Firewood Business

A Steady Income From Firewood Home Business

Today firewood is usually obtained from timber or trees unsuitable or unwanted for building or construction. Firewood is a renewable resource, provided the consumption rate is controlled to sustainable levels. The shortage of suitable firewood in some places has seen local populations damaging huge tracts of bush thus leading to further desertification. On the other hand, proper forestry practices applied to firewood allow the usage of a carbon-neutral, or even carbon-negative, energy source, since the carbon dioxide released by the burning of the firewood was previously absorbed from the ambient atmosphere through photosynthesis. Because of this, firewood can be considered to be a form of solar energy. Some firewood is harvested in "woodlots" managed for that purpose, but in heavily wooded areas it is more usually harvested as a byproduct of natural forests.

Harvesting timber for firewood is normally carried out by hand with chainsaws. Most firewood also requires splitting, which also allows for faster seasoning by exposing more surface area.

There are many sources for good firewood. One good source for wood is in areas that were recently burned or logged. There are usually many down trees in these areas, and fire officials usually like downed trees removed to reduce future fire hazards and to make room for new growth. You can check with forestry officials about this as you would need a permit from them.

Also, watch for orchards that are being removed to make way for new trees or (yuck) urban sprawl. Often times older trees will not be producing very well and farmers will pull these trees and plant fresh new ones. You can usually cut for free or for a small fee. These trees are usually burned in a big pile - watch for those piles as well. Sometimes you can cut right out of the pile before it is burned.

Firewood can sell for $100-$400 a cord these days (depending on the season and part of the country). A cord of wood is 128 cubic feet (a stack 2 feet wide, eight feet long and eight feet high, or four feet wide, eight feet long and 4 feet high), or a good 3/4-ton pickup load. A couple of people with a chain saw could fill their truck with poles (small logs), take them to the "yard" and saw them into firewood, then load, deliver and stack the wood in a few hours time. Prices for firewood vary with type (oak or elm), age (green or dry), whether or not it is split, the amount purchased, and if it is delivered and/or stacked by the seller. Split, seasoned wood brings the highest prices -- some vendors invest in hydraulic wood splitters for this reason. The price of firewood is also affected by the season and often, for a temperature. A cold winter stirs yearning for a nice warm glow in the fireplace -- especially Christmas. For this business, you will need a place to saw to length, split and store your firewood; preferably a place where people can come load their car trunks and pickup.

A truck is a necessity, as are a couple of chain saws and crosscut saw -- and a wood splitter would be nice. Your yard does not have to be in an exclusive area - just so people who want firewood can find it and it's not too far out. Put signs on your truck so people can get your name and phone number when they see a truck loaded with firewood. Put a small ad in the paper as winter approaches, and if you can afford it, also put an ad in the yellow pages. This is not a business where fancy letterhead stationery and business cards are all that important, but it would not be a bad idea to have a business card to hand out to people who might want to call on you later.

A larger truck gives you the ability to haul several cords at a time. Get twice the profit with only about 25% more cost and effort. You can cut poles to insert in the pickup or truck bed to form a "rack" to hold the maximum load. Be sure to run a cable or heavy rope across the load at the top of your rack poles to make them secure (keep them from bending outward). It would also be wise to measure your truck so you can show a half cord or full cord: to save loading time and possibly, arguments. An easy way to do this is to figure the area of the bed and divide that into 128. For example, if your truck bed is 4 x 8 feet, or 32 square feet, divide that into 128 to get 4. When the wood fills the bed and is 4 feet high, it is one cord of firewood.

My truck bed is roughly 6.5-feet wide by 8-feet long by 20-inches tall. Filled to the top of the bed, that is roughly 86 cubic feet. A cord of wood is 4-feet by 4-feet by 8-feet. In order to haul a cord, one has to haul a bed and a half of wood, which we did, by wedging in some planks along the side of the bed. Make some simple side rails -(3) 2x4 stakes and (3) 1x4 slats for each side of the truck.

Some things to consider: buy some chaps. Though $5 is a cheap rental price, it'd be a good idea to have a pair and use them at home (cheap insurance / safety). Take more water (and take food) Cutting is hard work and I was starting to cramp up. Better to stay hydrated and fed, as it will reduce fatigue (which is when you can make a BIG mistake with the chainsaw, when you're tired). More than one wedge - In case one (or more) get stuck. Take a couple extra-sharpened chainsaw chains - It's easier to change a chain, than try to sharpen it in the field. Consider buying a peavey - To position, hold, move or turn logs.

You must have a telephone, however, and it would also be wise to have a sign at your wood yard, especially if it can be seen by passers by: why waste the advertising opportunity? In your wood yard, arrange your products by category and make EASY to sell. Stack your firewood by type wood, size of the logs and length (you will soon learn the most popular wood and size in your area. You can also save a few poles that can be cut to custom lengths (some people have unusual sized fireplaces or barbeques).

It is probably best to cut your firewood in the spring for the following fall/winter season. Firewood needs to be seasoned for about 8 months so the best time to get firewood would be in the spring or earlier if you plan on selling it that winter. Often times it is allowed to season longer. Well-seasoned firewood generally has darkened ends with cracks or splits visible, it is relatively lightweight, and makes a clear "clunk" when two pieces are beat together. Freshly cut firewood has high moisture content. Also when well-seasoned firewood burns it will burn well and the logs will not hiss excessively.

During the summer, if you don't have any wood to cut or split, make a few wood holders that measure out a half, quarter cord when filled. These can be used to measure wood that is loaded into the trunk of a car or back of a pickup.. Smaller holders can be used to measure out bundles of wood and/or kindling that is tied into bundles. If you do a lot of sawing at the yard, save any valuable sawdust from any flavoring woods which can be sold for meat smoking. The message here is to figure out how to make a profit from what would otherwise be wasted time, effort or material. This is often the difference between a successful business and one that just survives. Naturally, your heaviest firewood sales will be in winter, which means your income may be limited in summer when you are preparing for the selling season. If you burn charcoal or ordinary wood, you can dampen hickory sawdust and sprinkle it around the edges for a hickory smoked effect. It may not be the same as real hickory smoke, but it is better than nothing - this idea has been profitable to many a wood yard!

Another trick is to tie bundles of wood of about 15 pounds and wholesale them to stores for winter sales. You can also sell these bundles along the highway on cold days, especially during the holiday season. Vendors have really make good money doing this.. The price per cord for wood sold in these small bundles is awesome. Also, don't throw away those small pieces -- package and sell them as kindling. Campers need firewood during the summer at resorts, and public camping areas. There are also many private resorts with fire pits and fireplaces.

If you have enough business, it could even be profitable to invest in a chipper/shredder -- something like the city uses to chop up trimmed tree limbs so they will fit into their truck (consider buying their chopped brush!). With a chipper/shredder, you can turn waste sawdust, leaves, small branches and twigs into compost that can be sold by the sack or cubic yard. When considering a chipper/shredder, make sure to think about using it at work sites. For example if you clear a large lot, you can compost the trash and harvest the firewood. This would undoubtedly make your clearing service more valuable. Since your in the scrap wood business, check into picking up left over lumber from lumberyards, construction projects and tree trimmers.



It is possible to receive some income from clearing lots and removing trees. The bottom lines is that with some effort and a modest investment, you can have a very nice winter income

Setting Up Your Own Firewood Supply Business Author: Uchenna Ani-Okoye

Unpredictable fuel costs and the necessity of keeping warm in the winter have resulted in 'boom sales' for manufacturers of wood-burning stoves. There has also been a return to the use of the fireplace as a form of supplementary heat and as a luxury that promotes the 'cosy' atmosphere sought after by both middle class and affluent families. This renaissance in the popularity of wood heat, and upward spiralling sales of associated equipment, has created a demand for firewood that's almost impossible to fulfill!

A very important element: This demand has caused the price of firewood to almost double over the past several years. Whatever the "going price" for a cord of firewood in your area, you can expect it to increase by 20 to 30 percent each year for the next ten years or so.

Your potential market is a varied as the weather; it is also somewhat dependent on the weather. You'll find buyers among apartment dwellers as well as home owners. The rich are buying firewood perhaps more than the poor; those concerned with the purity of the environment and the so-called "voluntary-simplicity' folk seeking a return to the "pioneering" life are all part of your market.

And don't think for a minute that firewood sales are limited to the colder northern states. People who are living in Sunny Southern California and along the Gulf of Mexico buy and burn firewood for the same reasons as people living in Minnesota or Montana.

One of the secrets of success in this business is, understanding why the people in your area burn firewood. Then it's a matter of learning when and how often they need it, and positioning yourself to fill those needs.

It doesn't take special education or training to become a successful firewood supplier. Just for the record, the backgrounds of people operating businesses of this kind range from farmers to unemployed factory workers to doctors, lawyers, real estate salesmen and even university professors.

The kind of equipment you'll need varies according to the type of business you want to establish, and the kind of wood you will be supplying.

The first prerequisite to the establishment of your business is to decide what kind of business - wholesale to retail outlets, or retail to the general public - you want to operate.

Next, you'll have to decide on the type of firewood you will sell. There are three major categories: l) mill ends or sawed up scrap lumber and kindling, 2) whole logs for the buyer to cut according to his own specifications, 3) fireplace and stove wood, cut and split according to the general requirements of your market area.

Your next step is to line up a source of supply. Actually, it's best to 'lock in' a number of sources of supply. Later on, as your business develops and grows, you may want to offer several different kinds of firewood, that is, become a full-service dealer offering firewood to meet everyone's needs and fancies for your area. We'll discuss different categories of wood in demand, so that you can explore sources of supply and costs.

Mill Ends: Your best source of supply for this type of wood is sawmills in your area. If you live in a metropolitan area, take a few weekend trips to the small towns in the wooded areas of your state. With a little bit of initiative on our part, you should be able to discover any number of small sawmill operations within a 200-mile radius of most metropolitan areas in this country. What you'll want to do is buy a truckload of mill ends, take them home and package them into sacks of firewood. Thus, a load of mill ends that you might buy for $50 would be broken down into perhaps 200 sack-full that you sell for $5 per sack. Multiply these 200 sacks of firewood times $5 each, and you have a gross income of $1,000 for a load of wood costing you only $50. You wouldn't have to be very smart to realize that's pretty good, providing your sources of supply can keep up with the demand.

The beauty of mill ends is that they are clean, burn easily and fast, put out a lot of heat, and when broken down into sack-full are ideal for apartment dwellers, as well as people in warmer climates needing firewood for just a few cold spells each winter. Until you have a large full-service firewood supply operation, it's suggested that you leave the sale of truckload supplies of mill ends to the larger, more established fire wood suppliers. My advice here is that you should stay within your capabilities of supplying the buying demands of your market, and further concentrate on selling what brings you the greatest profit. However, as your operation grows, the supply of truck loads of mill end firewood is definitely worth considering.

Other sources of supply for mill end lumber will be your local lumber yards, wood working or furniture manufacturing firms, and home building or remodelling contractors. In many instances, you can offer to stop by these places about once a week and clean up the worksite by hauling away the scrap lumber, and they'll let you have it without cost. It is possible to even get paid for doing this. The only drawback will be that you'll have to sort this wood, and then saw it up into the size s you want for your bundles or sacks. This is no big deal, because you can handle a pickup or trailer load with a power saw in just a couple of hours.

About the Author:

Uchenna Ani-Okoye is an internet marketing advisor.

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Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Setting Up Your Own Firewood Supply Business

Hydraulic Log Splitters Author: Eric J. Slarkowski

For anyone with a lot of wood to cut, owning a log splitter can be a very good investment. If you have a fire place, or if you like to make log furniture, it will pay for itself in no time. A log splitter can be purchased where logging equipment is sold, or you can try to find a new one or make your own to save money.

A hydraulic log splitter is a simple machine consisting of a small Edsel of gasoline engine, an out pump and a hydraulic cylinder. The engine powers the machine, and the oil pump powers the cylinder, which splits the logs. The oil pump has an oil tank and the oil has to be periodically changed.

Hydraulic log splitters usually range from 5 to 8 hp. Splitters intended for home use will have a smaller engine than a commercial one with 10-25 tons of splitting power.

Most people obtain a home splitter to cut their firewood. First a tree is cut and all of the branches removed, using a chainsaw. The trunk of the tree is cut into small pieces with a chain saw and then fed into the splitter. The entire process of cutting wood is fast and easy this way, and jobs that may take days without a splitter can be done in a matter of hours.

Needless to say, a log splitter can be very dangerous. Children should never be allowed to operate this equipment, and should not even be allowed near it when it is operating since flying debris could injure them. Anyone who is operating a log splitter should wear heavy work boots for foot protection, and no loose clothing or long sleeves which can be caught in the machine. Safely glasses are also important for eye protection.

Before operating this machine, be sure to read the manual and be thoroughly familiar with the machine. Be sure no one stands close enough to the machine that they may be hit by pieces of wood flying out. When the machine is in motion, don't try to adjust the wood pieces. Make sure to use it only during the day and never operate a dangerous machine like this while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. It is important not to use it on a surface that is damp or may be slippery and keep the safety guards on the machine at all times. A log splitter should only be used for splitting logs, no other material.

Besides chopping firewood, a log splitter is great for making log furniture. If you like the look of this rustic furniture, or if you are interested in selling it, yo will also need a chain saw and some other tools.

Some of the tools needed are:
Various size clamps to hold down material
Instruction books and plans
A router
Chisels in a few large sizes
A mallet to drive the chisels
A tenon maker so tenons can be made quickly and all of the same size
Wood guides to shape the wood properly

About the Author:
Focusing recent findings in hydraulic splitter, Eric Slarkowski is publishing almost entirely for http://www.insidewoodworking.com . You might find out more about his writings on log splitter and hydraulic splitter on his site.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Hydraulic Log Splitters