Thanks for explaining things a little more for me even though I am a Husky owner.
Makes sense to have variety in my wood pile, for while I do. Only thing is...I can identify how big the splits are by looking at it....I can't identify what species of wood I have (It's all mixed together from scrounging on CL) so it'll be an interesting learning experience. Haha.
I have owned several of the more esteemed Husky saws. I culled them with my older Stihls to reduce the herd. CAD (chainsaw addiction disease) can get out of control. I stihl have too many saws
I am also a certified wood scrounge: from CL, neighbors, small woodland falling/logging, flood salvage, arborists, national forest cutting, and slash pile salvage/post logging salvage. You need to learn the species that are in your area, and to ask when you get the wood. You learn about them over time, what they look like as a tree and as seasoned firewood. I avoid several species now that come up on CL a lot here: poplar, cottonwood, aspen, and willow. Black locust is not that common here but I have gotten a lot on CL lately. One arborist did not like burning it so he gave me a cord of seasoned BL last year. He said I would need a 'good stove' to burn it. My gain. BL is #2 on my prize list for prized firewood. Madrone is #1. Madrone only grows along the west coast of North America, but it is a trash tree here and not used commercially. It is great firewood. Oak is #3, we have mostly Oregon white oak here in the PNW, also a trash species, but there are other oak species in the cities and burbs. Bigleaf maple is also common in the US west, and is also a trash species, and other types of maples are common in the burbs. Generic 'maple' is #4 on my list. Doug Fir is #5. Doug is the top money tree here, but it grows like a weed in the west. Alder is my #1 wood for BBQ. There is a lot around here, but it is also a very high value timber species, so it does not come up that often (I horde it). I go after the above prized wood, as well as others like cherry/plum, elm, ash, larch (AKA: tamarack), eucalyptus (it usually dies in hard frost here every few years, and people re-plant them religiously to die in another few years), and some others I cannot think of now.
I keep my wood in racks on pallets staked with t-posts and covered in tarps and separated by species. I have one section that is a complete mix of species that was from the storms here 2 years ago. I salvaged firewood from windfall on the roads, but also (with a permit) from flood timber that washed into bridges and had been yarded out. They took the better species to the mill, and left the rest for us wood scrounges. It is a weird mix. "Guess the wood!" I also have pine, juniper, plum, birch and cherry from my property here that I felled last year. Cherry and plum look the same, and they burn pretty much the same. I have my alder stashed, and new oak and BL from this past fall for next year. I have some odd-ball cedar from a load of fir I burned last year. Light wood, not worth it IMO. Cedar is another high value timber species but common in the burbs as well. Cut, burn and learn... I heat this place exclusively with wood. I should fix the furnace to get a home loan though. Not that I will ever use it...