Making it thrugh another year, '24-'25

[SwampDonkey]

I have also heard people talk about a Face Cord which was 4' high, 8' long, stacked tight but with an indeterminant length. I don't know if either of those are standard terms or measurements.

Standard is 16" on local face cords. However, the use of 'face cord' won't hold up to scrutiny in a dispute up here. Has to be called 1/3 of a cord if that is what it is. Weights and Measures Canada has the authority on what is acceptable up here for firewood volume. A lot of people have been ripped off believing they have a cord, when it's 1/3 of a cord they got. They think face cord, that must be a cord ain't it?

[Resonator]

A standard full cord is 4' tall, 4' long, and 8' wide. A standard face cord is 4' tall, 16" long and 8' wide. I've sold firewood by the face cord, 16" long split and stacked pieces for years, and build my cord racks to that exact size. When I cut firewood I have a 4' stick I use with 2 notches to mark 16" cuts on every piece (yes, I'm OCD about wood).  
I've only had 1 guy that didn't think he was getting a face cord with what I sell in all the years I've sold wood. He was a 1 time customer. The majority are repeat customers who are more than happy with what I provide for their money. Some even rave how much heat it gives off or how nice black cherry smells.

[WV Sawmiller]

   The most valuable load of wood I ever went to sell was when I was leaving Beaufort SC and had a bunch of seasoned  oak, hickory and pecan. I had a brand new long wheelbase Dodge pick up and did not want to deliver but would for an extra fee. I advertised in a local trader type paper and a guy called and I told him a load was something like $50 and that meant the truck was filled level and I told him the bed size. He ordered a load and drove over with my 5 y/o son along. I got to the site and asked where to unload and he pointed to a back porch so I backed up as close as I could and drop the tailgate. The guy walked over and talked all cocky and said "That's pretty good looking wood. I'll give you $40 for it." I told my son to get back in the truck and I raised the tailgate and got back in the truck. The guy asked what I was doing and I told him I was leaving as we'd already agreed on the price. He said "Okay, I'll pay $50 for it." I told him "You don't understand. You don't have enough money to buy this load of wood." I drove off and stopped on the way home and gave it away to a co-worker.

   The guy figured I'd already gone to the effort to load and the expense to drive over and would not want to unload and restack it at home. He was partly right. I wasn't going to take it home but he wasn't going to get it. I'd have given it to a stranger or taken it to the county dump before he could buy it.

[Magicman]

When I cut firewood I have a 4' stick I use with 2 notches to mark 16" cuts on every piece

I also want my firewood to be close to the same length so I use a "ledger stick" marked @ 17".  I may adjust the lengths a bit to make them come out even.  LINK

[beenthere]

A standard full cord is 4' tall, 4' long, and 8' wide. A standard face cord is 4' tall, 16" long and 8' wide. I've sold firewood by the face cord, 16" long split and stacked pieces for years, and build my cord racks to that exact size. When I cut firewood I have a 4' stick I use with 2 notches to mark 16" cuts on every piece (yes, I'm OCD about wood).
I've only had 1 guy that didn't think he was getting a face cord with what I sell in all the years I've sold wood. He was a 1 time customer. The majority are repeat customers who are more than happy with what I provide for their money. Some even rave how much heat it gives off or how nice black cherry smells.

As I understand, there is only a standard (depends on the state commerce laws) for a full cord. No standard for a "face" cord. 

[Old Greenhorn]

No, face cord is just a term like 'rick' or 'string' or 'whack'. It's no more accurate than a 'truckload'. If I am really talking about cord wood ad money, then we talk cubic feet to be absolutely clear. A cord is 128 cubic feet stacked. a half cord is 64 cubic feet. It's simple that way.
 Yes, 16" wood is the standard around here too, but when you order wood, the cutter should ask 'how long?" I prefer mine 18" to fully pack a stove.
 Bill cuts wood to all sorts of oddball sizes from 12" up to 36". Some clients it has to be split small and he has bought special wedges for his Eastonmade splitter to make that go quick. Some clients want only green wood (restaurants for smokers). Everybody is different. All the hickory trees I drop for Mushroom logs get their branches cut up into smoker wood.

[GRANITEstateMP]

NH is the same as Tom states, you must sell as a cord, or 1/2, or 1/3. That is how the state can "measure" it in a potential dispute.  If Tom's half cord doesn't measure out to 64cu ft, then the state can say he shorted the customer... That what the guy with the fancy hat and shield told meat least (not about Tom shorting people  ) 

[SwampDonkey]

I have to cut two lengths, and never with accuracy.  Around 16" or shorter for the shop and 18-22" for the furnace in the house. When I cut wood, I aim the saw blade but it rarely lands in the right spot.    I don't sell so I don't have to be fussy. If she's a shy long I get out the dandy electric saw and snip off a little, usually cut in half, than I've got two for one and say I'm ahead by one. 

[Resonator]

Yup different places do different things. As for my business, I sell 16" pieces spit and stacked. I show a picture to the customer of the face cord, and even give them a choice of stacks if one looks "fuller" to them. They know what they are buying, I'll even measure it for them if they wish. And if they want to go elsewhere to buy, it's a free country, thanks for asking.
Could always do like some other members have done selling slabs or sawdust by the "load". If don't think they're getting enough, wait here while I get the big wheel loader...

[SawyerTed]

Units of measure for firewood are whatever seller and buyer agree to here.  Long bed, short bed, dump trailer, "bob cat scoop" or loader scoop all are not unusual measures here.   Some speak of cords, 1/2 cords or face cords but nobody but wood cutters seem to grasp those.

[Peter Drouin]

I cut all my wood ahead so it's nice and dry, The chimney stays clean too that way. Sometimes a logger who sells firewood wants me to saw some logs for him. We trade sawing for firewood all cut and split and del.

[beenthere]

Cord measure of wood products, be it pulp or firewood, originated a century ago. Steam trains pulled up to a stop and loaded up with cords of pulpwood, paper companies still buy cords of wood, etc., etc. When there were disagreements and things ended up in court over disagreements, then a standard unit of measure was needed.
However, loose descriptions that work for individuals buying and trading a years worth of firewood could get by with a bucket full, a pickup load, a wheelbarrow load and the like worked just fine.
But there are standards if needed.

[SwampDonkey]

Common term here back in the day was 'cord wood' in the days of 4 foot pulpwood. Most times all cut by hand and hand piled and hand loaded on a train on the other end. Back in the 60's all that handling over and over by hand then onto a train got you $20 a cord. I can remember people could load cord wood onto a pickup truck and take it to the mill to unload for that week's groceries. A pickup load of cordwood won't buy the groceries now, not even a full cord of it. Something ain't right.  We've been bleed for years and went right along.

[WV Sawmiller]

Donkey,

   The cordwood sounds like like our pulpwood where I grew up in N. Fla. Pulpwood was 8' long and often loaded by hand because it was very small diameter pine logs.

    We used to joke, but it was true, that when you wore out a truck and it could not be used for anything else you'd make a pulpwood truck out of it and drive/use it another 20-30 years. If you saw a pulpwood truck coming down the road you'd better give it the right of way because it probably did not have any brakes, the turn signals did not work, usually there were not back glass or window glass and the windshield would be badly cracked. Don't even think any of the lights would work and there were no mirrors left on them.

   Usually there was a gun rack where the back glass used to be and a single shot .12 gauge shotgun with a cracked and taped up stock and maybe no forearm in the gun rack.

   Interesting/Sad but honest comment on the value of a load of wood compared to other prices.

[Old Greenhorn]

Howard I can't read you description without thinking of this Jerry Clower story and by the by, the Ledbetter's in this storry made part of their living off of pulpwood.

 

[SwampDonkey]

I knew an old guy here that had lots of woods ground and he'd cut 8-10' spruce logs and roll them onto the back of the old FORD, not the bed, but the rails. Put in stakes and chain them up. And off he went to a saw mill. Once there, remove the chains and stakes, give'r a jerk, and she was unloaded. No tail gate mind you. That old FORD was his skidder. He'd go down skid paths made by a real skidder when he had logging done and he'd work for years pulling and cutting up tops and limbs for his firewood.

[Resonator]

When I was a kid growing up the paper industry was still going strong in central Wisconsin. The big mills owned thousands of acres of wooded land, and train loads of logs came in every week. There were close to a dozen mills within 1 1/2 hour drive away making a good market for pulpwood.
Anybody with wooded acres could cut and haul pulp cordwood to the mill. Lots of guys with old cable skidders and dozers, and old 2 ton (or bigger) straight trucks to haul it. Peeled sticks paid better, and I spent hours as a kid peeling bark paid by the stick.
Different now, and some of those mills are long gone. The guys hand felling and using a skidder are few, replaced with high dollar felling machines. And what is hauled into the mill is often paid by the ton.

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah, I forgot to mention that the cordwood was all peeled as well for that $20/cord. A chainsaw chain was expensive for the times, today a chain for a 20" bar is $30 or so, but it was near $20 back then. Dad remembered that distinctly. He said if you factor in the times and today's price, it's way cheaper now. 40 years ago there were over 250 sawmills in New Brunswick and I think 30 pulp mills. We are a fraction the size of Wisconsin. The small town of Miramichi, had 3 pulp mills, but a lot of public land timber access to. It had several sawmills in the area, I'd bet at least 15, not all in town but down along the river. That's in my time and I'm not that old. Also our public land had signage for every stream and lake you come to and every woods road was named with a sign. None of that now.

That's why I say the 70's was the best decade of my whole life so far. By far better than now.

[Peter Drouin]

I loved the '70s, fast cars, and fast women.
Cops were nowhere to be seen. Best of times, leave the keys in the truck, windows down, and the gun hanging on the back window. Got out of class and no one touched a thing.  Leaving High school doing a smoke show, No teachers looking out the window.

[thecfarm]

I can remember single wheels dump trucks going by the house with wooden stakes and pulp wood in the dump body heading for the paper mill.
Now they are scrapping the paper mill. 
My Father use to cut pulp in the winter time for money.

[aigheadish]

I got in trouble for white smoking, in reverse, in my 1977 Skylark on one of my last days of school, it was a pile of junk and I'm not sure how I got the tires to lift and spin, but it felt great! 

[twar]

I got in trouble for white smoking, in reverse, in my 1977 Skylark

We had a Skylark in 1976 and I remember thinking, "this car will be so much fun to drive next year when I get my license" (with its 455 V8, 4-barrel). But even before I got my license my mother said, "you will not be driving this car!"

So I had a choice between the 930cc Honda Civic or the '66 Ford shortbed pickup--straight 6, 3-on-the-tree 

[doc henderson]

Smart Mom.  At 14, we all think we are naturally the best drivers in the world.  It is some of the near missed that make us careful and really good drivers in the future.  many of us could write a book about our adventures, and hopefully near misses as opposed to really learning the hard way, I plead the 5th.   

[SwampDonkey]

It must be true then, that the really bad young characters make the best doctors. 

[aigheadish]

Twar that was the good one! Also, as a Civic driver and fan I bet I would've loved that Civic!

Mine was a clapped out 231cc driven by my great aunt, and left to me, after finding a 4" deep puddle of water in the back footwells (finally figured out the smell!) of a 1985 Golf, don't remember why else we got rid of that VW. The Skylark eventually started smoking more on the inside, through the vents, than the tires ever did.