Do you separate by species?

[Hunter8282]

Consider the wood to be for your own use, not selling firewood. Do you separate and keep separate your firewood by species? If so why?

For example, you have Red Oak, Maples, Beech, Cherry. All hardwoods. Do you keep them separated or just stack 'em as you cut them and mix them together.

 

[stoveliker]

I do separate them to some extent. My shed bays have 5 stacks of 7' tall and 6' wide, access from front and back only. I can't get to the middle stacks until the outer ones are gone.
So, I do think about e.g. when I would like to have some softer woods available and when squarish splits of oak are useful.

But I don't religiously separate; always good to have some mix/options available at all times.

 

[Riff]

Yes, for the most part. If I mix, then I keep woods for different purposes together. I'll keep shoulder season, general purpose, and high btu woods together. If there is enough of one particular species then I try to keep it all together so I have an idea of about how long it's been seasoning, what it is, etc.

 

[NickW]

Ditto @Riff. Shoulder season wood all together, oak always by itself, other premiums together, 1 year hardwood together, 2 year hardwood together.

 

[Dieselhead]

Just by hardwood and softwood but no specific species per day.

 

[TreeCo]

I just stack it in the woodshed as it comes in. When splitting the lighter woods are left in larger splits.

I do separate out some of the hickory because I sell a little.

 

[coal and wood man]

Same thing Riff. Oak, mulberry, hickory, and beech one side. Ash, walnut, and others another side. Poplar all by itself - that is kindling.

 

[Slimdusty]

Softwood on one side for my daily consumption as that is what i burn 80% of the time. Premium hardwood that gets used somewhat sparingly on the other side. Works well.

 

[hickoryhoarder]

I try various things, but mainly I stack it by when it will be ready. So I'll put ash I've had for six months with oak I've had 18 months, and cherry I've had for six months.

Whatever I do, I make it real easy to grab a mix for a fire. I never burn all the same wood in a fire -- usually a mixture of at least three types.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I normally keep all my higher BTU stuff together in the sheds. If I run across something like poplar or lower BTU stuff I'll stack that separately for shoulder season.. I definitely won't mix the stuff I'll burn in the dead of winter with something I'd burn in the spring

 

[fvhowler]

I burn mostly oaks and hickories. I will occasionally mix in other species like red maple, bradford pear, sweet gum, and black cherry but will always contain at least 80% oak/hickory in the stacks. I don't really have shoulder season wood piles.

 

[venator260]

Mine all gets tossed together. I'm 2-3 years ahead, and stack on skids under old roofing tin. I just write on my stacks with a sharpie the month and year that the stack was finished. I stack in a couple different areas, and there is a 0% chance I would remember what got stacked when if I didn't write it on the stack.

I bring it into my basement with a cart on an ATV, and can sort as I grab from the cart; I'll grab lower quality woods for evenings and weekends when I am home and can load more often, and use the better stuff for overnights and when I'm at work.

 

[Giaman]

Not by species but like others have said, I generally separate between low btu woods (tulip and even some spruce/pine), and high btu (hickory, oak, beech). I am lucky though because the vast majority of my wood is oak/hickory

 

[Pinesmoke]

I usually end up separated by species. Pine streaks so have yellow kinda together. Hardwood are the same. When I pull wood in under the porch in the fall I jackhammer end up with separate beech oak and pine ricks so I can just grab what I want to burn.

 

[Isaac Carlson]

We used to mix it all together but now we separate by how long it will take to dry and btu. Not strict, but ballpark close. Right now we are splitting oak, ash, honey locust, black locust, silver maple, hard maple, maybe some hickory, and other woods. There are sections in the pile with several cord of one type, so they get separated, but there are also mixed sections that stay mixed unless it is easy to separate them. It just makes it easy to test a split from each tote to see if it is ready when they are all the same.