What is the Official Length of a Piece of Firewood?? Yes. I just asked that. :-)

Here2Learn · May 09, 2020, 10:56:26 PM

Hi. Thank you for looking. Yes! I am pretty new to all this. :-) I did try to use the search function.

What is the official or "standard" length for a piece of firewood? I might be trying to sell some firewood to help offset the cost of my new saw I got for tornado clean up. In the past, I just cut it to where it fit in "my" fireplace. That does not sound good enough if I try to sell some.

Thank you!

Brian_Rhoad · May 09, 2020, 11:28:58 PM

I googled it and 16" was the answer.

stavebuyer · May 10, 2020, 04:00:34 AM

Lots of custom requests but 16" wood was by far my biggest seller followed by 24"

Ianab · May 10, 2020, 04:28:48 AM

I don't think there is any official standard, just like there is no official standard for wood stove sizes.

If someone has a little indoor wood burner that's only 12" wide, they don't want your 24" outdoor wood burner sized sticks.

Locally it gets cut to about 12" as most folks have small indoor wood fires. Hey it might fit an 18" or even 24" stick, but you can throw 2 x 12" ones in there just as easy.

What's your local market asking for? Or are there a few folks willing to pay a premium for 12" wood that no one else has and you can charge a bit more to make up for the extra handling.

Old Greenhorn · May 10, 2020, 06:40:09 AM

16" is pretty much the standard here. I cut mine 18".
A cord is 4'x4'x8'=128 cu/ft so whatever you use for 'official' calculations should be evenly divisible into those units. 3x16=48" so 16 would make for clean calculations with 3 stacks. With my 18's I only get 36' in 2 stacks, so I guesstimate if needed, but when my piles are full and squared up, I just measure the whole lot to make sure I hit my goal of 5 cord minimum.
Hope this is helpful. Welcome aboard.

cutterboy · May 10, 2020, 07:02:45 AM

All the firewood I sell is cut to 16".

OH logger · May 10, 2020, 07:28:02 AM

90 percent of mine sold is 16" rest is 24" for boiler wood

Nathan4104 · May 10, 2020, 08:44:01 AM

as others have said, know your local market!!! I can set my processor to cut/split lengths between 12-24" in 1" increments. Most is 16-17", i get 8' logs (8'6" or 105" i believe depending on the mill they are cutting for) some people don't want the little waste piece. Some folks measure their stove and think they should get 20" as that's what'll jam in. luckily with the machine doing the measuring/cutting they are all exactly the same unlike chainsaw measuring/cutting. Keep your price fair for yourself, if you think you can undercut the guy selling lots of wood and make some easy money, you're in for a surprise. (chainsaw breaks, truck breaks, you accidentally damage property doing a delivery, your vehicle insurance finds out your using your vehicle for commercial purposes.....)

Here2Learn · May 10, 2020, 04:47:44 PM

Thank you very much for the information!! I appreciate it.

Corley5 · May 11, 2020, 08:26:14 PM

Yup 16" is pretty standard. I cut what I sell at 17". All my wood comes into the yard in 100" lengths. I end up with A LOT of 4" pieces if I cut to 16". 20 and 24" are the other two lengths I cut the most of. Anything shorter than 16" suxs.

woody_88 · May 11, 2020, 09:27:01 PM

First time I bought wood for my new OWB, the company claimed 12-16" is what their customers preferred. Me being green, didn't think anything of it. Flash forward a few months and buying from someone else(first guy gave me even shorter lengths and dirty wood) they gave me 20" pieces for the same price! So it's all about customer preference when not dealing with cord volume measurements

...16" is what I'm expecting AT LEAST

SwampDonkey · May 12, 2020, 05:00:27 AM

Quote from: Brian_Rhoad on May 09, 2020, 11:28:58 PM
I googled it and 16" was the answer.

:D :D :D :D I'm sure it must be a jest. Surely. ;)
In my world, any length of stick that can fit in the stove and it can be up to 22" long. ;D

I've bought lots of firewood over the years and I can tell ta I could randomly pull 6 sticks from the load and 2 of them might be the same length and if I wanted to I could be biased and make sure the six was all different length. :D

frazman · May 12, 2020, 06:09:57 AM

16" is common in my parts.

gspren · May 12, 2020, 08:51:13 AM

I only cut for my OWB or the big fireplace at our cabin, not for sale. I like 18" on the big stuff, when dragging a log I measure even 3' increments like 12', 15' etc and 18" works well. When limbing I just eyeball and on the 2-4" wood might cut 36"+, my OWB will take 44", I have occasionally cut a piece too long to fit but so far have never cut one too short to fit.

doc henderson · May 12, 2020, 09:10:36 AM

I use the Mingo marker to cut mine at 16. I have the disc/cam to do 12, 24. my stove will fit 18 inches front to back, and 24 inches wide. with a hot fire going, you do not want to fight with a chunk of wood to get it in crosswise. Many sell by the cord or face cord. so a face cord of 16 inch wood, is 1/3rd of a cord. At 16 inches, if I move a little to one side, or cut at an angle, I can still get a slightly longer piece in the stove. I use the odd stuff in my shop. The beautiful stuff in the house. 12 inch would be less stable to stack in a face cord.

hedgerow · May 12, 2020, 10:04:22 AM

Years ago when I sold firewood we cut every thing 16 inches and that covered 99 percent of our customer base back then. I always burned the shorter and odd pieces myself. I had a few customers that had small stoves or small fireplaces and we would run some 12 inch and smaller than normal splits for them once a year and would up charge some for doing it and they didn't care that just wanted and needed smaller pieces of wood. Today with my Garn we try to keep it under 24 inches just because its nicer to handle. Most are around 16-20 inches.