Free load of "seasoned"? Pine - Looking for advice

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joefrompa

Minister of Fire
Sep 7, 2010
810
SE PA
Hi all,

A neighbor of mine cut, split, and stacked (in a large pyramid) probably about a cord of pine. It's been sitting there for at least 6 months, and would have gotten plenty of air and some sun. How quickly does pine season? I know this is not fully ideal.

Anyway, I'm going to transport it all over to my house...unfortunately, some of the lengths he cut are about 30" long so I'll need to address that and re-split alot.

Can anyone tell me how pine burns, how long it takes to season, etc.? I'd like to use it most effectively, and its a ton of free wood and it might enable me to get through the year.

On the side: I've got Ash and Ironwood split/stacked but not fully seasoned, as I just started the process this September.

Joe
 
From my limited experience with pine I had about a face cord that I split over the winter and it was in great shape to burn in the fall as part of shoulder season. Given how dry it was this summer I would guess its in good shape now. Burns hot and fast. With a good selection of hardwoods I dont go out of my way for pine but I certainly wouldnt turn down a cord that was in my neighbors yard and already split!
 
Pine seasons quickly. Six months may be enough, but I think it may still be a little wet. It was a dry summer, so maybe it is good (burn it and see). I like to burn pine, but it burns a little too quickly. Trying to last all night would be tough. IMO and in your area, pine is used best in early and late season, when heat demand is low, and in the winter when you want quick heat, followed by hardwoods for longer lasting heat. Works great to start fires, also. Keep your flue temps up to help limit creosote build-up (because it may be a little wet, not because it is pine). I also like to mix pine with my hardwoods to get mix of quick heat followed by a longer heat.
 
If it's cut pretty small and was stacked like you describe, it is probably good to go. Pine dries quickly and also releases heat really quickly. I usually mix it in with other types of wood or get things going with a good load of pine.
 
Thanks guys.

The pine is split and stacked in a cone shape with a base diameter of maybe 10-12 feet and a height of maybe 6-7 feet. I have no idea how much is actually in there....if my eyeball measurements are right, I'm looking at somewhere between 170-200 cubic feet of pine, or about 1.5 cords.

I've found my stove really, really, really likes SMALL splits for any sort of heat generation above 350 degrees stove top. So I'm going to take this load and spend alot of time splitting it down further as well as cutting it cross-grain to maybe 15" lengths.
 
How seasoned is your wood? If not well seasoned, it makes sense that you need very small splits to get up to temp. 350 does not sound very hot so if you need really small splits to go beyond that temp level something about your setup sounds off (whether it's the wood or something else)...

A word of caution on pine - if you stuff your firebox full with really small and really dry pine splits, you run a SERIOUS risk of overfiring. Dry pine burns very hot.
 
If I had to choose 6-month seasoned pine or two-month seasoned Ash or Ironwood, I'd choose the pine first, Ash second, ironwood a distant third.
 
Should be ready to burn, light it up.....
 
joefrompa said:
Hi all,

A neighbor of mine cut, split, and stacked (in a large pyramid) probably about a cord of pine. It's been sitting there for at least 6 months, and would have gotten plenty of air and some sun. How quickly does pine season? I know this is not fully ideal.

Anyway, I'm going to transport it all over to my house...unfortunately, some of the lengths he cut are about 30" long so I'll need to address that and re-split alot.

Can anyone tell me how pine burns, how long it takes to season, etc.? I'd like to use it most effectively, and its a ton of free wood and it might enable me to get through the year.

On the side: I've got Ash and Ironwood split/stacked but not fully seasoned, as I just started the process this September.

Joe
Click to expand...

Joe, you answered your own question. Mix in the pine and you'll no doubt get through the winter okay. Just don't forget to check that chimney often because of the ash & ironwood not being fully seasoned.
 
How often is often? I was burning on burning 3 cords or so this winter, and regularly cruising at 600 degrees to clean stuff out....but I wasn't planning on checking the chimney till October of next year.
 
I assume savage has actually done what you're planning and will give an answer, but for me, 'often' would mean at least looking up the chimney at least once per month for the first couple of months. Probably once a week at first, just to get a feel for how fast the chimney is clogging up.
 
op_man1 said:
How seasoned is your wood? If not well seasoned, it makes sense that you need very small splits to get up to temp. 350 does not sound very hot so if you need really small splits to go beyond that temp level something about your setup sounds off (whether it's the wood or something else)...

A word of caution on pine - if you stuff your firebox full with really small and really dry pine splits, you run a SERIOUS risk of overfiring. Dry pine burns very hot.
Click to expand...
+1 low temps unless the splits are really small smells of wet wood to me.
And definitely be careful of loading your stove full of small pine splits.
That being said I love getting some woods like pine and cedar, I split them small and they make it stupid easy to get a fire started
 
joefrompa said:
Hi all,

A neighbor of mine cut, split, and stacked (in a large pyramid) probably about a cord of pine. It's been sitting there for at least 6 months, and would have gotten plenty of air and some sun. How quickly does pine season? I know this is not fully ideal.

Anyway, I'm going to transport it all over to my house...unfortunately, some of the lengths he cut are about 30" long so I'll need to address that and re-split alot.

Can anyone tell me how pine burns, how long it takes to season, etc.? I'd like to use it most effectively, and its a ton of free wood and it might enable me to get through the year.

On the side: I've got Ash and Ironwood split/stacked but not fully seasoned, as I just started the process this September.

Joe
Click to expand...

Nothing to really add here . . . pine seasons pretty quickly and burns pretty quickly . . . don't over stuff the firebox, but definitely use the pine . . . it works great as kindling, shoulder season fires or you can mix and match to help burn some of the not-so-seasoned wood (just be sure to check your chimney every two weeks to a month to be sure it isn't gunked up -- not from the pine . . . but from the less seasoned wood) . . . if you can get through the whole year with just the pine I might do so . . . if it is seasoned it would be the wood of choice vs. wood that has only been cut and split for a couple of months.
 
joefrompa said:
How often is often? I was burning on burning 3 cords or so this winter, and regularly cruising at 600 degrees to clean stuff out....but I wasn't planning on checking the chimney till October of next year.
Click to expand...

It is recommended that new burners check their flue every month, two months at most. There was a thread in the Hearth Room yesterday called "Bad news" where a new burner had bad creosote deposits after only 2 WEEKS of burning.

With that stove only hitting 350F, I would check often. My Endeavor is the same firebox, and I have to work to keep it UNDER 600F, even on a small load.

Now, as for pine, if you are in a good climate, it can season in 6 to 8 months. More than half my fuel supply each winter is beetle-kill pine, and it is some of the cleanest burning wood I run through the stove.
 
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