Softwood logs any good?

[Yeti]

Absolute nothing wrong with softwood,i shift an absolute heap of the stuff.Good 80 percent customer base always asks for repeats on softwood.

Give me larch or give me death !

Supply dry, price sensible folk will be happy enough.

[NI Tree]

you also have to rember that we only had a very limited softwoods "conifer" to chose from the Yew, Scots Pine and juliper, it only in the last 50 60 years this has change due to the conifer planting

[nepia]

I wouldn't dream of putting yew in my softwood firewood supply; way too good for that! I hide most of my Western Red in the hardwoods too.

[NI Tree]

I wouldn't dream of putting yew in my softwood firewood supply; way too good for that! I hide most of my Western Red in the hardwoods too.

 

ha i do the same my self but you see where i am comming from, softwoods are a newish to this country so people were not brought up with them as kids exctra

[Mycoman]

you also have to rember that we only had a very limited softwoods "conifer" to chose from the Yew, Scots Pine and juliper, it only in the last 50 60 years this has change due to the conifer planting

 

Interesting take on it.

[Stereo]

A mix of 70/30 soft to hard works best for me. 100% soft and your fire dies if you leave it too long. 100% hard it burns too cold unless kiln dried. I chuck pallet planks in with my coppiced hazel and alder fare and it burns long and hot. Plus I can rescue the fire if I forget it for too long.

[WFWales]

Absolute nothing wrong with softwood,i shift an absolute heap of the stuff.Good 80 percent customer base always asks for repeats on softwood.

Give me larch or give me death !

Supply dry, price sensible folk will be happy enough.

 

Wise words Big Fella

 

and the rest of this thread is very encouraging - glad the professionals are on the case - just gotta get them punters on board....

[nepia]

I'm trying an 'offer' at the moment: highest price for hardwood, lower price for softwood, a price less than the two together for a load of each delivered at the same time. Got my first taker yesterday.

But it's right to say 'education is needed': as soon as you mention 'conifer' the hackles go up and you have to explain that it's fine when dry and that the tarred up flues that everyone's heard about (but few seem to have suffered) were almost certainly down to burning green wood - of any sort.

 

 

...Got two more orders for my 'double load' idea above. Looking good; two loads out for approx. the cost of one in time and fuel.

[WFWales]

Maybe we should start selling wood by energy content....

 

...such that you offer the customer either a fixed amount of MegaJoules and a variable volume of wood or a fixed volume of wood (probably much, much easier!) but a proportionately cheaper price, based on how much energy they're actually buying per cube/builders bag, etc...

 

There are a lot of folks out there in the energy market (because that's what we're part of) trying to get best value; if you can make it genuinely simple and understandable (and compare what you're charging for 'energy' to gas/coal/elec/oil) then all the mystery and misinformation will go out of it.

 

Now this is probably a bad example to give, but when you go to Amsterdam and buy cannabis, the Dutch give you a little of the strong stuff or relatively a lot more of the less strong stuff for the same money. Apparently. Different people buy different stuff according to their tastes but everyone is getting more or less the same bang for their buck and maybe that's the way forward with firewood.

 

The information regarding energy/unit dry volume is out there - price acccordingly and if you have a website explain this simply on your log page.

 

You could even factor in the mositure content so that wet wood is cheaper/dry wood at a premium. Turn up with the load and a moisture meter, split a couple of pieces and show them the reading... after all that only the true problem children will find something to complain about!

 

This is an interesting idea and I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment of providing accurate information to the punters but I fear that it is pretty difficult - can you give me an idea of how many KWh there are in a loose cube of 20% mc softwood (sorry cant do btu's)

 

I also fear that if we go down this route we will need to start supplying by weight and end up vulnerable to trading standards...

 

...and then we have the problem of determining moisture content - does your meter measure on a wet or dry basis??

[Alycidon]

Never mix soft with hard. Sell hardwood at a premium and softwood 20% cheaper for the same bulk.

 

Only sell it seasoned, and if its struggling to go out of the door, offer a couple of small nets free as a trial with a bulk load of hardwood.

 

Excellent advice, 20% cheaper for soft is where I am. I get customer comments liek 'I have never had wood that burns liek yours does, its fantastic'. Thats pine, larch by and large, bit of conny bvut no pop. Am burnign poop at present in the showroom, goes ok but have allowed the moisture to creep up to about 20% to slow the combustion rate a bit.

 

A