My mother grew up in a house heated exclusively with wood. As kids, processing firewood was a family affair and everyone had a hand in part of the process. I learned a couple days ago that my grandfather sold wood on the side for years too. What surprised me was the WAY he sold it. It wasn't sold by the cord, face cord, bundle or even cut and split. He apparently found a niche market for selling 4 foot log lengths to tons of people locally. I never heard of such a thing but it kind of made sense to me. Three 16" lengths per log, easy enough to process from there. Anyone hear of such a thing?
That's a new one on me but look at all the time he saved by not having to cut it down to 16" and then split and pile it. Everyone had their own saws and splitting methods back then. Maybe a lot of folks didn't have access to woodlots where they could cut their own.
Never heard of that. Did he use equipment, or just cut small diameter stuff that could easily be worked by hand?
A lot of the old timers cut wood that way. Then they processed it into firewood lengths on the 3 point saw
From my understanding he sold logs ranging in diameter from 6 inch up to 2+ feet. Basically whatever he could fit into an 8 foot bed pickup. This was back in the 60s-70s.
I could see where someone using wood for both heating and cooking might want to cut the four-footers to whatever size is needed. Some load their wood cookstoves by lifting a griddle and inserting shorter lengths rather than using the front/side door - maybe the original top-loading design?
That is the way I cut my wood when I go up to the mountains. The 4 foot lengths are light enough I can handle, they cut into 16 inch which fits my wood stove, and I can load them end to end in my truck bed. Makes sense to me.
We used to do that with my Granddad, same reason as stated above, it was hauled out in 4' lengths & then processed on a belt driven buzz saw. Hand split after that.
Probably within the last 12 years I bought some from a guy that worked in the woods all day. At the end of the day, he would load up a trailer with the log cutoffs and haul them to customers. Usually nothing longer than 5'; most were 3'-4'. Saved wear and tear on my pickup and time driving to and back for wood. Well worth the few $$$ he charged.
Ive never heard of it. Ive sold green unsplit rounds to customers but never in uncut lengths. Makes sense though for a labor saver.
Also back then my grandfather was the First Selectman in his town (basically the mayor) and was involved in a lot of building projects where land was being cleared. I can imagine he would've had his pick of whatever trees he wanted, and probably helped a good deal with the actual lot clearing (not just some photo op for a ground breaking ceremony). He was a hands-on politician while simultaneously running his own business as the owner of a small machine shop. Here I am working for someone else, full time parent, cutting wood on the side and have very little free time of my own. I don't know how he did it.
I pretty much cut everything to 4'. It stacks great, stable and compact. I do use a buzz saw to cut 16" pieces. In Europe a lot of wood is cut to 4' then split and seasoned. It is then buzzed as needed.
Makes sense. My grandfather was the son of German immigrants so I wonder if that's where he picked up the practice from? Maybe HolsatiaRedneck can enlighten me if this was standard operating procedure in Germany?
Around here 4 foot 8 foot and tree length are used. Not as common now as it was 20 years ago. 4 foot was just easier to deal with when loading trucks by hand. Worked for my uncle when I was in jr high school. He had a F-700 rack body and we would load that full. I put the wood up to him, he was on the truck stacking. He used a Jim Pole loader for 8 foot stuff. Sold both pulp and firewood. Didn’t do much for saw logs.
My grandfather would cut into 4 foot lengths with chainsaw then come in with the sawrig on back of the tractor. Grabbing wood off of the pile he generated could be dangerous to throw on the back of his 48 Chevy stake body dump - always had to watch footing. Definitely not an osha approved machine...
Yup -6400 - truck did it all. In its first life it was a municipal garbage truck. He picked it up in the late 50’s - ran it into the early 90’s. Grandfather built a beast of a stake dump body. Hauled it all from gravel to wood; manure to farm implements.
Working with stacks of 4 footers makes cordage calculations easy too. A face of 32 sq. ft. Would be a cord and you can calculate as a rectangle, triangle or trapezoid, like for the stacks shown above. This is one case where a "face cord" and a "cord" are the same thing.
