Legnth of your wood?

[Jon1270]

How much does split length seem to affect drying time?

 

[SolarAndWood]

How much does split length seem to affect drying time?

It certainly isn't a linear relationship as a function of length. Any time I do short cutoffs they are ready for the stove while the rest of the split may need another year or more. In the extreme case, even cut logs rot before they dry.

 

[Jon1270]

It certainly isn't a linear relationship as a function of length.

That's what I'd expect, and it seems significant here. Going long would save some labor (fewer cuts per cord) unless the longer rounds are so heavy that they're difficult to manage while splitting, but if it increases drying time then it could be very costly in terms of space required for the operation, for example if you have to keep 3 years' worth of inventory on hand instead of two, and you'd have to wait that much longer before getting paid. And then you might have to recut the wood for some customers, adding labor and tool wear and increasing waste. I think it would be best to err to the shorter side -- more potential customers, quicker seasoning.

A surgeon friend of mine likes to say, because it's evidently a popular maxim in orthopedic surgery, that the perfect is the enemy of the good.

 

[SolarAndWood]

A whole bunch of factors go into firewood production on the scale that any one guy can do. Until you know you have a market for a premium product at a premium price at some point in the future, it seems like your assumption going in should be that you are going to consume all of your own product. If you are willing to sell at a non-premium price, green delivered straight from the woodlot is where its at. Your costs go significantly higher as soon as you dump it somewhere, stack it and dry it. No need to add insult to injury by having to load non-ideal length wood into your own firebox or worse yet selling at that non-premium price after you have incurred the cost.

FWIW, I have sold about 1/3 of what I've produced over the past few years and cut a lot at 16" instead of my ideal 18". However, burning stuff that is 2" short is a lot different than 10" short. Same goes for size of splits. I have a good sized firebox and split big for longer burns. But, most people seem to want twig size splits.

 

[MasterMech]

I'd cut it at 26" for yourself and build a sawbuck.

How's that work?



Thing makes a whole lotta 16 inchers in a hurry. Load up both sides and rock & roll.

Gettin' a bit personal, aren't we?

This is a rare occurrence. Bunch of guys respond a an inquiry as to the length of their wood, every answer has been over 15" and nobody has yelled "BS!"

 

[Backwoods Savage]

You will very rarely go wrong with 16" lengths when it comes to sales.

 

[nate379]

I cut everything to 16" since that is what I use in my stove.... now my 16" is eyeballed and is more like 14-18".

I had one customer that asked for 24" lengths but my splitter isn't able to split wood that long (can only do up to 20"). He didn't really mind the shorter wood.

 

[Paulywalnut]

16"

Not sure how your market is where you live but out here very very few people want to pay extra for seasoned wood. I sell green wood at $225/cord and had a few well seasoned cords at $250/cord. I couldn't keep up with demand for green wood... could have been hauling 2-3 cords per day if I could have cut that much. The seasoned wood, I ended up having to sell it at $225/cord. Not one person wanted to pay the extra $25.

It's the same around here also. They claim dry or seasoned at
$250. I did get a dry cord from the guy and it was better than green but I would never call it seasoned.

 

[SolarAndWood]

How's that work?

Perfect, just need it on a set of forks so that you can dump it into the delivery truck when your done.

Now that I think about it, maybe my five foot bar and my five foot bucket have a future together.

 

[blwncrewchief]

My .02 would be 16" also. Almost any stove from small to large can burn 16". I can burn 20" N/S in my stove and the wood I cut a couple years ago I cut allot to 18-19". After burning the longer wood I have gone back to 16" +/- an inch. Pretty much everyone around here that sells wood is 16-18"

 

[711mhw]

Wow that's a lot of answers overnight! I was afraid that I would hear the 16" consensus. It's one of those things that go's through your mind while on the wood pile, thinking about how much more cutting & handeling there is in "stove wood" vs. what my boiler will take. I do have a "city" that I can haul to for sales and (hopefully) get somewhat of a premium for actual dry wood. I am not, and do not want to compete with the green wood seller, they are a dime a dozen around here. Thanks for your input!