's easy to throw in some soft stuff to fill a load. ;-)

What most people don't understand is how labor-intensive wood-splitting is. Members of my family (including myself) have had some part in a tree-surgery business for the last 25 years. So we would acquire wood that way (virtually free) but even then there was no profit in splitting it for sale. There's just too much manhandling of wood. 1) load logs on truck 2) Dump logs off truck 3) Chainsaw logs to length 4) Split logs with hydraulic splitter 5) stack wood to season 6) load wood onto truck again 7) deliver and dump at customer site. When these steps are factored into the overhead, there is no profit. Demand (and price) would have to double to make it a worthwhile enterprise. Maybe Y2K will do that, but if someone doesn't "get it" by now, will they have the foresight to buy cordwood while it's available?

BTW, our policy was always to *overload* in order to ensure that the customer received what he paid for. (But our primary motivation was to get the wood off our lot!)

-- Elbow Grease (Elbow_Grease@AutoShop.com), November 17, 1998.

And if you do cut your own you get fully enjoy the benefits of heating with wood that Elbow Grease alluded to. Wood heats, four maybe five or six or even seven times. There's the cutting and hauling and cutting and splitting and stacking and maybe hauling and stacking again... All those activities can take the chill off a cold day - and you haven't even burned it yet...

Besides, all that activity will help stave off internet withdrawal for Y2K junkies. So if you are a doom and gloomer, sign off of the internet and go cut wood....

Good Luck jh

-- john hebert (jhebert@co.waukesha.wi.us), November 17, 1998.

To All You City Boy's, Ya'll can get "slab wood" also; except you need to find a place that actually cuts the sides of the tree on site. Like a lumber yard that has trees brought in and then stacked to go through a very large saw that cuts only the sides off the tree. That's slab wood. It stacks alot easier and you can cram more into your BMW's trunk. Sure hope this helps some of you out there!

-- Furie (furieart@gte.net), November 19, 1998.