How long to process a cord

[Woodsplitter67]

I'v been tracking my time to get a cord together.
I do not have wood on my property so the time posted is for me to locate the wood, cut the wood to log lenth, bring to wood home, cut to rounds, split the wood and stack it in the woodshed.
My average tim per cord for all of this is between 15 and 17 man hours. I could get the time down some I'm sure, but I like my wood split a certain way and I just don't take any wood. Im particular in my wood usually only taking Oak and Cherry. So how long are you guys taking per cord

 

[Dataman]

When I was doing it (just quit last year) it would take about 2 hours for tree and couple hours for splitting (log splitter). When whole bunch of tree were down would call in guy to delimb them. He could do it in 10 min or less. Got a system, Wife would drag them out of the forest (most of the time in 50ft lengths). Timber Jack them up and buck em up. Give them week or 2 to dry (lighter). Then run thru Log Splitter. All White or Bull Pine. I had 30 trees delimbed for about hour work. Goes pretty fast with machinery. Chews the branches right off the trunk leaving the truck. Makes mulch out of the limbs and stumps and anything inside the pile (mice and such).

Stacking I found the pain in the butt. Then Wife would take 6ft rake and pickup debri. Bury it or burn it then.
Most of the time we just hookup cable with choker on it and drag em. Or pick them up if did not want to damage forest floor.

 

[Ashful]

Depends on how far I’m driving. I can haul a cord every two hours if the distance is within a half hour, and that includes felling, loading, transporting, and unloading.

Then when it comes time to split, I’ve done as much as 4.5 cords in a single day, but I usually do about a cord and then stop anymore, average time under 3 hours for bucking, splitting, stacking, and clean up.

All said, I’d guess I’m around 4-5 hours per cord. I’m burning 8-10 cords per year, so if I were at your 17 hours, I wouldn’t be able to do this.

I’m particular like you, my stacks are nothing but perfectly straight trunk wood, almost entirely oak. I toss all debris and anything crooked or punky into the fire pit. I can make a cubic yard of scrap processing a single cord, on some occasions.

 

[thewoodlands]

I'v been tracking my time to get a cord together.
I do not have wood on my property so the time posted is for me to locate the wood, cut the wood to log lenth, bring to wood home, cut to rounds, split the wood and stack it in the woodshed.
My average tim per cord for all of this is between 15 and 17 man hours. I could get the time down some I'm sure, but U like my wood split a certain way and I just don't take any wood. Im particular in my wood usually only taking Oak and Cherry. So how long are you guys taking per cord

I've never kept track since it seems most of our better wood comes from the side of one of the many hills we have. I'm sure my hours are up there since I usually haul it out with the rhino with the small trailer.

We do have some ash on the house property that we plan on felling because of EAB, that should take less time since it's closer. I did get two face cord or 0.62 of a cord of ash last fall, is a year good for seasoning time for ash if in a good area with wind and sun?

 

[johneh]

There are 4 of use that process 10 cords
1 person bucking from 20 ft logs
3 people splitting and stacking
and we do it in 2 days (a week end )
in April Then 3 year old stacks 10 cord are
moved to basement the long weekend
in September . All done by myself ,wife and 2 sons
been doing this the last 22 years with 4 and 18
years with just the wife

 

[peakbagger]

I break up all my hand splitting and cutting. I typically drop and buck rounds for one tank of gas then go split in place what I cut and then throw it in the truck. If things are going well I may do another round. With the new beech source I may have to change it up as beech is harder to split than maple, birch and ash. I sometimes just buck it and throw it in the truck and split it when I get home.

I am tempted to see if I can work out a deal with someone with a firewood processor. I pull the logs out of the woods and pile them up and then he comes and does his thing and I keep some percentage.

 

[blacktail]

I'm usually driving 45 minutes to get wood and bring a half cord of rounds home. It gets split and stacked when I unload it at home. The real variable is where it gets stacked. If it's stacked out front then the rack is 6 ft from the truck. If it's stacked out back, then I have to move it there in a wheelbarrow.
I'm guessing an average of 6 hours total per 1/2 cord load from the time I leave home to when it's put away as splits. So 12 hours a cord.

 

[Tar12]

It can be all over the scale for me but I try to line up a long row of rounds as my tree service buddy has been hooking me up with a lot of oak that is in rounds...I take my 14K dump trailer and load it with the bobcat and haul it home..I have approx. a semi-load out there now ready to split...going to be a very long day or 2.. I have split 6 cord in 8 hours with 3 guys working at a steady pace...I stack as space becomes available in my racks...I am far enough ahead that I try to gather up enough to split for a entire season and then knock it out and be done for the year...then I start gathering it up again to do all over again..my current method has me at under 3 hours per cord...thats including traveling time...if I have to go drop and limb and load by hand and haul home I can be looking at 6-8 hours per cord easy.

 

[Kevin Weis]

15 hours or so sounds right to me. Also depending on what wood your splitting (Elm vs. strait Hickory).

 

[Woodsplitter67]

It can be all over the scale for me but I try to line up a long row of rounds as my tree service buddy has been hooking me up with a lot of oak that is in rounds...I take my 14K dump trailer and load it with the bobcat and haul it home..I have approx. a semi-load out there now ready to split...going to be a very long day or 2.. I have split 6 cord in 8 hours with 3 guys working at a steady pace...I stack as space becomes available in my racks...I am far enough ahead that I try to gather up enough to split for a entire season and then knock it out and be done for the year...then I start gathering it up again to do all over again..my current method has me at under 3 hours per cord...thats including traveling time...if I have to go drop and limb and load by hand and haul home I can be looking at 6-8 hours per cord easy.

So dont take this the wrong way.. your math is off..
3 men 8 hours = 24 man hours to split 6 cords and that = 4 man hours per cord so your way over the 3 hours per cord and thats not adding in stacking cutting to rounds and bringing it to your home in the trailer

 

[Tar12]

So dont take this the wrong way.. your math is off..
3 men 8 hours = 24 man hours to split 6 cords and that = 4 man hours per cord so your way over the 3 hours per cord and thats not adding in stacking cutting to rounds and bringing it to your home in the trailer

You are indeed correct...I did not consider the total man hours...the wood I am getting is already cut into rounds...I travel 1 mile round trip from his wood yard to my place...sometimes I use the loader but most often the bobcat to load...this doesnt take long but does add time as well...at any rate i have a pretty gig going on for now...

 

[Woodsplitter67]

You are indeed correct...I did not consider the total man hours...the wood I am getting is already cut into rounds...I travel 1 mile round trip from his wood yard to my place...sometimes I use the loader but most often the bobcat to load...this doesnt take long but does add time as well...at any rate i have a pretty gig going on for now...

Yes you do..
I was driving an hour and 10 minutes round trip to get wood from my brothers. Sometimes i get bogged down in travel time
I now have a wood score on my block so now my time will be cut down..the travle time is a killer

 

[Tar12]

Yes you do..
I was driving an hour and 10 minutes round trip to get wood from my brothers. Sometimes i get bogged down in travel time
I now have a wood score on my block so now my time will be cut down..the travle time is a killer

There was a time in the not so distant past that I went where ever the wood was...be it 10 minutes or a hour or more following my logging buddy..the driving time sucked...and the wear and tear of those logging roads on my trucks got expensive...my old 96 2500 dodge is beat to pieces after all these years...I will seriously consider a smaller tractor if I have to go back to the logging operations..

 

[Sawset]

Cut = 2 hrs
Haul 1-2 mile = 2hrs
Hyd Split 2.5cord / 4hrs = 1.5hrs
Stack/Beer = 1hr+
6.5 hrs/cord
Moving by hand, pickup, and trailer.

 

[Woody5506]

Yeah breaking it all down like this reminds me of why I don't sell wood.

 

[OhioBurner©]

1 cord... I'd guess 6 hrs to 3 days, depending on which cutting session I'm thinking off.

For the quicker ~6hr figure, I was offered many cords of downed trees trailside on a local bike path. Tree service company cut down probably 100 trees widening the path, limbed, and left there on the edge of the path. I could drive right up, cut and load, in a few hours had around a cord bucked to length and loaded in the back of the truck. Line up the truck to the stack with the hydraulic splitter in between and a few hours split and stacked. I'm not super fast, I just go modest steady pace and take a few coffee/beer/whatever breaks. I am particular about length too, so spend some time marking every cut with ruler.

On the longer figure... I'd use to cut on the in-laws farm. It was a couple hour drive up there, not sure if you'd count that or not (would probably have went anyhow). I'd sort of 'camp' out, so hauled in food, sleeping bag, gear, etc with me. Its a couple hundred acres of woods and most not accessible by truck so I'd bring up my little tractor and trailer and scout out for blow down or standing dead. Would take me a good half day to setup camp, have a meal, unload equipment and scout out. Then the rest of the day cutting. Next day I'd cut and load. Was probably a 20 minutes or so round trip just driving the garden tractor and dump cart back and forth to the truck, so spent a couple hours just in transporting rounds to the truck. It'd take me just about until dark the next day to cut a whole cord and get it all loaded. Then I'd go pick up the family and head the couple hours back home. So all weekend, and I'd have a little over a cord perhaps. Then the splitting and stacking, back then I split all by hand, not really sure how long it took since I usually only split for an hour at a time before I tired, I'm not a bulky dude, but probably 2-3x longer than I could with the splitter. It was a real struggle getting enough cut this way, never could get a full years cut let alone get ahead the few years some do. But I just loved spending every moment I could up to the camp and in the woods, so cutting firewood was just a side benefit.

 

[mcdougy]

This is for ash on the back of our 50acre farm. 4 weekends equalled 9 cord. Sat.10am till 4pm. Drop, buck and split with axe, then throw in a pile. Sunday 11am till 2pm. Load, haul and dump at barn with Rtv. Additional 3 hours to throw in barn and stack.
So concur, 5-6 hours per cord when it's right here. Unfortunately I am almost thru the ash and will have to move on to neighbouring properties.

 

[captjack]

I get my logs from a tree company - sometimes I show up at job sites and they load logs with crane and or grapple into my 14x 7 dump trailer. Sometimes I make trips to their yard about an hour away with a coffee stop and we load with a grapple. Then the logs are dumped at the farm and stay there until I get time to process. Cutting into rounds is usually a morning with 2 of us - one cutting and one running a loader tractor - picking logs and then pushing rounds into a pile. Then I just spend time when i have it running the splitter. Its a tw5 so it eats wood up pretty quick. If I have 3 people we can split a cord in no time at all. What slows me down is 1) splitting by myself and stacking 2) splitting big big rounds - its slows ya down with all the re splits you have to do to get firewood size chunks. I have an elevator and can speed up the process if I just pile it but as we all know it doesn't dry real good and takes up more room that way. I'm 50 yrs old now and have slowed down doing all this. I set my goal at all or most of my firewood being done feb/march. If I get that done I'm happy.

 

[vwmike]

Takes me a full 8hr day to cut and split a chord of softwood here, by hand. I like to split at the firewood lot and leave the mess behind when I bring a load home. Usually unload the truck into the shed the next day, and that takes about another 1-2 hrs depending on how tired I am...

 

[Simonkenton]

I am at about the same time, to process a cord.
And I don't have much spare time, I am an over the road truck driver, gone for 14 days and home for 3.

Which is why, these days, I buy wood. I can get a cord delivered to my wood shed, dumped out of the dump truck, for $250.

I do like to cut and split wood but, Thank God for the white oak dump truck.

 

[Dobish]

when i get wood, it tends to be at 3 cords at a time, or a load full. Do we count the time the wood has been sitting waiting for me to get to it?

 

[Woodsplitter67]

when i get wood, it tends to be at 3 cords at a time, or a load full. Do we count the time the wood has been sitting waiting for me to get to it?

Nope.. lol

 

[Dobish]

Nope.. lol

good, because i have some friends that would say that my 6 hours per cord is not accurate since the wood has been in their back yard for a month

In all honesty, I tend to only get 1 tool out at a time, so it is either a chainsaw day, or a splitter day.

 

[jaoneill]

Guess I'm not doing half bad for an old guy (71). I cut my wood 23" and split down to 4"-5" and mostly leave limbs under 3" where they fall. I generally drop, limb and block up a bit over 3 cord in a 4 hour afternoon if I'm into run of the mill 20"-24" deep woods stuff with limbs all in the tops (few to no branches for the first 30'-40'). I then pretty much split in place and directly stack onto pallets. With moving the splitter tractor around and setting up for each pallet I spend another 6 hours (generally on two different days) splitting and picking up limb wood to intersperse with the splits on the pallets. Add another hour or two per 3+ cord batch (splits plus limb wood) for banding, loading and hauling pallets back to the house after it dries down for a few months. Per cord time at right about 4 hours. The last 4-5 years I have been cutting primarily "old growth" sugar maple trees in the 36"-48" range and wrestling those big blocks does slow things down some.

 

[StihlKicking]

I have never really tracked the time from start to finish but one things for sure. If I counted my time as money I don’t believe I would be saving as much money as I like to think I am.