We often scour the market place to make sure our packaged firewood is the best that it can be. We’re sure you are thinking… “Come on… Really?”. Yeah – we do. A lot in fact. We are consumers just like our customers. When we are out shopping or traveling to various New England locations, we look out to see if there are campgrounds, retails stores, supermarkets that carry packaged firewood. We look at a variety of things about how they are displayed, wrapped, how many pieces come in a package, the quality of the wood, and of course the cost.
To be fair – we look through the pile and pick out the best looking package. Sometimes we ask a shopper to pick the best package they would personally buy, and that is what we purchase and evaluate. We have to tell you honestly, the pickings are slim. Some are downright insulting if we weren’t so knowledgeable about what packaged firewood should be.
Some of the things we have found:
- A small amount of firewood pieces; four, or five max in most cases.
- West End Firewood packages contain six or seven pieces.
- A huge disparity in firewood thicknesses. Huge and thin pieces in the same package. Or all huge pieces.
- West End Firewood utilizes a 12-way custom multi-level splitting wedge that ensures consistent sizes. Our packers hand select perfect sized pieces and put aside large or tiny pieces to be used for other purposes.
- A lot of broken/ripped plastic wrap, shrink wrap or bags
- West End Firewood uses thicker mil plastic so bursting packages don’t occur on display or carrying home.
- Packages that have developed a significant amount of mold. (Results from damp wood, improper or no kiln drying, not under cover protection of a roof)
- Missing or broken carry handles
- Our packers lift each package handle directly out of the conveyor belt prior to stacking on the pallet. If a handle is going to fall off – now is the time to fix it.
- Packages falling off the pallets they were shipped on.
- This is mostly due to uneven wood packages and poor positioning on the pallet. Because West End Firewood packages are split in consistent sizes, and packed carefully, they are usually consistent in their shape.
