Separating wood by type. Worth it?

Is separating wood by type worth the added effort?
I started out separating out the red oak, white oak and honey locus stacking it in the barn. During my recuperation from surgery, my grandsons came out cutting and splitting a lot of wood. They didn't separate it. I can't complain about it though. I was looking forward to having some high BTU wood for the extremely cold periods.

 

I separate my stacks. I have the Red Oak stack then the other 5 Red Oak stacks then the one White Pine stack. I like it this way I always know what is burning. (Red Oak)

 

We keep our better hardwoods (beech,sugar maple, yellow birch) stacked together on the northside of the house. We also have our ironwood stacked by itself since it's the highest btu wood on our property, I think it's worth the extra time.

 

Yep like others I separate out a lot of my wood. Sometimes I mark the wood on the end what type it is because after 3 years I start to forget especially if the bark is gone.

 

I seperate any primo stuff. The rest just gets stacked. These days about all I get is ash anyway, so separation is minimal.

 

I only separate oak, it takes longer than anything else to season. When it's ready, I mix it in with other hardwoods when I stack it on the back porch

 

I separate pine to burn down coals.. mid grade most everything else.. then super primo iron wood etc etc

 

I seperate mine. But then I'm mad, mad, I tell you! Mad as a hatter!

I have rows of oak, rows of ash and a row of red maple

The oak is mostly from a tree service drop off nearly 4 years ago, the red maple is a drop off from some guy who cut down 3 big reds in his yard and needed a place to get rid of the wood. Needless to say I was happy to let him dump it at my place.

The ash is from my property and the horse farm next door. It's all courtesy the E.A.B. And by the looks of it ash will be my fuel source for many years to come.

 

I stack my wood outside based on what the tree yields, so some stacks have all one species others have a mixture.

I do separate them eventually when I'm ready to burn it, after they have been stacked outside for several years, I separate the wood into two stacks. One stack with harder wood and the other stack for softer woods. I do this separation when I move it closer to the house and bring it under the cover of my over hang. Keeps it totally dry for another 6 months or more.

I do this because I like softer wood to start fires or burn in the morning, or to burn down coals. I use the harder woods for when it's really cold or for overnight burns.

Here's where they get separated... Rear pile has oaks, hickory, black birch and beech. Front pile has sycamore, maple, aspen, tulip and sasafrass.

 

I Mix it up as long as it is all good hardwood. Then have a separate pile of mix for the shoulder season (pine, poplar, basswood). Mix it up.

 

I seperate by type more than species.
-Softwoods (pine)

-Lower btu, soft-hardwood (cottonwood,boxelder,cherrie etc)

-High btu hardwood (elm and oak)

 

At my place there are only 2 kinds of wood ready to burn & not ready
Very easy to seperate that way.
Burn what ya got i dont even sort for shoulder season i just burn what next in line

 

That is how it has been around my place for the last 2 years. Burn what you got.
When I started stacking the oak and honey locus in the barn, it was a start of a 3 year plan. Most of what I have been burning is ash 2 year cure. The last 2 loads that the Wood Fairy dropped off were heavy on the oak and honey locus. I still have most of the last 4 axle dump truck load to cut yet.

 

I tend to seperate by type, until I get behind or get lazy. Today I mixed walnut, ash, and mulberry in one stack. I haven't put up much wood this year so I'm trying to make up for it the next couple of weeks. It will be stacked for 2-3yrs before it gets burned so I'm not worried about the drying rate. Also, I figured that would be a good mix together in the stove.

 

With the OWB, I will pile the scrap wood for first burning and last burning of seasons in a different row. All the other stuff (good) gets mixed together.

 

I have separate cords of white oak, red oak, pine, mixed medium hardwoods, UNLESS I have enough of something to make a separate cord. I have a separate 1/2 cord of blue spruce . One tree. When you slice up a three+ cord red oak that toppled over it's pretty easy to have cords of just red oak.
I won't spend time weeding out a pile though. Ain't nobody got time fo dat.

My number 1 reason for separating is seasoning times.

 

If anything I separated my white birch and my horse chestnut. Theres a stack thats a mix of pine, larch and firs that are still seasoning and semi dry. I really dont need to split it so much as its been drying for some time. Id rather just it stacked so its seasoning now and not later. The stacks aren't perfect, some mixes lf wood but not to an extent. Just really to keep some end pieces out of the rain and a bit of dry cherry that needs some stacking for that matter. Its under the tarp for later and be ready for burning once the weather warms up. Most of this wood i have i would say it is ready to burn but needs some drying time as a stacked and cut to manageable pieces. Ive got these long mill end cuts that are just crazy heavy. Perfect bonfire wood. Then from there its all downhill get my pallets set up and stack that. I did separate a stack of fresh split doug fir but then some other stuff got piled on for temporary. Now that I know what it is, its not the grab-bag pile.

 

I try to separate the woods based on btu ranges. I treat them like regular, mid grade, and super grade gasoline.

Regular= basswood, pine, poplar,
Midgrade= elm, ash, box elder, soft maple, black walnut, cherry

Super/ primo grade= oak, sugar maple, beech, locust, ironwood, apple, hickory

When they are brought inside, they can get mixed up, but I can tell what they are.

I don't like to use the primo stuff when it's warmer, as it's a waste of btu's.