burning pine..

[Fred Wright]

If pine firewood had an inherent flaw, the folks in Alaska would be sol.

Give it a year or so to season and you'll be fine. I've taken a few whuppuins over burning sweet gum... but I brushed our flue last weekend and it came out squeaky clean with no tar buildup. You've just got to let it season, split and stacked before you burn it.

Pine (and sweet gum) burn quickly. But that doesn't make them bad firewood.

 

[Steve2910]

I cant believe that some people burn nothing but oak

Around here, people who buy their wood want Nothing but Oak. Fine w/ me, I'll sell my Oak & keep my Black Locust for myself. I "supposedly" have the opportunity to get a ton of Hedge this Summer... If & when that happens (& once it's seasoned), maybe Locust will be my new "trash wood". :msp_wink: Hedge is not that common here, so even if it's all they say it is, my locust is not for sale in the foreseeable future

 

[woodbooga]

Funny - for as much pine as we burn, I really don't know from experience how long it takes fresh-felled to season for stove use after splitting and staking.

All the pine I burn has been too low grade for milling and just sits for a few years in log length before I can buck and haul.

IM0, the pesky issue with white pine is that the sapwood on these older logs can be easy to absorb rain and stingy to give it up.

 

[Laroo]

Didn't want to start a pissin match, I was just surprised to learn that pine was disliked so much. I have burnt it for years, that's all there is. I live in a very cold area and heat solely with wood (as a matter of fact I am still burning) the fall, Sept and Oct then the spring, late March to early June, can be tough times for creosote, but as mentioned burn hot once a day. I tell people that I have a small chimney fire every day to prevent having a large one. And this time of year I brush it every week, once a month during colder times. And Elk ya we got Elk and Muleys too. (No hogs) hope nobody minds me showing off some hunting pics on a wood fourm. The last deer and last elk I shot.View attachment 233842View attachment 233843

 

[zogger]

Didn't want to start a pissin match, I was just surprised to learn that pine was disliked so much. I have burnt it for years, that's all there is. I live in a very cold area and heat solely with wood (as a matter of fact I am still burning) the fall, Sept and Oct then the spring, late March to early June, can be tough times for creosote, but as mentioned burn hot once a day. I tell people that I have a small chimney fire every day to prevent having a large one. And this time of year I brush it every week, once a month during colder times. And Elk ya we got Elk and Muleys too. (No hogs) hope nobody minds me showing off some hunting pics on a wood fourm. The last deer and last elk I shot.View attachment 233842View attachment 233843

Wayyy cool!

 

[fishercat]

I burned pine all the time in Connecticut.

Chimney sweep asked what kind of wood I burned because I had the cleanest chimney he's ever seen.

Split stack and season there's nothing wrong with it.

 

[John R]

The first winter that I had my OWB that's all I had to burn, it kept the house warm all winter.
Only thing I don't like about pine is the sticky sap when cutting and splitting it.

 

[slowp]

If you don't burn fir or hemlock here, you either burn maple or live in the city where there are non-native trees. Douglas-fir is the most sought after firewood in this valley. It is usually easy to split and burns nicely. It also thrives in our area. Maple is being burned more now. We have something killing our larger, native Big Leaf Maple trees so they have to come down if near houses and roads or come down on their own. They burn well, but are harder to split and make more ash than the Dougs.

I am in the minority in that I have Western Hemlock in the wood stove right now. It takes a while to get dry and then is light and burns quickly. It is also hard to split as it is a limby tree. But my house is easy to heat.

Oh, I forgot about the soft hardwood--Red Alder. I have a few loads of that too. It does not put out as much heat, but that's a good thing for me. Unless we are having a cold snap which is laughable for people to the east, my stove heats the house up too much if kept going all day.

We don't burn pine here. The only native pine is Western White Pine and some stunted Lodgepole near the crest of the Cascades. Doug-fir is easier to come by than those. I have burned lodgepole when I lived where it was handy, and I liked it. It held a fire overnight. It was easy to find.

View attachment 234063View attachment 234064

 

[gwiley]

I burn pine in the OWB regularly - I love the smell. Properly seasoned it doesn't produce any more creosote than any other wood - just don't burn it (or any other wood) green if you want to avoid creosote buildup.

One nice thing about pine is that it is easier to get and easier to start - downside is that it burns faster (though not as fast as poplar).

 

[half]

pine

View attachment 234161pinus radiatea is our pine, and the country is covered in it.we build with it, export it,Big forests of it, its everywhere, and we burn it. I have a woodburner and it is good in there, gets hot and will slow burn all night.I get my chimney cleaned once a year ,mainly for house insurance purposes. OK it probably has a lower BTU than other wood. I,m not sure about our native species. Last year I had some old man oak and found that good but sooty
We have beech, cyprus and gum as well but pine and cyprus would be the most common

 

[zogger]

View attachment 234161pinus radiatea is our pine, and the country is covered in it.we build with it, export it,Big forests of it, its everywhere, and we burn it. I have a woodburner and it is good in there, gets hot and will slow burn all night.I get my chimney cleaned once a year ,mainly for house insurance purposes. OK it probably has a lower BTU than other wood. I,m not sure about our native species. Last year I had some old man oak and found that good but sooty
We have beech, cyprus and gum as well but pine and cyprus would be the most common

All the different pines are interesting. And it sure looks like you have a lot of them!

 

[tawilson]

I leave it laying in logs for a few months. I have a theory that all them worms crunching away are sucking all the moisture out of the wood. And the holes they leave help too(another theory). Then when it's cut and split the bark falls right off. Plus I like seeing them white worms when I split the wood.
On a more serious note, someone mentioned hemlock and spruce. I've been wondering about that, I got a lot I want to burn.

 

[darkbyrd]

I leave it laying in logs for a few months. I have a theory that all them worms crunching away are sucking all the moisture out of the wood. And the holes they leave help too(another theory). Then when it's cut and split the bark falls right off. Plus I like seeing them white worms when I split the wood.
On a more serious note, someone mentioned hemlock and spruce. I've been wondering about that, I got a lot I want to burn.

I like hearing them when I walk past the stacks "crunch crunch crunch." Kind of a fishbait farm.

 

[woodbooga]

My experience is that the heartwood dries real quick and that the sapwood, esp. past the bark falloff stage, is a real moisture sponge. Come October when I'm really only cutting deadwood kindling for winter use, I often will slpit away sapwood slabs to resplit super fine to maximize drying for kindling.

Here in NH, the dominant species is white pine. But the sponginess applies to hemlock too. These are the main softwoods I encounter.

 

[logbutcher]

Downeast coastal and island bony woodlands with high Ph have dominant softwoods: White, Red, Black Spruces plus Balsam Fir, White Pine, some Hemlock. Formerly cleared land quickly grows into "dog hair" spruce within a decade if not managed by cutting or sheep. ( Many offshore islands named "Sheep", "Goat", "Pig", "Burnt" .) Those softwoods and Cedars easily blowdown with their shallow roots on bony ground. For quick fires during shoulder season or a fast heat in a workshop they're indispensable.
The Snorkel Hot Tub eats the stuff here over the winter.

I do have unfortunate O.E. (Oak Envy ).

 

[slowp]

I leave it laying in logs for a few months. I have a theory that all them worms crunching away are sucking all the moisture out of the wood. And the holes they leave help too(another theory). Then when it's cut and split the bark falls right off. Plus I like seeing them white worms when I split the wood.
On a more serious note, someone mentioned hemlock and spruce. I've been wondering about that, I got a lot I want to burn.

I am burning hemlock right now. The problem is that it is heavier than other woods until it is dry. Then it is lighter than other woods. It takes longer (here) to get dry. The stuff I am burning was laying on the ground for a couple of years. I cut it a year ago. When I split it, water was bubbling up. I stacked it on pallets, with a tarp covering the top of the pile, and much to my surprise, it is now nice and dry. It burns fast.

 

[cheeves]

I like hearing them when I walk past the stacks "crunch crunch crunch." Kind of a fishbait farm.

Powder Post beetles. Don't let them get in your house. They'll eat it!!

 

[darkbyrd]

Powder Post beetles. Don't let them get in your house. They'll eat it!!

I keep the firewood a long way from the house. Good when it comes to beetles and termites, not so good when it comes to getting the wood for the week.

 

[tawilson]

They are not powder post beetles. They are pine grubs.

 

[darkbyrd]

They are not powder post beetles. They are pine grubs.

They're popcorn right now