If I have 10 cords of wood in log form and I cut and split it how much will I have? Will I end up with 8 cords, will it stay 10 cords, will it be 12 cords???? What do you think?
It will grow some if you split while it's green, then it will shrink back down. As for a guess I don't know, there is no rule of thumb that we keep in the back of our mind as foresters. Sent from my moto g(7) using Tapatalk
If they measured (correctly) the logs using cordwood yield as an estimate of volume then you have 10 cords of wood. If they measured by weight then the load was xx pounds of wood. Your metric doesn't miraculously change. Log yield is usually stated as a range estimate because the logs put aside for firewood are usually crooked, don't always stack well and can net a lot of air space in the load. If you bought a 10 cord load of logs and only get 8 cords you didn't buy a 10 cord load of logs, you bought a poorly estimated 10 cord load of logs. If you get 12 cords out of a 10 cord load that load stacked in the trailer very well. Was likely over weight too.
Usually once it is stacked it is a bit less. For sure you lose some of the wood as it turns into sawdust but also once you split the wood a row of split wood will take up a bit less room than a row of rounds as there simply is not as much air space if it is stacked right. However, there is a lot of variance in how people stack! If anyone does not believe that, all he has to do is look at various pictures on this forum. Some are sloppy, some are so-so and some are extremely neat. But how many can compare with this stacking job?
Extremely tight and actually a thing of beauty. But I'm sure it dries just slightly faster than the wood in rounds since it's so tight and not much room for air flow. Sent from my moto g(7) using Tapatalk
That's kinda like the question.. "Which is heavier, a ton of bricks, or a ton of feathers?" If you really have 10 cord in log form, it should equal 10 cord CSS.
But one thought is that you will never get it as tightly togeather as when it's in the round. But there won't be as big of air spaces as between the logs in theory if you even remotely try to fit the wood somewhat togeather when you stack it. Sent from my moto g(7) using Tapatalk
I remembered reading some threads about this on forestry forum. I had not been able to find them until now. Measuring cords from loggers in Forestry and Logging
Last “10-cord” load of logs I bought measured out to 7.5 cord of cut (24”), split & stacked 128 cubic foot cord. I’ve bought about 15 loads like this but only once did I cut, split and stack it to pallets for measuring. It was a real eye opener. According to the forestry post that you 94BULLITT linked, most of those guys said it’s normal. Needless to say, I was not real excited about it.
I have to agree with Chaz on this one. Although it makes perfect sense what Backwoods Savage said too take a face cord of stacked rounds, split and restacked will be less than a face cord. Depends on how tight it is stacked. I happen to be a tight "jigsaw puzzle" stacker. Depends on how tight the truck is stacked and what diameter the rounds are. Smaller rounds would take up more room.
The air space is why in forestry we use the term cord and it's defined as 128cuft of wood. But when talk about solid wood per cord (actual amount of wood in that space since a cord is wood and air)that number varies for the size of stacked wood, say pin pulpwood average diameter of 8" butt vs a log with a 16" butt. Sent from my moto g(7) using Tapatalk
How Solid is a Cord of Wood? | Autumn 2014 | Knots and Bolts Here is an interesting article I just quick found. I skimmed it. But to my earlier post. Large logs will have fewer voids, or air gaps but they will be huge, bigger for bigger rounds. And throw uneven or crooked logs in the mix those air gaps become more in uniform and larger. Smaller wood has many more air spaces but they will be a lot smaller for each one. Sent from my moto g(7) using Tapatalk
There is much baloney in that article. For instance, right off the bat he states, "Searching on the internet, I found the consensus to be that one cord of wood contains about 85 cubic feet of solid wood, which means that 43 cubic feet of that must not be wood." For sure where the guy went wrong was to believe the BS on the Internet. I stack our wood a bit loose on purpose but certainly not like that article states. According to that I should have 1/3 of my wood stacks with air rather than wood! Anyone who would stack wood like that is worse than a novice for sure. When I was writing the above I started laughing when I remembered this "know it all" fellow who really got onto my case. I had let the idiot come onto our land to cut for free. Yet he got all over me because I had just sold a cord of wood to someone and was loading it. He claimed it was not a cord but for the reason that I crib the ends (even though with this cord the ends were filled in even if cribbed). I let him go on and on for a while then blasted him. I actually gave him a hand operated calculator (commonly called a tape measure) and asked him to measure the stacks of wood. Of course when he finished he did not talk quite so loud nor as certain. Seems the stacks measured 10' in length by 4 1/2' in height and 4' in depth. Sometimes your eye will let you down... Anyway, that article is just plain bull.
I agree the guy know nothing. Like I said I skimmed it but did read the part about internet research. The number his source states is a bit low but I am pretty sure I remember the number we as foresters use for logs I think is 90cuft. And this number is determined by weight. It's a known how much green oak or green mixed hardwood weighs per cuft. Take the weight divided Dry weight per cuft and it gives you the actual amount of wood in the amount weighed. This is the reason most states have a law that wood must be purchased by ton. Takes all this air assumptions out of it. Owner and logger are paid for actual wood they haul not air. I will talk about and mention cords more in one of these posts than I will in an entire year of work dealing with close to $2,000,000 worth of timber sales. We just don't talk in cords as professional foresters. Sent from my moto g(7) using Tapatalk
I think there is "shrinkage" because in log form, there is more air space than when it is CSS. Also throughout the cutting and splitting, you are going to loose some wood to saw dust, bark falls off, and fines from the splitting. I think if you took a stacked a face cord of rounds, then split and stacked it, you may end up with a lower percentage of wood "lost" because logs are not straight and they are usually bigger on one end than then other creating more air space than what you would have with rounds stacked. This is the reason mills buy wood by the weight. A load of logs in Virginia is supposed to be sold by weight.
Well, we never did either when I worked in the woods. But that was many, many, many moons ago paleface.
My wifes father argued to the day he died that wood grows when cut and split. His point was if you split a round you can't put it back inside the same circle it came from. True but you can stack it selectively and it takes up the same or less cubic inches than the round did. I just know that I burn 8 cord a year and put up another 8 cord to replace it.
Well, I agree with both of you. Pick out a round that will just barely fit inside a 5 gallon pail, split the round in to firewood sized pieces and then try and put it back in the pail. I haven’t seen it work. But...take a log truck and cut and split all the logs and try and put the pieces back on the log truck. Easy to do. Just too much air space with 24’ or 100” logs for it not to work that way. My beef is that sellers are saying 10 cord off a log truck will equal 10 cord of finished firewood. In my experience, that just isn’t so. Side conversation, but very much related...I would argue that since a cord of wood is defined as (at least as far as the Department of Weights and Measures in the state of Maine is concerned) a stack of cut/split/stacked wood with a volume of 128 cubic ft. - that selling anything involving logs in cords as a measurement is misleading at best...
Around here there's no sellers measuring firewood by cord until it's css. Most sellers will advertise an estimate, such as 6-8 cord for a triaxle load, or a full dump truck "about three cord." No real way of accounting for twist on the logs though, as mentioned a few times. If you're up against it and need to know so you can order more wood, 7 cord is probably a safe bet from a triaxle load that was loaded honestly.
