kenny chaos said:
My supply man gets $210, sells thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of cords every year.
Updates all equipment regularly. Buys logs from all over the NE (no money when working in the woods).
Some of these loggers do a lot better than the firewood guys. I just took in a face cord of the nicest white ash I've had in a while. Beautiful, clear, straight-grained stuff, almost a shame to burn it. I got it from a logger who lives near me but is cutting out of a woodlot an hour away. At the end of the day, he felled an extra tree, bucked and split it in the woods and loaded it as high as he dared into the back of his pickup and drove home with his gas and beer money in the back of his truck. $50 for the fattest face cord I've ever got delivered. I haven't stacked it yet, but I'll bet it stacks to more than a 4' high x 8' long pile, and it's cut 18-20".
I asked the guy if he wanted referrals and he just laughed. "Hell, no! I make my money logging. This is just for fun and some quick cash. If you lived out of the way, I'd never do."
Turns out this guy cuts down between
30-50 trees a day, depending on the terrain. Big timber, nothing I'd ever cut down in my life, mostly veneer logs. Limbs them (ain't much to do on a good, straight veneer tree, just cut the top off, basically), skids the logs, and lines them up for the buyers to make their offers, then off they go to Canada, Japan or China. You can see the quality of this dude's work in the cut ends. Look like they were cut with a circ saw they're so smooth and square. I asked about his saw and he showed me the 385XP he did the damage with. Little nubs of cutters left, got that way entirely by hand filing. He apologized for how dull it was, but it felt sharp as a brand new chain to me. Only 48 years old, but 35 years in the business, starting as a teen with his dad (who did it all his own life). You get pretty dang good at almost anything after 35 years.
My point to all this is that the logging part is the easier part if you really know your stuff. The c/s/d part is where all the work is. My guy says he can fell the tree, buck and split a face cord out of it and load it on his truck, all by himself, in a little less than a hour. That's a lot less than $50/hr if you factor in the equipment, gas, oil, etc. That's maybe 2 cord delivered in a long, hard day. Then you have to figure the landowner's share - typically 50% of the wholesale log value. I'll bet you'd be lucky to clear $200/day after all expenses were considered. Then subtract your down time when the weather is bad, or the snow is too deep, or the ground too muddy to use your equipment, etc. Subtract $10-12K/yr for medical insurance, and consider the fact that these guys better salt away some serious coin, 'cause they ain't paying into their SS like most working folks and they're gonna be broke down way before they hit 65.
Compare all that with what he'll get for all those logs (even at only pennies a board foot) when some veneer maker from Japan comes and buys them all and hauls them away, it's easy to see why this guy wants no part of the firewood business at any price per cord.
I voted $250/cord, based on what I could do as a young man in good shape. Still, a nasty way to make a living.
