BF per cord

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Spotted Owl

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I know I saw it here not to long back. For the life of me I haven't been able to find it again.

What has come to be the average of BF per cord of wood.

If you know great. If you can direct me to the thread this was discussed great.

Thanks for your help.

Owl
 
I've always gone with 500BF International 1/4" scale of logs will yield roughly 1 cord of cut split and stacked. My customers never complain.
 
Well I'll give my .02. I've cut several loads of pulp logs and would get around 8-9 cords per load, and the same size load of sawlogs would cut up around 4000 bf. so 500 per cord sounds real close.
 
Sounds close depending on the logs and the scale you use. Based on 1000bf oak sawn into boards weighs in the 4000 lb neighborhood depending on moisture.
 
I recently refloored and restepped my outdoor deck with 5/4 kiln-dried quartersawn white oak, random widths. About 500 bd ft were delivered. I asked the driver who delivered it how much it weighed. He said just over two tons. That's about the same as a cord of dry white oak weighs.

That was a whale of a project, but that deck is now solid as a rock. Ipe would have cost about the same, but I went with the domestic stock. White oak is tough stuff. :)
 
I recently refloored and restepped my outdoor deck with 5/4 kiln-dried quartersawn white oak, random widths. About 500 bd ft were delivered. I asked the driver who delivered it how much it weighed. He said just over two tons. That's about the same as a cord of dry white oak weighs.

That was a whale of a project, but that deck is now solid as a rock. Ipe would have cost about the same, but I went with the domestic stock. White oak is tough stuff. :)

Pictures,please.I have done many IPE decks, but I'll bet with this slowdown the oak might be getting cheaper.Sure do like using the IPE wood scraps in the stove.Looks like the close up of a solar flare.
 
Pictures,please. I have done many IPE decks, but I'll bet with this slowdown the oak might be getting cheaper. Sure do like using the IPE wood scraps in the stove.Looks like the close up of a solar flare.
The 14 stair treads are 51" wide. The deck is about 15' x 24'. I wrote a computer program to allocate and shuffle the random-width boards on each half. Here you go:
 
Very nice. What will you seal it with? I know White Oak likes to turn black.
I'll use Flood CWF. That seems to be as good as any. No need to add stain to it or anything else. One coat every two years or so should do it. Of the oaks, white oak supposedly has about the best natural weather resistance, similar to Ipe.

The flooring I replaced was 2 x 4 and 2 x 6 western red cedar that lasted 19 years. I was able to salvage about half of it for miscellaneous projects. The rest of the deck framing is also cedar, and I decided to restore it and paint it with exterior enamel. That seems to be working. I also beefed up the construction with about 40 new lag screws and added deck lights all the way around the perimeter and on the stair cases.

Best part about the project was losing 40 pounds. I gained back 12, but now I'm holding and feel much better. Throwing around that quartersawn white oak was an exercise I will never forget. :)
 
Unless I am missing something I came to the following conclusions :

A cord is 128 cubic feet.
A boardfoot is 1 ft *1 ft * 1 inch so 12 feet would make 1 cubic foot.
128 * 12 = 1536, but that is not including the fact that a cord has air space.

From my limited reading online a cord can have from 10-30% space. That would give: 1382 to 1075 board feet per cord.

This obviously does not take into account things such as bark wich will have a different density than the wood, nor does it include things such as planed lumber is 1/4 to 3/4 of an inch narrower than rough lumber would be.
If we subtract the 1/4 inch from the lumber we would get a number between
1036 to 806-again accounting for the 10-30% space. (This covers up to 2'' sizes)



Unfortunately this math is all being done very late and as such is subject to the normal late evening errors.

Anyone point out any obvious errors in my math ?
 
Unless I am missing something I came to the following conclusions :

A cord is 128 cubic feet.
A boardfoot is 1 ft *1 ft * 1 inch so 12 feet would make 1 cubic foot.
128 * 12 = 1536, but that is not including the fact that a cord has air space.

From my limited reading online a cord can have from 10-30% space. That would give: 1382 to 1075 board feet per cord.

This obviously does not take into account things such as bark wich will have a different density than the wood, nor does it include things such as planed lumber is 1/4 to 3/4 of an inch narrower than rough lumber would be.
If we subtract the 1/4 inch from the lumber we would get a number between
1036 to 806-again accounting for the 10-30% space. (This covers up to 2'' sizes). Unfortunately this math is all being done very late and as such is subject to the normal late evening errors. Anyone point out any obvious errors in my math ?
There is no error is your math, but your waste assumptions are improper. You lose about 65 to 68% of the log when you convert cordwood to board feet of sawn lumber. Hard to believe but true. The waste factor is rather large, especially if the log is quartersawn. Plainsawn provides less waste, so quartersawn and riftsawn hardwood is more expensive. Woodworkers often pay the extra amount because plainsawn will usuallly have more crook and bow.

Slabwood makes pretty good firewood among other things. I recall you could buy a cord of green slabwood delivered for about $100 that you could then cut to length yourself, but those days may be gone.
 

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