An ode to pine - my fire-starting friend

[joefrompa]

I have to share that I've fallen in love with pine for fire-starting. I'm now going to split my entire pile down into fire-starting sizes.

What is an appropriate size for fire-starting with pine?

ANY DARN SIZE AT ALL!

I can put 25" long, 2" thick, 4" wide planks in there and with just newspaper they'll fire right up. But man oh man, if I get some 1x1" pieces about 12" in length and stack them perpendicular to each other (like 10-15 of them)....WOOSH. I then pack some big 2x4 sized pieces into the stove, shut the damper bypass, leave the door cracked, and I'm cruising at 450 within 15 minutes no problem.

This stuff is awesome to launch a fire with and then switch to Ash/Ironwood/etc. for the long cruising 500 degree temps.

I can't believe how many people pass on pine....it deserves a wood pile of its own!

Joe

 

[firefighterjake]

Pine is fine . . . except that it's causing me to go bald.

Great for the shoulder season.
Great for kindling.
Great for getting a fire going in record time.

 

[joefrompa]

I'm sure I'm in "shoulder season" to you gentleman of the north, but I was so pleased when i was able to keep my house holding at 68 degrees despite 28 degree temps and windy weather.

The stove came down to 200 in the morning and not enough coals to get a hot start, so I re-started it with pine kindling. Even with a really crap stacking of wood (probably my worst to date), I was able to hit 550 degree stove top temps within 30 minutes....leaving my wife with a great fire to continue throughout the day and keep her warm.

 

[firefighterjake]

Nope . . . I would consider 28 degrees to officially be winter weather . . . heck . . . I think you guys ended up with more snow than we did up here last year . . . very mild winter.

 

[joefrompa]

Makes me feel good

My goal is to be able to keep the house at a reasonable temp (i.e. 65 in the cold parts) while heating the main living space to 70-75 all winter, with the occasional use of small oil-based electric radiators for spot comfort.

Anyway, my neighbor is giving me probably 2 cords of freshly-downed pine bucked into 18" long rounds. Life is good!