Not sure I’d call it a hardwood, deciduous, yes, but not hard. I still have a pile of logs at the shop from the clearing and dirt project. Haven’t looked at them for quite awhile, probably starting to go punky. I do have a bunch of rounds stacked up there to, they are probably still ok. After my Quoting a tree job 2 weeks ago I’ve had enough of cutting cottonwood to last me quite awhile. holding the saw at waist level with the chips hitting me about the belt line, several times it was like someone was squirting me with a hose. The first time it happened it kind of spooked me. Many of the trees would literally squirt out a stream of water if you would bore into them and then pull the bar out . I’m getting ahead on my wood stash so I’ll probably not be messing around with any cottonwood unless somebody is paying me to
I don’t consider myself to be a wood snob but there is no way in heck cottonwood will ever be in my stacks. The sunday paper throws more heat
I’d take Pine over Cottonwood. I have both in my stacks. Cottonwood is okay. The Pine burns hotter, coals a little bit better and burns longer. People tend to forget too, that there are lots of species of Pine. Some is certainly better than others. Ponderosa and Lodgepole blow Cottonwood out of the water.
If its free? It's for me. But I will say, splitting cottonwood by hand was not fun. However- it kept my house warm, and that's the point for me.
Im referring to Eastern white pine which is rather soft and the most abundant pine in our area. Dunno what pine is common in Chud's area.
Virginia Pine is the predominant pioneer species. We also have Loblolly and White Pine. In older forests there are Shortleaf Pine aka Yellow Pine. I have some Loblolly in my stacks and if I can’t sell it for fire pits I’ll burn it. 1 hour South and Longleaf is king.
Personal thing but I hate cutting pine! I can't even go near it and I get sap on me. Sap in my beard, on my glasses it goes on and on. I look like I'm tared and feathered. I do like the smell though.
Funny story rleting to that. Had a clean up job for a big section of an Eastern white pine. Had her son help me. Many years ago when we first met and he was in high school. I warned him how sticky the sap is and be careful of it. Poor kid got covered with it. Only my gloves had it on them. It oozes sap something terrible. And yes it smells great.
I'll take pine all day long for making kindling - little, short, skinny ones to start the fire, and longer 16" skinny ones to get the fire going quickly. Then I'll mix in the hardwoods. I've got the 5 IBC totes of kindling all ready to go. Have averaged 2 totes of the little short skinny kindling in the past 2 winters and I have an entire holz hausen dedicated to the longer kindling of red pine as well heh heh.
That's my favorite part about pine and spruce. I love finding those sap pockets and slathering the sap all over my x27 handle. Gets 'er extra sticky for a little while and the smell is amazing. It smelled so amazing that I once tried to taste it and it was like sucking on a tube of toothpaste that had.........zero flavor. Yuck.
Funny side story about this. Ms. buZZsaw's SIL was here to pick up baby as she was sitting the other day. He tells me about some black walnut he saw roadside recently. He finally figured out where and it turns out to be this wood. He couldnt believe it wasnt BW. He had never heard of cottonwood.
Actually i wont take either given the choice. If the pine was nice and straight id take it for milling.
Why don't you like pine? Pops too much? Burns too fast? (That's actually why I like it because I use it sparingly and a little bit goes a long way at startup) Hard to split by hand? I found that to be the case for sure. Turns out it's more efficient to make skinny wedges with the splitter on the shorties. You can make them *almost* razor thin and I like 'em thin.
