Burning White Pine

[hawkeye08]

We burned mostly pine back when we heated with wood stove. We were glad to have some wood that burned well but was not as much heat... We could use it when it was not as cold out and not over heat the house (it burned hot but faster so less heat).

Some local farmers tried making pellets for stoves out of wheat straw a few years back... same principle, less heat for when it is not as cold.. they were not able to make enough profit to keep running..

 

[ruffdog]

My Scotch Pine burns ok in a woodstove but I don't like certain evergreens and White Pine is one of them. It burns like it soaked up diesel fuel. To kill a tree a year ahead just cut a groove around the trunk with a chainsaw. That way it cuts off the sap and the tree dies and dries. I have about 50 Blue Spruce that I did that to so they are pre dried.

 

[Snobdds]

Come out west, all we have is pine and people burn it all winter. Pine is a great firewood.

I've never even burned a piece of oak or maple or hickory... I don't think I'm missing much.

 

[Weedy Fields]

Come out west, all we have is pine and people burn it all winter. Pine is a great firewood.

I've never even burned a piece of oak or maple or hickory... I don't think I'm missing much.

Your missing alot longer burn with a lot more heat. Shagbark Hickory has twice the btus that white pine has.
Imagine only needing 1/2 the wood to heat your place.

 

[ruffdog]

Your missing alot longer burn with a lot more heat. Shagbark Hickory has twice the btus that white pine has.
Imagine only needing 1/2 the wood to heat your place.

True, I use the pine to start a fire or to do a short burn in warm weather. I use the hardwoods for cold weather. Some areas just may not have the trees available like others do. Burn what you have near by.

 

[Snobdds]

Your missing alot longer burn with a lot more heat. Shagbark Hickory has twice the btus that white pine has.
Imagine only needing 1/2 the wood to heat your place.

It's all relative. I know exactly how big my pile needs to be to last me until spring. Never have known anything different. What you don't know...You don't miss.

Actually my property is too high for pine to thrive. I mostly have edleman spruce and mountain fir. Which may even be worse than pine for BTUs. It all burns the same though.

 

[turnkey4099]

Your missing alot longer burn with a lot more heat. Shagbark Hickory has twice the btus that white pine has.
Imagine only needing 1/2 the wood to heat your place.

Great. Just conme out here an plant a batch of shag bark hickory. Hard wood forests DO NOT GROW out here. Here any tree that has needles or leaves is looked at as green gold when it comes to heating with wood.

Willow? About as far down in firewood chart as one can get. I still sell it at $120 cord and I have more prospective customers than I can handle.

 

[turnkey4099]

It's all relative. I know exactly how big my pile needs to be to last me until spring. Never have known anything different. What you don't know...You don't miss.

Actually my property is too high for pine to thrive. I mostly have edleman spruce and mountain fir. Which may even be worse than pine for BTUs. It all burns the same though.

True that. All species have about the same BTU. A pound of pine with produce jsut about the same number of BTU as a pound of shag bark hickory. The ony real difference is how often one needs to feed the stove.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

You guys are gonna love it when I start posting pictures of my burn piles. Enough pine to heat a high school for a year.
I was in southern Colorado about 10 years ago and stopped in a small antique/general store....they sold everything. There was a small wood stove burning, made out of what looked like stamped riveted steel. Not heavy weight at all. And a basket in front of it with twisted chunks of wood. As I was paying for the things I got, I asked what they burned in the stove. "Junk wood". basically anything they could get their hands on. It looked like they had a bunch of chunks of juniper trunks in the basket. I suppose you burn what you have available. The place was warm, and that was the only source or heat that I saw, so it must be working.

 

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

Some areas just may not have the trees available like others do. Burn what you have near by.

Yep. When you have plenty of hardwood, pine is just not worth the work. It's like choosing between working in a pizza joint that pays $5 per hour vs. $10 per hour. Same work? Better pay? Easy choice.

But if pine is what you have, great! Nothing wrong with it.

 

[Weedy Fields]

It's all relative. I know exactly how big my pile needs to be to last me until spring. Never have known anything different. What you don't know...You don't miss.

Actually my property is too high for pine to thrive. I mostly have edleman spruce and mountain fir. Which may even be worse than pine for BTUs. It all burns the same though.

Your previous post you stated that Pine was "GREAT" firewood, then you admitted that you never burned any Hickory, Maple or Oak. Good on you that you admitted your own ignorance.
You finished off by saying you don't think your missing anything.

I merely Pointed out What your missing, That Hickory has twice the BTU's than White Pine.
If Pine is "great" firewood what is Hickory? Words have meanings.
I was gently trying to show you, who admitted your own ignorance that Pine is not "great" firewood.

You point out you know how big of pile you need to last the winter.
I pointed out that your pile would be half the size if you have Hickory.


Then you toss out the statement "It all burns the same though"
You admitted you never burned anything else but your Doubling down on your first statement of Pine being great firewood.

My whole point in this was to point out that White Pine is not "great" firewood, it'll burn just fine but its pretty far down on the list of quality firewood.
All firewood will burn, but not all firewood burns the same. Some burn longer and put out twice the heat of others. Those are "great" firewoods.

If all you have is Pine, Spruce or Fir thats Ok, Burn away but don't tell me Pine is "Great" firewood, I have burned Pine, Hickory, Oak and Maple.

 

[Weedy Fields]

True that. All species have about the same BTU. A pound of pine with produce jsut about the same number of BTU as a pound of shag bark hickory. The ony real difference is how often one needs to feed the stove.

True that a pound of pine has the same btu's as a pound of Hickory.
But what that statement leads out is that a pound of Pine is twice the size of a pound of Hickory.
So that a Cord of Hickory weighs over 2 tons and a cord of Pine weighs 1 ton. So you get twice the amount of heat out of a cord of Hickory.
Firewood does not sell by weight, it sells by volume.

Us in the east have the disadvantage of having to lift wood that weighs twice as much as you guys out west.
But we have the advantage of sawing, splitting, stacking and loading half the amount of firewood to keep our houses warm.

In the end it all comes out the same I guess, one has to handle so many pounds of firewood to keep warm if you want to look at by weight.

 

[LD1]

Pine is fine for firewood if seasoned, it just has less BTU per lb than hardwood.

Not true

True that. All species have about the same BTU. A pound of pine with produce jsut about the same number of BTU as a pound of shag bark hickory. The ony real difference is how often one needs to feed the stove.

True


I burn pine, willow, cotton wood whatever. If its dry it will burn. I only burn now in my shop. At the house, yes I preferred good hard wood and tried to avoid the pine. Coals kept better/longer and didnt have cold mornings.

I actually prefer the pine/willow stuff in the shop. Another poster mentioned the same thing, but I am not always at the shop. So it isnt always heated. When I go down there and its 45 in the shop, I want to get it to 65 as quickly as possible. And the way to do that is with good dry pine or willow or cotton wood. NOT a hardwood species.

 

[roadhunter]

Probably more accurate to say that pine has less BTU per cubic ft. It's a density thing. The hardwood is going to weigh more per cubic ft which is where the extra BTU's are.

Snob dds,
Get a hold of some ash and you will see the difference. I burn lots of pine but the ash is really nice.

 

[Snobdds]

Your previous post you stated that Pine was "GREAT" firewood, then you admitted that you never burned any Hickory, Maple or Oak. Good on you that you admitted your own ignorance.
You finished off by saying you don't think your missing anything.

I merely Pointed out What your missing, That Hickory has twice the BTU's than White Pine.
If Pine is "great" firewood what is Hickory? Words have meanings.
I was gently trying to show you, who admitted your own ignorance that Pine is not "great" firewood.

You point out you know how big of pile you need to last the winter.
I pointed out that your pile would be half the size if you have Hickory.


Then you toss out the statement "It all burns the same though"
You admitted you never burned anything else but your Doubling down on your first statement of Pine being great firewood.

My whole point in this was to point out that White Pine is not "great" firewood, it'll burn just fine but its pretty far down on the list of quality firewood.
All firewood will burn, but not all firewood burns the same. Some burn longer and put out twice the heat of others. Those are "great" firewoods.

If all you have is Pine, Spruce or Fir thats Ok, Burn away but don't tell me Pine is "Great" firewood, I have burned Pine, Hickory, Oak and Maple.

Wow that was hard to follow.

Again Pine is great firewood. The BTU's might not be high, but that is not the entire story of firewood. It's easy to gather, buck, transport, split and dry out. I'll take all those qualities over being able to burn a log for an extra hour. I make up for it on the processing side of things.

 

[tractchores]

Not true



True


I burn pine, willow, cotton wood whatever. If its dry it will burn. I only burn now in my shop. At the house, yes I preferred good hard wood and tried to avoid the pine. Coals kept better/longer and didnt have cold mornings.

I actually prefer the pine/willow stuff in the shop. Another poster mentioned the same thing, but I am not always at the shop. So it isnt always heated. When I go down there and its 45 in the shop, I want to get it to 65 as quickly as possible. And the way to do that is with good dry pine or willow or cotton wood. NOT a hardwood species.

Munged my units. Per lb BTU is relatively the same, it's the volume (density) that is different. Either way the point is the same, pine or whatever can be used as firewood if seasoned, you just burn more volume of low BTU wood. If you're getting it for free and don't mind the extra loading great, if you're buying by volume buy denser higher BTU per cord wood.

For the OP the point is he can use it as firewood VS putting it in the burn pile if he wants, or he can sell it / give it away as firewood to get rid of it, which is the primary goal. I'm amazed at the stuff people will take for free via craigslist to use as firewood, even half rotten stuff, unsplittable stuff or green stuff seems to go quickly around me.

 

[turnkey4099]

Your previous post you stated that Pine was "GREAT" firewood, then you admitted that you never burned any Hickory, Maple or Oak. Good on you that you admitted your own ignorance.
You finished off by saying you don't think your missing anything.

I merely Pointed out What your missing, That Hickory has twice the BTU's than White Pine.
If Pine is "great" firewood what is Hickory? Words have meanings.
I was gently trying to show you, who admitted your own ignorance that Pine is not "great" firewood.

You point out you know how big of pile you need to last the winter.
I pointed out that your pile would be half the size if you have Hickory.


Then you toss out the statement "It all burns the same though"
You admitted you never burned anything else but your Doubling down on your first statement of Pine being great firewood.

My whole point in this was to point out that White Pine is not "great" firewood, it'll burn just fine but its pretty far down on the list of quality firewood.
All firewood will burn, but not all firewood burns the same. Some burn longer and put out twice the heat of others. Those are "great" firewoods.

If all you have is Pine, Spruce or Fir thats Ok, Burn away but don't tell me Pine is "Great" firewood, I have burned Pine, Hickory, Oak and Maple.

You original post came off as sneering at someone burning pine. "great firewood" depends on WHERE YOU ARE. I pity you if you ever move out of hardwood heaven.

 

[turnkey4099]

True that a pound of pine has the same btu's as a pound of Hickory.
But what that statement leads out is that a pound of Pine is twice the size of a pound of Hickory.
So that a Cord of Hickory weighs over 2 tons and a cord of Pine weighs 1 ton. So you get twice the amount of heat out of a cord of Hickory.
Firewood does not sell by weight, it sells by volume.

Us in the east have the disadvantage of having to lift wood that weighs twice as much as you guys out west.
But we have the advantage of sawing, splitting, stacking and loading half the amount of firewood to keep our houses warm.

In the end it all comes out the same I guess, one has to handle so many pounds of firewood to keep warm if you want to look at by weight.

Yep, an noone is argueing any differently. Oddly (and someone else alsomentioned it) I lucked out when the locusst borer moved in and spent several years harvesting dead ones, wound up with around 100 cords (still have over 60)) I found that I burn almost the same amount of locust than I do willow. Strange as cured locust is almost 3 times the weight per volume.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

I have burned plenty of pine in my pizza oven to get the temp up. My biggest complaint about pine for a woodstove is that it seems to pop more. Since. Have always had plenty of hardwood available I have never really used it for the stove.

 

[turnkey4099]

Munged my units. Per lb BTU is relatively the same, it's the volume (density) that is different. Either way the point is the same, pine or whatever can be used as firewood if seasoned, you just burn more volume of low BTU wood. If you're getting it for free and don't mind the extra loading great, if you're buying by volume buy denser higher BTU per cord wood.

For the OP the point is he can use it as firewood VS putting it in the burn pile if he wants, or he can sell it / give it away as firewood to get rid of it, which is the primary goal. I'm amazed at the stuff people will take for free via craigslist to use as firewood, even half rotten stuff, unsplittable stuff or green stuff seems to go quickly around me.

Yep, If it is wood and burnable and I have to get rid of it. it goes in the stove Just about the same amound of work to put it in the stove as it is to cut and pile for burning - might as well get some heat out of it.