How much can you fell/buck/split/stack by hand in a day?

[jcarlberg]

Just getting started hopefully selling some firewood cleaned out from a small parcel of forest we own (with access to adjacent abandoned forest). It's about a fourth job for me, and just wanting my sons to learn how to do some "real" work & make a little spending cash.

Process is...down the hill, into the forest (along the river), fell a standing dead tree (or buck a dead tree already over); load the rounds into 6x6 ATV, haul up to splitting area in yard, split, stack. Splitting by hand with a Fiskars maul; maybe the best tool I have ever owned. Cutting with MS 261 and 390 XP. Love both saws!

Working by myself, I figure I can process a cord relatively comfortably in 6 hours.

Add a nincompoop helper (one of my three sons, aged 16, 13 and 11) and that maybe drops a little bit - as they get more experienced; hopefully we will get faster.

Wonder if we would ever get to the point of processing two cords per day? I think that would be a long day.

What does everyone find is a reasonable amount per day (yes I know days can be short or long!)?

 

[Hoser]

This is exactly where I started 4 years ago, when I started doing wood for me to put money in my pocket.
The trick I found was to do the work in stages, don’t fall, buck, haul, split and stack all in one day. Focus on just felling, bucking one day, hauling the next, then split and stack on weeknights when you have less free time.
With a Stihl 271 and an x27 in ash a bushcord a day was easy in nice straight ash.
Same setup in fencerow elm was 1/2 that

 

[jcarlberg]

This is exactly where I started 4 years ago, when I started doing wood for me to put money in my pocket.
The trick I found was to do the work in stages, don’t fall, buck, haul, split and stack all in one day. Focus on just felling, bucking one day, hauling the next, then split and stack on weeknights when you have less free time.
With a Stihl 271 and an x27 in ash a bushcord a day was easy in nice straight ash.
Same setup in fencerow elm was 1/2 that

That is great advice & makes a lot of sense!

As an aside...do you make enough money to make it worthwhile?

I love doing it. I grew up on a farm, working hard as a kid, loving being outdoors and accomplishing something tangible in a day.

I followed my parents' direction to go get educated, which I did, and have a great day job. And a couple of side gigs.

Being in the forest felling and bucking is wonderful & peaceful. Splitting is a great workout. It feels very good and productive to look at a cord of wood in rounds then look at a cord of wood split and stacked a few hours later.

Got orders for 3 cords of mixed hardwoods to deliver in the next few weeks plus I have 50 bags (19 x 32) ready to go and posted on the local buy & sell pages, etc.

I'm told once you build up a steady clientele, there's a good market for good quality wood.

 

[Seachaser]

I would figure my time, materials, etc. to see if it’s worth it.

 

[Hoser]

That’s what you’ll have to figure out. For me it is because like you I enjoy it and the moneys nice to have but I wouldn’t do it as a day job.

Sell good dry wood, stack it 50” high so when you deliver no one gets shortchanged and you’ll have that customer forever, customer retention is huge for me

 

[Dustin4185]

My son has decided to start his own firewood business. He has already started for the future. He is 14 so I handle all felling. He and I both buck. I do have equipment to handle logs so that makes it easier. In straight red oak or similar, he can out split me! I don’t have it like I used to, lol. Doing it in stages like mentioned above is the process we use. Any knotty/hard to split/junk wood is thrown in the pile to be split with the wood splitter. It makes stacking nicer when everything is straight! We have tried several methods for hand splitting. Tire on the stump, chain and bungee around the round, and just regular chasing halves/quarters around. He likes the tire method the best if the rounds fit inside. If he is on his game, he can split over a cord in about 3 hours granted he is wore out afterwards.

 

[RCBS]

I usually don't do it all up in one go. Mostly will 'go fishing' with the tractor and bring 5-10 logs to the landing. Logs may come from blowdowns or be stuff that I lay down. Depending on workload I'll buck it after skidding or wait until the next session. Bucking and quartering is next session, with final splitting & stacking happening during the last session. For smaller rounds I will take the buggy & trailer to go fetch them, beginning splitting when the pile gets large enough to have something when done.

Having been in your Son's place many moons ago...please let them do more than carry & stack. I used to hate making firewood when young. Wasn't allowed to operate anything, just labor. That changed once I had a chainsaw and was allowed to operate the tractor and splitter.

 

[IffykidMn]

Save yourself some time and quit stacking and throw onto pallets in loose piles, Google or search YT for "In the Woodyard" for details.

 

[jcarlberg]

I usually don't do it all up in one go. Mostly will 'go fishing' with the tractor and bring 5-10 logs to the landing. Logs may come from blowdowns or be stuff that I lay down. Depending on workload I'll buck it after skidding or wait until the next session. Bucking and quartering is next session, with final splitting & stacking happening during the last session. For smaller rounds I will take the buggy & trailer to go fetch them, beginning splitting when the pile gets large enough to have something when done.

Having been in your Son's place many moons ago...please let them do more than carry & stack. I used to hate making firewood when young. Wasn't allowed to operate anything, just labor. That changed once I had a chainsaw and was allowed to operate the tractor and splitter.

That's great advice! The oldest boy is doing a bit of running the saw now and is "gym stronger" than me (can bench more; he's hit 255!) although I still got the old man strength! They find riding around on the 6x6 enjoyable. I think you are 100% right tho they should feel like more than just laborers!

 

[jcarlberg]

Save yourself some time and quit stacking and throw onto pallets in loose piles, Google or search YT for "In the Woodyard" for details.

I frickin' LOVE "In the Woodyard" guy! If I were processing his volume and had his location I would do it his way. I've thought long and hard about that. But, because my neighbourhood is quasi-residential and I am doing all of this on a pretty upscale property, I'm gonna stack for now in the hopes that sun exposure and my prevailing westerly wind will help dry it all out quickly and that my neighbours won't be complaining that I'm a slob!

 

[RCBS]

That's great advice! The oldest boy is doing a bit of running the saw now and is "gym stronger" than me (can bench more; he's hit 255!) although I still got the old man strength! They find riding around on the 6x6 enjoyable. I think you are 100% right tho they should feel like more than just laborers!

Explain to the younglings that they too will get to use the saws and stuff, but they need to be of sufficient size (and experience) to do so (this puts the blame squarely on time, rather than Dad's Trust). Compliment and praise when they do good. A Dad's Approval is not something that money can buy.

 

[Woodwackr]

Back in the early 90s I got to 3-cord a day, Almond trees. We were assigned 2 rows. Brush went in the center, wood, cut 18-20" piled at the stump. Hand split with a maul, anything wider than width of your hand. We got paid by the cord, not hourly so we learned how to get fast or starve . Average trees were 4-5 to a cord.

 

[jcarlberg]

Back in the early 90s I got to 3-cord a day, Almond trees. We were assigned 2 rows. Brush went in the center, wood, cut 18-20" piled at the stump. Hand split with a maul, anything wider than width of your hand. We got paid by the cord, not hourly so we learned how to get fast or starve . Average trees were 4-5 to a cord.

Wow that’s churning it out!!

 

[Woodwackr]

Wow that’s churning it out!!

The oldest guy on the crew, 65, was a lot faster. He taught me.

 

[IffykidMn]

Wow that’s churning it out!!

I find it helps if one knows if its a full cord 4X4X8' cord or a fireplace cord 4'X16"X8' when referencing a cord.

 

[Hoser]

In my area everyone goes by face cords which is 4x8x cutlength. When I speak on here I mean full cord or bushcord as we call them.
I cut at 14” which is 3.5 face cord to a bush cord.
Cutting wood at 20” and leaving splits I have no doubt that’s possible
Cutting off a log pile I know I can 2 cord cut,split stacked in a day with a good axe, 5 cord with my super split and not be sore enough to do it again tomorrow

 

[Woodwackr]

I find it helps if one knows if its a full cord 4X4X8' cord or a fireplace cord 4'X16"X8' when referencing a cord.

128cuft is what I’ve always gone with

 

[mainer_in_ak]

Kind of depends on your location and time of season. I'm currently selling cords of alaska birch $400 per cord and hand split everything. Today was a soupy mess.

The snow is rotten and soft. The snowmobile nor the atv would haul. Slowest cord of the season: 6 hours. I had resorted to pulling sled loads with a chainsaw winch. Then may have to chain up just to get up my road, then unchain once I hit the highway. This all adds considerable time to the day.

 

[drf256]

I believe if you are doing it for any type of income you are best served by getting some machinery. Can use your initial income to bolster your inventory. It will pay off in the end for production income. You’ll never be as productive as a machine, period. That’s why people buy them.

I cut and split 8-10 full cords a year (128 sf). I started with a maul, then went to a hydro splitter. Finally got a skidder instead of the old ‘58 Ford 801 I was using and eventually got a grapple and splitter for the skidder.

The skidder splitter has enabled me to use my splitter in the horizontal position instead of pushing giant rounds to it in vertical. I split a lot of bigger stuff no one wants (36-50” diameter). Tree guys drop off lengths they don’t want to pay to dump. Fire wood isn’t used for heat much around here, but I’ve used it since 2008. I use the skidder splitter to get rounds into 3-4 pieces that are a weight I can lift all day.

I probably get around 2-3 cords split and stacked a day. Since I got the skidder, I started using IBC totes to stack and move my wood around. Again, and investment that’s paid itself off. Being closer to 60 than 50, I don’t know how I’d do it manually. I’d probably be dying at the end of a day and get 1/2 cord done. I have no helpers, 4 daughters here and all gone.

It’s still quite a workout, even with machines.

 

[Loony661]

Hate to bust your balls @drf256 but that’s no skidder. That’s a CTL (compact track loader). Some call a skid steer. Either way, very nice setup!

This is a skidder: