This is Why I Hate Oak

[Husky Man]

Just let him know that there's a whole nation called Canada that burns a LOT of conifers to heat their homes. Then there's those damp Washingtonians too...

Don't Forget us waterlogged Oregunians, I have heated with Douglas FIR(not FUR) Spruce and Hemlock(Tsuga), a Forced Air ELECTRIC Furnace is rough on the budget. Other than when we are out of town and can't keep the wood stove loaded, our furnace doesn't even get turned on.

At a previous house, I burned PLENTY of Lodgepole Pine in a Fireplace, never burned any of my houses down, I would LOVE to have access to more hardwoods, but if that was all I would burn, I wouldn't be having much more than occasional Ambiance Fires, forget about Serious Home Heating.

The Conifers don't give you as long of a burn time as most hardwoods, and for some of us that is just about all that is available to us in enough volume to heat with.

Anyone that is "AFRAID" to burn Pine, FIR, Spruce, Hemlock etc, Simply doesn't know any better.

Doug

 

[GrizzlyAdams86]

Just let him know that there's a whole nation called Canada that burns a LOT of conifers to heat their homes. Then there's those damp Washingtonians too...

A friend's dad who lives down in Central WI burns pine in his OWB, but a relative a few miles away refuses to burn pine at all in their OWB. At first they would say the stove will overheat, despite the fact in their old house they used slabwood from the sawmill in a indoor stove that had pine mixed in (they told me this). When I asked them about that, then they changed their story to "it burns too fast and I don't want to keep refilling the stove all the time".

 

[blades]

For us where the primo hard woods are available it is nice to have some of that less than adequate pine and such to burn down the over abundance of coals produced by that primo stuff.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

For us where the primo hard woods are available it is nice to have some of that less than adequate pine and such to burn down the over abundance of coals produced by that primo stuff.

There's truth in that too much coal thing. It didn't happen much but there have been times that the stove I had was 1/3 full of hot coals in the morning. It didn't have a real big firebox to begin with and that was kind of a pain.

 

[Good Feller]

I had to read this whole thread to see if anyone has the same problem as I do. Red and white oak, both smell like urine to me. It doesn't matter if it's green, seasoned or hardwood floor. I thought it was pretty close when it was compared to vomit and aerosol disinfectant. I like locust for burning and the smell of cherry.

 

[Agr516]

I think it is odd that oak smells bad to some people. It smells great to me. Must be like tastes in food.

 

[Good Feller]

No matter what I'm cutting, I love the smell of that 50:1/40:1 two stroke!

 

[Tiewire]

Red oak smells like a pair of wet socks that came out of a boot that someone worked a 12 hr. day in the summer.
White oak smells like heaven. I will still take any oak that no one else wants though!

 

[blades]

Yep you can just ship that bad smelling stuff over here won't even charge ya for storage. Shrinkage rate is about 99 % though when drying.