How many pieces of wood in a cord?

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kas7227

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A friend of mine asked me "about how many pieces of wood are there in a cord"? I've never thought about it or bothered counting .I know the number would vary depending on how large or small the pieces are, but what do you think the average is?
 
that would be a hard number to come up with. it could vary so much.
 
Same as the number of jellybeans in a gallon jug.

But seriously, the number would vary so much from woodstack to woodstack. Someone with an OWB would have many fewer pieces than stove/insert folks since they're burning such big pieces.

I'm on the far other end of the spectrum with my wood cookstove with its small firebox requiring small pieces.
 
A friend of mine asked me "about how many pieces of wood are there in a cord"? I've never thought about it or bothered counting .I know the number would vary depending on how large or small the pieces are, but what do you think the average is?

My guess: Somewhere around 1400 pieces.
 
Same as the number of jellybeans in a gallon jug.

But seriously, the number would vary so much from woodstack to woodstack. Someone with an OWB would have many fewer pieces than stove/insert folks since they're burning such big pieces.

I'm on the far other end of the spectrum with my wood cookstove with its small firebox requiring small pieces.

Sorry, I should have been more clear. I'm talking about the 18" long average type of split you would get from a firewood distributer?
 
My dad and I actually count the pieces when we throw a short load of wood on. We split a bit smaller the average. For us a "face cord" has an average of 325-330 pieces. So a true cord is 975-990. We throw on 1050 pieces when loading a cord to deliver. We always have 50-60 pieces left.

Scott
 
I've delivered 1000's of cords; we cut 16" and split 4-5" diameter average. We load almost all by hand, and I've counted lots (to keep the brain occupied during mind-numbing labor) the answer is:








600!!!!!! (for our size pieces in a 128 cubic foot well-stacked cord.
 
That would be 466 pieces in a face cord? Doubt it unless you are splitting them really small.

I would say 100 to 150 pieces to a face or 300 to 450 for a full cord.

Those numbers sound low to me.

I do split small. Get a lot better effeciency that way and I don't need large pieces to hold a nice fire all night.

I just went out and counted... 39 pieces in a stack 4' high x 1' long.
39 x 32 = 1248 pieces.

attachment.php
 
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I just went out and counted... 39 pieces in a stack 4' high x 1' long.
39 x 32 = 1248 pieces.

39 x 8 = 312 x 3= 936

ahhhh...i see what happened: you counted a full cord as being 4 rows deep...i counted it as being 3 rows. i mistook your "1 foot long" as being the number of wood counted in a 1 foot section, 4 feet high.
 
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39 x 8 = 312 x 3= 936

ahhhh...i see what happened: you counted a full cord as being 4 rows deep...i counted it as being 3 rows.

Oops...

Should have been 39 pieces x 24'.

Thanks for the math lesson. Although, you left room for me to have a save.;)

My pieces are between 14 1/2" and 16" long. So the 3 row rule should have applied in my example.
 
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How many pieces of wood in a full cord ?

The biggest question is , Green or dried ? Believe it or not , a stacked cord of green wood dried down to 15 - 20 % moisture content will shrink roughly 8 %.
 
Sorry for the missing spreadsheet. Let's see if this one works:

LogsinaCord.gif


These numbers might be a tad high. In my case, I usually figure 500 logs in a full cord when stacked. However, many woodburners split to larger logs than I do, and I must admit that I split smaller logs for campfire bundles.
 
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