Question for the western folks,how do you guys burn that stuff?

[Buffhunter]

Down here in southern Arizona I cut only black and white oak for heat and juniper for fire starter and to throw some chunks on for smell and to crank the fire. We do have mesquite (which I think is a weed) but it is damn hard and has great heat and burn time (I would say just as good as oak) but I do not burn it in my house too Smokey and leaves a bad after smell. But I do love cook in my steaks and burgers on it!!!!!

But down here our permits from the USFS only lets us cut dead and down and dead and standing up to like 8in.... So I look for only dead oak with no bark and that silver look to it and that stuff is as hard as concrete and burns awesome!!!!!

 

[MountainHigh]

Here in BC, we burn mostly Maple, Birch, fir and Alder. Maple and fir probably being the longest burn of the 4. Cedar is usually only used for kindling or campfires, I've never seen anyone selling cedar for firewood even though BC's coast is literally covered with cedar trees. It is harvested for lumber, not for firewood. Cottonwood is not prized for firewood even though there is tons of it in the river valleys, pulp and paper industry uses it for paper.

Fir can get a little pitchy depending on the tree and does soot up a chimney somewhat more, so when we're burning lots of fir (which generates good heat when well dried), we know to take a peek at the chimney earlier when fir has been the mainstay, especially if stoves have not been run hot.

.

 

[Whitespider]

It basically takes the same effort for a given amount of BTU's regardless of what kind of wood you are getting.

Say what??
If ya' need to put up a larger volume of the stuff there's gonna' be more effort. Heck, just the extra splitting and stacking alone.
Then there's more trips to the wood pile, more loads to haul, even more ash to clean out and dispose of... I could keep going, but you get the point.

With that said... I had a blow-down Douglas Fir in my woodlot that I burned a few years ago, and I was mildly impressed.
Darn stuff burned hotter and longer than I ever expected.
*

 

[nomad_archer]

I burn it, Pine, Hemlock,Spruce are all on the menue.
I prefer Oak, Maple, Birch or even Elm, but you burn what you can get.
Around here, you can't give Pine away. Only the guys with OWB will take it and ME.
Burn it HOT with lots of air and you will have no prob.

Same around here. But this year I burned it early and it did a nice job. So I will pick it up this coming year for use in the future. Especially when it is cut an ready to go like it usually is. I like the harder stuff but I need to get ahead big time this year when it warms up a bit because I am probably barely going to make it. last year I had left overs probably not this year.

 

[Hddnis]

Say what??
If ya' need to put up a larger volume of the stuff there's gonna' be more effort. Heck, just the extra splitting and stacking alone.
Then there's more trips to the wood pile, more loads to haul, even more ash to clean out and dispose of... I could keep going, but you get the point.

With that said... I had a blow-down Douglas Fir in my woodlot that I burned a few years ago, and I was mildly impressed.
Darn stuff burned hotter and longer than I ever expected.
*

Is it more work to carry a pound of feathers a hundred feet or a pound of lead a hundred feet?



Mr. HE

 

[turnkey4099]

I suspect the whole too much sap Old Wives Tale came from when folks put in airtight stoves in the 70s and were burning green wood due to the first oil price spikes...and pine just got blamed. I grew up with that same nonsense. The older generation of stoves shoved a lot more air up the chimneys and helped keep them cleaner than airtights did.

Easy enough to write it off around here when you can get more BTUs for the same amount of work out of hardwoods.

I'd probably put "Elm is bad firewood" in the same category...since most of the Elms around here were killed off before you had hydraulic splitters, and if was I splitting by hand it sure would be bad firewood.

The "don't burn pine" goes back more than that. I read about it back in the 60s. If there were any truth in it, there wouldn't have been a house standing in the area where I grew up. I only knew of one fire and it happened in the middle of the summer - never heard what the cause was. Could have been the wood cookstove chimney as that was the only source of cooking heat until after the war.

Harry K

 

[benp]

I burn the heck out of pine. The pitchier the better.

Great for getting a dead stove back to life quick or just when there are coals. I use a lot during the day when I am home and mix a little in before bed time with hard wood.

Heck, last year when winter hung on so long and we were darn near out , I followed this up the driveway one day after work in April.

6 cords of Tamarac.

Some are skittish of it because it burns so hot but with a 5/8" thick firebox, meh, it did just great. A great mixer, but almost straight fill for most...

I wish now my pine/hardwood ratio was a little less pine and more hardwood but oh well.

Poplar and basswood I have no time for, give me pine any day.

 

[Whitespider]

Is it more work to carry a pound of feathers a hundred feet or a pound of lead a hundred feet?

The feathers... I'd either have to make three or four trips, or load them into some sort of carrying apparatus first.
A pound of lead I could grab with one hand (even a pound of BB sized pieces) and be done... while still holding my beer in the other hand.
*

 

[Chris-PA]

You just need some tar and then the feathers will be easy to carry.

 

[Whitespider]

But... but... then the weight of the tar would make them weigh more than a pound.

*

 

[Lignator]

pine is fine....just let it season. no different than any other wood, just fewer BTU's / lb.

 

[slowp]

When I lived on the other side of the mountains, I burned Lodgepole Pine. It was easy to get, most folks turned up their noses at it. It didn't have much pitch, and it held a fire longer than Ponderosa.

I heard that now word has gotten out and a lot more people burn it.

 

[paccity]

back in the 80's i layed out more bug kill lp than i can count. on some other fire wood sides they where hauling semitruck loads of the stuff to all over the west. ready burn and a descent fire wood. burned a lot my self no creosote prob's. now it is doug fir and alder still no prob with build up. burns plenty hot . of course i mostly bring home ready burn wood so no waiting for it to season .

 

[artbaldoni]

I burn green locust and ash,which actually heats better green and of course burns longer than when seasoned.

Huh?

 

[SilverKing]

Huh?

just my opinion.Some of the better woods like locust and ash will actually put out more heat if not overly dry.And then with the little extra burn time =more btus.But then again locust and ash growing on a north facing slope have very little sap to begin with.

 

[Chris-PA]

just my opinion.Some of the better woods like locust and ash will actually put out more heat if not overly dry.And then with the little extra burn time =more btus.But then again locust and ash growing on a north facing slope have very little sap to begin with.

What do you burn it in?

 

[SilverKing]

Air tight Shenandoah stove,I keep the draft open though and let it burn.

 

[1project2many]

I suspect the whole too much sap Old Wives Tale came from when folks put in airtight stoves in the 70s and were burning green wood due to the first oil price spikes...and pine just got blamed.

Well, now I'm curious. I heard it from some real old timers so I know it's pre-'70s. I wonder if I can find some old tyme knowledge about this.

 

[Mad Professor]

I burn green locust and ash,which actually heats better green and of course burns longer than when seasoned.I also burn dead standing white oak,which of course dead standing trees dry out much better.How long does it take you guys to season out a big pine?

Green wood "burns" longer as you are boiling out the water, that goes up the chimney with the heat as steam. Also makes a lot of creosote.

I am burning 3 year old ash now, it's not pissing out the end of a split when it hits the coals. That's a good thing, I hate chimney fires.

 

[Greenland South]

I've been burning beetle killed pine here for a couple years. I don't really care for it because I have to run a much hotter fire to keep the creosote from building up. Poplar, Birch and Tamarac burn a lot cleaner but it all goes into the same wood shed. It all seems to make heat. Maybe we'll start seeing some real hard wood soon, with all this global warming and climate change.