Newbie Wood Question

[Parallax]

Buying my first stash of wood. One guy is selling old growth Alaska spruce. He claims it burns well and leaves little ash. I've heard others say that of douglas fir. But those are soft woods, which I assume means less BTUs. We don't have a lot of hard wood up here in the Pacific Northwest but should I look for the hardest woods we have, such as alder and maple?

Second, the guy with the Alaskan spruce wants $125 a cord, pre-cut and split. He can deliver three cords at a time and would add $50 for delivery. I'd prefer to get a logging truck of wood to cut and split myself in order to save money, but at that rate it wouldn't seem to save much. It seems like I'd still be paying $100 a cord (or close to it). What would you recommend to a newbie like me?

 

[tigeroak]

For me I feel a lot better if I do my own and always have. Now if you need it and need it now then buy it. BUT if you can cut your own and let it dry even better. Now if you buy from a logging truck compare prices and amount of work with logs - already done and cut your own. If the maple is soft or hard get all you can we love it. Heats our house fine and we was down to 14 below and house was still at 75+.

 

[NH_Wood]

Never heard of Alaska spruce - white spruce? So, without knowing the specific wood you are buying, about $400 for 3 cord c/s and delivered seems pretty good by my area standards. That said, I agree with tigeroak - I like to all my own processing, but for some folks it's just not possible. Cheers!

 

[Parallax]

To get the splits cut to 17 or 18 inches (as opposed to 22), it would be $150 per cord plus $50 for delivery -- so $500 total.

 

[billb3]

Getting next year's ( 9 months from now, really )gets you into the game right now.
Then you can be working on next years
and be getting ahead of the game
but I have no idea what alaska spruce is and if $125 is a fair price

what is pre-cut ? little white lines or score marks to guide actual cutting ?

 

[Wood Duck]

In Bellingham, WA "Alaska Spruce" probably means Sitka Spruce. I don't know if Sitka Spruce is any different from other spruces. If you are buying wood to use now or next year, a few cords of wood that is already cut and split would be a good way to get a quick start on your stash. Once you get next year's wood seasoning, maybe you can work on scrounging your own wood from friends, downed trees around town, maybe there is a place to cut wood on public land, or perhaps local tree trimming companies can drop wood off. Lots of guys get wood for free from tree services, and you might find that a lot of the shade trees in town are hardwoods, so maybe you'd get good quality wood from a tree service.

 

[blacktail]

While technically a "hard wood", alder is less dense than fir and takes longer to season. Spruce may be close to fir. With that said,alder is still a fine wood. Maple (usually big leaf around here) is similar to fir or a bit higher on the btu charts. Maple takes longer to season though.
You'll find that most of the talk on this site about hard woods and btu's isn't practiced in our part of the country. Our hardwoods aren't noticeably better than our soft woods and we don't get the fridgid temps that other places do. The wood snobs I know only burn Doug Fir. Most people burn whatever is available, be it fir, hemlock, alder, maple, etc.

 

[Parallax]

While technically a "hard wood", alder is less dense than fir and takes longer to season. Spruce may be close to fir. With that said,alder is still a fine wood. Maple (usually big leaf around here) is similar to fir or a bit higher on the btu charts. Maple takes longer to season though.
You'll find that most of the talk on this site about hard woods and btu's isn't practiced in our part of the country. Our hardwoods aren't noticeably better than our soft woods and we don't get the fridgid temps that other places do. The wood snobs I know only burn Doug Fir. Most people burn whatever is available, be it fir, hemlock, alder, maple, etc.

Thanks. That's really helpful. Lord knows we have plenty of Doug Fir. If I had a pickup truck and a chain saw, could probably get a ton of it just going around my neighborhood. I'm a little scared to use a chain saw though. Once had a chain fly off and hit me in the face just beneath the eye. Didn't do any major damage but came so close.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Good luck Parallax. The sooner you get it and split it and stack it, the better off you'll be. Good luck.

 

[Parallax]

Good luck Parallax. The sooner you get it and split it and stack it, the better off you'll be. Good luck.

Thanks.

 

[blacktail]

Here's a chart of wood btu values. I've seen other charts with slightly different numbers. Even wood from different trees of the same species can burn differently so the numbers given are a general reference. For example, old growth fir is much more dense than younger firs.
(broken link removed to http://chimneysweeponline.com/howood.htm)

 

[Parallax]

Here's a chart of wood btu values. I've seen other charts with slightly different numbers. Even wood from different trees of the same species can burn differently so the numbers given are a general reference. For example, old growth fir is much more dense than younger firs.
(broken link removed to http://chimneysweeponline.com/howood.htm)

That's really helpful. Looks like Doug Fir as about as good as it gets around here. 17.2 MBTUs/cord. Oaks and stuff like that's up around 24. So around 70% as much BTU content in our softwoods, but winter temperatures rarely dip much below freezing so that should more than make up for our relative wood deficiencies.

A few have pointed out that Doug Fir and other soft woods produce way less ash. I wonder if that's true.

 

[blacktail]

Of the common species we have here, I think alder leaves the most ash.
Soft woods season quicker too.

 

[Parallax]

Ash appears to have higher BTU content than fir.

 

[blacktail]

You won't find much ash growing around here.
The most common stuff you'll find is doug fir, western hemlock, red alder, big leaf maple, some paper birch, and crappy cottonwood.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

While technically a "hard wood", alder is less dense than fir and takes longer to season. Spruce may be close to fir. With that said,alder is still a fine wood. Maple (usually big leaf around here) is similar to fir or a bit higher on the btu charts. Maple takes longer to season though.
You'll find that most of the talk on this site about hard woods and btu's isn't practiced in our part of the country. Our hardwoods aren't noticeably better than our soft woods and we don't get the fridgid temps that other places do. The wood snobs I know only burn Doug Fir. Most people burn whatever is available, be it fir, hemlock, alder, maple, etc.

This

 

[Parallax]

Looks like I've found someone to deliver about ten cords of fir for $1000. Seems like a fair price. He said they're logging a site, selling the big trees elsewhere and will sell the small stuff (or stuff that cannot be milled for other reasons) to me. Is there a minimum size I should be looking for or is it fine so long as the cordage is there.

 

[Jon1270]

I'm a little scared to use a chain saw though. Once had a chain fly off and hit me in the face just beneath the eye. Didn't do any major damage but came so close.

Tough to be a regular wood burner without using a chain saw. It might be worth taking a class of some sort or getting some coaching from someone whose chain saw skills you respect, so you can feel more confident that you're doing it safely. If you can't find either of those, there are a lot of good tutorials online. Look for the ones put together / published by saw manufacturers or government entities.

 

[Applesister]

If you get 10 cords, but it has to be 10 to make 1000.00 worthwhile. Less wood and it would be cheaper to buy already processed.
And thats alot of logs sitting around. It would take me a year to find out I got screwed in the deal. By the time it got all stacked.
And by then that logging company is out of business or refiled under another name.
Everybody cuts their own firewood to keep from being had.

 

[Applesister]

Im sorry that was a little rough.
Its gambling when you buy, and 1000.00 is alot of money to wager.

 

[Applesister]

Everybody is really hungry right now.

 

[Parallax]

Tough to be a regular wood burner without using a chain saw. It might be worth taking a class of some sort or getting some coaching from someone whose chain saw skills you respect, so you can feel more confident that you're doing it safely. If you can't find either of those, there are a lot of good tutorials online. Look for the ones put together / published by saw manufacturers or government entities.

Thanks.

 

[Parallax]

If you get 10 cords, but it has to be 10 to make 1000.00 worthwhile. Less wood and it would be cheaper to buy already processed.
And thats alot of logs sitting around. It would take me a year to find out I got screwed in the deal. By the time it got all stacked.
And by then that logging company is out of business or refiled under another name.
Everybody cuts their own firewood to keep from being had.

Does it seem high? Right now, seems to be about the best deal I can find. Could be closer to 12 cords. He said 5 to 6 per truck load at $500 per truck.

 

[Jon1270]

Does it seem high? Right now, seems to be about the best deal I can find.

What Applesister is telling / reminding you of is that cheating is rampant in the firewood business. It is absolutely routine for many firewood sellers to deliver much less than you pay for. Sellers come up with creative interpretations of the term "cord" that do not conform to the legal definition. Many customers lack a developed sense of what a cord is, and even if you know the definition you can't get an accurate measure until the wood is cut, split and stacked in neat rows. If you buy a little bit of firewood and pay extra for the driver to help you stack it, then you can measure the volume of the pile before you hand over any cash. If you don't pay extra for stacking then at least you can stack it yourself, measure the volume and catch up with a dishonest seller pretty quickly. If you buy a massive quantity of logs then it may be weeks or even months before you have them all cut, split and stacked so you can get an accurate measure, at which point your hope of recovering from a short load is near zero. These kinds of problems really are very common.

 

[Parallax]

I understand. But if it's a log truck load, wouldn't that generally be at least 5 or 6 cords?