After several rounds with unscrupulous sellers trying to play games with me regarding the quantity of wood (one tried to tell me that a "cord"--which he originally wrote in his ad as a "quart"--was "a term for multiple ricks," and a rick contains 80 logs), I hunted down the actual legal definition, in an official .gov (NIST, National Institute of Standards and Technology) publication: NIST Handbook 130, Uniform Regulation for the Method of Sale of Commodities.
https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2017/04/28/ivb-methsale-h130-15-final.pdf (I've attached a copy in case the link changes).
See definition 2.4.1.2, on page 115:
Anybody using any other definition is at best ignorant, and at worst dishonest.
So, the next time somebody tries to pull a fast one on you, you now have an authoritative source to ask him to give you an accurate, meaningful, consistent number.
https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2017/04/28/ivb-methsale-h130-15-final.pdf (I've attached a copy in case the link changes).
See definition 2.4.1.2, on page 115:
2.4.1.2. Cord. – The amount of wood that is contained in a space of 128 [cubic feet] when the wood is ranked and well stowed. For the purpose of this regulation, “ranked and well stowed” shall be construed to mean that pieces of wood are placed in a line or row, with individual pieces touching and parallel to each other, and stacked in a compact manner.
Anybody using any other definition is at best ignorant, and at worst dishonest.
So, the next time somebody tries to pull a fast one on you, you now have an authoritative source to ask him to give you an accurate, meaningful, consistent number.