Best long term use of pine

[NoGoodAtScreenNames]

I live in the Northeast where there are plenty of pine trees but no shortage of good hardwoods, especially oak. I'm not much of a scrounger, I've been getting green split wood from local tree companies to start getting ahead. At some point maybe I'll do a grapple load. Point is that the only wood that's available for purchase is hardwoods around here.

That being said I am now scrounging off myself. We had some oak and pines taken down and I'm trying to get through processing that this fall. The oak I'm splitting now would start to be burned in the fall of 2018. This year and next I'll be burning 2 year hardwood. 2 years in my yard is enough to get a medium oak split down to 20% (with the help of a hot summer with no rain) but the big ones take a little longer it seems.

My question is on the pine as I will have a good amount - maybe 2-3 cords. I'm assuming this is the most pine I'll ever have and might be the last significant pine that I ever have. So how should I use it best?

1) split it small. I'm a weeknight and weekend burner and those frequent starts would love some pine to help get those frequent new fires nice and hot quickly. Save me from wasting hardwood for kindling and small splits.

2) keep it big and use most of it next year in the shoulder season. This would give much of the oak a chance to get to the third year and then I'd be on a good 3 year cycle from then on.

What would you do?

 

[peakbagger]

Both, I have to fire my boiler every day when its cold and every couple of day when its less cold. Pine is great kindling. I actually use brich, ash and maple for kindling as I don't have any big softwood and small softwood with knots doesn't split as well. I make my kindling as I go, if I see a good straight grained log I set it aside and split it in the basement with hand ax. Otherwise kindling takes up a lot of room. A quarter cord of kindling will go a long way. I would suggest spending your extra time splitting the oak in smaller pieces an stack it in a loose stack to accelerate drying.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

Either way with the pine, definitely top cover. I have found that pine left uncovered dries much slower than covered.

 

[Chimney Smoke]

I love having a plentiful supply of dry pine split to normal size for starting the stove and getting it hot before a full hardwood load. During the week due to work schedules I usually burn only at night and the first load of pine gets everything nice a warm before a bed time hardwood load.

 

[firefighterjake]

C) A little from Column A and a little from Column B.

With the pine and other softwoods I split up a bunch for use as kindling as I tend to use quite a bit of kindling . . . but I also leave some pieces a bit larger (especially when I have a round that is knotty or just not splitting up nice and easy like for use as kindling). In fact, I broke down this morning and got a fire going and there is a pine split in the stove right now.

 

[red oak]

I split pine to a regular size - kindling I get from lumber scraps, bark, and small pieces that chip off when I'm splitting. Even regular size dry pine will take right off and burn quickly. And yes pine definitely needs top-covered.

 

[NoGoodAtScreenNames]

Thanks everybody. I think for the short term I'm going to split it big. Always easier to split it smaller later for kindling and small splits than trying to glue two small pieces together to get a bigger one.

Interesting what everyone's been saying about top covering. I would have thought pine would be the most forgiving. I've had a little that dried out quickly (1 year in log form, sopping wet when split in the spring and bone dry now). But I watch the weather and top cover when needed. Will do the same with the new stuff.

 

[kennyp2339]

I'd say keep it big, I love burning pine during the fall (late Oct - Nov)

 

[red oak]

Thanks everybody. I think for the short term I'm going to split it big. Always easier to split it smaller later for kindling and small splits than trying to glue two small pieces together to get a bigger one.

Interesting what everyone's been saying about top covering. I would have thought pine would be the most forgiving. I've had a little that dried out quickly (1 year in log form, sopping wet when split in the spring and bone dry now). But I watch the weather and top cover when needed. Will do the same with the new stuff.

Pine in my experience lets in a lot more water from rain than hardwoods do. I used to keep pine uncovered and it never burned well. Last year I covered it and it took off like I had put gasoline on it (not that I know what that is like!).

 

[billb3]

For the pine I like a mix of small and regular.
With all the knots it is what I get anyway.
Course most of my pine grew pioneer species in an open field so has lots of knots.
If I'm careful and selective cutting rounds and try to cut right at knots I might be able to split more small splits but more often now than not I just cut to get the cutting done and work with what I've got. Some rounds I can get kindling without shattering and some just have to be left big. I'm not spending hours on pine, forcing it.

There's a couple people selling pine near me.
1 is selling bundles for 5 bucks which I assume is for a local campground and/or backyard fire pits. Another is selling a little under a third of a cord on a skid plastic wrapped $100 a skid loaded on your truck or trailer. I dunno if they sell a lot but that seems like a pretty easy $300/cord for pine.


If you use pine trim boards on house exterior they usually get painted to protect them from the weather.

 

[HisTreeNut]

I split the pine in normal pieces. If I need kindling because I have burned up everything from my yard, I just split it smaller in the garage.
Pine is great to burn...no wait...pine is bad to burn...don't burn it ever ...but for some reason if you have to, it's great for the shoulder season, great to mix in with hardwoods, or to help burn down hardwood coals. I cover all my wood, so I have no idea how fast pine dries without a cover. I have heard it can pick moisture up quickly, but I think that would be true of any wood.

 

[Jay106n]

Since you have a couple cords to work with, I would do a solid mix. I use it for start ups and short evening fires on shoulder season. It is good to have on hand.

 

[Poindexter]

I have 8 cords of spruce right now, they will be gone by spring.

I wouldn't try it without my Blaze King and the miracle thermostat utilizing alien technology..

I don't have any other wood to burn since the wife and I are both allergic to birch. Spruce is fine cordwood. I just hate the bark chunks in the carpet.

 

[NoGoodAtScreenNames]

I'm still in the process of cutting it up but just for giggles I tried to split one of my big rounds yesterday. My only prior experience with pine has been splitting 12" rounds that were sitting in short logs for a year. That split nice and easy.

These new fresh rounds are a completely different story. They are around 25" to 30". They cut very easily with the saw but using the maul on them is entirely useless. No matter where I strike it the maul sinks in like I'm trying to split a memory foam mattress while it spits water out at me. Hopefully it will be better when they've gotten a few weeks to dry in round form. I'll be getting my hands on a little splitter soon, hopefully that can handle it. But for now I'm focusing my splitting efforts on the oak which is a lot more fun.

 

[billb3]

I try not to handle green pine too much because of the sticky pitch .
I'll cut longer sections or rounds to facilitate moving them, maybe even stacking them although it's easier usually just to leave them in the woods and come back for them in a couple of months.
I'll let them sit until the younger smooth green bark turns red, then handle them some more and split them then .

 

[Knots]

I keep the pine on the big size and use it to burn down large piles of hard wood coals.

 

[tsquini]

I don't chop pine any different than an other wood. I do stack it in its own rows because it dries faster.

 

[dafattkidd]

I love burning pine and spruce. I don't have a lot of it but when I do I love it. I took down a spruce a few years ago. I couldn't split it with my maul. I was like trying to split play dough. That's what pushed me to buy my little electric splitter. I really like burning full loads of pine. It takes off like there's lighter fluid in there. Fun to play around with. I also like to use a couple pieces of dried out pine to help push along those sluggish wood loads.

 

[Old Red]

These new fresh rounds are a completely different story. They are around 25" to 30". They cut very easily with the saw but using the maul on them is entirely useless. No matter where I strike it the maul sinks in like I'm trying to split a memory foam mattress while it spits water out at me.

I have no experience with pine. Recently I scrounged some white pine about the same size you're working with and had the same experience. I've used a maul and a pointed wedge to break the rounds into halves/thirds and stacked them to let 'em dry out (or freeze) before I get back to them.

 

[DUMF]

I have 8 cords of spruce right now, they will be gone by spring.
I wouldn't try it without my Blaze King and the miracle thermostat utilizing alien technology..
I don't have any other wood to burn since the wife and I are both allergic to birch. Spruce is fine cordwood. I just hate the bark chunks in the carpet.

1. To give some credit to the original VC engineers in VT., they first used that "miracle thermostat ..technology" decades ago. Too bad about the permutations and failures of the later VC owners and the poor QC of the stoves.
2. Never heard of a birch allergy. Symptoms ? Caused by handling, odor, shavings ? (Sorry to highjack this thread guys)

 

[Adabiviak]

What kind of pine is it? There's some difference in the burn behavior that would change how I burn it. For example, the local "bull" pine (Pinus sabiniana) is pretty rough - takes a long time to season and throws a lot of ash. Ponderosa pine burns about the way I think pine "should" burn (kind of like a big piece of kindling - quick and hot). Jeffrey, Lodgepole, and White pines seem like the best pines for me, but I may be looking at skewed results, as the scores I get of those species tend to be very well seasoned (usually standing dead, for example).

If it's a "good" pine (regardless of species - it's burning easily and cleanly), I'll use it in the shoulder season; if it's a "bad" pine, I'll burn it in the context of an established hardwood fire (where the stove is at optimum temperature and there's an established coal bed) to minimize smoke and ensure a complete burn without wasting those BTUs.

This pine will usually burn around the hardwood coal bed, which is a convenient way to "level off" the heat output when the house is warm, but it's early in the day; it'll keep the coals going without adding too much more heat to the house (where adding hardwood to maintain the fire at this point might make the house uncomfortably hot).

 

[billb3]

Eastern White Pine, pitch pine and red pine in Ma. 13-17.5 MBTU/cord
In most areas ( sandy places might have a preponderance of pitch pine, like the pine barrens in NJ ) you find EWP.
I'd split bigger chunks except for the few straight grained knot free pieces which will lend themselves to small kindling for fire starting if you don't have a huge stove that could use a quick fire refresh in the AM. You can always split those nice straight grained pieces later for kindling when/if needed if you're pressed for time now. You'll find out soon enough the knotty pieces don't split into kindling well.