The Forestry Forum

General Forestry => Ask The Forester => Topic started by: Max sawdust on November 11, 2007, 05:39:10 PM

Title: Quaking heavier than Big tooth Aspen??
Post by: Max sawdust on November 11, 2007, 05:39:10 PM
Hi,
Been cutting both Quaking and Big tooth Aspen.  Is it my imagination or does Quaking Aspen weigh more than Big Tooth?

Also what does a cord weigh? (Fresh cut)

Thanks for the help :)

max
Title: Re: Quaking heavier than Big tooth Aspen??
Post by: beenthere on November 11, 2007, 06:53:18 PM
Big tooth has a Sp. Gravity of 0.41 reported, and Quaking is 0.40. So, at the same moisture content, I'd say the Big tooth is slightly heavier....very slightly.  :)
Title: Re: Quaking heavier than Big tooth Aspen??
Post by: Geoff Kegerreis on November 12, 2007, 11:03:16 AM
Nevermind...  :D
Title: Re: Quaking heavier than Big tooth Aspen??
Post by: SwampDonkey on November 12, 2007, 11:35:32 AM
Green aspen at the pulp mill here weighs out to 2.27 metric tonnes per cord or 2.5 short tons per cord. This was settled on after many samples were weighed and scaled. We never made any distinction in specific gravity between the aspens.  Quaking aspen is listed as 43 lb/cu ft green. 1085 lbs is way too light per cord, I think you mean per 0.5 cord Geoff (maybe I'm not following). I'm used to metric tonnes and we use 2 cord = 1 mfbm = 5000 lbs, balsam fir is 4800, it's heavier than spruce and if we mix spruce and fir the price drops per tonne and if we use spruce alone the price increases per tonne. It's because of the weight to volume conversions.
Title: Re: Quaking heavier than Big tooth Aspen??
Post by: Geoff Kegerreis on November 12, 2007, 01:01:02 PM
I scrapped those earlier figures I put up there...those weights are for sawn green lumber....  :D  (look how much waste there is!)

Logs:

6400-10,800 lbs. per 1000 board feet Doyle rule...Quick short-cut barely-accurate conversion=500 bd ft./cord,

so between 3200-5,400lbs/cord...

(depends on log diameter on the measured unit; it seems to go heavier per smaller diameter).

Anyway, sorry for the confusion there...Weights of individual trees are going to vary depending on site location and R.H. the day you measure them.
Title: Re: Quaking heavier than Big tooth Aspen??
Post by: SwampDonkey on November 12, 2007, 02:07:29 PM
Another factor in this is the conversion factors. The trouble with this cords thing is there is air space in stacked wood. If we use cunits though, it equals 100 ft3 of solid wood. So it works out to 2.15 short tons per cunit. If you take cords as literally a solid mass of wood of 128 ft3, it works out to 2.754 short tons per cord, that which we know not to be true because of air spaces between the sticks. So for aspen we actually use 2.2727, equivalent to 5000 lbs. Well I guess it's like cruising, where we use statistics as well. How many believe the cruised volume is exactly 2500 cords or the scale of that photo is exactly 1: 10,000? ;D
Title: Re: Quaking heavier than Big tooth Aspen??
Post by: Geoff Kegerreis on November 12, 2007, 04:44:48 PM
Quote from: SwampDonkey on November 12, 2007, 02:07:29 PM
Another factor in this is the conversion factors. The trouble with this cords thing is there is air space in stacked wood. If we use cunits though, it equals 100 ft3 of solid wood. So it works out to 2.15 short tons per cunit. If you take cords as literally a solid mass of wood of 128 ft3, it works out to 2.754 short tons per cord, that which we know not to be true because of air spaces between the sticks. So for aspen we actually use 2.2727, equivalent to 5000 lbs. Well I guess it's like cruising, where we use statistics as well. How many believe the cruised volume is exactly 2500 cords or the scale of that photo is exactly 1: 10,000? ;D

Yeah, exactly...Forestry is a science?  I think not.  It's a science based art.  You don't tell someone a value, you tell them a range with a mean value, and even that might not be any more accurate than a guesstimate.  :D
Title: Re: Quaking heavier than Big tooth Aspen??
Post by: Max sawdust on November 13, 2007, 01:06:25 PM
Thanks Guys ;D
Interesting info..
Max