Combined threads on firewood

[Murf]

It's kinda late in the year for venturing off to the garden center, but it's not far outta the way to the feed mill, I'll try and make sure the cameras charged and in the truck when I go that way next.

[Timberwerks]

I posted this question awhile back and I learned about Farber bags. This seems like a good place to go with, except for the fact that the most suitable bag for firewood is their onion bag. The onion bag is a little longer and wider than I expected. Is there any other companies that someone knows of that has other size bags of similar material? I've seen a few gas stations now thar are selling firewood in these bags but I have had no luck finding out where the bags come from.

The plastic wrap bundles aren't showing up as often as they used to. Is the trend switching to the burlap/mesh type bags?

Dale

[Frank_Pender]

My uneducated guess is that the wrap material does not shrink along with the wood and therefore becomes real lose?   I find that the bundles that I make with bailing twine shrink as the wood become more dry and the bundles get handled more and readjusted.  My bundles ewqual 1.5 cubic feet and I try to sell them for $5 and bundle.

   It takes 22 bundles for a ric and 66 for a cord.

[SwampDonkey]

This is an interesting enterprise. You guys must have some good markets in your area to be able to sell firewood like this. I used to see bundles of kindling at gas stations, but haven't for a few years now.

[Timberwerks]

This is an interesting enterprise. You guys must have some good markets in your area to be able to sell firewood like this. I used to see bundles of kindling at gas stations, but haven't for a few years now.

Every gas station, grocery store or garden center around here has the packaged bundles for sale. I've talked to a few of the store managers and they say they always sell out. Camping season is a busy time for sales. The stores in my area say they would be happy buying from me since I am in the area and I can re-stock them on short notice. This is only about 8 stores or so but I fiqure it's worth giving it a try.

Can anyone offer tips on pricing? The typical bag sells for $5.00 and has about 8-10 logs in them. I'm not sure if I should offer the stores a percentage of sales and collect after sales are made? Or if I should sell them whosale? I guess it wouldn't hurt to ask what they do now but I'd like to gain more knowledge on this first.  What do you guy's do that are into the pakage sales?

Dale

[Frank_Pender]

I am still waiting to see where to purchase the bags.

[Bibbyman]

I wanted some bags like that one time to package ear corn to sale to people with squirrel feeders.  I went to a grocer and he had all kinds they used for produce.  Sold me a 100 bundle.  I bet your local grocer could tell you where he gets them.

Or do a search on "mesh bags" +firewood  Got 2500 hits on Yahoo.

[farmerdoug]

Fank,

Check with the produce packaging supply houses.  Here is one to start you out.

http://montepkg.com/index.asp

Farmerdoug

[SwampDonkey]

One feller from the city wanted burlap bags for cone collecting. I asked if he was ever near a spud farm. I said you need to leave the city and come to Carleton county in spud country. Farmers here have hundreds on hand, I'm sure they could sell ya a bundle.

[Timberwerks]

After thinking about this some more perhaps the onion bags from Farber will be a good choice. These are a mesh type material with an open weave. If I went with a burlap type of closed weave I would not get air flow. The longer length bag would also give me plenty of room to tie it off.

Thanks Guy's
Dale

[bull]

I bought the onion bags from farber bag  *( red 18.5 x 36 )* seem to be ok.  I have a stamp to print the buisness name on them and a sharpie Marker to write  the price, amount and type of wood. The bags are a little long but you don't have to fill them full. The owners of the stores where i sell,told me most people were buying two packs *( 1 cubic ft )* when we were selling the strapped bundles. @ $6.00 each..  We will be pricing the bags at $10.00 each about 2 cubic ft.  also different species ie: mixed soft wood, mixed hardwood, Campfire wood, etc. And cooking woods; hickory, apple, white oak.....  Kindling and the well sought after " clinkers" any size under 9' inch for the top fed stoves. 
Bulk cordwood is selling for $ 135 GREEN and $175 SEASONED per cord !!!!
Bagged firewood will be $640 a cord SEASONED.
some of the stores will mark it up even higher..

I called Farber and spoke w/ frank he sent me a sample bag before i made a purchase. I now have 1000 bags if you want i may be willing to sell a few ----- hundred ...

[Timberwerks]

I called Farber and spoke w/ frank he sent me a sample bag before i made a purchase. I now have 1000 bags if you want i may be willing to sell a few ----- hundred ...

I may take you up on that. He sent me samples of the new and used bags a couple months ago. I just happend to Email them this morning asking for cost on the new and if they would sell as little as 100 so I can try them out. Can you Email me what you would want for 100 bags? I'm not sure if Farber will be willing to do a small trail order like that.

Thanks
dale9091@aol.com

[ARKANSAWYER]

http://www.uline.com/ProductDetail.asp?model=S-8423&root=&keywords=s-8423


  They have other size bags as well.  I use streatch wrap that is 6 inches wide.  I stack the wood in a 5 gal bucket that is cut off half way up.  I wrap the streatch wrap a few times then flip the bucket over and do the other side of the bundle.  Works well for no more then I do.  I put a business card in every bundle between some wraps.  Uline has other bags and sizes as well as the streatch wrap.

[Timberwerks]

Well, I'm going to give the bagged bundles a try. How many logs does a typical bundle have? I've seen anywhere from 8 up to 16 or so. Some of these logs are rather small. Is there a standard unit of measure for these?

Dale

[Timberwerks]

I currently just sell to residential customers but I would like to learn more about the wholesale market. Reason being I just saw an add on firewood.com for someone looking for 500-600 face cords for next year . How does wholesale pricing differ from what I get here? In my area I sell mixed hardwood at $75.00 a 1/3 cord with free delivery. I'm actually on the low side of the price per 1/3 cord, in my area $85 - $95 is typical. I'd like to expand but I'm not sure if wholesale is the right move for me. If I did this full time I could most likely produce 600 cords a year easy. The thing I would have to research is shipping and related costs. All comments welcome.

Dale

[SwampDonkey]

I know a couple of brothers producing firewood with a processor. They said they put up about 400 cords a year. The wood is cut in winter months. I bought my wood from them this year because I couldn't get the wood trucked.  Most loggers complain about the truckers complaining.

[Rockn H]

We used to haul some firewood to texas.  We always used 6" shrink wrap.  Had two 2x4 frame in the shape of a u about 12" apart and just wrapped the 12" of wood in the middle.  It was pretty fast but I imagine throwing it in a bag would be faster.  Although shrink wrap is pretty cheap.

[Maurice Wilson]

I posted this question awhile back and I learned about Farber bags. This seems like a good place to go with, except for the fact that the most suitable bag for firewood is their onion bag. The onion bag is a little longer and wider than I expected. Is there any other companies that someone knows of that has other size bags of similar material? I've seen a few gas stations now thar are selling firewood in these bags but I have had no luck finding out where the bags come from.

The plastic wrap bundles aren't showing up as often as they used to. Is the trend switching to the burlap/mesh type bags?

Dale

contact Bag Supplies Canada in Stratford Ontario, they supply net bags of many sizes and colours for firewood.

[Magicman]

Welcome to the Forestry Forum, Maurice Wilson.