# Firewood



## Live Oak (Dec 22, 2003)

In the off season, how many of you sell (or at least this year it seems try to sell) firewood? 

What kind of prices are you bringing?

How much do have you been able to sell this year? 

Do you deliver & stack or let customers come pick it up?

What type of (species) wood do your customers prefer.

Do you offer a discount for less desirable species of firewood? 


I thought this might be a good thread to get started for those in the lawn and landscaping business to share notes on for tips and info. for some income and business opportunities in the off season. Any ideas, tips, or suggestions would be a great benefit to all of the members and folks posting here. 

I look forward to seeing some interesting and different ideas! :thumbsup:


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## leolav (Sep 16, 2003)

I think Slipshod does firewood pretty often.

Not positive though.


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## slipshod (Sep 19, 2003)

I do about 400 cords a year. Creativity is the watchword for now I do it.Several ways that I price it,I prefer to sell it unsplit at $40.00 a cord delivered within ten miles,$55.00 a cord split,delivered,$10.00 delivery for each additional 10 miles or less per truckload(about5 cord).$25.00 a cord bring your chainsaw and truck,use my splitter.Most of what I sell is ash, I get some maple,oak,chery and beech.I do not sell any logs over 14" I cut them into boards on my saw mill.Trash trees I give away or we use them on our many summer bon fires.


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## Ingersoll444 (Sep 17, 2003)

Only $10 more to split a cord??? Seems like a lot of work for $10.


BTW those are some good prices. Best I could find was $110 for a split cord, deliverd. Most was oak, but some trash. Also a little to wet for my liking, but burnable. Mostly I plan to just cut my own, but did not have time this year. Started nextyears already.


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## Stewart (Sep 17, 2003)

I saw some on the way home tonight and it was $55.00 a Rick, and you haul it off. For those of us who don't know what a Rick is: it 1/2 of a Cord, or what I used to hear called a face cord. I hope that is right! I am not sure what type of wood it is, but am guessing some kind of oak. That is the type of trees we have around here mostly!! I need to get some wood for next winter so I will have to start looking.:wontshare


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## FrankieC (Jan 13, 2004)

Oh, oh. First, let's agree on what a cord of wood is! 128 cu.ft. of tightly stacked wood? 4'x4'x8'? 16"x4'highx24'? Face cord: 16"x4'highx8'? (1/3 cord)
$110/cord split&delivered for yellow birch, beech, maple(hard/rock), around here. Some as high as $120/cord.


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## Ingersoll444 (Sep 17, 2003)

> _Originally posted by FrankieC _
> *Oh, oh. First, let's agree on what a cord of wood is! 128 cu.ft. of tightly stacked wood? 4'x4'x8'? 16"x4'highx24'? Face cord: 16"x4'highx8'? (1/3 cord)
> $110/cord split&delivered for yellow birch, beech, maple(hard/rock), around here. Some as high as $120/cord. *


I found some as high as $175!!! For that, I want it cut, split, and stacked by Hooters girls, wile I sit there with a case of beer.  :beer:


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## Chipmaker (Sep 16, 2003)

Actually a face cord could be any length of logs as long as it is 4' high and 8' long or its equivalent., They cold be 6" long and still be a face cord. In Alabama its illegal to advertise firewood any other way but by the full cord or fraction of the full cord. Face cord is a no no, as there is no set standard for it it terms of cubic feet. IIRC a lot of states are like that. I had at one time sold firewood, and got 55 to 60 dollars a cord all split and I did not deliver. It was predominately oak and hickory. I have mainly oak hickory and ash on my place. No one around these parts burns softwoods like pines or elm etc, and maples and birch just don't grow here at least not in sizes you would use for firewood. 

I have to say my all time favorite wood for the woodstove is:
Mock Orange. SOme call it Bow Dot, others iron wood, but its real name is Osage. Its a very bright yellow to orange wood, and when cut it oozes white sap that looks like latex. It has big green fruits onit, that resemble a green orange. Once you cut it you better keep on cutting it and splitting it, as if its left go for a week or two its almost impossible to cut or split. It actually makes sparks. Its full of thorns and most trees wouold be hard pressed to find a length of it more than 4 or 5 feet that would be half straight. It makes lifetime fence posts, but they need to be cut and the fence staples driven pretty quick. I have some mock orange fence posts on my place that was installed so I am told back in the 1930's and they are like the day they were put in. Insects and rot do not affect it one bit. You can actually see it dry out after you cut it. The chips come out with a very dry feeling, even though it is oozing the white latex like sap.

It smells bad outside when burning it (like a soft coal stove smells) puts out just about as much heat as hickory or oak but it lasts longer in the stove than any other wood I have ever burned.
About 3 years ago I swapped a fellow in Texas a load of mock orange for a load of Mesquite. He wanted and needed Mock Orange for his crafts and I wanted mesquite for BBQ ing. He uses it to make chello and fiddle bows, and Indians used to use it to make bows in this area. It does not grow all over the country, but you will usually find it in hedgerows as it was commonly planted back in the 1800's as a sort of property line barrier as they get thick and gnarly and full of thorns so it seperated fields and properties pretty darn good. Cows will from time to time try and eat a mock orange fruit, but about the only animal I know of that eats them is the Fox squirrels. The male tree has the thorns and the female tree has the fruits normally but they can self polinate so sometimes you find a tree with both thorns and fruit. The thorns are hell on tractor tires and barefeet.


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## Live Oak (Dec 22, 2003)

This year has not been a very good year for selling firewood. Still have about 4 cords left I haven't sold yet. 

Slip are you talking about full cords or face cords/ricks. It is almost not worth my effort to cut, split and stack a cord for a $100. I do it as much for the exercise as anything else. 

Frankie, you sound like you have sold a stick or tow of firewood!   Wish I could get $120 a cord around here. Although we have gotten $45 a rick in residential neighborhoods when we delivered and stacked it. We give them a little more than a rick (more like a rick and a quarter) just to make sure the customers are happy and get return business. 

Out west folks are paying $250 to $350 a cord according to a friend in Nevada. I would cut wood for a living all day long for that price! 

I had a bunch of poplar I am just about finished burning up. It is about like burning styrofoam.  It lasts about 1/3 as long as the oak and burns OK if you burn it hot to keep the creosote down. 

I am currently working on cutting up the tree tops left by loggers on about 35 acres. Got about 2 cords cut so far. It has been real muddy and soft which makes it very tough to skid the logs out to where I can cut them up. 

The choker cables work great! Makes pulling big pieces out of the tree piles MUCH easier. Hopefully it will dry out and I can get back at it soon.


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## slipshod (Sep 19, 2003)

*around here*

We sell it by the rick or face cord, but more often by the truckload. I am rather tired of firewood right now. The cold January now has people scrambling for firewood. My back and my hands are sore from sawing. Just about every thing I had stacked up for cutting is gone. There are several hundred more ash on a piece I want to clear, but I don't see myself getting to them any time soon.
Don't fool yourself, there is nothing easy about firewood .I do it because it suits my needs right now. Clearing acres to be able to plant or graze them. It sure aint a great way to make a living. I normally cut a few hours at a time at a pace that does not beat me to death. Most of the stuff I get is from jobs I do or dropped off by a couple of guys that run tree sevices. As for osage orange we have them here and the roots make the neatest walking sticks. We also have an abundance of honey locust, I let it dry until the bark gets loose then cut it. The stuff grows like weeds and is hard and dense ,burns great, splits like butter.


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## Live Oak (Dec 22, 2003)

I am about like you with the excitement level over cutting wood Slip. I cut it all Summer and a good part of the Winter. I would like to get it all cut up while it is still cold outside. I am going to have to work up my enthusiasm. :truth:


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## Stewart (Sep 17, 2003)

I can't imagine doing it the old fashioned way, with an axe and hand saw!!!! Talk about a backache!!


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## Live Oak (Dec 22, 2003)

It is still a big PITA using an O-66 chainsaw and a engine driven hyd. log splitter. It is good exercise but I just have to take it easy and not over do it with my back too.


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## PeteNM (Sep 18, 2003)

About thirty years ago, a friend and I were splitting some hedge (osage orange, bodark) with a splitter and his grandad drove up. He stood and watched till we stopped shaking his head. We ask him what was up. He said if they'd had equipment when he was a kid there woulnd't be any wood left in the country for us to cut.......


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## Live Oak (Dec 22, 2003)

Osage orange according to the charts I have read is by far the highest btu wood out there. Wish it grew around there!


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## Ingersoll444 (Sep 17, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Chief _
> *Osage orange according to the charts I have read is by far the highest btu wood out there. Wish it grew around there! *



REALY good for boat frames also. With all the twists, and turns, it makes real nice knees, and frames. Also the stuff just does not rot at all.


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