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I had a chord of firewood delivered this morning.
If you can call it a chord.
Folks around here think a small pickup truck loaded with chopped up wood is a chord of firewood.
To me, a chord is measured at 4'x4'x8' when stacked.
I will be lucky if when all is said and done that this is 2/3 of a chord. At $190 for 2/3 chord, that's a lot of cash.
But what I found to be most displeasing was that there was no oak....which is the best burning firewood regionally.
They said there would be mostly oak, but this particular truck seemed to have missed it except for one or two pieces.
It is all maple. Not just any maple...it is mostly of the flamed variety. What isn't flamed has some spalting.
Now I have to burn wood all winter that I will feel bad about.
Wood such as this was meant for better things. Like for violins or mandolins, not for burning.
Darn them.
Don't they know better?

Don Williams38668.3887384259

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

They probably don't Don unless you tell them, they still may not care though as they gotta make a livin.

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

Wow, a cord of oak around here is about $70 delivered. I guess flamed maple is top of the line.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

Don, at that price you might want to check the OLF wood shed.


Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

Agreed Donboy...'round here a full-size P/U full of firewood is only $40-45 bucks. O'course, I live in the sticks, but hey, you get your victories where you find'em, eh?

Speaking of victories, what kind of new cat are you getting?

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

Here in Denver I just paid $120 for a midsize pick up load of oak. It is about half a chord. Here the wood is trucked in from Arkansas so the price is quite high.   

See... I would make lemonade.

I would quarter saw as much of that stuff up as you can and sell it on ebay (or, I would seriously consider it). I am sure with that much of it you could easily recoup your cost (and then some) and find someone to sell you what you were after in the first place.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Don your right about a chord being 4x4x8 A face chord is 4x8x16 At the price you paid your probably better of using your furnace. Still not as bad as when I'm throwing quilted sapele and other exotic hardwoods in my stove. Too bad you don't live closer. I could get oak and maple 4x4 cutoffs from pallet stock for free.

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Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

How long are the log? If they are 17" or more there may be more than a few mandolin backs in there. There could be a bunch of fiddle backs as well. Bring a few to the next NEL meeting and have Tom and Al look at them.

Call Carl Barney. He might want to rummage through your pile. You might recoup some of your expenses and you would also know that what is left if just firewood.
Mike Mahar38668.4443634259

$190/cord?!?!?! Tell me that's a bush cord, and not a face cord, right?

When firewood went from $40 to $50, split and delivered (Canadian dollars, no less) per 16" face cord this year, my brother converted to natural gas. He would burn 40 cords/year, and figured Gas would be about the same cost, less hassle. He used to cut his own, but his kids have moved-on, and his back's getting old....

I heard a snip-it on the radio the other day that there are laws protecting buyers of firewood. They mentioned that if it was advertised as a certain wood species then it had to be at least 80% of that species. They also said the law covered the size. You might want to check with your local BBB and see if they can help you rectify this.

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tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com

A cord is about $40-75 here.... course we have lots of oak trees...

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

Don, think rosettes, headplates, headplate bindings, heal caps, end grafts. You may have a little treasure there, and now you may also know where to get some stuff long enough for bindings and maybe even back and sides if you get there before they buck it to length. I have to agree with Brock about that and I agree with you about feeling bad about burning otherwise wonderful wood! Then you can order up some of that oak from a more reliable firewood dude.

Shane

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Canada

When I visited my parents in the adirondacks about10 years ago, I was splitting some wood and found a whole bunch of spalted maple. Most blocks are under 12" (small cookstove firebox)

I got a good bunch and saved it. It's good for what Shane said. It's all nice and dry, and if I want it, I got it!

Don,

It is your fault for insisting that the cord be quartersawn . I have found that Zebrawood smells really bad when burnt but any rosewood will burn and smell nicer .

That is a high price for a cord regardless of location. Ripping people off for the volume in a cord is all too common and many woodcutters know exactly how much wood you are getting.

When I negotiate for a cord I always ask for a price for a full (or face) cord, delivered and stacked. They will usually add 20-30 for stacking but when they stack it and it doesnt add up to a full cord then I pay only for as much as is delivered.

Note that sometimes the person that is selling cordwood is a broker in that he knows alot of guys doing landscape work that provide wood. Those guys that are just doing the dumping and delivering the wood may not know how much wood they have in their pickup truck.

Mandolin neck blanks would also be a good use for the flamed maple. If you just split the blanks oversized and seal the ends with anchorseal or whatever they will season and be able to be used later.

You could split small flat boards out of some of the larger log sections and use them for small jewelry or gift boxes. I have split 1/4 slabs and had them dried in a couple weeks (or coaxed in a low temp oven 190-200 for an hour if constrained between cauls).

If you have access to a lathe, one of the things you can do with some of the curly pieces of maple in the pile is to make chair legs and spindles for a ladder back chair. They are very traditionally New England and would look gorgeous. Candlesticks holders are also a nice thing to turn.

I have turned wooden flutes and recorders out of firewood before as where I am located in the Washington, DC area but at the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains we have alot of Apple orchards which often turn up in our firewood and fruit tress are generally good tonewoods. Here Locust is one of the best burning woods followed by White Oak and then Red Oak.

Don, I think they must have gotten our orders mixed up. I just got the oak for a guitar



I have noticed a lot of folks advertising free wood in my area on Craigslist. If I still had my pickup and a fireplace, I'd be all set.

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Don Atwood
Arlington, VA

Don't forget this is New England where greed is a way of life. A few years ago I bought a chord for $80 per, which was about the going rate here. I heard of some folks recently paying as much as $300 for a full chord of wood.
Shawn, if you suggest that you want the wood stacked, they will laugh at you...and by the way, the want "cash". Which of course means that they are probably stiffing both the state for sales tax and the IRS as well. There are very few honest people left in New England...
Also, the wood was chopped way too small for being of use for anything but burning. I will look to see if perhaps there's a mandolin back in there, but it's doubtfull. Too bad...and such nice flame in some. The spalted stuff is NOT going to be burned...Don Williams38668.7954282407

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Mandolin, violin, and viola necks use smaller stock.

Wouldn't take too many of those to re-coup the cost of the entire load, if the figure is indeed top quality. I expect this is hard maple? Bonus...

Don...

Headstock-sandwich veneers! End seam veneers! Wooden planes! Tool handles! More, I'm sure!

Don:
I salvaged LOTS of this spalted maple from my firewood pile -

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tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com

Don, if it makes you feel any better fire wood is just as expensive here in New Mexico as your place and mostly pine at that, people continually try to pass of a pickup load as a cord. So anyone who wants to make some money come to New Mexico and sell some of your $60 a cord wood. I'll give ya $120

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

I don't really follow firewood prices as we fill our shed with maple and cedar scraps but I know if you wanna load up a truck and drive to Vancouver you can get 200-300 (CDN of course) for dry delivered firewood.

If you've got a lot of spare time I know craft supply will buy pen blanks by the thousands ;)

Is oak really that much better for burning? Up here maple is probably the best firewood you can get.

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CVT Inc.
A tour of our shop (Somewhat outdated)
My Personal eBay profile. BCWoodBug

I live in the County of Kent here in England, also known as the 'Garden of England'. The wood that gets burnt here, for the very samll minority of people that use it, is fruit wood from the orchards mostly apple and pear and some plum. Beautiful smell and handy for us lute builders after fruit wood necks etc!

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

I'm told that oak burns longer...but I think this maple will be a nice change. At least I'll get some cool wood for woodworking out of it...I've already grabbed a few nice spalted pieces.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

I built my first violin out of some highly flamed curly maple I got on a firewood expidition to the old town dump. The hecks of it was that the tree was cut only a block from my house, and I heard the saws, but was tied up and couldn't check it out at the time. It was a big one, and if I'd gotten there I'd have had guitar backs and sides before they cut it too short.

I just got done stacking mine: got two full cord from the yard up the road, mostly oak, some maple, at $140 per: up from last year for sure. There's some curly maple in it, but, alas, we didn't catch it before it checked. It does seem a shame to be buying fire wood when I've got 90 acres of it on the hill, but I just don't have time these days. If it goes much higher I guess I'll make the time. This will get me through the winter.