Your Burning Pine?

I didn't read closely enough before. If he already has two 50cc saws, don't buy him a 65cc saw. go 75 - 85cc, as a compliment to that 50. I love my 85cc Stihl 064, perfect compromise in power / weight, between 440 and 660.

Expect to pay $1200 new or $500 - $700 used, for a modern saw in this class, dep on age, condition, desirability.

Beer Belly said:

When seasoning Pine, is it the same as seasoning any other wood ???....it's still all about Moisture Content ??, or is there other things to consider ???....I could probably find truck loads of Pine here, but only search out hardwoods and use a 1/4 Cord of 3-4 year old CSS Pine for kindling

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...same as seasoning any other wood.
Give it a year after split +/-.
However, I find white pine doesn't weather well. Left out to the elements with no cover it starts getting soft much sooner than oak and maple. Firewood and milled lumber I've had get soft.
When I was burning a lot of it I had a shed. Nice and dry, nice combo.
Burning up twice as fast as hardwood is a bit generous IMO. A little faster and I was never comfortable loading up the stove much more than half way - mostly due to flue temps. If you enjoy loading the stove you'll be doing it a lot.
Pine is twice the work. You have to cut,split,stack and store twice as much volume by weight/BTU.
If you have the time for it, it is a great way to stretch a supply of hardwood or just for cheap heat, especially considering it doesn't seem to have much value around here. Although I do see someone selling cords of pine this year on CL.

We have a lot of Norway spruce up here. It dries super fast, catches easy and burns a surprisingly long time. I just won't use my saw on it anymore, at least when green-- the mess!

Seanm said:

You suck!

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Should pop over one day and check out the 'Voodoo magic'

One of my neighbors had a pine tree taken down & refused to give it to me! He let the tree guys take it & dump it, he didn't want us to burn it in our fireplace because it's dangerous.

NickDL said:

One of my neighbors had a pine tree taken down & refused to give it to me!

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Geeez, that neighbor needs education. Bet it cost him much more to add dumping.

Joful said:

I won't burn pine unless it falls in my yard, and I just need to get rid of it. Local availability varies, but I have more ash, walnut, and oak than I can find time to split... I'm not wasting valuable hours at the splitter on pine or poplar.

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If I lived in a colder climate, and IF I had access to more ash, walnut, and oak then I could store, I wouldn't burn it either.

Lucky dog

I got a heavy half cord maybe 3/4 of white pine from 2 different buddies that we cut up after a storm last year. I s/s ed it in May, just tested a split at 15-16% and its toasty in here right now. Thank you Mr Pine! I will be looking to secure more of this stuff over the next few months. First time burning it thanks to the knowledge here, I'm 1 year sober from the pine is bad punch

Oh boy, I am REALLY looking forward to burning a "small amount" of pine and spruce coming up in 2 years.

We are slated to have a "small amount" of trees taken down in the spring...
looks like there is enough to get a few days worth of heat.

The White Pine on the left is already dead. (double trunk) The Spruce on the far right is about 120' tall! (double trunk too)

gzecc said:

At my contracting job today, I walked into the house and a nice fire was going in an insert. Yesterday I noticed an obvious pile of mixed ash and oak piled near the driveway. My customer and I start talking about heating with wood. I tell him I'm burning pine right now from Sanday. He says, Pine! You shouldn't be burning pine.
Remember this is coming from a guy that is burning from a pile just dropped off in in driveway a couple of weeks ago.
I told him the pine has been seasoning for 18mos. Should be good by now.

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I'm burning some pine (about half a cord) I cut last week actually. Moisture meter reads out around 15%-18% on the all splits. Granted it was all buckskin lodgepole pine but it burns quite nice and is great shoulder season wood. The whole no pine thing comes from the days when people would choke a stove down and it would smoke all day long. Burning like that leaves a lot of opportunity for bad creosote buildup and pine can be a lot pitchier than other woods in this respect.

*you're

As in, "You're burning pine?"

mass_burner said:

We have a lot of Norway spruce up here. It dries super fast, catches easy and burns a surprisingly long time. I just won't use my saw on it anymore, at least when green-- the mess!

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I just took down a 30ft norway spruce in my yard this past spring. I'm bruning it now during shoulder season - MM reading 14% on a fresh split. I haven't filled the whole firebox with it, I'm mixing it with cherry and red maple but it burns great.

Bigg_Redd said:

*you're
As in, "You're burning pine?"

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No, he means your burning pine, the pine you keep around for burning, not the pine you keep around for other purposes .

Now go over their and grab a drink for the guests, oh wait, never mind, there going to get they're own.

I have no issue with burning pine, my issue is the size of my backyard, I can only hold 4 cords, so I pass up pine all the time, if I had more room I would take it, right now I have access to about 30 cords of log length pine, just no where to put it

But yes I get that same thing, while cutting this weekend I was talking to an older friend about pine, I tell you what people treat pine like Ebola, they want nothing to do with it.

mellow said:

But yes I get that same thing, while cutting this weekend I was talking to an older friend about pine, I tell you what people treat pine like Ebola, they want nothing to do with it.

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I still don't even get where all the pine hate comes from? Yes I know about the old wives tales, and how it comes from back in the days when folks would choke down a stove and let it smoulder all day but why pine? If I choked down a stove and let it smoulder all day with oak, or maple, or hickory, or walnut, or cherry wouldn't it be the same result? Creosote. I've also heard that it comes from people used to burning unseasoned hardwoods that smoulder all season long and build up creosote, then get a hold of some pine that is actually seasoned and ignite their chimney since they actually got good wood to get a decent flue temp. That I can see. Then they would say "everything was fine til I burned that dastardly pine! Then my chimney caught on fire! It must be because of all the sap that was in the pine!"

Razo said:

It must be because of all the sap that was in the pine!"

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That is it exactly in my findings, everyone is scared of the sap that burns hot when they burn it green like they do other woods. It must be the carrier of that dreaded chimney fire disease.

mellow said:

I have no issue with burning pine, my issue is the size of my backyard, I can only hold 4 cords, so I pass up pine all the time, if I had more room I would take it, right now I have access to about 30 cords of log length pine, just no where to put it

But yes I get that same thing, while cutting this weekend I was talking to an older friend about pine, I tell you what people treat pine like Ebola, they want nothing to do with it.

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I routinely take my white pine out on bike rides.

firefighterjake said:

I routinely take my white pine out on bike rides.

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All that pine needs is someone to call a friend.

firefighterjake said:

I routinely take my white pine out on bike rides.

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As long as it wears a hazmat suit your fine Don't want any of that sap getting on yah.

No hazmat suit . . . but I do have a police escort.

I put pine in my Wonderwood, and so far it seems to smoke less than the oak and hickory I burn normally. Still, I would suggest scrubbing your chimney monthly.

Razo said:

I still don't even get where all the pine hate comes from? Yes I know about the old wives tales, and how it comes from back in the days when folks would choke down a stove and let it smoulder all day but why pine? If I choked down a stove and let it smoulder all day with oak, or maple, or hickory, or walnut, or cherry wouldn't it be the same result?

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I think I read the idea here that people would choke down their stoves with crap wood, build up a bunch of gunk in their chimney, then light off some pine that burns hot and have a chimney fire. Then they blame the pine for their chimney fire. In reality, choking down hardwoods built up the gunk that caused the chimney fire.

If pine and other softwoods caused chimney fires, then there would be a plague of house fires from the Rockies to the Pacific.

Razo said:

View attachment 143241

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Production with intent to distribute?
Must be a Walter White Pine.