What I did Wednesday Afternoon

[clayman]

So I'm sitting in my house late wednesday afternoon, enjoying the rain that started tuesday night (we really needed it), and the phone rings. It's my neighbor. She tells me I have had a tree fall across the county road and it's a big one. She says you are going to have some work there. :censored:

I knew the tree she was talking about. It's a big dead pine that had a bad lean toward the road. all the limbs were on one side; the road side. I had spent some time trying to figure if I could make it fall some way other than the way it was determined to go. I wasn't sure I could, but Nature made the decision for me. Thank God it didn't fall and hit a car.

I got another neighbor, who owed me a favor, to bring his tractor over. We cut out the section that was blocking the road and he pulled it into my field. I cleared out the road of debris and went home about dark.

I've spent most of today cleaning up and burning limbs. I still have most of the top in my neighbors field across the road. Tomorrow I'll have to tackle getting that out and fix his fence, then I'll cut up the trunk. It'll be a lot of wood but nobody wants pine for fire wood, even though it's pretty well seasoned out all ready. I figure that pine had to be near 70 ft. tall

I'm glad I've got the 346XP to saw it up with.

JTB

 

[Pablo26]

Good work there, pine makes for a nice backyard campfire in the fire pit, nice big flame and smells good.

 

[clayman]

Pablo,

Most of what I have to cut down I do burn in a fire pit, or give away. I have even delivered it for free just to get rid of it.

If there is a trick to burning pine in a stove or fire place I think it is that you cannot allow it to smolder. If it smolders it will soot up your chimney, or flue.

I do burn some pine in the fire place, but here are my rules for doing that.

1. It must have air dried for at least two years. (gets really light)

2. It must be split into small chunks.

3. It must be mixed in with hardwood.

4. It must burn totally with flames. No smoking allowed.

 

[7sleeper]

Pablo,

Most of what I have to cut down I do burn in a fire pit, or give away. I have even delivered it for free just to get rid of it.

If there is a trick to burning pine in a stove or fire place I think it is that you cannot allow it to smolder. If it smolders it will soot up your chimney, or flue.

I do burn some pine in the fire place, but here are my rules for doing that.

1. It must have air dried for at least two years. (gets really light)

2. It must be split into small chunks.

3. It must be mixed in with hardwood.

4. It must burn totally with flames. No smoking allowed.

That sure is a pitty that you through it away. Pine is great firewood in a closed woodburning stove. It burns hot and donot believe the myth of Pine sooting up your chimney in a season. That is simply not true. many people around the world use only softwood like pine. It burns hot but not as long as oak or similar the same size.

looks like you had a fun evening out.

greetings
7sleeper

 

[clayman]

That sure is a pitty that you through it away. Pine is great firewood in a closed woodburning stove. It burns hot and donot believe the myth of Pine sooting up your chimney in a season. That is simply not true. many people around the world use only softwood like pine. It burns hot but not as long as oak or similar the same size.

looks like you had a fun evening out.

greetings
7sleeper

Not to worry 7sleeper, The pine beetles assured me of a huge supply of seasoned pine. I've got it cords of it stacked all over the place and I'm about to add to it. I don't know about the soot problem being a myth though; it happened to me. I think the trick is to keep it burning hot as you say.

Clay

 

[7sleeper]

Not to worry 7sleeper, The pine beetles assured me of a huge supply of seasoned pine. I've got it cords of it stacked all over the place and I'm about to add to it. I don't know about the soot problem being a myth though; it happened to me. I think the trick is to keep it burning hot as you say.

Clay

In Austria many people use tiled stoves(I hope that is right word for it). We usually burn pine till its glowing like coals and then we reduce the air input and use the stored heat from the massive tiles as a heating source. So in winter we heat our stove once in the morning and once in the evening to have a 24 hour nice radient heat source.
I believe I was wrong about the myth but with proper heating technique(as you mentioned no smoldering) the soot problem should be reduced to a sweeping once a year.

have a nice warn winter

7sleeper

 

[starter]

I've burned a lot of pine (and spruce and tamarack), at home in a newer air tight wood stove and at the cabin in an old not so air tight stove, both with no problem. The trick is to know your stove and your wood. Keep an eye on the chimney, it will tell how your fire is doing.

Pine burns hot and quick (when well seasoned as mentioned earlier) so it's not my first choice for the coldest nights, hardwoods are king then, but it's great for spring and fall when smaller fires are all that is needed to warm up the house.

Any wood can soot up your chimney if not burned right.

 

[SteveH]

Around here, only wood we have is either spruce or pine, maybe an aspen now and then. So, it's all we burn. I've been burning it for 34 yr. in non-airtight stoves and have never had a soot problem. We heat with wood, so it's burning all the time in the winter months. I don't do anything but stick it in the stove and burn it, no mixing with hardwood, etc., as there is none. So if there's a problem with pine, I haven't seen it. I do have insulated stovepipe, so that prevents a major temperature difference between the flue gases and the outside air.