Pine Problem

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tomahawk

Member
May 13, 2013
54
Skagit County, WA
I have been given all this. (plus 2 more truck loads) It's Pine but it's free. I'll dry it and throw it in with the maple next year.


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Heck pines good stuff if seasoned correctly . I burn larch (tamarac) in the shoulder season , great stuff !
 
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Some people say pine is no good for burning..Like to know if that is true or not.


I have never messed with it but for the price I'm going to give it a shot. I'm sure it will be hot, so not too much at once and I'll probably have to clean the chimney more often but again I'm willing to deal with those.
 
Great for the shoulder season and for bringing a cold stove up to temp. I burn it all the time and my flue is clean. AS long as its dry ,burn away. Usually burn it during the day when im around to reload and the seasoned oak for the long overnight burn.
 
I have never messed with it but for the price I'm going to give it a shot. I'm sure it will be hot, so not too much at once and I'll probably have to clean the chimney more often but again I'm willing to deal with those.
Season it top covered for atleast a year(can be shorter if standing dead cut) - you shouldn't have to clean your chimney any more often than if burning less than seasoned hardwoods.

Most of the old wives tales regarding pine is the guy who smolders his chimney for years - never cleaning - and then gets a hot pine fire going igniting the accumulated creosote.
I burn probably near a cord a year and get less than 1/2" of creosote in the bottom of a coffee can(almost all comes from the vent top area) - that's an entire season
 
How long should it be seasoned.
A year top covered. If it was standing dead beetle kill you can get away with shorter time frames, some folks cut and burn it in the same week with moisture content sub 20%
 
Get properly dry its fine, just need a lot of it, which it looks like you have covered. When I am home I burn all sorts of similar wood -pine, spruce, alder, cotton, willow, aspen,poplar, linden. I truly do not go out of my way to collect it though.
 
Some people say pine is no good for burning..Like to know if that is true or not.
Quite a few folks out west burn nothing but pine . The key is proper drying . I'd rather burn properly dryed pine than try to use some smoldering hard wood that some folks around here try to use .
 
How long should it be seasoned.
Hard to tell ,as your weather is different than here . But loosely stacked ,in the sun and wind maybe a year . If you get a lot of rain , try top covering it as well.
 
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Pine is fine . . . I burn some white pine (and a few other softwoods) each year . . . most often in the shoulder seasons . . . or to get a fire going . . . also makes fantastic kindling. Just season it for a year and you'll be in good shape usually. The whole creosote myth is just that . . . a myth.
 
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Are you sure thats not a Doug Fir? If not thats a big pine for Western Wa, Seen them like that in Eastern Wa. Bark kinda looks like Fir to me


Positive. If you look at the pic of the bottom cut you can see the dead Pine needles on the ground and also a bunch in the background that are still green. This thing was a monster, not sure what type of pine it was yet.
 
Here's another view of it.

Edit - Looks like the date is off on my camera.

tree.jpg
 
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Pine is fine.
 
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Wow ..thats a big tree. Please tell thats not you in the tree ? That guy appears to have NO fall arrest harness on at all. Doesnt matter if there's a lift truck below either. Serious OSHA violation,not to mention
busting open your melon.
 
No, that's my father-in-law. He's 68 and old school and refuses to wear the gear. Stupid IMO but it's his tree and property and sometimes you give up fighting him. We did finally convince to at least tie some rope around his waist, not that it would do much but it made the MIL feel better.
 
WOW ...well old folks get set in there ways i guess. i'd really wish he'd reconsider . Anyways nice load of pine. just C/S/S and should be good in 9-12 months
 
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It's not overnight wood, but dry it out. You'll see it pops and crackles just fine.
For a test, put a few pieces of 2x3 or 2x4 scrap studs in the stove. That's usually
Dried pine. It burns nicely. When you have nothing else it's what you burn.
 
I burn a little every year, this year Im burning pine and spruce through shoulder season and saving my oak for dead of winter. I saw my neighbor cutting a big pine like your FIL, young and dumb kid, he did it without problems but I told him next time I have a harness he can borrow.
 
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