Free scrounge but should I take it?

[Dfw245]

Came across a guy cutting trees down for the city, he just wants whatever to be gone. Thing is, 75% of it is pine, a few Sweet gum trees and a pile of Post oak trees. Here's the disclaimer, this will be used as outdoor fire pit fuel this week only. So yes, it unfortunately will be green as a blade of grass. I have seasoned wood to burn, just not much to get me through the holiday.

My question is this, I'm splitting all of this by hand, Fiskars and a maul, sweetgum is OUT. I've heard that stuff is harder to split than elm. Yeesh. But as for splitting and burning green, would it make sense to go for any of the pine at all? I believe it's Longleaf Pine. What it looks like anyway. Most of it appears straight grain. It's not a big city, more of a highway stop through town with TONS of pine trees clumped together. So there aren't very many limbs if at all within 40ft of the ground. I've heard pine is a bear to split but I wonder if that's just certain types of pine. I will for certain be picking up some post oak as that's gold down here in tx. It'll burn like crap but I do have some 2 year old seasoned Osage Orange to use as a base to get a roaring hot fire to burn some green wood. I'm just not sure with limited cargo room, if I should invest any axe swinging equity into splitting pine by hand.

I also understand this is a losing battle. Burning freshly split green wood. It'll burn like crap but it's more about the ambiance. Bonfire, s'mores, and thanksgiving vibes. Would it make sense at all to try and split the pine? Or should I just load up all the post oak I can and use that? I do know that pine burns a lot easier.

Here are a couple photos. The first one has some red oak, post oak, and I believe maybe a sweetgum tree. I'll be making an hour trip for as much as I can in the early AM. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[johneh]

Free wood is free wood if you only plan to burn in a fire pit so what if it is wet
it will burn slowly and with a good base of coals it will burn hiss and pop
If I were going to do what you plan on doing I grab as much of the pine and oak as I could

 

[Solarguy3500]

If it were me, I'd probably take the hardwood and leave the pine, but for outdoor firepit it doesn't really matter as much.

I've also heard that pine is hard to split, but I don't really have any firsthand experience with splitting it because I never use it for firewood. I know that properly seasoned pine is fine to use, but where I am in Western MA there is so much hardwood readily available that I find it hard to justify putting in the effort to get and process pine when I could put the same effort into processing oak, maple, beech, etc.

 

[Dfw245]

I suppose it wouldn't hurt to maybe just grab one round or two of pine and the rest post oak so that way if I can in fact split it easily, Ill know for sure and can go back

 

[Dfw245]

Got lucky along the way and found a downed cherry tree!! Didn't even think cherry trees grew in Texas. About to start bucking some pine and oak

 

[Caw]

Can you just take it and store whatever you don't use on your land? Free wood is free wood.

 

[Dfw245]

Can you just take it and store whatever you don't use on your land? Free wood is free wood.

Yes, but I'd only be able to take what I can transport, as well as what I can split by hand. So I wanted to make sure pine wasn't gonna be a bear to split by hand. It's a 1.5hr trip one way

 

[Dfw245]

Turns out the pine split fine lol it was a tad gummy, but with enough speed behind the Fiskars, it went straight through. Even with knots it had no issue splitting them easily. Don't be afraid to split Longleaf Pine by hand people, unless it's super twisted. Grabbed a handful of post oak and a decent amount of cherry wood as well. This is more wood than I can efficiently transport/store right now. But once I get a spot with enough land, the firewood business will be roaring

 

[Wisco Shepherd]

If it were me, I'd probably take the hardwood and leave the pine, but for outdoor firepit it doesn't really matter as much.

I've also heard that pine is hard to split, but I don't really have any firsthand experience with splitting it because I never use it for firewood. I know that properly seasoned pine is fine to use, but where I am in Western MA there is so much hardwood readily available that I find it hard to justify putting in the effort to get and process pine when I could put the same effort into processing oak, maple, beech, etc.

I split by hand and find pine is easier once dried a bit. Wet it can be a bugger.

 

[Dfw245]

I split by hand and find pine is easier once dried a bit. Wet it can be a bugger.

Interesting. Maybe it's just all about the tree itself rather than the species. Or maybe you're referring to a different pine? This Longleaf stuff split easy. Not as easy as white oak or cherry, but it split after maybe 3-4 whacks at it

 

[Wisco Shepherd]

Interesting. Maybe it's just all about the tree itself rather than the species. Or maybe you're referring to a different pine? This Longleaf stuff split easy. Not as easy as white oak or cherry, but it split after maybe 3-4 whacks at it

Yeah I find a lot of variance with the softwoods. Some do split easy but some of the more difficult stuff gets very easy after even a month or two in rounds.

 

[Dfw245]

Yeah I find a lot of variance with the softwoods. Some do split easy but some of the more difficult stuff gets very easy after even a month or two in rounds.

I unfortunately just don't have the luxury of time. Maybe I can keep some for Xmas? Who knows if it'll even be cold tho. But if it's splitting easily now, it might be best to just go ahead n split it

 

[sneefy]

I can say from experience that wet Red Pine is a huge pain to split. Dry, it flies apart.

 

[Dfw245]

I can say from experience that wet Red Pine is a huge pain to split. Dry, it flies apart.

Which variants classify as red pine? Longleaf? Or is it not like oak in which red pine is it's own variant of pine

 

[sneefy]

Which variants classify as red pine? Longleaf? Or is it not like oak in which red pine is it's own variant of pine

Pinus resinosa - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Dfw245]

Gotcha so red pine is in fact it's own thing. Kinda like red elm. I think there's more species of pine than there are of oak lol

 

[sneefy]

Yup. And, yes I think there are!