cord wood. A thing of the past?

[CalG]

You might think so after perusing the net for ideas for a cord wood loading scheme.

It's mostly stove wood, or tree length. a few hits regarding pulp wood, but 4 foot lengths? Not so much.

A real cord of wood, 4X4X8 in 4 foot lengths appears to be a forgotten concept.
Perhaps rightfully, what does one do with a dried out piece of fire wood four feet long? Cut it in half???? ;-)

Want to build a house? Cordwood seems to be all the rage!

 

[sea2summit]

Never measured a cord loaded just in the shed. Trying to load it for sale?

 

[PsRumors]

I have never heard that a cord of wood consists of wood in 4' lengths. A cord consists of wood stacked tightly in a 4x4x8 area. Length of wood can be whatever suits. Dad always cut his in 16" lengths as that was what everyone seem to want so a cord contained 3 stacks of wood, this was 35 years ago.

 

[Ed of all trades]

I have never heard that a cord of wood consists of wood in 4' lengths. A cord consists of wood stacked tightly in a 4x4x8 area. Length of wood can be whatever suits. Dad always cut his in 16" lengths as that was what everyone seem to want so a cord contained 3 stacks of wood, this was 35 years ago.

To me 4x4x8 is a short cord. We cut pulp wood 5ft long and 5x4x8 was a long cord. That was the way I made my money when i was growing up and I made some that way after I was up too. Ed

 

[CalG]

To me 4x4x8 is a short cord. We cut pulp wood 5ft long and 5x4x8 was a long cord. That was the way I made my money when i was growing up and I made some that way after I was up too. Ed

Yup, pulp wood is different. In this area, a chord is not "cut split delivered and tight stacked. That's stove wood . A cord allows for the "normal staking" of 4 foot lengths.
Traditionally tree tops and smaller stuff. Something to run through the cord wood saw. ;-)

No more! Now its a "fire wood processor" that takes whole trees, and spits out only paper bark birch in web bags. ;-)

 

[TnAndy]

Cordwood was cut for charcoal and paper pulp originally, not firewood....back when much of it was cut and handled by hand....and 4' lengths were about the most an average stout guy could handle.

Today, they cut it often mechanically, load in lengths up to full tree, or set up a whole tree chipper in the woods, and just truck chips to the paper mill.

 

[Oaktree]

Today, they cut it often mechanically, load in lengths up to full tree, or set up a whole tree chipper in the woods, and just truck chips to the paper mill.

Paper mills are pretty much a thing of the past in my neck of the woods, but we do have a couple biomass electric generation plants that burn wood chips. They've driven up the price of firewood quite a bit over the past few years since loggers can get more $ for chips than for firewood. Once upon a time you could go to a logging site when they were finished and they'd let you take whatever slash/tops/brances you wanted for firewood. Those days are gone too.

 

[DrRod]

In Howard County Maryland, a cord is 4x4x8 -- period. People sold a face cord [2x4x8] as a cord for years. So as an act of consumer protection, they passed a law that if you sell firewood you must sell a full cord and nothing less. This has suppressed the market substantially because the providers can't make as much money fooling the suburban homeowner and most homeowners don't need all that much wood. But Howard County -- despite an agricultural preserve area -- is truly the headquarters of the urban weeny, they think firewood comes wrapped in a bag on the shelf at the super market.

 

[Ed of all trades]

4x4x8 short cord is how firewood is sold and 5x4x8, long cord is how pulpwood for the paper mill was sold. I am of course talking about honest people when I talk about selling firewood. I have seen people selling little jags of wood saying it was a full cord. Ed

 

[stuckmotor]

When I sold firewood, I advertised it by size of the full pickup bed. It was $15.00 unsplit.