# Load of Wood



## scfa99 (Jan 7, 2008)

Forgive me for I have sinned.  After several years of scrounging I broke down and bought firewood.  I found a tree service in NJ that sold me this full grappling truck load of (3 are oak, 1 hickory, 1 maple, rest ash) for 325.  Seems like a good deal.  He said should be 6 + cords.


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## ansehnlich1 (Jan 7, 2008)

now there's a nice pile of firewood for sure. i'm about to do the same round here, buy me a pile of log length like that. nothin wrong with buyin it, sheesh, 325 bucks, think if you bought 200 gallon of oil at about 3.25 a gallon, and that'd only last a couple months right?


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## jpl1nh (Jan 7, 2008)

ansehnlich1 said:
			
		

> now there's a nice pile of firewood for sure. i'm about to do the same round here, buy me a pile of log length like that. nothin wrong with buyin it, sheesh, 325 bucks, think if you bought 200 gallon of oil at about 3.25 a gallon, and that'd only last a couple months right?


Plus you'd miss the fun of cutting and splitting it.  I'm serious, (notice I didn't mention stacking it?)


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## titan (Jan 8, 2008)

jpl1nh said:
			
		

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I'm with ya.....I can cut and split all day and it's more fun than work.As for stacking.....I'd sooner get a punch in the mouth.


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## They Call Me Pete (Jan 12, 2008)

Why stack it. Leave it in a humped up pile with better circulation than a tight stack pile. The less I touch it the better off. Although some don't have the room to have a big unsightly pile taking up room in their yard.


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## sixminus1 (Jan 15, 2008)

SCFA said:
			
		

> Forgive me for I have sinned.  After several years of scrounging I broke down and bought firewood.  I found a tree service in NJ that sold me this full grappling truck load of (3 are oak, 1 hickory, 1 maple, rest ash) for 325.  Seems like a good deal.  He said should be 6 + cords.



SCFA, where in NJ are you?  I'm looking for a load like that, but all the folks in the shore area only seem to have "seasoned" pre-split wood, at around $180/cord.


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## Cazimere (Jan 15, 2008)

SCFA said:
			
		

> Forgive me for I have sinned.  After several years of scrounging I broke down and bought firewood.  I found a tree service in NJ that sold me this full grappling truck load of (3 are oak, 1 hickory, 1 maple, rest ash) for 325.  Seems like a good deal.  He said should be 6 + cords.



 It's probably just me, (my sight ain't what it used to be) but I'm having a hard time seeing 6 cords there.
How long are those logs ?


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## scfa99 (Jan 20, 2008)

sixminus1 said:
			
		

> SCFA, where in NJ are you?  I'm looking for a load like that, but all the folks in the shore area only seem to have "seasoned" pre-split wood, at around $180/cord.



I'm up in Hunterdon county, Clinton area.  The tree service is about 45 mins north in upper Warren County.  You down by the shore?  Be a long haul for him.  Let me know if you want his name.

Matt


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## webbie (Jan 20, 2008)

Here is a way of figuring it......roughly.

take the larger logs (4) which all seem to be close in size. Figure the cubic size of them....

(guess here) 
20 inchs by 20 feet

Volume of that: about 40 cubic feet.
80 cubic feet is one cord (a cord is 128 cf, but not solid, so 80-85 is the amount of solid wood).

Maybe they are longer and wider than than - if you want, give us the dia and length of those big babies and we will calc it, or do it yourself here:

http://www.online-calculators.co.uk/volumetric/cylindervolume.php


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## scfa99 (Jan 20, 2008)

Alright you guys made me go out into the cold to measure.  all are 16' long.  3 are 25" diameter, 1 is 22", 1 is 20", 3 are 18", 1 is 15, 2 are 12.


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## webbie (Jan 20, 2008)

Well, the 4 biggest ones together are about 210 cubic feet. - or 2.5 cords
The 3 18's are about a cord all together
and the other ones at about 1/2 a cord

total about 4 cords. Still not a bad price these days.


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## scfa99 (Jan 20, 2008)

Thanks Craig, its funny when i saw it piled up I thought that looks more like 4 cords rather than six but figured what the heck do I know.  While its a bit of a downer that its not the stated amount I am pleased that I was able to purchase next years supply for 300 bucks AND it can all be cut to the length I want and its premium hardwoods not mixed with low BTU wood.  I guess his boom truck is not as large as some of the other tree services as they all seem to say it will measure out to 6 - 7 cords.


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## sixminus1 (Jan 21, 2008)

SCFA said:
			
		

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Yeah, I'm in Northern Ocean county.  Doesn't seem like it would make much sense to try to call the same folks, given the distance.  On the flip side, my neighbor keeps bringing home 6-8ft lengths of oak, locust, and cherry.  He has the truck, I have the chainsaw and log splitter, so we share everything.  So far it's a good arrangement.  If we can keep it up, we'll both have enough for next season.  Until then, it'll probably be more the of same old lies from firewood guys delivering green wood that's only been sitting for 2 mos.  But, from what I'm reading here, everyone's first year is rough


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## Eric Johnson (Jan 21, 2008)

Nice looking wood. I'd say no more than 4 full cords & probably closer to three when all is said and done.

Watch for metal in the butt logs. Quite often trees removed by tree services contain some metal, especially if they were yard trees.


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## Gene K. (Jan 21, 2008)

Titan said:
			
		

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I look at stacking as a breather from splitting. By the time that the wheelbarrow is full, I roll it to the stack pile. After it's all stacked, I go back start splitting.

Say, is that a picture of a pet dumbo rat?


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## woodburn (Jan 29, 2008)

I've never heard of metal being in the trees after a tree service takes them down.  What do you mean by that?


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## Chardler (Jan 29, 2008)

If the tree came from someones yard, especially the back yard, it's possible that at one point long ago someone nailed something to the tree, wrapped wore around it, or put clothesline hardware on it and then the tree grew over it, but you get to discover it in 2008 with your chainsaw, 20 years later.  Ever build a tree house in your backyard?  My brothers and i probably left ten pond of nails in my parents oak trees over the years!
If the trees came from the woods or forest, there's less of a chance of someone nailing or screwing metal in them as they have been isolated since they were saplings.
In other parts of the country, bullets are regularly found as well, but we don't have that problem too much here on Long Isaland.


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## Eric Johnson (Jan 29, 2008)

^^^^ Beat me to it!

All I was trying to say is that trees growing near buildings almost always contain things like nails, barbed wire, ceramic insulators, spikes, lag bolts, etc., and that tree services usually work in populated areas, so their wood is more likely to contain metal. If you buy a load of logs from a logger, chances are it came from deep in the woods somewhere and is probably clean. That's not to say that some pretty strange stuff isn't found (the hard way) in forest-grown trees, either. From shotguns to axes to lag bolts from deer stands, etc.--it can get pretty interesting. Most sawmills have a collection of hardware that has mangled their saws over the years. One mill I visited once hit a maple syrup tap--in an oak log. Another one cut through a horseshoe--twice. Time to get a new saw, and probably a new sawyer.


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## Chardler (Jan 29, 2008)

I'm slated to get a large delivery of wood tomorrow morning from a tree service company that's subcontracting for LIPA.  He says we'll get a bout 50 yds of hardwood in tree length form, pretty much like the first post here.  It's free and he says if I want more, let the trucker know and he'll bring by another truck load.  He's got a grappler and he'll drive it into the backyard and unload it.  From there I'll cut it up and split it.  It's free and I don't have to go get it.
If it works out OK, I'll give you his number and maybe you can take some if you have the room for it and the means to process it.  He needs more people like myself to drop it off at the end of every day, that's what he says at least.  We'll see tomorrow!  Maybe I'll try and post a pic.


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## My_3_Girls (Jan 30, 2008)

Eric Johnson said:
			
		

> ^^^^ Beat me to it!
> 
> All I was trying to say is that trees growing near buildings almost always contain things like nails, barbed wire, ceramic insulators, spikes, lag bolts, etc., and that tree services usually work in populated areas, so their wood is more likely to contain metal. If you buy a load of logs from a logger, chances are it came from deep in the woods somewhere and is probably clean. That's not to say that some pretty strange stuff isn't found (the hard way) in forest-grown trees, either. From shotguns to axes to lag bolts from deer stands, etc.--it can get pretty interesting. Most sawmills have a collection of hardware that has mangled their saws over the years. One mill I visited once hit a maple syrup tap--in an oak log. Another one cut through a horseshoe--twice. Time to get a new saw, and probably a new sawyer.



My family has an old smaller mill - worst thing we ever hit was buried inside of an old Oak tree that was lining a street or town common somewhere in western MA.  It seems that as the older trees die, they rot out in the middle, and to stop the tree from rotting anymore, they fill it with concrete  Quite a shock on Pop's (or was it Gramp's) face when the 52" circular got into that  Changed the teeth after that one.


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## struggle (Jan 30, 2008)

I was cutting into a large cottonwood tree bucking it and hit something at least a foot into the tree and trashed the chain. I kept cuttign around said item as chain was shot at his point and it was a big a$$ nail that was put there at least 50 years ago. .

It is just  the risk we take. I have hit multiple nails over the last few years but never one so deep into a tree as that one was.


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## BrotherBart (Jan 30, 2008)

My_3_Girls said:
			
		

> My family has an old smaller mill - worst thing we ever hit was buried inside of an old Oak tree that was lining a street or town common somewhere in western MA.  It seems that as the older trees die, they rot out in the middle, and to stop the tree from rotting anymore, they fill it with concrete  Quite a shock on Pop's (or was it Gramp's) face when the 52" circular got into that  Changed the teeth after that one.



I know the feeling. I needed wood pretty badly one year so I went to cut some at a construction site five miles from here. The logs were all neatly piled about ten feet high. I picked a free one a few feet up the side of the pile. One cut through it and I found the large chuck of concrete it was laying on. Completely hidden under the logs. The chain was five minutes old and had to go in the trash.


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## jpl1nh (Jan 31, 2008)

woodburn said:
			
		

> I've never heard of metal being in the trees after a tree service takes them down.  What do you mean by that?


mostly nails, sometimes barbed wire.  Trees are wood and people pound all sorts of things into them in their yards


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## Bill (Feb 1, 2008)

My cabin was partial farm land at one time, and the farmer left old sleighs, and broken farm equipment lay in the woods. Well the trees grow right up around the steel. I could retrieve some of these items but would have to cut down the trees. So you can find all kinds of hazards in any wood, might be why I need an electric chain sharpener.


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## DiscoInferno (Feb 2, 2008)

I once sawed into a cache of landscape rock in the base of a yard maple.  Grinder rescued the chain.

On our MI property there is sandstone everywhere which is well camouflaged on the sandy ground.  I've cut many a sandstone groove bucking on the ground there.  I don't seem to learn.


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## Eric Johnson (Feb 2, 2008)

I've tried to cut stumps down below the soil line at various times over the years and always am reminded, the hard way, that there are lots of little stones and sand and other chain wreckers apparently embedded in stump wood. Even if you carefully dig everything out and clean the area to be cut, you're always going to ruin your chain pretty quick. The closer to the ground you cut any tree, the more grit your chain is going to encounter, if for no other reason that sand and other stuff splashes up against the trunk when it rains or the wind blows, and some of it is going to stick.


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## jrousell (Mar 14, 2008)

maybe its just me--but if I had oak and hickory and maple that bog aorund I would get someone to saw it up into  dimensional lumber, not burn it.
  sell  1/2  of it- and have  enough money to buy split delivered wood and  also a of great woodworking lumber...


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## Bill (Mar 14, 2008)

Very little demand for hardwoods right now, not much building going on. Last year I logged part of my property and the only thing the loggers wanted was black walnut, they did not want red oak, white oak, or cherry.


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