MC?? - Pine in the High Teens vs OAK in the Low 20's ???

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BurnIt13

BurnIt13

Minister of Fire
Jun 10, 2010
636
Central MA
I recently started a thread about my new favorite free wood....PINE!!!
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/hey-pine-actually-burns-pretty-good.116440/page-3#post-1560233

My neighbor is a tree guy and happily dumped a 1.5 cord load of log length pine. I split it last April and have been burning the chunks/shorts/uglies since. The MC of even the large pieces has been in the mid teens.

Anyways....my oak is 2 years old and could season another year. Most splits are around 20% but the large ones are still in the low 20's. A thought dawned on me.....burn all the pine and save as much oak until next year when it will be better seasoned!!!

I checked the MC of some of the shaded pieces of pine and they are all in the high teens. Only a few of the largest ones were pushing 21-22%.

So. Not being a pine aficionado....would you burn pine in the 15-22% range in favor of further seasoning your oak that is 19-24%??? Any reason not to?

Thanks!
 
BurnIt13 said:
I recently started a thread about my new favorite free wood....PINE!!!
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/hey-pine-actually-burns-pretty-good.116440/page-3#post-1560233

My neighbor is a tree guy and happily dumped a 1.5 cord load of log length pine. I split it last April and have been burning the chunks/shorts/uglies since. The MC of even the large pieces has been in the mid teens.

Anyways....my oak is 2 years old and could season another year. Most splits are around 20% but the large ones are still in the low 20's. A thought dawned on me.....burn all the pine and save as much oak until next year when it will be better seasoned!!!

I checked the MC of some of the shaded pieces of pine and they are all in the high teens. Only a few of the largest ones were pushing 21-22%.

So. Not being a pine aficionado....would you burn pine in the 15-22% range in favor of further seasoning your oak that is 19-24%??? Any reason not to?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

If you can keep the fire going long enough and it throws enough heat, use the pine! Heck, get more free pine and sell your oak to buy a new saw :)

In seriousness, burn the pine until it won't carry you, then mix in some oak for the overnight burns.
 
I recently did some insulation and air sealing work on our 1500 sqft house. The Englander 30 is a bit too much of a heat monster. Shorter burn times are not actually a bad thing in my opinion for now.

I'm really wondering if pine in the high teens or very low 20's is going to cause a problem.
 
I just went out and did a fresh split on a large piece of pine and the MC was 15%. This pine has been seasoned 2 years, 1 year outside uncovered, and 1 year covered, so it is pretty dry. I have been burning this since I started burning this season. Once I have a good bed of coals I throw in 1 or 2 splits as needed throughout the evenings when I am home. I always make sure that my pipe probe temp is at least 400 degrees. My house is very similar in size to yours and it is easily keeping the house in the mid 70's right now with outside temps of around 40 - 45 degrees. Oh and the pine I am burning was free:):)
 
I am certain your oak will burn absolutely fine. I have burned 3 year old oak this season and cannot say it is better than 2 year old oak (2 year old oak is better than 1 though). It won't start on fire as easily as the pine, but it never will. I too am burning southern yellow pine I cut in the spring and it's pretty dry. I love it for starting fires or a short burn to raise the house temp up a little in cooler weather. But when it get cold is when I break out the oak.
 
I think you'll do fine with either . . . especially if you put the oak on to a nice bed of coals.

That said . . . I would do just what I am doing right now . . . burn the pine right now and save the good stuff for later in the winter. Let the oak continue to season and burn the pine to get the place warm and then either let the fire go out and rely on the heat coming off the stove to keep the place warm or if it starts to get too cool throw on some more pine.

I have some pine burning right now in fact . . . last I looked the temp in the stove room was a perfect 73 degrees -- not too hot and not too cool for my tastes.
 
The first question I would have to ask is how you checked that wood for the moisture content. It does make a difference not only how you measure but also in how you place the prongs of the MM into the grain of the wood. Oak in your area would be fabulous if it could get down to 20% in only 2 years. But it may be possible for you to continue with the pine and even when it gets cold, use pine with oak on top of that.
 
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