Snap, Crackle, Pop

[BillBurns]

Hey all. Ive been burning dry pine for the last few days. mixed with hardwood. Is it normal to crack, pop. and shoot coals? I think it is, but just wanted to find out. Also, it catches fire in like 5 seconds. Im not lying, it catches fast! My other wood catches around . My other wood is about 15- 20 seconds.

 

[bholler]

Hey all. Ive been burning dry pine for the last few days. mixed with hardwood. Is it normal to crack, pop. and shoot coals? I think it is, but just wanted to find out. Also, it catches fire in like 5 seconds. Im not lying, it catches fast! My other wood catches around . My other wood is about 15- 20 seconds.

Yes pine pops quite a bit

 

[GrumpyDad]

Yes pine pops quite a bit

Which when you are using a wood burning pizza oven, makes for less than desirable results. I dont know how, but I put a small split of pine in (I should have noticed by the weight) and as I was cooking chunks of pine flung all over my pizza . I had to wait until that burned down, then added two small pieces of oak to build the heat back up. Waiting for the small split of pine and smaller splits of oak to almost burn down was almost 30 minutes.

 

[begreen]

Sap and moisture pockets in the wood can be explosive. I had an ember shoot out sideways from a starting fire of doug fir. It shot out past hearth and left a small burn mark on the floor. I left it there as a reminder that this can happen, even with extra hearth protection.

 

[GrumpyDad]

Sap and moisture pockets in the wood can be explosive. I had an ember shoot out sideways from a starting fire of doug fir. It shot out past hearth and left a small burn mark on the floor. I left it there as a reminder that this can happen, even with extra hearth protection.

I'll add to your cautionary tale.
On fireplaces, the curtain style screens - you will eventually get a gap in the middle toward the bottom from opening and closing the screen alot, smacking wood into it etc.
I had a few embers pop out of the middle area onto the carpet. I was burning mostly pine that night. I wasnt paying attention as I was reading.
Instead of replacing that with something that is going to deform again, I bought a rigid cage screen that you move when you need to tend to the fire. It's not a big deal honestly, and it keeps kids/pets from getting too close to or playing with the fire when they were younger.

 

[kborndale]

Which when you are using a wood burning pizza oven, makes for less than desirable results. I dont know how, but I put a small split of pine in (I should have noticed by the weight) and as I was cooking chunks of pine flung all over my pizza . I had to wait until that burned down, then added two small pieces of oak to build the heat back up. Waiting for the small split of pine and smaller splits of oak to almost burn down was almost 30 minutes.

Don't use pine for cooking or smoking. The resins contain terpenes that not only taste bad, but can even be poisonous in large amounts.

 

[BillBurns]

That is all good information. I dont use it to cook, but that sucks what happened to your pizza. And the heads up about sparks flying is good to know. Glad all is well now tho.

 

[BillBurns]

What exactly causes the cracking and popping? Air pockets, or just that its dry as dry can get?

 

[begreen]

What exactly causes the cracking and popping? Air pockets, or just that its dry as dry can get?

Moisture and sap pockets. When the moisture is heated it turns to steam which expands strongly enough to burst the wood grain surrounding it.

 

[BillBurns]

Thanks for clearing that up. I think pine burns well.