Birch firewood

[Wood Doctor]

Speaking of prices, the local sawmill that processes huge cottonwood trees (and a few other species) for logs has dropped their price so low that the loggers can't even break even supplying them logs in bulk. Current price has dropped below $.19 a bd ft and a typical 4-bunk flatbed load brings in only $500. Loggers claim that at that price, they can come out ahead by processing and selling firewood instead. However, that means tooling up with delivery trucks, splitters, etc.

Just or the record, a bunk adds up to between 5 and 6 pickup truckloads.

 

[olympyk_999]

Just or the record, a bunk adds up to between 5 and 6 pickup truckloads

I want to know the average number of pieces of firewood, so I know I'm not being screwed..."Bob's firewood... hi I would like to order 7000 pieces of firewood...click...hello...are you there?...hello"

 

[Jeff Lary]

ha ha ha yea right ,"would you like 7000 pieces 1"x 16" long or 12" x 16" long cause 7000 is after all 7000 right???

 

[olympyk_999]

ha ha ha yea right ,"would you like 7000 pieces 1"x 16" long or 12" x 16" long cause 7000 is after all 7000 right???

umm....yes?

 

[svk]

To say firewood will always be several hundred a cord is wrong.

You can get mixed species firewood for $65 a cord or you can get kiln dried white oak for $600 a cord in MN. Still drives me crazy that some of these CL and newspaper classified guys advertise by the cord when it is actually a face cord.

Going back to the topic of this thread, where white birch grows it is considered a mid grade hardwood. But if you truck it further south in the state to where it doesn't grow, you can actually sell it for 20-30% more than oak because people like the way it looks.

 

[Jeff Lary]

umm....yes?

Yea I know that was a kinda confusing post. I was trying to make a joke and got carried away I guess. I was just thinking if you said a cord of wood had x amount of pieces you might get 7000 pieces an inch in diameter and 16 inches long or you might get 7000 pieces a foot in diameter and 16 inches long. That's a long trip for a half fast joke I guess.

 

[Dirtboy]

Gray birch is great shoulder wood. I have a bunch of them growing in back, and take one or two early in the year, split and stack right away. Ready burn at the end of September when I am not yet ready to burn the good stuff.

 

[olympyk_999]

Yea I know that was a kinda confusing post. I was trying to make a joke and got carried away I guess. I was just thinking if you said a cord of wood had x amount of pieces you might get 7000 pieces an inch in diameter and 16 inches long or you might get 7000 pieces a foot in diameter and 16 inches long. That's a long trip for a half fast joke I guess.

Huh? I don't get it...i just want 7000 pieces of firewood, what's so hard to understand about that???? lol

 

[bigblue12v]

Geez can't hardly give away soft wood here as firewood. Us boiler people burn anything but don't buy any. Here if you have a boiler you generally already have a supply. Indoor stove and fireplace people only want hardwood and only pay 150/cord usually. Pretty lame. They'll burn maple but that's about the only soft thing they'll pay for.

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[cantoo]

1st pic is 1800 pcs of ash at 16" long. 2nd pic is 600 pcs of poplar at 32" long. Boy a pile with 7000 pcs in it would be pretty big.

 

[Wood Doctor]

Another vote for 16" to 17" logs came in today. Customer installed a fireplace insert, and that's about all the length it will take. I cut all mine 16" to 19". The shorter ones go to guys like him and the longer ones go to the regular fireplace customers. I simply keep a stick gauge handy as I load the truck. Works every time.

He requested elm rather than birch and that also works. I have much more elm than birch. The elm bark is gone and it's splitting beautifully. Dries in a couple of days in the sun and wind.

 

[olympyk_999]

1st pic is 1800 pcs of ash at 16" long. 2nd pic is 600 pcs of poplar at 32" long. Boy a pile with 7000 pcs in it would be pretty big.
View attachment 451392 View attachment 451393

nice to see someone else here counts their pieces...but how did you come out with such even numbers? are you sure it wasnt 1803 pieces, or 596 pieces?......... exact counting is important...how else would you know if youre getting what you payed for??

 

[olympyk_999]

Another vote for 16" to 17" logs came in today.

you have people vote on what length you should cut your firewood?? what if they lose and the winning vote's length is too long for them to use? do they have to cut every piece down to usable length????

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Geez can't hardly give away soft wood here as firewood. Us boiler people burn anything but don't buy any. Here if you have a boiler you generally already have a supply. Indoor stove and fireplace people only want hardwood and only pay 150/cord usually. Pretty lame. They'll burn maple but that's about the only soft thing they'll pay for.

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Birch isn't softwood. Neither is maple.

 

[bigblue12v]

Birch isn't softwood. Neither is maple.

The birch we have here's definitely soft it burns like paper you could split it with a long knife probably lol. We have silver maple, Japanese maple, green maple and hard maple. It is regarded as in between wood most people will accept it fine but they don't really consider it hardwood. The hard maple is considered hard wood.

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[ChoppyChoppy]

The birch we have here's definitely soft it burns like paper you could split it with a long knife probably lol. We have silver maple, Japanese maple, green maple and hard maple. It is regarded as in between wood most people will accept it fine but they don't really consider it hardwood. The hard maple is considered hard wood.

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It may be "soft", but it's not softwood. Generally speaking if it sheds it's leaves in fall it's hardwood.

 

[bigblue12v]

It may be "soft", but it's not softwood. Generally speaking if it sheds it's leaves in fall it's hardwood.

You can be correct, I'm not going to argue. But you still won't sell birch around here because it burns almost as fast as you can load it.

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[Sam.coots]

So with the "new firewood formula".
1000 pieces =cord
300=face cord

So at 30 pieces this trailer load is only 1/10 of a face cord. I better get to work since I need 2 cord a month.


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[Jeff Lary]

wow too much math for me

 

[cantoo]

My logs are 12' long and I counted the piles of logs before I started cutting. Used a magic marker and marked the ends. There is a short piece on the end of every 12' log that was cut into 32" long rounds, I didn't count them in the total but of course there would be one for every 12' log. I also sell a few 12' logs so I mark they for diameter to figure out how much I'm selling.