Teach me about Pine

I've always tossed pine aside as a junk wood. Kind of wrote it off. After reading multiple threads about it, I've decided I think I'm going to start using it as a shoulder season wood. Maybe even mix it in with hardwood stove loads a couple pieces at a time to make the good stuff last longer. Seems stupid to waste it, as I have a ton of it.

How do you guys incorporate your Pine into your burning schedule? What types of Pine are most common to the Massachusetts area. It seems like Eastern White Pine would be the main one around here.

 

sirbuildalot, I burn it and I have specifically dry pine. What you really have to realize without getting into the good and bad of it. Is the pine everybody burns out west is naturally a lot drier then what we have here. I mean think about it out west their average humidity is 30% where as ours I’m next to lake Champlain can average 65% and up.
Like all wood it needs to be dry to burn well why easterners get in trouble with pine is it will burn wet due the sap causing creosote.

 

I think you've got a good idea already. Try it, you'll like it. Adding a piece to a few leftover coals will get the fire going quickly.

 

I'm getting interested in the 3 red pines that Asplundh is cutting across the street from me.
At 17.9 btu, they pack more of a punch than eastern white pine at 13.2. A few rounds may happen to roll into my driveway.

 

Is one year enough time to season white or red pine to burn?

 

I guess I'll find out. All the pine I've ever burned has been many years old and dry as a bone.

 

We burn it mixed in with other hardwood. I try to stay away from the heavily knotted pieces sincce they have the most pine sap. Other than that, just split stack and dry no problem.

 

Nothing wrong with pine at al. I scrounge pine whenever I see it. Have tossed some dry pine into our wood stove on ocassion. Burns just fine alongside hardwood. Like you said, helps the good stuff last a little longer. Last year I burned about 85% eastern white pine and hemlock in our maple sugaring arch. It was cut one year prior to use and split only 6 months before use. Stuff was dry and it burned HOT. Could have got maybe a cups worth (that’s a big maybe) of buildup out of the stovepipe at the end of the season. Have another 3 cord of pine and hemlock ready to go for this coming maple season. Ensure it’s properly seasoned, as was mentioned, and it’ll be a good addition for you.

 

This is located in the "resources" section, at the top of the page.

Firewood BTU & Drying Chart

Drying tines and other goodies in there. Sortable by clicking on column headers

 

Thanks Mike,

According to that chart, both Eastern White, and Red Pines only take 6 months to season.

Has anyone burned significant amounts of seasoned Pine? I could extend my hardwood seasoning by a few months by cutting a bunch of Pine this winter and burn it come October, up until it really gets cold in say January. It'd be about 9 months seasoned by then if I can get it done in January. I have quite a bit laying around. At least 3 full cords worth. That chart also re-inforced that I need more seasoning time for my hardwoods. I'll get to a 3 year plan....eventually!!! I cant seem to get past the 12-18 month plan right now!!!

 

I've been trying to think of a way to get an extra year of seasoning in without buying any wood. This may be my golden ticket.

 

Pine, cedar and tulip poplar definitely help out getting the first year done. Tulip poplar isn’t on the charts, but I measured some at 20% with the moisture meter (after about six warmer months). The thing for me with the low density wood is that I want to save some for getting the fire going easily in the morning. I.e. not use it all of at once. It saves time tinkering and gets going so well you can turn down the air sooner.

 

I burned over a cord of eastern white pine last winter that only had about 6 months drying since CSS and it burned great.

 

In the past I've had a dump in the woods just for "junk" pine. I just didn't have time for it. I processed and saved very little (not NONE), mostly split small for kindling. Something I could do on a rainy day in the garage.
Now that I have more time, I process and burn more of it. I don't mind loading the stove twice as often and as much as you have to cut, split and stack twice as much, it's fairly easy to cut.
One thing I have found and this could be just my stove, is mixed with oak and the air cut back to control the pine burn rate, the oak tends to smolder. SO I no longer try to mix them except to throw a charge of oak on top of what is left of a pine burn. My first load in the morning is almost always pine as it gets the stove back up to speed nice and quick. It lights fairly easily so makes two cold starts a day in shoulder season fairly effortless. So I find myself using much more of it both in shoulder season and mid-season.
So I cut and process more and more of it and still run out/low.

This is eastern white pine. There's very little red pine and pitch pine here so I have little experience with either to compare similarities or differences compared to EWP.

 

Well, since nobody has told you yet:

DON’T DO IT. YOU ARE GOING TO BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN!!!!




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Quick seasoning wood is the best way to get ahead on a multi year stack, as well as if you don't have a lot of run to store longer seas time wood. Imagine if you only had oak, and you could only see which wood at your home for 2 years? You'd constantly be SOL because oak takes 3 or more years to dry out properly.

With many pine and conifers being able to dry properly in 6 months, you can literally CSS it at the end of one burning season, and have it ready at the start of the next heating season.

 

Lotsa pine up for grabs across the street, too bad it will get snowed on tomorrow. I'm guessing this is red pine, someone else may know better. It doesn't look like there's any fatwood in the butts. I'll probably take a few chunks in the morning.

 

I've burned a lot of red pine, aka Norway pine, and it definitely seasons in less than a year. Honestly, I think it can season in a less than 6 months given dry enough conditions, which is what I am used to the cabin.

 

Uphill or downhill roll, across the street to your side?