Got my FIRST wood delivery..... BUT....

HI HearthKB,

You are in LI right? Check the pennysaver. Lots of tree service companies will give you wood for free. My BIL is in that business and I have seen many ads where they just need a place to dump without paying. And you have the tools to cut, split and stack.

Then you always know what you have, how long it has been stacked, the perfect size and know when you will run out.

Carpniels

This is what I plan on doing for years to come but I need wood to burn this year.

Jags..... NOW THAT'S HILARIOUS! and So True

The wood looks good from here...is it light to the heft? As wood gets seasoned it also get lighter and when you bang 2 pieces together you'll notice a nice clear sound ...not a thud.

Well.... The piece sizes vary so much, from smaller than quarter round to half rounds. The quarter rounds do sound like a bowling pin when knocking them together. The larger piece are a little hard to bang together because of their weight. I did manage to bang a few together and it was definitely a thud but it might be because the pieces were so large. I might have to go through the pile and split those before stacking.

A bowling pin sound is good. btw if you split by hand check this out. With our new EPA stove we use smaller splits now too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_olacH1hlWg

By looking at the pictures I see some red oak in there, split a few pieces.......you'll be able to tell if its seasoned......for the oak there should'nt be a stong smell and or dark color on the inside. Sperate the stuff up and split any large "questionable pieces" (especially the oak with bark attached) Get to know your species......in a pinch I've weeded out Ash/red maple and birch to get me by. Its hard to tell from the pics if your load is true.......goodluck this year......start buying for next year.


WoodButcher

Yes here it is.......we have all been in this guys shoes at some point......people here will corrupt him into a true "wood junkie"

BeGreen - 19 August 2008 12:43 PM
My tools are old, though more sophisticated and expensive, I use my body. (It takes a lot of wine and patient aging to get this technique down). I knock on the ends of the splits in the stack. Wet wood tends to thud, dry wood will give a nice tone, like a marimba. Then I feel the wood by weight, look at it for good checking on the ends, split it, feel for the coolness of moisture by pressing it against my face. If it is dry, the split face will feel no cooler than the unsplit one. Then pour a glass of wine and start the fire and observe. If it’s sizzling on the ends, recalibrate the tester. If it’s burning well, reward the tester.

WOODBUTCHER - 19 August 2008 01:03 PM
I must admit that I’ve used the cheek on my face a few times like BaGreen.....smelling the wood also helps........like with birch/hickory......oak is easy to tell.

got wood? - 19 August 2008 03:09 PM
oh good...I’m not the only one who sniffs their wood!

OK guys and gals..... I stacked some more wood tonight but had to stop because my wheel barrow got a flat. Geez... What else will go wrong!! Anyway, this is DEFINITELY NOT 2 full cords of wood. As you can see from the pictures below I only got a little over two face cords and don't have that much left!

So what I have to do now is get the tire repaired and finish stacking this wood. Then I'll call the dealer and tell him to come down and measure it himself. He can't deny the fact that its VERY short. Hopefully he's not a jerk and agrees to make up the difference.

This pile is 11' in length and about 5' high. Piece range from 15" to 20".


This is a regular face cord rack that I stacked.


and... This is what's left of the pile!! Not much there. :-(


Here is a picture of some UNseasoned wood that was in the pile. Found quit a few of these.

11x5x1.5 is 82.5 cubic feet, less than one cord. I'd complain, and for sure would give the guy no future business. So if there's a bit more yet to stack, you may approach one cord, or $380 per cord real cost.

Again, I'd not expect to get a full cord of hardwood, even green, in NJ for $190.

You didn't add the other face cord that I stacked. You can see it in the picture. Even with the face cord added, its still WAY short!

My wood guy brings me 6 face cords (16" average length) and it is a huge pile on my driveway. It takes a few hours for me to haul it into my backyard with the wheel barrow. This is the second year in a row. After I stack it, I measure and it equals 2 cords. 1 cord is 4x4x8=128 cubic feet. Just stack it rectangular and measure the dimensions.

Ok, much better, I didn't translate the pictures correctly and took the first two pictures to be of the same wood, not as two separate stacks. That said, the first picture has an estimated 82 CF, or about 0.6 cord. Someone early on estimated you may have 1.5 cords, that seems to be about right. If that is true the the cost per cord is about $250, a bit high but not way out of line for my area of NJ. One of the tree services advertises $240 per cord and they charge 7% sales tax. That is about $250. I didn't buy from them.

That last picture is some nice look'in maple!


WoodButcher

Just what I was thinking! Looks like rock maple even. I've only got about half a cord of that left, but after fighting to stack a couple cords of beech without it falling over, I don't even care how it burnst. I'm going to specifically look for mostly hard maple for futures. Lots of it around here, thank goodness.

Box the ends on the pile and it won't fall over and you won't have to stack in a trapezoid

I planned on doing that this weekend.

Why is it that on half of the treads on this website I can't see the pictures that are posted?

dude, how many pictures are you looking for? I get seven, three on the opening post and four follow ups by the originator. If you're getting those you getting all the pictures as far as I can tell.

In this entire thread, I get exactly ZERO pictures. It seems like every other thread that has pictures, I don't see them. Is it just me?

I can see them

If you're using Internet Explorer, go to "Tools" then "Internet Options". Select the "Advanced" tab. Scroll down to "Multimedia" and make sure "Show Pictures" is checked.

Do you see the empty place holders for the pix? If so, have you tried clicking on those?

I don't have an "Advanced" tab in "Internet Options"???