Creosote burning.

[Sawset]

Cleaning up the shop getting ready for some cabinet projects means a couple stove loads of nice dry pine cutoffs. Saw this this morning. Stove was "warm", but several pcs were not. Creosote - in real time - dripping off, very noticable, and very much creosote like. And in a couple minutes, a nice calm flame front consuming it all back again. That's it. I thought that was kind of interesting. It didn't seem very castrofic, just the opposite. (It also wasn't 1/4" thick and glazed either).
Just as an aside, I'm also a beekeeper, and beekeepers use "smokers" - a stainless tube, fueled by cardboard and wood pellets, and can, if done right (or wrong) can produce huge amounts of creosote. Inside, outside, draining down the sides, sticky and full of it. And if I pump the bellows good and hard, or take a torch to it, I could watch a mini chimney fire everyday if I wanted. Nice flame front, crackles an sizles a little, take a wire brush to it, the thing is20yrs old and good as new. Not really, but doesn't seem worse for wear by removing the liquid creosote. What I realize though, is that this stuff goes on all the time inside my stove pipe, sight unseen, and nothing to indicate it unless visible through the front glass (or like in the other case on the outside of a smoker). The chimney pipe here brushes out clean every year with little to no creosote buildup, but I'm not wondering where all the creosote goes from cool startups.

 

[jatoxico]

Good pics. I had some kind of pine once that I scrounged so have no idea exactly what it was. But I dried it for 2 years before burning and it put out smoke like a burning tire. Had tar like substance too. Maybe it needed another year but it was light as a feather compared to oak and locust and felt ready.

Did you look outside to see what was coming out of the stack?

 

[Ludlow]

Looks like pressure treated to me. Yumm!

 

[Kevin Weis]

Yes, looks like pressure treated to me too. Thought that was a big no no to burn that stuff. More than just creosote burning there.

 

[Sawset]

I didn't think it was treated, but it did have a large knot, and quite a bit of sap and amber on it. Maple, oak, some pine, cherry, and balsa wood out of the wood shop would have been it. I'm not sure what fatwood acts like, but this had more than usual sap, hence the cut off and burn. I never did look outside. Done now, till probably next year, if that. Usually it gets used up for kindling so it's never just sitting around.

 

[kennyp2339]

Pretty neat.

 

[blacktail]

Would creosote form that close to the fire? Could it be pitch that's running out and then burning?

 

[Kevin Weis]

That's probably pitch from the Yellow Pine. If that was pressure treated than it was Yellow Pine. Surprised though it didn't catch fire right away.

 

[blacktail]

I've had pitch ooze out of fir before it burns.

 

[heavy hammer]

Definitely different, was the chimney smoking bad when this was happening?

 

[Sawset]

Found this in the archives. Interesting reading. I can honestly say that I've never burned pine in the stove except for cabinet shop cutoffs, so I'm learning a bit here about it.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/pine-sap.141898/

 

[firefighterjake]

I had something like this happen to me before while burning white pine . . . the sap blisters would pop and spray on to the glass where it would run a bit, blacken up and then char before eventually burning off.