Do any of you use pine to burn inside other than for kindling? There is a neighbor that had some pines taken down and has the wood for free. It at least two truck loads. I was going to pick it up tomorrow morning if it's still there. I know it has to be dried good and I could burn it in the outside pit but not sure if I should take it all. I guess I could mix it in with the good wood through the winter.
Absolutely, I don't travel for it, but I burn it. I only mess with the trunk wood, the limbs are for outdoor burning. And all those nasty knots stay outside too. I get about a cord mixed in, heavy on "the ends", to my 4-5 cord total for the year. Shoulder season plus quick starts - it has its place. I just won't work overly hard for it.
I use it for shoulder wood. I've only cut the stuff here on the property though. Highly doubt I'd go very far for it. I've also got about a cord for this fall/next spring. It gets dried about a year, and gooder to go. Just remember, lots of folks live where the chance of getting hardwoods lies somewhere between VERY slim and none, so all they burn is softwoods. I HATE all the branches and knots, though. There's a bunch of big rounds I tried to split out at the pit that I got tired of messing with, so at some point they'll be set afire out there.
If it's not covered and bleeding pitch everywhere then go get it. I burn a bunch of Sothern Yellow Pine and more preferably Long Leaf Pine. I only cut beetle killed trees standing dead for a year it seasons in 6-8months in my climate, mix a few splits in with hardwood for relights or full load to knock the chill off during SS
I picked up a load a couple years ago when I was scared that I wouldn't have enough hardwood to burn. Now it's mixed in with some other stuff and will get burned this winter. I probably wouldn't travel for it now that I'm swimming in ash, but there's a few white pines on my property that I'd burn if they ever need to be taken down.
I burn quite a bit of pine during the shoulder season. It isn't the best wood but if it available I'm not turning it away.
Living in the "Evergreen State" - yup, I burn pine. Not my favorite, and lodgepole is a lot better than the other varieties, but I take all the free pine I can get. Greg
I heated with mostly pine last year. While resinous wood has a bit more energy per pound than non resinous wood, the main differences between species are density and ease of splitting. Pine is not particularly hard to split excepting the knotty areas that are a problem regardless of species. Those areas can yield fatwood in pine so there is some upside. It isn't a dense wood which means that the a load isn't going to weigh as much as a load of denser wood. That means the amount of heat you get overall from a load will be less. It does NOT mean that the amount of heat you get per hour will necessarily be less- that depends on how fast you burn whatever is in the stove. Bottom line is that you will have to reload more often for a given heat output. Or, you will get less heat for a given time of burn with the same volume of wood burned. Whether that is good, bad, or indifferent is entirely dependent on the particular circumstances.
It's not a bad wood to burn when seasoned, just be warned that it burns really hot and can burn really fast....it seasons really fast once C/S/S as well! I like carving pumpkins out of that stuff, as well as making dimensional lumber from it too. If you need some shoulder season wood or stuff for quick start ups/reloads, white pine is a welcome addition to the stack
I'd get it, especially if I had a place to store it. I'll burn any dang free stuff there is. I used to be a wood snob, never liked boxelder, but I've rehabilitated myself. I'll take it all, burn it when I see fit.
We let ours season for a full year before burning, we've never had a problem with white pine in our wood stove while burning it during the shoulder season.
Thanks for the replies. When I get home in the morning, im going to see if it's still there and grab s load or two.
In my experience, white pine is much less of a quality wood than red pine is. I've burned a lot of both, but red pine is much better. That said I'd still take white pine if it were easy to get.
I burn hemlock which is only slightly above white pine in btus. It's decent if you mix it in or it's near the end of the shoulder season. Burns hot and fast and dries (in my area) in about 8 months.
If it's free easy and close, I don't see why you'd even ask, seems like an obvious answer to me! Better get to it! I have an owb and I get most to all of my wood for free because everyone's scared to burn pine around here, so they trip over all species of pine, and lots of other softwood to get to the oak a hundred feet behind it, I save a lot of time and effort, more than enough time and effort to pay for the extra gas for a couple less btus, when I grab all the easy pine that everyone else let's rot on the ground. Go get that easy stuff before I do! And post some pics of your lucky score!
I burn plenty of box elder as well, it's a pretty wood when you split it up, all the red streaks in it, but around here most of it is pretty twisted and needs to be split with the splitter
