A Connoisseur's Guide to Fuelwood

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Because a rick lacks specific depth, it has no specific volume. It therefore can't be rigidly defined in terms of a cord, which sometimes leads to confusion. Most of our firewood customers wanted 18-in. wood, so most of the ricks we sold were 3/8 of a cord. A few of our customers ordered cookstove wood cut to 16 in., so their ricks were 1/3 of a cord. For fireplaces, we sometimes cut 24-in. lengths, so a rick of fireplace logs equals 1/2 a cord. If some Goliath with an outsized stove wanted fuelwood in 4-ft lengths, a rick would equal a cord.

In our area, firewood for sale is "ricked up" so customers can see that they're getting fall measure. We used to set up a series of metal fence posts 8 ft apart and stack the wood between them to a height of 4 ft. When we delivered wood in our old Dodge pickup bed, measuring was easy. By neatly loading the wood in parallel rows — stacked level with the top of the bed, then heaped slightly at the middle to make up for the space used by the wheel wells — we had exactly one rick of 18-in. sticks. You can determine the holding capacity of your own vehicle by ricking up a split of firewood, then loading it on and remembering how it falls.

Whether ricked up or stacked by the cord, firewood is more often sold by volume than by weight. If two ricks or cords cost the same amount but one contains denser wood than the other, it is dearly the better buy. If you live in one of the rare areas where fuelwood is sold by weight, make sure you examine it carefully and buy the driest wood possible so you won't be paying extra for water.

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