Best way to label wood

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gzecc

Minister of Fire
Hearth Supporter
Sep 24, 2008
5,128
NNJ
Haven't had the problem yet because I don't have that much wood. However what is a good way to label the stack so you know when its stacked. What will be most efficient. I was thinking black marker, with the date stacked. Will the marker fade away? Any experience in doing this?
 
I just spend enough time with every split to come to know it and recognize it on sight and I give it a name. Just today, I burned Roger, Josiah, Sally, Murphy, Douglas, Enos, Reginald, Fatima, Sarah, and Barry. Rick
 
Funny, I used to wonder the same thing. Just the fact that you're asking shows that you've got "the bug". Trust me, you'll remember....
 
I have already forgotten some. I know its a couple of years but, I would like to know how many months split and stacked. I just want to label the rack somehow. My wood is all stacked in different areas. Its stacked by species or by drying type (1yr), (2yr)
 
fossil said:
I just spend enough time with every split to come to know it and recognize it on sight and I give it a name. Just today, I burned Roger, Josiah, Sally, Murphy, Douglas, Enos, Reginald, Fatima, Sarah, and Barry. Rick

What no last names ? Like Sally Elm and Rodger Lodge-pole Pine.

You could label like nursery stock a card in a plastic sleeve stapled to the pallet , It will need to be very large if you are going to use names like Fossil.

I have only been doing this a few years and I probably have well over 20 cords of wood in different stages and I can tell you not only the wood when it was cut but also whose yard/farm it came from ..... it's a sickness and it spreads faster than the H1N1 and it sounds like you got it . The cure ---- none known.
 
This afternoon I was burning wood from the top of my hill. This evening I'm burning wood from across the creek and down by the clearing.

Funny thing is I remember how my day was going, when I felled, buck and split each piece i feed into the insert.,
No names just memories. I work slow so I can enjoy the ADDICTION!
 
You could use RFID.

(broken link removed to http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/2861/)
 
fossil said:
I just spend enough time with every split to come to know it and recognize it on sight and I give it a name. Just today, I burned Roger, Josiah, Sally, Murphy, Douglas, Enos, Reginald, Fatima, Sarah, and Barry. Rick


:lol:
 
Tony H said:
fossil said:
I just spend enough time with every split to come to know it and recognize it on sight and I give it a name. Just today, I burned Roger, Josiah, Sally, Murphy, Douglas, Enos, Reginald, Fatima, Sarah, and Barry. Rick

What no last names ? Like Sally Elm and Rodger Lodge-pole Pine.

You could label like nursery stock a card in a plastic sleeve stapled to the pallet , It will need to be very large if you are going to use names like Fossil.

I have only been doing this a few years and I probably have well over 20 cords of wood in different stages and I can tell you not only the wood when it was cut but also whose yard/farm it came from ..... it's a sickness and it spreads faster than the H1N1 and it sounds like you got it . The cure ---- none known.

I've gotta stop at some point, but I keep running across all these spelling errors and feel the need to correct. L I F E S T Y L E. :roll:
Oh, and we don't need no steenkin' cure!
I don't like to name mine, since I plan to incinerate the poor things. The sense of loss wold be too much to bear.
 
Gotta Love it, love it ,love it. These types of threads are what I have to show my wife so she knows I am not the only one. I am saved for another day. :lol:
 
Setting your bar to the height of our insanity? I don't think you will win any reprieve with the wife, not even for a day.
 
Maybe you could use different colors of spray paint and write down which color represents when.
 
I gotto admit it I'm having the same problem. I'm starting to intermingle old and new piles and I need to label them somehow. After 2-3 years I can remember most of the piles but not all of them.
 
Me too. I don't remember if that last wood we took from the pile is 6 or 7 years old. I think I'm about through with most of the 7 year old stuff though.
 
Someone mentioned it before. Use a barcode system and inventory each split. That way you can track it on the computer. :-)

I am with the rest of you guys I know where each pile came from and when it was piled. I only have this year and two more years of wood so it is not that hard to track.
 
I have a little notebook where I have a drawing of my wood stacks. For each stack I write down the time period it was stacked (like Nov 09) and the size of the stack. I use it to track usage, amount on hand and remind me the order that I will burn them. Yep, I am anal .... and I have the "lifestyle" bug
 
fossil said:
I just spend enough time with every split to come to know it and recognize it on sight and I give it a name. Just today, I burned Roger, Josiah, Sally, Murphy, Douglas, Enos, Reginald, Fatima, Sarah, and Barry. Rick
+1 you handle it enough you wont forget it
 
Hurricane said:
Someone mentioned it before. Use a barcode system and inventory each split. That way you can track it on the computer. :-)

I am with the rest of you guys I know where each pile came from and when it was piled. I only have this year and two more years of wood so it is not that hard to track.

I have enough space to not have to intermingle each years wood. Kind of a round robin setup, with 3 stacks..............so far. Very simple to track. Thing is, if you don't do this, you could end up attempting to burn the dreaded "unseasoned" splits. Heaven help us all, if that were to occur.
Focus, grasshopper.
"Be the ball", you will find enlightenment.
 
I use bar codes on each split. Then scan the split as it goes to the stove. Its an excellent way to keep track of my inventory, and with computer modeling of the burned inventory, I can track the BTU usage and compare it to the temp differential I am trying to overcome. With enough of a model built, I can then selectively retrieve the exact splits needed to obtain the desired heat output for the time frame needed and the intended internal home temp.
 
Hmmm . . . I think I'm a wood burning neanderthal.

Wood to burn this year: In the shed.

Wood to burn next year: Whatever is left over in the shed (and I'm thinking I probably have enough for close to two years in there right now) . . . and the stacks of wood out front in my yard.

Wood to burn the year after next: Whatever I cut down next Spring/Summer/Fall.
 
smokinjay said:
fossil said:
I just spend enough time with every split to come to know it and recognize it on sight and I give it a name. Just today, I burned Roger, Josiah, Sally, Murphy, Douglas, Enos, Reginald, Fatima, Sarah, and Barry. Rick
+1 you handle it enough you wont forget it

Same here. My piles are kinda like a log of my scrounging. I can pretty much tell you where each scrounge starts and stops on the stacks. I only have about 6 1/2 cords split and stacked, plus 3 cords stacked and not yet split. Maybe when I get 3 years out I won't be able to keep track, but I doubt it.
 
I have real simple system. I sort it as I stack it keeping LIFO in mind. Dry stuff over here and not so dry over there. Last year's wood on this side of the shed, year before on the other side. Simpler with my outdoor piles/stacks. Last year here, the year before, there. It's not that hard to keep track of. Since I plan ahead how I will unload the shed, unloading is pretty much a no brainer. I usually have the right mix of big and small to suit but now and then I might have to resplit a biggie if the weather throws me a curve.
 
I was thinking that a 3D laser scanner could be used to make a virtual 3d model of the split with optical recognition of species. A load cell could weigh the piece and the computer calculate the MC and burn time. With your week's supply inventoried and pigeon holed, you could have a robot arm select the perfect load and the computer calculate the placement for optimum burn. In between loads it could wup yo'ass at chess.
 
LLigetfa said:
...In between loads it could wup yo'ass at chess.

Any old split of wood could wup my ass at chess. %-P Rick
 
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