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How much wood can you hand cut in a day?

Started by Mdoeme, March 30, 2020, 07:43:31 PM

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Mdoeme

I'm just curious how many cords per day per person can cut?   I'm working on a hardwood stand of pretty nice red oak with mixed hard maple, birch, ash.   Cutting tops down to 4 inches.  Just a rough guess is appreciated.

Escavader

Too many varibles .how bigs the wood,how big is equipment,terrain,how big are tops hundreds of varibles
Alan Bickford
Hammond lumber company/Yates American A20 planer with dbl profilers Newman feed table multiple saw trimmer destacker automatic stacking machine Baker resaw MS log corner machine  4 large capacity Nyles dehumidification kilns JCB 8000 lb forklifts woodmizer lt 15 and mp100 and blower

thecfarm

With a 40hp tractor, 3pt winch and being fussy, this is on my land, I use to cut a cord a day. This is with trees really no bigger than a foot across too.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

Firewoodjoe

8 hr days cut and skid with single bunk forwarder. 5-15 cord depending on size,sorts, skid length and terrain. That's cutting down to 4". 

BargeMonkey

I've always found it easier if im pulling the top wood to cut the easy good wood off the top, pile them in 1 spot and pull the tops separate, then you can clean the tops off and not fight it. Should be able to cut 5-10+ cord ? Depends what your skidding with ? 

Firewoodjoe

Honestly 5 cord is just bad everything. But I've had those days🤨

John Mc

Quote from: Mdoeme on March 30, 2020, 07:43:31 PM
I'm just curious how many cords per day per person can cut?   I'm working on a hardwood stand of pretty nice red oak with mixed hard maple, birch, ash.   Cutting tops down to 4 inches.  Just a rough guess is appreciated.
In addition to the variables others have cited, define "cut". Are you just talking about getting trees on the ground, or limbing and bunching trailside, or hauling them home as well?
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.   - Abraham Maslow

Mdoeme

I'm talking about just cutting. Limbing and bucking and letting it lay.   We're going through spring break up and equipment will mostly make a mess.  I'm just going to cut it and forward it out when I can.  It's pretty flat ground.  It's a mix of 25 inch dbh oak down to 6-8 dbh hardwood.  The mixed hardwood is straight and clean.  Getting 4-6 sticks Pulp sticks per tree.  That's 100 inch wood.  Cutting random logs 8-12 footers and cutting out boxwood

Wudman

In the shortwood days (5 foot wood loaded on a single axle truck), the target was a load per day per man + one for the truck.  These were 5 cord loads.  This was usually plantation grown pine averaging about 7" DBH when thinned.

Wudman 
"You may tear down statues and burn buildings but you can't kill the spirit of patriots and when they've had enough this madness will end."
Charlie Daniels
July 4, 2020 (2 days before his death)

Firewoodjoe

10-30 cord just cutting. I only cut and dad skids and I can cut more than he can skid in most all types of wood. I averaged 15-20 per day for 2 months on a good hardwood clear cut. And I wasn't hitting it hard. Otherwise wood gets buried in the snow. 

ehp

Im in feet and doyle scale , Already sent 3 loads this week and truck will be on my landing at 7 am tomorrow , not sure on total scale but first load had 11,195 feet on it so say 30,000 so far . So if no problems I would think I should hit 50,000 feet for the week pretty easy so that 10,000 feet a day , Im a one man show so that cut skid buck up and pile AND Im getting old and slow , sore and not a nice person to talk to most days LOL, just ask my wife

barbender

Ehp, I think you're nuts! Putting up that much wood in a week, I can see why you wouldn't be any fun to talk to😊
Too many irons in the fire

ehp

Barbender  you should see if I break something , then the stuff really hits the fan ;D. Im in good timber right now so makes cutting easier , trees are tall and hold their diameter pretty good so that helps a lot to . I have seen some days where Me, myself and I do not even talk to each other , it gets pretty bad

Firewoodjoe

Quote from: ehp on March 31, 2020, 08:49:41 PM
Im in feet and doyle scale , Already sent 3 loads this week and truck will be on my landing at 7 am tomorrow , not sure on total scale but first load had 11,195 feet on it so say 30,000 so far . So if no problems I would think I should hit 50,000 feet for the week pretty easy so that 10,000 feet a day , Im a one man show so that cut skid buck up and pile AND Im getting old and slow , sore and not a nice person to talk to most days LOL, just ask my wife
Logs only? Or whole tree? I cut 4 or more sorts per species and if it's straight enough down to 4" or smaller🤫 

olcowhand

Quote from: ehp on April 01, 2020, 06:18:05 AM
Barbender  you should see if I break something , then the stuff really hits the fan ;D. Im in good timber right now so makes cutting easier , trees are tall and hold their diameter pretty good so that helps a lot to . I have seen some days where Me, myself and I do not even talk to each other , it gets pretty bad
Ed, You a funny guy.....
Olcowhand's Workshop, LLC

They say the mind is the first to go; I'm glad it's something I don't use!

Ezekiel 36:26-27

ehp

I cut whatever I can sell and that normally goes down to 8 inch top . I do very little firewood cause here you cannot give it away and I mean give it away free, no one wants it . Gas to heat your house runs about $80 to $100 a month so wood is a no go around here.

nativewolf

Well I am the slow poke I guess.  We put out a trailer+ a day if lucky but not EHPs crazy trailers.  We are doing less than half of his numbers.  However it is all fiddly select cut and I don't take too many risk and we have streams and SMZs that are a real pain in the rear.  We have to pull all the tops out of streams and since about half the trees want to go there, and they really want to go there.  We let em fall in and drag them out.  Slows things.   Mostly I am not the feller some of the guys are.

In any case, we are slow.  We only cut trees that have a veneer or something like it in the butt.  We only cut to a 12" top as I don't even have a pallet wood market that is useful.  I lose money touching pallet or firewood sorts of stuff and even tie logs unless white oak.  I get 75% more for bridge timbers than tie logs and they also take to a 12" top so if at all possible it is bridge timbers for the knotty top stuff.  We got 3 forwarder loads out on Monday and that was a record for us on this job (Ponsse Elephant- 18 ton and we don't overload it..on purpose).  Today was  a good day, got a new buyer.  If we have a 12" tree that has bad form we drop it to make way for better timber.  Anyhow, I am adding detail so you'll see that production really varies depending on the type of harvest and equipment and experience.  Also we top down to knee height.

Rather than work on production I work on selling the good stuff.  Constantly on the phone looking for markets.  We are averaging very nice $ straight through which is good for this small WO we are fighting.  Too much taper...knots start too low, big branches too low too.   It will be nice to finish but the post harvest will look good with lots of sun for regrowth and shaded save trees (proper harvest is all) and that's what we really care about.  

Liking Walnut

Tarm

Quote from: nativewolf on April 01, 2020, 07:05:54 PM
We only cut trees that have a veneer or something like it in the butt.  We only cut to a 12" top as I don't even have a pallet wood market that is useful.  I lose money touching pallet or firewood sorts of stuff and even tie logs unless white oak.  
I find a world with markets like that inconceivable. I had my 75 acre maple/oak stand thinned. The loggers took out 37 truck loads of product and not a single sawlog. You could count on one hand the number of sticks bigger than 12". It all went for pulp and pallet bolts. I guess I should be grateful for the markets I have.
How does anyone do forestry with markets like nativewolf has?

nativewolf

Our average truck brings 5-6k, so 5 truck sent out last week and I am thrilled.  Just have to free yourself from a fiber production point of view, very liberating.  We are thinning in our own way.  I am very much looking forward to seeing @ehp area this summer, I believe it is the best managed uneven aged hardwood in NA, we will see.  
Liking Walnut

ehp

NW, you better count on maybe next year coming up here. I do not think you can cross the border this year . Like I posted before their counting on this lasting 18 to 24 months unless they find something to stop this virus

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