I am pretty sure most of the members here know that this is not the case but I still see this talked about often in different places so I decided to dig into it and write a blog post on it. I tried to cover some more technical aspects of it that I have not found in other posts I have seen about it. It is my first blog post, so please do let me know if you have any feedback, or constructive criticism. I hope you all are off to a good start of 2025! Burning Softwoods in Your Woodstove is Bad (Debunked)
Very well said and to the point! An excellent read. I'd like to print that out and give to the naysayers about burning pine/softwoods. The only softwood I use is for kindling as primo hardwoods are very abundant around here. My cousin has lived in NW Montana for over 30 years and all he has to burn are softwoods.
It's just a density thing. Yes, connifers are generally less dense than deciduous. Burn the best stuff you can get your hands on, wherever you are, whatever it may be.
Agreed....that being said, I still wouldn't burn Jack Pine in my stove unless it was the last thing left. I don't have any of it down by me, but there is a ton of it an hour or so north of me.
It’s hard to break some individuals of the false dogma that softwoods cause chimney fires. I think that although the topic has been raised repeatedly on here, it doesn’t hurt to bring it up on occasion, especially since new members/burners are constantly joining. When I first joined, all I ever used softwoods for was kindling (and I kid you not, that small amount would have me paranoid about starting a chimney fire ) I don’t go out of my way looking for softwoods, but will take them if convenient. 4 years ago a Chipdrop left me with a couple cords of pine, which I’m still chewing through slowly.
Nice writeup...my only input is that I think pine/softwood (but specifically pine, well, any "sappy" wood) gets a bad rap because people that don't know any better tend to burn it wet, because it will halfway burn when wet, because of the sap, so they keep doing it...try burning wet oak, most people will soon just give up! Now, I actually like to have some pine in stock to round out my wood heat BTU arsenal...it works great to throw on a pile of hardwood coals to burn them down when its really cold out and you are pushing the stove a little harder for more heat (loading more often, with larger loads) the pine helps give you some meaningful heat while the hardwood coals burn up, without adding to them. Also, its species dependent, but softwood can be a little more BTU dense (per dry pound) than hardwoods, so if you need all the heat you can get from your stove, and you are around to load the stove more often, you can actually get a bit more heat from some softwoods, compared to those "legendary" hardwoods. If you think about it, the people that live in the coldest places tend to mainly have softwoods to burn...but they don't freeze, or burn their houses down...
Have burned 'cedar' and eastern white pine since I was old enough to keep dad's coal/wood stove filled. Now that was a chore and a challenge. Quite a bit easier with more modern, more efficient wood stove. I still burn eastern white pine as I have so much of it on my property. I save the good stuff for when I need long burns. EWP is great for shoulder season burning , too.
I sold every stick of Pine I had. IME Short leaf Pine aka Yella Pon makes the nicest splits. Va Pine is decent, but can be kinda knotty. They are both denser than White. Loblolly is a good one too. Sure wish I could get a truck load of Longleaf logs.
Nice blog post! I learned something new regarding the “seeds” of the trees and where the names come from. Thanks for that! I’ve probably shared this before, but I’ve scrounged some pine and each time the person giving it away: “It’s pine, so you can’t burn it inside.” I always tell them I know and plan on using it in a firepit. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. ; )
There has been some great feedback and information from the community, so I decided to add a "Firewood Community Contributions" section to the bottom. brenndatomu I have added what you said to the bottom with credit. If you prefer it not to be there let me know, but it is great info, so I hope you are good with it.
We have a lot of Virginia pine here. It seasons rather quickly compared to oak and hickory, so I keep a few bags of it in the barn. The bags we use are the bags block and brick companies deliver sand in. As long as they are kept out of the weather, they last several seasons.
Thank you for the reading and people need to know the facts about burning softwood Like buzzsaw brad said there are places where all people burn is softwood that is what’s available
What we need to be doing is convincing people that Osage, BL, and WO cause fires. 1. It goes along with the majority of misinformation on the innerwebs. 2. People will start giving it away like it's the plague.
Very nicely done. I have been burning some softwood for years and zero issues. Great for a quick start and shoulder season burning.
I can remember several in my family that when asked if something tasted good at dinner and they automatically said it was terrible, one knew it was the opposite. They just didn't want you eating it so there was more for them.
Excellent write up! I'm a firm believer in having pine around to burn down coal beds when it's cold out and you really need the stove going full chooch as brenndatomu mentioned. When I talk with people, through scrounges etc, I'll tell them that the pine myth is simply that, and that it's wet wood of any type that's the creosote producer. I like to get the myth dispelled versus allowing people parroting bad information. They can listen to me or not, but nobody I've talked to about this would say that I don't have the experience to back up my words.
