First load of firewood

[mayhem100]

Jim...legitimate...question...
You guys on the west coast burn pine for firewood??
Here on east coast...you'd have to be desperate to use pine for firewood...
too much creosote...ya can't give small stuff away...
I was thinking those little logs were headed to the mill...
Thanks for any reply...

J2F

Pine = heavy creosote is an east coast urban legend brought on by too many fools tossing lots of green pine into their fireplaces and woodstoves. Burn ANY green wood and you're going to get lots of creosote...the problem is not wiht pine, its with people exercising poor judgement by burning unseasoned wood.

Creosote is caused by low temp combustion of wood. The water in the unseasoned wood keeps the temps low and as it boils off it takes sap and wood oils along with it...as it rises in the chimney it cools, condenses and some of it winds up sticking to the sides and hardening, over time it builds up in spots inside the chimney, reducing the potential airflow and draft.

Burn unseasoned oak, maple, birch or beech in your stove and you'll get creosote all over the place, just as you would with pine...probably alot more per unit volume of wood burnt because of how much moisture alot of the harder woods can hold.

Pine just needs to be split and seasoned properly. Been using it as shoulder season wood for years without any issues.

I do agree though, that its hard to give away pine in the northeast...but there really is nothing wrong with pine at all.

Those pecker poles dont add up to much wood at the end of the day

Nice thing is though that he can just grab one and pck up a log and move it...try doing that with a 15" thick 8' long oak log. Easy to split, easy to move, real easy to buck too.

 

[Warped5]

Mayhem100 - Good post!

I've got a buddy with a 'wood boiler' that is totally insistent on using logs that are not completely seasoned just so he only has to load it twice a day.

Has a pretty good buildup of creosote after one season and I keep telling him to clean it ... :bang:

 

[husky46cc]

Thanks Mayhem 100 for a very informative post about creosote. I had always believed the myth pine=creosote. Your explanation was very thorough. Now, I see more than ever that a person who wants to heat with wood MUST have a lot of space to stack cords for 2 years' seasoning. I knew a family once whose chimney really did catch on fire from creosote build up. So that part is most definitely NOT a myth!

Regards to all.
Tom

 

[nmurph]

Tom, most < 15" wood will season well enough in one year to burn without too much problem. Longer is definitely better, but if it is stacked, kept dry, and gets a good southern summer on it, you should be fine.

 

[TKeshishian]

The problem withpine that people run into isn't creosote but the fact that it's sappy as hell. That's what causes problems in their chimney. Not creosote necessarily from pine. Although if unseasoned, it'll burn cooler and create creosote along with the sap going up the chimney. Double trouble.

 

[mile9socounty]

No dont forget the other good Hardwoods of the PNW. Madrone, Live Oak, Tan Oak, the varities of walnut that can be found in orchards. Even the might Yew wood. My folks love to burn chinkapin.

 

[HILLBILLYREDNEC]

Wood

Good looking load of wood :msp_thumbsup: Pine can be a flue fire special if not seasoned. The harder butt wood on the old growth pine when dry burns fiercely hot. Seen house with a wood stove with triple wall metalbestos stove pipe melt from using to much pitch pine in the stove, it burn the house down sadly. The best method I find to prevent flue fires is two fold burn good dry wood and clean the chimney flue pipe monthly during heating season.

 

[jockeydeuce]

Jim...legitimate...question...
You guys on the west coast burn pine for firewood??
Here on east coast...you'd have to be desperate to use pine for firewood...
too much creosote...ya can't give small stuff away...
I was thinking those little logs were headed to the mill...
Thanks for any reply...

J2F

That question has come up a few times, and it makes me think that we are talking about two completely different species of pine tree. Here in the interior of BC we have a brutal mountain pine beetle infestation and it has killed almost every lodgepole pine.

Almost everybody in my area burns pine with almost no creosote buildup (or at least no worse than any other wood). I personally burn a mix of pine, douglas fir and white birch, but most everyone burns pure pine.

 

[wudpirat]

Wood is wood

Nice score, and the price is right, FREE.
I burn any wood that is seasoned and dry.
I have more Pine offered than I can handle but a load of Oak, Ash or Maple Is always welcome.
Right now I'm working a stack of Oak and Maple that was cut three years ago and pushed onto a pile with a bulldoser, lots of sand and rocks to deal with. So it does dull a chain fast, I'm trying out a carbide coated chain, still dulls but not as quick.
I've been using a wire brush to clean the bulk of it off.
I'm having a ball keeping two Mac-10s a Makita 64 and a Dolmar 79 buried in 16" to 24" hard wood.
The only problem is I'm 77 and after a couple hours, I'm running on empty. Oh to be 45 again. :msp_smile:

FREDM

 

[jus2fat]

The only problem is I'm 77 and after a couple hours, I'm running on empty. Oh to be 45 again. :msp_smile:
FREDM

I'm almost 65 and wish to be 28 again...uh...no...make that 22 again
If you're gonna wish...might as well wish BIG...LOL!!!

J2F

 

[zogger]

geezer power!

Nice score, and the price is right, FREE.
I burn any wood that is seasoned and dry.
I have more Pine offered than I can handle but a load of Oak, Ash or Maple Is always welcome.
Right now I'm working a stack of Oak and Maple that was cut three years ago and pushed onto a pile with a bulldoser, lots of sand and rocks to deal with. So it does dull a chain fast, I'm trying out a carbide coated chain, still dulls but not as quick.
I've been using a wire brush to clean the bulk of it off.
I'm having a ball keeping two Mac-10s a Makita 64 and a Dolmar 79 buried in 16" to 24" hard wood.
The only problem is I'm 77 and after a couple hours, I'm running on empty. Oh to be 45 again. :msp_smile:

FREDM

--hey good for you man, I'll be 60 this fall and you got me by some years. Hope I am still cutting regular then. Heck, I take breaks when I need them. Depends on the work. Just got done haying, I can cruise all day long to dark, but I'm beat on then. You wouldn't think so, but bouncing around a tractor all day long in the heat (no super comfy air ride suspension seat air conditioner cab here..just a regular old hard seat and whatever temp it is outside) takes it outta you.

Cutting wood, about the same coupla or three hours then that's it, I'll want to do something else for awhile....mumble..take a nap...mumble



Usually though I just cut one tank with two different saws and that's a fine good load or loads, enough. Still got to haul it back and split it.

We cut some shagbark hickory here and what I have found is to take an axe and shave off as much of the outer bark as possible, then cut it. Just knocking that stuff off then letting the rain hit it once or twice seems to get rid of most of the chain dulling dirt and stuff. Great wood, but you *work* for it.

Example, straight cutting, same saw 60 cc 20 inch bar, about four cuts with the bark on to ridiculous dull from all the dirt under that armored dinosaur scale bark. Same log after I spent a little time with the axe on it de-barking, about twenty cuts right to the butt end, still cutting fine, and that's having to cut from two sides even with the 20.

What I did was a few times while walking the dogs I toted my generic axe with me down to the log. Fifteen minutes a few times knocking and shaving off that stuff, then it was ready to cut with the saw. Made a BIG difference. Plus not beating on the saw that way or wearing out chains. I figure I spent the same amount of time knocking off the bigger bark as I would have resharpening the chains, but the axe can take it better and it's certainly cheaper than new chains and files. Just that and moms nature with a little wind and rain cleaned those logs up to cutable status.

 

[homelitejim]

I am 39 and I am feeling it today. Some of the wood I burn has plenty of pitch so I sweep the chimney before and after each heating season whether or not it needs it. I have seen a oak tree in the woods on occasion but I only take dead trees preferably standing dead and that leaves me with a lot of different pine trees and western larch aka tamarack to chose from. Most of the hardwoods around here are in peoples yards and is really difficult to get them to let me cut down their trees. For those who don't know the other side of the Cascade mountain range is only a small part of the state, there is a lot more of the state on the east side and I am not willing to drive the 300 miles for a load of oak firewood.

 

[zogger]

pine

I am 39 and I am feeling it today. Some of the wood I burn has plenty of pitch so I sweep the chimney before and after each heating season whether or not it needs it. I have seen a oak tree in the woods on occasion but I only take dead trees preferably standing dead and that leaves me with a lot of different pine trees and western larch aka tamarack to chose from. Most of the hardwoods around here are in peoples yards and is really difficult to get them to let me cut down their trees. For those who don't know the other side of the Cascade mountain range is only a small part of the state, there is a lot more of the state on the east side and I am not willing to drive the 300 miles for a load of oak firewood.

--after the recent tornadoes, the boss had some guys with a bucket truck drop around a 70 foot whopper pine in the backyard here. Heck ya I'm gonna burn it, at least some of it, the main trunk rounds. I'll season it two years and split the bark off first though, then mix it in so I have some good morning kindling and fast heat. The smaller and medium chunks I am building doghouse bunkers with, just stacking it up for them..seeing as how they lost their shade tree... I'll build the first structures stacked, then it will be up to them to make like dogs and dig in if they want a "basement".

I am a curmedgeon on dampers, I have found that once I stopped using dampers and only regulate burn with the intake I get a lot less chimney or stovepipe buildup. In fact I get hardly any at all, a few ounces of ash per winter in the stove pipe bend area as it enters the wall, and looking from the chimney top down..hardly nothing to scrape or brush off.

I look at it this way...who puts crimps in their exhaust trying to get more horsepower or better mileage? Now when I first started I used a damper same as most everyone, but the plugged up pipe and cleaning,etc got old fast, so I thought on it some...

A woodstove is just another heat engine, I think it should be a wide open exhaust, then regulate heat output by air intake volume and size and species of wood. So that's how I do it.

 

[Eccentric]

Glad to see you exercising the old Super E-Z and the 032. Wood is wood, so long as it's seasoned.

In this section of Ca, we many species of oak.....mostly white, black, tan, live, and some red. We also have doug-fir, madrone, monterey pine, ponderosa pine, fruit/nut trees (mostly apple and some walnut), and lots of eucalyptus. I mostly cut blowdowns and other freebee wood. This year we had a lot of prolonged rainstorms, so a large amount of big healthy oaks and pines have hit the ground. Oughta be a bumper firewood season.

I season the larger stuff for at least a year if not longer. Doug-fir and smaller pine seasons fast out here. Madrone takes quite a while. I use the damper to keep the stove and stovepipe temps in check. Also vary the types of wood in the stove to do the same thing. Too much madrone at one time will overheat your stove and rust out the stovepipe in short order if you're not careful...

 

[homelitejim]

Glad to see you exercising the old Super E-Z and the 032. Wood is wood, so long as it's seasoned.

In this section of Ca, we many species of oak.....mostly white, black, tan, live, and some red. We also have doug-fir, madrone, monterey pine, ponderosa pine, fruit/nut trees (mostly apple and some walnut), and lots of eucalyptus. I mostly cut blowdowns and other freebee wood. This year we had a lot of prolonged rainstorms, so a large amount of big healthy oaks and pines have hit the ground. Oughta be a bumper firewood season.

I season the larger stuff for at least a year if not longer. Doug-fir and smaller pine seasons fast out here. Madrone takes quite a while. I use the damper to keep the stove and stovepipe temps in check. Also vary the types of wood in the stove to do the same thing. Too much madrone at one time will overheat your stove and rust out the stovepipe in short order if you're not careful...

The super ez is one of the best 40 cc saws around, loud as heck, lots of vibes and lots of torque.

My wood stove in my house is an insert so no metal chimney all brick. I do dampen the stove at night after the main burn to keep the coals for a few hours, also adjusting the air flow in front. The wood stove in the shop is a potbelly stove with a metal chimney but a good hot fire is required to keep it tolerable on cold days.

we have also had a lot of rain and wind this spring and can't wait for the roads in the mountains to dry up so I can get in there.