Burning White Pine

[CobyRupert]

Isn't pine more susceptible to rot before it dries? Especially if you don't live in an arid environment?

I don't mess with burning pine. IMHO, it's more trouble than it's worth.
Yes, I know, you burn what you got. I'm glad I don't live in treeless Mongolia or I be heating my yurt with yak dung. I hear that doesn't smell as good as burning cherry.

Growing up, I too was led to believe it would cause creosote. But I know that's not true. A pound of wood is a pound of wood regardless. Moisture content is moisture content. It's just a question of how much wood it takes to make that pound.

 

[oosik]

Fortunately, Egon, I never had to experience that --- -20C/-4F. Harvesting wood in the spring was the way I did it here. Splitting P. pine was normally pretty easy - I had a 25 ton hydraulic splitter. However, there was always that big old knotty, stringy chunk that would suck the fun out of the operation. And since my trees were so big - 28" to 34" - I'd lay each chunk down on the splitter. The initial split seemed to always work better that way.

Coby - I had that exact thought also. We are all fortunate to not have to burn yak or camel dung. And I will accept anybodies statement - "it doesn't smell so good". But can you imagine roasting beetles over a camel dung fire.........

 

[turnkey4099]

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.

As with a lot of species, willow has varieties. The ones I work here grow fast, grow BIG, die young (about 100 years). Seasoning? 6 months will do it for this species. Heavy? I'll put it up againstany oak when it is green. Dry? Thrown an anchor on it. I still burn it 50/50 with locust though and sell it at $120 cord - don't make any money but it does about cover my tool maintenance.

 

[turnkey4099]

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?



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.

I can (and did for 30 years) thorw on a good sized piece of Willow, shut down all draft controls and theer will still be fire there in the morning. Doesn't keep the house warm but I don't have to restart the fire.

As for Elm. I have only done a couple and agree with the spittability. Using a splitter I would have a sharp hatchet right there to cut the strings that went over the wedge.

 

[turnkey4099]

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.

Same here with Cottonwood. Did half of one tree. I still couildn't split it after drying for 2 years and cutting the round in half (8"). Splitter would just crush the fibers.

 

[ruffdog]

I'm burning Black Walnut now and cooking chili on the woodstove.

 

[Egon]

Sounds good. There was a time when cooking was done with just chips.

 

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

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.

Old wives tale. Several universities have done controlled tests on various woods. Some are out there on the Internet, so anyone who wants to can look it up.

Given the same moisture content, there's no measurable difference in creosote.


It's all in how you burn it.

 

[Gunny]

I don't have any white pine, but my rule is that if I cut it down, I'm burning it, don't really care about BTUs per pound, heavy or light, bunches of ashes or none, it goes into the stove. It's true that I only burn wood at my shop and I don't keep it heated all the time, but that was pretty much my rule when I did heat the house with a woodburner. I also make sure that it's all seasoned before burning.
I did make sure I laid in some longer lasting firewood before I went to sleep at night, which around here is locust or hackberry.

 

[ruffdog]

Here is a 1994 Mother Earth News article (guide) on fuelwood. It talks about BTU's, soft vs hard wood, smoke, popping, stacking, etc...
http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/wood-fuel-zmaz94onzraw

 

[scdeerslayer]

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.

If the bark is starting to fall off of a standing tree, I would think that there wouldn't be anything left worth making fire wood out of it, no matter the species. Don't know about elm rotting (never bothered with it for firewood) but oak and hickory are really bad about the trunk rotting while the tree is even still living. Cut down plenty of dying but not dead yet oaks and hickories that weren't worth cutting up. Hickories always seem to have rot if they are showing signs of dying, but oaks can be solid even though the tree looks bad or be rotten even if it still looks good.

 

[LD1]

If the bark is starting to fall off of a standing tree, I would think that there wouldn't be anything left worth making fire wood out of it, no matter the species. Don't know about elm rotting (never bothered with it for firewood) but oak and hickory are really bad about the trunk rotting while the tree is even still living. Cut down plenty of dying but not dead yet oaks and hickories that weren't worth cutting up. Hickories always seem to have rot if they are showing signs of dying, but oaks can be solid even though the tree looks bad or be rotten even if it still looks good.

Elm can be a live healthy tree one year, and next year be dead and never leaf out. By that fall the bark is falling to the ground. By that time, the trunk is pretty punky. The limb wood dries fast and stays hard for awhile. But almost gotta cut them down when they are alive if you want the trunkwood.

Ash on the other hand, standing dead and its still good for a few years. After a few years, the base rots and it falls down. But then you only lose a few chunks of wood up from the base before its solid again.

Never really cut down any other species that were "dead". Just tops from logging operations, and live trees clearing fencerows. But there are alot of standing dead elm (dutch elm disease) and lot of standing dead ash (ash borer). Not so much with the other species

 

[Egon]

It all depends on your local climate. Dry the tree may not rot. Wet the tree may be rotted and still growing.

 

[ruffdog]

Sometimes we have the roadside elms that are barkless for years. When they fall, just the bottom is rotten and the rest is hard as iron. I'll take that wood anyday as it is easy to get to and no bark to mess with. It splits hard but keep them big for all nighters.

 

[turnkey4099]

If the bark is starting to fall off of a standing tree, I would think that there wouldn't be anything left worth making fire wood out of it, no matter the species. Don't know about elm rotting (never bothered with it for firewood) but oak and hickory are really bad about the trunk rotting while the tree is even still living. Cut down plenty of dying but not dead yet oaks and hickories that weren't worth cutting up. Hickories always seem to have rot if they are showing signs of dying, but oaks can be solid even though the tree looks bad or be rotten even if it still looks good.

Depends on species. Tamarack is rather rot resostamt and a buckskin one is a prize!! Fir? Not bad, did a red fir last summer. It wasn't bare yet but the bark was coming off as I processed it.

 

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

If the bark is starting to fall off of a standing tree, I would think that there wouldn't be anything left worth making fire wood out of it, no matter the species.

Not even close. It's entirely dependent on the species and the conditions. Many oaks around me are great firewood when standing dead with the bark falling off. Cherry is the same.

All? No, it's dependent on many factors.

 

[ruffdog]

True. I cut up a 43" dia oak that fell down and all the bark was off. The first branch was 30ft off the ground and it was straight. It was solid from about 2ft up to the top. It was near a wetland and just the bottom rotted. It was a shame I cut it for firewood as I could have put hardwood floors in my house with that thing. I had just bought a MS460 and let it eat it up.

 

[4570Man]

If the bark is starting to fall off of a standing tree, I would think that there wouldn't be anything left worth making fire wood out of it, no matter the species. Don't know about elm rotting (never bothered with it for firewood) but oak and hickory are really bad about the trunk rotting while the tree is even still living. Cut down plenty of dying but not dead yet oaks and hickories that weren't worth cutting up. Hickories always seem to have rot if they are showing signs of dying, but oaks can be solid even though the tree looks bad or be rotten even if it still looks good.

The bark falls off pretty quick. I've burned a bunch of wood that is solid with the bark missing.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I cut down several dead white pine on my place, they have been dead standing 3 years,

I skidded them out,

put them on my BSM and milled them into lumber,

And built myself a nice post/beam deer blind,

It's big enough that two people can camp in it, and it's heated for those cold days.

SR

 

[jimmyj]

Soft wood for the soft times and hard wood for the hard times!