If my house burns down, dog runs off, hurricane hits, or I become infertile I will be pizzed. Grabbed my first pine load this morning - was posted late last night on CL and already cut into 14-20" pieces. I did pass up two freshly cut oak scores roadside due to safety concerns (45mph speed limit road with little room to pull off) and I would need my saw to make it worth while. I cannot believe how easily the pine splits with the x27 - even easier than oak. (also just noticed my phone lens is cracked)
Hey a score is a score! Glad you stayed on the safe side. I often roadside pick or see lots on the road but don’t grab it since hardly much shoulder too.
Nice, and good luck! You may like how lightweight it is when dry, at the very least. I also split all my pine almost exclusively with the X27.
I'm burning some right now, and have for years - don't worry about the infertility piece. Mrs Papi is due in eleven days and I'm typing this with our 2.5 year old sitting in little chair next to me in front of the stove. That will make you some good shoulder season wood next fall of you decide to put it up this year. Handy tip: mayonnaise will get the sap off your hands even easier than gasoline. Handier tip: if you let it sit in the round over the winter, 90% of the bark will fall off, and the sap will be all but gone.
I burn a lot of pine, and ... well our youngest kid is nearly 30 ... hmm. But wait, the dog is still here and the house hasn't burnt, so I am thinking it might be something else that caused the "problem."
I used a cord+ last year. I usually cut rounds and leave them where they fell for two or three months as the sap dries up in about that much time, then go back and round them up and either stack them to season or dump them in a pile and split them and stack them. Easy to do that way when they're on your own property. I like to warn people to be careful with it at first as it burns hot and fast so you should reassess the burning characteristics of your stove with this new highly volatile fuel. j/k, but you might have to load less and most certainly will most likely have to have less air input.
Got a load of it keeping the boiler going right now. Got two kids & two grand kids, dogs are in their beds & smoke alarms are silent, so I think it's ok.
Interesting but I’ve definitely noticed this on some rounds that I had let rot because they were just too far gone and not yet a member of the “dry wood club” . After winter the bark did fall off but then so did the middle of the round. Rained and all. That was then, different now. Just makes great pit wood as to save other stuff for later. I grabbed some free pine couple weeks ago. Since not all the wood is ready to burn, it can wait.
I have a neighbor who carries orange cones just for this type of scrounge. Maybe a fluorescent vest and some flares to complete the kit ?