I cut and burnt some pine!!!!!!!

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skinnykid

New Member
May 6, 2008
655
Next to a lake in NH
I have 3 (now 2) standing dead pines on my property. Just to see what is up I cut one down to possibly burn.
Well when I cut it down I noticed it was very dry, no signs of sap. I took a couple of rounds and split them into smaller pieces, still no sap.
So I thought what the hay. I put some of the splits into my fire. They burn ok I guess with no more smoke than my other stuff that I burn.

I gotta say though, my POS poulan saw went through it like butter and the stuff is light and easy to split. You guys in Pine country have it easy!!!!! :lol:
 
I have a theory that people in hardwood country picked up pine, and it was so light that they figured it was dry. They burned a bunch of it, and started the rumor about pine leading to creosote.

Watch out- it probably has more water than you guess. It should dry out really quick though.

Does it have those big holes from the nasty boring beetles in it? I squashed about a million of them splitting 2 cord this spring.
 
no big holes just some little ones toward the outside of the tree from it being dead.

the first 3 feet or so of the tree will stay in the woods but alot of it is worth of my stove.

I got a guy in Raymond begging me to come get 2-3 cords of Hemlock outta his yard!!

I need to borrow a utility trailer from my buddy.
 
skinnykid said:
I have 3 (now 2) standing dead pines on my property. Just to see what is up I cut one down to possibly burn.
Well when I cut it down I noticed it was very dry, no signs of sap. I took a couple of rounds and split them into smaller pieces, still no sap.
So I thought what the hay. I put some of the splits into my fire. They burn ok I guess with no more smoke than my other stuff that I burn.

I gotta say though, my POS poulan saw went through it like butter and the stuff is light and easy to split. You guys in Pine country have it easy!!!!! :lol:

You obviously split pieces without knots.

And AP is probably right, I often don't see sap in my wood until I have it stacked and seasoning. The heat in the sun drives the sap out to the surface where is dries and crstallizes (looks like sugar or someone's coke stash exploded on the woodpile)

Oh, and to speak for all us left coasters: "Ooohh! so exciting that you are burning pine :roll:
 
what do you mean they got it easy? (Shh Don't tell any one but they also go threw about twice the wood) :)
 
Yeah Skinny, even though they are dead, they probably need to be split and seasoned for awhile. You think its light now.....
 
Yeah, we got it easy...lighter wood, easier splitting. We just need to process, stack, move and burn about 4,000 cords of it to survive through the winter. %-P Rick
 
I know guys, I am just playing about having it easy.

I don't plan on burning any more, I just wanted to see if the trees are still good.
I will drop and stack them when I get a chance for next burn season.
 
:bug:
Oh God! Noooooooooooo! Skinny!!!!
Maybe it's not too late...
Quick! Split some Oak burls with a 6 pound maul and scrub your chimney out with lye before it's too late!
 
I figure about 3.5 cord of oak a year is what I need, and pine has 1/2 the calorie value. Right now I have about 2.5 cord of oak, and 2 cord of pine. I am hoping to use less total wood because I can just use one load of pine a night in shoulder season and stay warm burning less total calories. I just wake up to a reasonable temp house, rather than a too-warm one- and there's the potential saving.
 
I am not sure if I will use pine for over night. It seems that it burns wicked fast so I don't know if I could get an all nighter.

Maybe with the hemlock but I never burnt it so I really can't say.

By the way, where those pines are, the woods are riddled with vines and junk. I lost my car keys. One of those vines or prickers stole them I think. Now I gotta go look for them when the G/F gets home at around 11 pm.

Not something I wanna do in the dark and cold. good thing I have a 55 zillion candle power hunting light! I will have to fight the Fox and possoms while out there! I better go start my stretching routine.
 
madrone said:
:bug:
Oh God! Noooooooooooo! Skinny!!!!
Maybe it's not too late...
Quick! Split some Oak burls with a 6 pound maul and scrub your chimney out with lye before it's too late!

I don't know man, I think it is to late for me!!! I did it now!

Go on, don't worry about me! save yourself, I will be fine!!!!!!
 
Ya, it's for those 35-40 F nights more than the 20F and below nights to be sure. If I'm around to feed the stove, or when starting- pine is way simpler. Throw in a few splits and talk dirty to it- the secondaries will be burning before you get to third base.
 
Throw in a few splits and talk dirty to it- the secondaries will be burning before you get to third base.

That's probably one of the funniest things I've read on this forum :lol:

Gotta go get the Windex !

:lol:
 
right AP, that is what I was thinking, use it for the warmer nights like tonight. I still get a little skidish for using it as over night burn because I turn my stove way down at night and don't want to make any ickies in my chimney pipe from burning pine at a slow rate.

but no matter what, I will talk dirty to it!! I will have a potty mouth every time I load er up!!!
 
skinnykid said:
I got a guy in Raymond begging me to come get 2-3 cords of Hemlock outta his yard!!
I don't mind Pine but I draw the line at Balsam. Isn't that the same as what you call Hemlock? They're both Fir.

I had a neighbor that loved burning Balsam in his chalet. He ran a horse sleigh business and liked the snap, crackle, pop of Fir so he culled all the Fir off of my land.
Win/Win I say and I didn't even have to beg!

I saved the culled Pine and Spruce for kin'lin and firestarter and those days I didn't need a long hot fire.
 
Well the first time that I burn pine I noticed that pine burns real fast, leaves almost not hot ambers and doesn't give off much heat compared to hardwoods.

I know some of these are no brainers but the no hot ambers is weird to me.
 
skinny there is no heat differance. A BTU is a BTU. There is just less in a given mass. Therefor the shorter burn time. Iam pretty
sure both woods on high will pin the stove temp thermo into overfire. Pine will just run out of gas first.
 
north of 60 said:
skinny there is no heat differance. A BTU is a BTU. There is just less in a given mass. Therefor the shorter burn time. Iam pretty
sure both woods on high will pin the stove temp thermo into overfire. Pine will just run out of gas first.

yes I know that. it just seemed like the stove was putting out less heat but I know they give the same BTU.

The no hot coals is weird though
 
skinnykid said:
north of 60 said:
skinny there is no heat difference. A BTU is a BTU. There is just less in a given mass. Therefor the shorter burn time. Iam pretty
sure both woods on high will pin the stove temp thermo into overfire. Pine will just run out of gas first.

yes I know that. it just seemed like the stove was putting out less heat but I know they give the same BTU.

The no hot coals is weird though

Being that pine is less dense, I think it just gives of all its energy faster and the coaling stage is just like playing it in fast forward compared to the hardwoods. I think the less heat output your feeling is that the wood was just cut and split. Can you take a M/C reading. It can give you allot of answer's on actually how dry the dead standing was.
Cheers N of 60
 
LLigetfa said:
skinnykid said:
I got a guy in Raymond begging me to come get 2-3 cords of Hemlock outta his yard!!
I don't mind Pine but I draw the line at Balsam. Isn't that the same as what you call Hemlock? They're both Fir.

I had a neighbor that loved burning Balsam in his chalet. He ran a horse sleigh business and liked the snap, crackle, pop of Fir so he culled all the Fir off of my land.
Win/Win I say and I didn't even have to beg!

I saved the culled Pine and Spruce for kin'lin and firestarter and those days I didn't need a long hot fire.
nah, hemlocks different than balsam, hemlock is..hemlock (Tsuga Canadensis) not in the fir (abies) family. Hemlock is denser, than fir or white pine though not by a whole lot. I burn lots of hemlock and pine. Leave it to Adios. I must be getting old, all the way to third base just like that and I've never even paid attention, where's the Cialis?
 
skinnykid said:
I have 3 (now 2) standing dead pines on my property. Just to see what is up I cut one down to possibly burn.
Well when I cut it down I noticed it was very dry, no signs of sap. I took a couple of rounds and split them into smaller pieces, still no sap.
So I thought what the hay. I put some of the splits into my fire. They burn ok I guess with no more smoke than my other stuff that I burn.

I gotta say though, my POS poulan saw went through it like butter and the stuff is light and easy to split. You guys who will burn anything have it easy!!!!! :lol:

Yes, yes we do.
 
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