vague firewood question

I'm new to heating with firewood, and with the wood-fired brick oven I'm building, I'm about to get intimately familiar. But I have a brief, vague question about measuring volume.

I recently picked up a load of free, cut, split wood from a friend of a friend, and coincidentally it fit neatly in the bed of my full size pickup bed, with only a little bit of a mound in the middle that rose above the bed sides. How much wood did I get? I don't yet have the familiarity to eyeball that volume. Any ballpark guesses?

From Wiki: "The cord is a unit of measure of dry volume used in Canada and the United States to measure firewood and pulpwood. A cord is the amount of wood that, when "ranked and well stowed" (arranged so pieces are aligned, parallel, touching and compact), occupies a volume of 128 cubic feet (3.62 m3).[1] This corresponds to a well stacked woodpile 4 feet (122 cm) high, 8 feet (244 cm) long, and 4 feet (122 cm) deep; or any other arrangement of linear measurements that yields the same volume."

A cord of firewood is a stack roughly 4ft x 4ft x 8ft, or 128 cubic feet.

Assuming your bed is about 5 feet wide, 2 feet high, and 8 feet long and that you stacked it neatly rather than just chucking it in, I'd guess you got about 90 cubic feet.

If you just chucked it in the bed, I'd say more like 75 or 80 cubic feet.

We used to consider a pickup truck load to be about a face cord. That's because we haffassed stacked it That would be 4X8X one log deep. Depends on how long you cut the logs. I usually didn't cut my firewood logs 2 feet long. I haven't done wood since the wife installed gas logs.

A lot of wood guys around me stress "face cord". I guess they don't want any arguments, not that I know the difference.

In reply to Datsun310Guy:

a cord is typically 3 logs deep. ie 4 ft high x 8 feet long x 3 logs deep.

a face cord is only one log deep, or about 1/3 of a cord.

Typical log is 16-18" in length. So that is where the 3 logs deep measure comes from. A face cord is also called a "rick". Just depends on who you are talking to.

What you just received is known as a "Craigslist cord". Or at least it will be if I keep promoting use of this term.

Duke wrote: What you just received is known as a "Craigslist cord". Or at least it will be if I keep promoting use of this term.

around here a lot of people use face cord and cord interchangeably, but you just need to be specific on dimensions when talking to them. usually the same places will sell a load of "camp wood" which is one pickup bed full, for around 20 bucks less than a face cord. i just had a face cord delivered, hauled and stacked on my log rack for 170 bucks cash.

Strizzo wrote: i just had a face cord delivered, hauled and stacked on my log rack for 170 bucks cash.

Whoa!! I gotta figure out how to ship Michigan firewood to Texas! Ill be rich, rich, rich!!!!!! Sells for 45-55 a face cord here. BTW-I hate the term "face cord". Its a racket by firewood sellers and I dont think there are many sellers left that dont use it.

Duke wrote: What you just received is known as a "Craigslist cord". Or at least it will be if I keep promoting use of this term.

I think that could become a very useful expression.

'Round these parts it's a pickup load. If you say 'cord' they think you are some kind of college educated jerk.

Curmudgeon wrote: 'Round these parts it's a pickup load. If you say 'cord' they think you are some kind of college educated jerk.

Is that one of them 4 foot S10 crew cab beds or a 12 foot stakebed?

Mr. C has is correct. Around here you buy truck loads. Cord is what you plug in the wall so your lamp will work.

"Face cord" is 4 feet tall by 8 feet wide ,stacked so you can't throw a cat thru it. Don't much matter how deep it is. A true cord of wood is 4 feet tall 8feet wide and 4feet deep, the deep part is divided by 16 or 24 inch wood

logdog wrote:

Strizzo wrote: i just had a face cord delivered, hauled and stacked on my log rack for 170 bucks cash.

Whoa!! I gotta figure out how to ship Michigan firewood to Texas! Ill be rich, rich, rich!!!!!! Sells for 45-55 a face cord here. BTW-I hate the term "face cord". Its a racket by firewood sellers and I dont think there are many sellers left that dont use it.

If you pick it up yourself it's like 80-90, but all the guys selling are kind of a ways out of town so delivery is expensive.

Okay, cool. Funny enough, when I got it out of the bed and stacked up, I'd have put it at around 5' tall, 10' long and about 4' deep, so it sounds like I had maybe a hair over a cord.

Hey, wouldn't those measurements have been helpful when I asked this question in the first place?

alex wrote: Okay, cool. Funny enough, when I got it out of the bed and stacked up, I'd have put it at around 5' tall, 10' long and about 4' deep, so it sounds like I had maybe a hair over a cord.

That's referred to as "an extension cord".

My 4 x 8 harbor fright trailer, with 4 foot high sides, stacked all willy nilly, is one face cord.

Joey

In my own experiences with pickup trucks and fire wood, a full sized truck with an 8' bed loaded with wood tossed into a pile that reaches near the top of the cab stacks out just shy of a full cord.

A cord of wood weights at least a ton, to several tons if we're talking about unseasoned hardwoods. This drops most pickup trucks down onto their bump stops and flattens their tires.

logdog wrote:

Curmudgeon wrote: 'Round these parts it's a pickup load. If you say 'cord' they think you are some kind of college educated jerk.

Is that one of them 4 foot S10 crew cab beds or a 12 foot stakebed?

Don't go confusing the issue. That's merely a matter of semantics.

Firewood suppliers where I live are not allowed to use the term "cord". Too imprecise.

We prefer "truckload", "buttload", "E36 M3load", or a "whole bunch".

Yea, people here call it a pickup truck load.

Wait. People pay for wood? But it's just laying out there in the woods?

RossD wrote: Wait. People pay for wood? But it's just laying out there in the woods?

Some one has to cut it and transport it.