Burning White Pine

[ruffdog]

When I was young the Elm trees were being cut down so that was about 3/4 of what we burned. Several years ago a road change took out a few hundred 18" black walnuts so that is what I burned. Now I burn scotch pine, willow, popular, linden, ash, soft maple, hard maple, locust, hickory, oak, walnut, cherry, mulberry, and anything else that gets in my way. I make sure the wood is cured and dry which is the main thing. Sure, some woods give more BTU's, some split better, some make more ashes, and some are abundant near by, the main thing is to do it safely and be happy doing it.

 

[Overtaxed]

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.

Nothing is unsplittable with a big enough chainsaw. Now, is it worth the effort is an entirely different question.

We always burn pine to start the fire and bring the box up to temp quickly and then typically move to hardwoods to maintain the fire. Pine burns faster and hotter IMHO but yes, that means more loading and more wood going into the stove. Always burned both; but love the smell of pine and the pops if you burn it in the fireplace.

 

[Snobdds]

Nothing is unsplittable with a big enough chainsaw. Now, is it worth the effort is an entirely different question.

We always burn pine to start the fire and bring the box up to temp quickly and then typically move to hardwoods to maintain the fire. Pine burns faster and hotter IMHO but yes, that means more loading and more wood going into the stove. Always burned both; but love the smell of pine and the pops if you burn it in the fireplace.

So let me ask you a question...Where does one draw the line on effort involved, when it takes drving 500 miles to get some hard wood, just to say I burn hard wood? Yea.

Never mind the fact the temperature on the thermostat says 70 either way.

 

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

So let me ask you a question...Where does one draw the line on effort involved,

Depends on the effort. I wouldn't drive 50 miles for wood, much less 500. If I lived in Montana I'd be burning what was close to me. That's a lot of conifers, and not much else.

If I lived in the midwest in a few areas, I'd be burning cottonwood. Its what they have. (Kind of cool to get 8 or 9 cords out of one tree!)


Where I live, I wouldn't go across the street for pine or even sycamore.


It's all about what you've got. Burn it and enjoy!

 

[roadhunter]

LOL. Firewood insecurities.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

For over 15 years I was on a website/forum for wood heat. Hardwood is king. In the East it is easily found. But there are parts of the country where all you get is Pine. Here in VA I don't know anyone who would use more than a couple splits to start a fire with Pine. I have heard all kinds of stories about excessive creosote, etc. The bottom line is that we are taught to avoid pine. You can't even give it away here.U gave stacks of rounds that just let rot because I didn't feel like hauling it to the dump years ago. Until I burn't my pizza oven, I wouldn't even use pine branches to start my wood stove fires. I just didn't use it.

 

[roadhunter]

The USFS is so desperate to get rid of ponderosa pine around here they cut it it and stack it next to the road to make it easy for people to get for firewood.

You can buy a pile of whole pine trees the size of a house cut and piled neatly for about $20.

 

[s219]

I also grew up on hardwood in the northeast and was taught to avoid pine. To this day my dad thinks it's unsafe to burn, as do most of my friends and neighbors here in VA. But time out west has proven otherwise to me. The only issue I see with burning my abundant Loblolly pine is that it's so darn wet it takes forever to dry. I suspect that has been part of the reason people think it's bad -- they season/judge it on the same timescale as other wood, but it really needs an extra year to dry in my experience. If you try to burn it too soon, of course it will suck.

 

[oosik]

Hmmm .... I wonder why there is such a dislike/distrust of pine. Around here there is nothing else to burn in a wood stove. As previously posted, I burned it for many, many years with no problems. Never had a chimney fire, it always burns hot & clean and never fouled the chimney with creosote. The closest thing to hardwood I ever tried was cord or so of black locust and some apple from my orchard. I certainly did not see any advantage to those two types and they made a LOT more ash.

I cut all my pine - 5 or 6 cords - in the spring and it would seasoned and ready to burn in the fall of the following year.

 

[300UGUY]

LOL. Firewood insecurities.

Hard wood envy....?

I burn mostly cherry or oak, but I will split and burn pine, I don't want to waste the resource.

 

[radioman]

wow -- this thread sure has touched a few tbners about pine burning. whew - im not singled out .lol.

 

[LD1]

Any wood can be unsafe if it isnt seasoned properly. Rotten or wet / green wood causes excessive creosote buildup which can lead to either lots of smoke in the house or a chimney fire.

Ash is one of the better woods in my area when all things are considered. It splits EASY, it dries QUICK, its plentiful, and burns very well with little ash build up.

Sure there are denser woods (more BTU per cord), But it comes with trade offs.

Hickory is stringy and more difficult to split, takes a bit longer to dry, and always seems to have these little bugs that work on the wood and you end up with a bunch of poweder like sawdust coating all the wood.

Elm is also very difficult to split and takes along time to dry. And if it isnt split, it will rot before it seasons.
Maple a little more difficult to split, very heavy when green if the sap is running, and takes awhile to dry.
Cherry is probably right behind ash. It splits easy and dries fast. Smells good too. Just not as much of it around my area.
Oaks....we dont have many white oak either. But red oak is about the easiest to split, but again, takes a little longer than ash to dry.

Pine/Willow/Cotton wood. They are all pretty wet woods and need longer than any of the above to dry out. None are overly difficult to split, cutting is alot faster because they are soft woods, as is handling the pieces because they are lighter. I only cut up, split and burn these when I need to remove a tree and am gonna be handling it anyway. When in the woods cutting or clearing tops.....It dont make no sense to put forth nearly the same effort to cut a cord of wood that is gonna yield half the heat.

 

[roadhunter]

Hard wood envy....?

I burn mostly cherry or oak, but I will split and burn pine, I don't want to waste the resource.

It's funny to see the reactions. Essentially guys trying to pretend their way is better and if anyone suggest somethign different then it's on! Entertaining but sad at the same time. Guys burning pine claiming hardwoods suck, only to later admit they have never actually tried burning hardwood so in reality they have no idea and were just talking out thier arse.. LOL. Then they do thier best to find a witty comeback.

 

[roadhunter]

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.

Excellent points and play by play.

 

[Snobdds]

Excellent points and play by play.

You would think the stupidest post is excellent...or was this your attempt at a witty comeback. I can't tell...

/S

 

[ruffdog]

Hey guys...we are all similar guys 'cus we're wood burners! We are family....welcome all!

 

[Oaktree]

I wonder why there is such a dislike/distrust of pine. Around here there is nothing else to burn in a wood stove. As previously posted, I burned it for many, many years with no problems. Never had a chimney fire, it always burns hot & clean and never fouled the chimney with creosote.

I'd guess most of it comes from people who live where hardwood is abundant and find it more trouble than it's worth. As you say, you use what ya got!
Curiously, how do you handle overnight burns with pine or other softwoods? Do you just get up every 3 hours and feed the stove?

When I was young the Elm trees were being cut down so that was about 3/4 of what we burned.

A lot of people don't like elm either. Back in the 80s a friend's uncle had a bunch of dead standing elms he wanted removed so several of us cleared them out and divvied up the wood. Miserable stuff to split (very stringy and twisted grain), and this was before I got a splitter so I got quite a workout splitting it with a sledge & wedges! Needed a good hot fire to get it to ignite, but once it did it would last all night no problem.
Not much of it around anymore...most of the trees fell victim to Dutch Elm disease in the 50s & 60s.

 

[LD1]

The problem with elm (besides being the hardest to split) is even standing dead trees......the trunks rot. By the time the bark starts falling off, if that trunk is 15" or bigger, its already starting to rot.

 

[KennyG]

Some years ago I read (and I can't remember where) that pine initially contains more moisture than hardwoods and ,because it burns faster when it gets going, is more likely to cause creosote when it is green. The flip side of this is that, because of the lower density, pine will season faster than hardwoods.

In my area we have an abundance of oak, with plenty of maple, ash, etc. If one of my pines needs to come down I will split it and burn it, but I wouldn't drive anywhere to get pine unless it was really good friend that needed it removed. The only wood I have ruled out is cottonwood. It's hard to split when green, takes forever to dry and then goes up in a flash. I'm glad I don't have any on my property.

 

[Egon]

Splitting gets easy at about -20C.