How to burn pine in an F3CB

[Intheswamp]

Notice: I'm still groggy from cutting a pine tree in the heat yesterday so I might be rambling a bit!

Ok, I've got plenty of pine around me and just picked up a small load yesterday. I'll probably be splitting it this coming weekend.

My stove is an F3CB and this pine is to compliment about 1/4 of a cord of seasoned oak that I have on hand already. I've got other oak drying but I don't think it will be ready this winter (11/12).

I know that pine has lower btu's than oak and that it burns hot and fast. I've got a bit of apprehension about burning it (don't want to overfire the stove). A few questions...

How big should I make the splits? I can easily make some 6"square splits from these rounds...seems someone said to make pine splits as large as possible to sustain a longer burn. That makes sense.

The smaller the splits the hotter and faster burning the fire will be. If I'm using small rounds or splits in the stove should I only load it like half full. I know each stove/chimney is different, so I guess I'm looking for something as a general rule to go by to get started with.

Before I started writing this post I had a million questions...now my mind is blank...I think it's half-baked from the heat yesterday. I guess what I'm looking for is other folks experiences, suggestions, and techniques on how to burn pine.

Thanks for the feedback.
Ed

 

[CTYank]

No matter the wood I'm splitting, the outcome is a range of sizes, intentionally.

Just a larger average size with pine than, say, black locust. And some of the pine intentionally small for kindling, bagged, stored in the attic over summer.

When firing the stove, it helps sometimes to have a mix- some pine can help to get/keep black locust burning, for example.

You can moderate a fire that's roaring off with a few sticks plugging/throttling airflow channels between burning sticks. A really solid mass will burn much more slowly than a relatively open one. All else being equal.

 

[mayhem]

Split pine just as you would any other wood. You're putting too mcuh effort and thought into this...split it and you inevitably get a variety of sizes out of it...toss them in the stove and enjoy the heat when you need it, smaller splits will burn hotter and shorter than bigger splits, just like any other wood.

 

[Wood Heat Stoves]

I use pine in smaller splits to start the fire and get a good, hot initial fire going to heat up the chimney and get the denser woods like oak going. I also end up with large splits of Pine, which I burn when I don't need the long overnight burn you'd get from Oak.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Take life easy for a couple days Ed. You worked too hard when it was too hot. The cure is rest and a few beers.

 

[Woody Stover]

Take life easy for a couple days Ed. You worked too hard when it was too hot. The cure is rest and a few beers.

In our sub-Arctic climates, it's going to be hot from here on out. When we've got work to do, we're gonna have to sweat. We use the beer as an enticement to help get us through the day.
We hope to be in your position by the end of the Summer; We'll be sitting on a 3-year supply of wood and will be able to do stack maintenance work when it's cool...like in the low 80s. It must be nice...
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go split some White Ash. It's only 88* so I've got to take advantage of that.
:lol:
Right now, Ed's five degrees hotter and got 5% more humidity. Oof!!

 

[Intheswamp]

Thanks for all the comments. I'll just split it like I've been doing the oak. I'm wandering now if maybe some of my oak splits might be on the large size. Anyhow, it seems it's natural for a wide assortment of sizes to result from splitting. I shoot for at least one or two square/rectangle splits in the 6" size out of a round which leaves wedges and slabs of a smaller size...sometimes I'll split the slabs up just to have some smaller kindlin' sized pieces to mix in the stacks.

Dennis, no problem taking it easy for a few days. The hardest thing I'm gonna do is haul a van load of kids between church and home. Now if I could get that old A/C working a bit better in the van....

Ed

 

[Woody Stover]

I'm wandering now if maybe some of my oak splits might be on the large size.

I've been second-guessing myself on the split size of the Black Oak I've got for '12. Hearing all of these Red Oak horror stories about 3 year drying time, I hope it'll be OK after two summers. It was dead/standing so that should help. I'm going to get some dead/standing Maple and Hickory soon, that should be good for sure, from what I've learned here.
Also going to load up on Pine. I cut several for a neighbor of mine. Then I got to thinking it might be good for getting this stone stove up to light-off temp more quickly. I talked to them the other day, and the Pine is still there. I'm going to split it small, and hopefully it will light with just newspaper and no other kindling.

 

[Intheswamp]

I'm wandering now if maybe some of my oak splits might be on the large size.

I've been second-guessing myself on the split size of the Black Oak I've got for '12. Hearing all of these Red Oak horror stories about 3 year drying time, I hope it'll be OK after two summers. It was dead/standing so that should help. I'm going to get some dead/standing Maple and Hickory soon, that should be good for sure, from what I've learned here.
Also going to load up on Pine. I cut several for a neighbor of mine. Then I got to thinking it might be good for getting this stone stove up to light-off temp more quickly. I talked to them the other day, and the Pine is still there. I'm going to split it small, and hopefully it will light with just newspaper and no other kindling.

What large of mesh do you have on your chimney cap screen? I know a lot of people use newspaper to start their fires but I've also heard of it blocking up the screen. Have you had any issues with it?

The wood I scored is fairly dry already. As I processed the trunk I easily peeled most of the bark off of the lower portion of the trunk. I've watched it the last couple of days and no pitch has seeped from the cut ends of the rounds. There wasn't an issue with pine sap all over me or my equipment. But, the wood is solid and the trunk rounds appear a bit wet and definitely have a fresh pine smell to them. The smaller rounds and limb wood are much dryer and sound dry. Interestingly, the bark seems to be holding onto the smaller pieces tighter than the larger rounds. ???

I think I'm going to try to make all the roughly 6" square splits that I can and the natural by-product will end up being smaller splits. If this heat and dry wind keeps up it won't have a problem being dry by this winter...some of that red oak might even be ready. It's getting seriously dry down here...looks like most of the corn around here is doomed if some type of wet system doesn't move it. Lots of trees are looking rough. Pecan trees are dropping leaves. I saw a cherry tree down at my mother's place that probably had dropping 1/2 it's leaves already. Creeks are becoming ditches in my area...but it's flooding it lots of other places.

Anyhow, looks like we're going to get a break in the heat for a few days...highs are dropping down to 93-94F range then gradually start building back up. Little chance of rain, though.

Sorry, didn't mean to turn that into a weather report.

Ed

 

[thewoodlands]

Thanks for all the comments. I'll just split it like I've been doing the oak. I'm wandering now if maybe some of my oak splits might be on the large size. Anyhow, it seems it's natural for a wide assortment of sizes to result from splitting. I shoot for at least one or two square/rectangle splits in the 6" size out of a round which leaves wedges and slabs of a smaller size...sometimes I'll split the slabs up just to have some smaller kindlin' sized pieces to mix in the stacks.

Dennis, no problem taking it easy for a few days. The hardest thing I'm gonna do is haul a van load of kids between church and home. Now if I could get that old A/C working a bit better in the van....

Ed

Ed, just thought this might help! :vampire:




Zap

 

[Intheswamp]

Thanks for all the comments. I'll just split it like I've been doing the oak. I'm wandering now if maybe some of my oak splits might be on the large size. Anyhow, it seems it's natural for a wide assortment of sizes to result from splitting. I shoot for at least one or two square/rectangle splits in the 6" size out of a round which leaves wedges and slabs of a smaller size...sometimes I'll split the slabs up just to have some smaller kindlin' sized pieces to mix in the stacks.

Dennis, no problem taking it easy for a few days. The hardest thing I'm gonna do is haul a van load of kids between church and home. Now if I could get that old A/C working a bit better in the van....

Ed

Ed, just thought this might help! :vampire:


Zap

Interesting Zap, very interesting....hmmmm...