Hey...Pine Actually Burns Pretty Good!!

[Beetle-Kill]

Ahhh, Inglenook?
Sorry for the hi-jack BurnIt13, I'll stop. Keep up with the pine. Dry, it will burn as good as it does for us out West.

 

[RockyMtnHigh]

It's just that sometimes new members read things and say I should try that and they may not have your timing or good luck. Cheers!

Ah I agree. Nobody should do what I do in my personal home until you get a great handle on your situation (and really you shouldn't leave your stove unattended while a fire is starting etc. in your stove). I guess I forgot to mention me and my lady work very close to the same hours so she is usually sitting in the kitchen eating a piece of toast while this is all going down aside from a day or two a week.

Cheers!

 

[Philbo]

I love having pine around. I got nearly a cord of it for free last year from a neighbor's house who had a decent sized dead one taken down. It was already bucked and piled up right next to the street around the corner from my house at the time. Score! Still got over half of it left (split and stacked for 6+ months at this point; moisture content is in mid teens.) It's just like any other wood; gotta split it and stack it to let it dry out.

I prefer to use it over anything else to start and/or revive a fire in the stove. Just as valuable as any other wood as far as convenience goes for me. Sure, it doesn't burn as long as locust or oak, but that's what a good mix is for! The one thing I'll say about pine is that it can be a bit of a pain to hand-split the bigger (20"+) rounds when they are wet or have lots of branches. It helps to noodle them in half at least to move around and dry a little bit, then split them by "slabbing" off the edges instead of try to split right down the middle...

I came across an ad on the local CL this afternoon, as a matter of fact. Free Firewood - pine logs. I can drive my pickup/trailer literally right next to this stack and load it up anytime. Hard to really say how much is there from the pics, but I'd estimate 3+ cords. I'd already cut and loaded a couple of logs before I took this shot. Headed back with a buddy in the morning and breaking out the big saw for those larger logs in the 2nd pic. Doesn't get much easier than this...well, actually I'd love to have a tractor with a bucket loader, but beggars can't be choosers!

 

[RockyMtnHigh]

You got it Beetle-kill.

 

[Prof]

I always feel a little guilty when I score some pine from someone who thinks they can't burn it. I present the argument, reference the epa tests that were done a couple decades ago, but people still think I'm crazy. Oh well, there are worse problems to have

 

[dougand3]

I love southern yellow pine...fast drying, easy lighting, little ash. Our CL ads for free pine always say "only good for bonfires". LOL

Good score, Philbo. Those pics look like western NC mountains...spent HS and college hiking and skiing there.

 

[Beetle-Kill]

You got it Beetle-kill.[/quote]
You work with good people, I highly recommend your company. PM sent. JB

 

[Philbo]

I love southern yellow pine...fast drying, easy lighting, little ash. Our CL ads for free pine always say "only good for bonfires". LOL

Good score, Philbo. Those pics look like western NC mountains...spent HS and college hiking and skiing there.

Yep. I live just outside of Boone. Great place for hiking and skiing depending on the winter. Tis a special place!

 

[dougand3]

Pine, Pine, tis fine to burn,
Don't be snobby, give it a turn,
Most times it can be had for free,
Like oak or hickory, it's BTUs in a tree,
Just make sure you dry to 15% MC.

Philbo, we loved Seven Devils, Beech and Sugar.

 

[Woody Stover]

it is still at 60 when I get home.

Dang, you mountain folk are tough!

 

[Paul L]

Rocky, my best buddy in Idaho Springs got a Jotul from you folks and highly recommended you and your service. Hope biz is good.

 

[BrowningBAR]

Just be careful how much you burn. That stuff can create a lot of creosote. If you're going to burn all of it I would inspect the chimney when you're done with all of it.

No. You are wrong. Please stop pushing bad information. Dry pine does not produce a lot of creosote.

 

[BrowningBAR]

I buy all of my wood. On top of the 10 cord of hardwood, I pickup up 6 cord of pine at $65 a cord since people around here are scared stiff to burn pine unless it's outdoors. My wife loves it. The splits are light, it lights fast, and burns hot so she has been loading the Defiant a lot more this shoulder season. Which is awesome for me.

 

[kingston73]

In my area free craigslist ads are taken before they are finished being written, so finding good hauls of free wood is pretty tough. LOTS of pine though, the whole "pine is bad" idea has a good hold on people so it's the easiest wood for me to find for free. I have about a cord of just pine, I mainly use it for a cold start and then add in some hardwood later.

 

[eclecticcottage]

In my area free craigslist ads are taken before they are finished being written, so finding good hauls of free wood is pretty tough. LOTS of pine though, the whole "pine is bad" idea has a good hold on people so it's the easiest wood for me to find for free. I have about a cord of just pine, I mainly use it for a cold start and then add in some hardwood later.

This is the same for us, we have mostly pine/other conifers because even some tree services which sell wood will give it away. We did get lucky and get two big scores of it free also, but it's the most common to find by the road that people will just drive past (usually bucked and stacked next to the limbs so people can see it's pine/spruce). That and willow...but at this point we had to stop taking ANY wood until next season so we'll probably leave the willow now unless we don't seem to get enough other stuff.

 

[Paul L]

No. You are wrong. Please stop pushing bad information. Dry pine does not produce a lot of creosote.

We've had our place for 8 years though it was a weekend only destination for the first 7. Hired a chimney sweep 3 years ago. He came out, peered down the chimney and said it didn't need sweeping. Installed a liner a couple days ago and the chimney was clean as a whistle. All we ever burn is pine.

 

[BrianN]

Pine is all we burn here. As mentioned, easy to light, quick to heat, and, for us, burns long.
I will throw in 4 - 5 splits, twice a day. That keeps our house nice and toasty warm (some times too warm) for the day. I am sure that when it starts to get colder, I may have to load the King up a bit more, but, for now, a half load will last a half day +.

 

[eclecticcottage]

I have to agree that the burn times aren't as great. I tried a nearly full load last night with some pretty good sized splits and didn't see any embers in the AM. House was at 70, outside was 40, of course we do still have to finish the framing on a new outside door that has no weatherstrip so that's contributing to heat loss. I was bummed about lack of glowing in the firebox though (9 pm/load to 6:30 am/checking). The blower was still running so there was some heat in the box, but stove top thermo was bottomed out at 200.

 

[mass_burner]

Spruce also. I get about 4 hours per load of 3-4 healthy splits in my Morso.

 

[BCC_Burner]

There is also a significant difference in the way that different kinds of pine, spruce and fir burn. The best burning tend to be the slow growing, high elevation species, as the slower growth rate leads to denser, slower burning wood. I have some high altitude pinion pine that burns longer and better than well seasoned silver maple or ash. I also have some lowland pine that will go from fresh split to a couple of chunky coals in the time it takes me to damper down the stove after a reload.

 

[mass_burner]

this tree that I have my spruce supply from was in my front yard. the man we bought the house from in 2010 was 74. his mother planted it when he was 4. the tree was about 100ft tall. the base was about 6' across.

 

[HotCoals]

Most tress have about the same btu's per pound.
It just takes more wood of the softer variety's to equal the weight of denser ones.
Pine will release the gas's quicker then denser wood though which could contribute some to more creosote in a cooler flue. But that said even really dry hardwoods will release gas's quicker also.
Don't take my word for it ..googgle it!

 

[Bret Chase]

I don't burn pine... cuz I don't need to.... pine in New England, back in the day, was used to fire cookstoves in the summer. good hot fast burn, then all done. if I was out of "good"wood, you bet your bippy I'd be burning pine...

 

[gchunter]

Its funny about what people say about burning pine. Being a newbie it is all I have burned for about 3 weeks. I was up on the roof today cleaning the gutters so I pulled the top 3 ft section of my chimney for a looksie. Nothing but a fine darkesh brown ash that easily was wiped off with my finger.
By the way my dad calls pine "ole pitchy-pitchy"

 

[RockyMtnHigh]

Pine is great, it burns hot like balsa wood lol. If you get a lot of creosote off it you haven't dried it properly and you don't know how to use your stove.