Don’t assume that it is seasoned just because it has been down awhile and the bark is off. Heck pine bark falls off of standing healthy pine trees. Buck it out, split it, stack it and season it just like any other firewood. Burns faster, but it burns.
BB - Who is sitting by the F3 toasting a pine tree as I type
Well...do you think that if I were able to get my hands on any hardwood, it’d be OK to mix some in with all the Pine I burn? Rick
You must scrap your stove immediately. Pine is evil. All pine must be sent prepaid to the Manassas, Virginia Fed-Ex Freight terminal freight pre-paid c/o BroBart for proper legal disposal.
I am a professional. Do not try to dispose of this stuff at home.
Well...do you think that if I were able to get my hands on any hardwood, it’d be OK to mix some in with all the Pine I burn? Rick
You must scrap your stove immediately. Pine is evil. All pine must be sent prepaid to the Manassas, Virginia Fed-Ex Freight terminal freight pre-paid c/o BroBart for proper legal disposal.
I am a professional. Do not try to dispose of this stuff at home.
BB, I thought I got the dreaded pine west of the Continental Divide? How dare you infringe on my turf.
You must scrap your stove immediately. Pine is evil. All pine must be sent prepaid to the Manassas, Virginia Fed-Ex Freight terminal freight pre-paid c/o BroBart for proper legal disposal.I am a professional. Do not try to dispose of this stuff at home.
OK Bart- I’m getting all the pine I can muster up, it’s already split- I hope that’s OK. Fed Ex’ing it out so it should be there overnite..............
You must scrap your stove immediately. Pine is evil. All pine must be sent prepaid to the Manassas, Virginia Fed-Ex Freight terminal freight pre-paid c/o BroBart for proper legal disposal.I am a professional. Do not try to dispose of this stuff at home.
OK Bart- I’m getting all the pine I can muster up, it’s already split- I hope that’s OK. Fed Ex’ing it out so it should be there overnite..............
Use Fed-Ex Freight. Cheaper and the terminal is just a few miles from my house. And they love me. I pick stuff up there instead of having them deliver it. I have never told them it is because their delivery guys are a wrecking crew. They could wreck wood!
BB, I thought I got the dreaded pine west of the Continental Divide? How dare you infringe on my turf.
Geez, Zambo, I dunno...seems to me that at the rate we woodburners out here on the western frontier go through pine, just trying to keep our womenfolk and younguns warm, mind ya, we oughta be entitled to all the pine west of the Divide. Perhaps we can strike some sort of a deal? Rick
Well...do you think that if I were able to get my hands on any hardwood, it’d be OK to mix some in with all the Pine I burn? Rick
You must scrap your stove immediately. Pine is evil. All pine must be sent prepaid to the Manassas, Virginia Fed-Ex Freight terminal freight pre-paid c/o BroBart for proper legal disposal.
I am a professional. Do not try to dispose of this stuff at home.
Is this pine as evil as the Eastern hardwood burners say? Or is it something like douglas fir? Which most of us westerners have nothing much else of to burn? I mean, the way these spoiled brats talk about it, you`d think it was full of plague or something
Well...do you think that if I were able to get my hands on any hardwood, it’d be OK to mix some in with all the Pine I burn? Rick
You must scrap your stove immediately. Pine is evil. All pine must be sent prepaid to the Manassas, Virginia Fed-Ex Freight terminal freight pre-paid c/o BroBart for proper legal disposal.
I am a professional. Do not try to dispose of this stuff at home.
Is this pine as evil as the Eastern hardwood burners say? Or is it something like douglas fir? Which most of us westerners have nothing much else of to burn? I mean, the way these spoiled brats talk about it, you`d think it was full of plague or something
All I know is my firebox doesn’t coal-up like I hear the hardwood burners complain about
OK, seriously, skinnykid...there’s absolutely nothing wrong with burning pine. It’s fuel. Different species of wood have different characteristics, diferent densities, different BTU contents. Hardwoods (generally speaking, although technically Balsa is a hardwood) are denser and can be made to burn longer and put out more total heat, load for load, than softwoods. Softwoods tend to burn hot and fast, and it’s tougher to get something that approaches an “overnight burn” with it, even with a fully loaded large firebox. I think a lot of the “fear” of burning wood like pine comes from some mistaken belief that it’s just going to clog your system with creosote in a heartbeat. Not true. Properly seasoned (like ALL firewood should be), pine’s a perfectly suitable fuel for a woodstove. You’ll do more damage burning “green” hardwood than you will burning seasoned softwood. You don’t want to let it get down into a really slow, smoky, smoldering burn, but that rule holds regardless of what wood you’re burning. Pine is good. Burn it, learn it, enjoy it. Rick
When hardwood goes north of $300 a cord people will be fighting in the streets with light sabers over pine trees over here on the right coast.
There will be a major disturbance in The Force. Come over to the Dark Side while you still can.
BB - AKA Darth Pine
BB-didn`t you say so yourself, man ya gotta get a life and stop watching so many of those re-runs of Vader and company. You are gonna give us west coasters nightmares of you hovering over us and snatching up the little softwood scraps we have to burn.Man, it`s time you had a talk with Luke or Princess Laila,and came back to the light.
Fosil: thanks for the reply. I was hoping it is ok since I can get a bunch of it 30 feet from my back door. I am not assuming it is seasoned but it is very dead and it will sit with my other wood till the fall any way.
Well I started cutting those pines. It is still sappy because I can smell it as I am cutting it. I split like 7 pieces to see what it was about, some of it was easy to split and some was pretty hard. The only problem is, I need to find a place to stack it in case it is not ready for this coming winter. I hope it is ready but who knows.
Pound for pound, and round for round, the denser woods probably take longer to season than the less dense, so a piece of pine should season more quickly under like conditions than a same-sized piece of oak or maple or whatever. Lots of variables, though...what time of year did the tree fall? How long ago? What are the ground conditions and exposure where it’s been lying? The very best way to get it to start seasoning (drying out) is to get it bucked and split and stacked (or piled) someplace where the sun and wind can get to it, and you can protect it from drenching rains and surface water. By all means, get it up off the ground. If you’re in a hurry for it to season, then split it small...surface area counts for a lot. Rick
all my wood gets stacked a couple inches off the ground. I will just watch it to see how it does. If it helps any, the bottom (close to the ground) was very slimy and slippery, and when I cut it, all these creepy crawlies ran for it from under the bark that was left. So, it was kinda wet.
I have at least 50 Eastern Red Cedar, 20 White pint, and many Spruce...along with some Black Walnut, Oak, Ash, Sycamore and other hardwood. Most of it I intend to leave standing when I pass from this earth, but wind and other forces (my wife) does put some of these trees in my chain saw cross-hairs. I guess I was a hard wood snob, I just stacked Pine and Cedar in the woods to rot...then this year I started stacking these soft woods to season (how long does it take to season Pine… a full year?) as I too expect to see hardwood split and delivered to go to $300...I am also thinking about buying hardwood in logs, by the truckload, this may remain under $125 per cord, of course requires a lot of work to buck and split.
This thread has helped convince my to burn White Pine and Red Cedar this coming winter.
If you have any question as to whether or not a particular piece (or stack) of wood is seasoned enough to burn in your stove, get yourself a reasonably priced, small, handy wood moisture meter. Pick a representative hunk of wood, split it, and test it for moisture on the freshly split face...that will tell you the answer to the question. Such meters are available all over the place, at widely different prices. You can get one off ebay for about 30 bucks, or you can spend 500 bucks for a professional one. I sprang for a nice little meter for about $100 :
I have a fair amount of hemlock that will be burnable for sure this winter.
Only thing is, since it doesn’t have as much BTU value, it would waste room in the garage where I store the wood in the winter.
Maybe I will try to burn it first and replenish and hope there’s not too much snow.
