I've tried to find a thread that speaks specially to burning pine, and so far I can only find a few posts here or there. One thing I did find was a BTU page that refers to the weight and BTU load for different woods. It's been my misguided understanding that one should never burn pine in a wood stove. The two main reasons is the temp that pine burns at (much higher than oak) and the amount of creole that pine produces. Now from reading comments on pine from this site and a few others, it appears that pine can be burned. It sounds like pine is an excellent fire starter when starting with a cold stove. Also, I've read that pine is good to mix with other types of wood. Please correct me if I am wrong. I have a good amount of pine that has been dropped a couple years ago that I could burn. My plan was to slowly burn that wood in the fire pit, but I'd much rather burn it inside if it's useful. One question I have is how long does it take for pine to season. The other type of tree I have on my property in abundance is cherry. I have several cherry trees that I need to bring down to maximize sunlight for my garden, and I'd love to be able to burn this in my wood stove. Is cherry a good wood to burn, and how long should cherry be seasoned? I did read in one reply to a thread that cherry needs to be split in order for it to dry, and another post indicated that cherry can burned as soon as it's split. Thank you Jason from RI.
What you said about pine is correct. Give it a year if you can to get it nice and dry and it'll be just fine in your stove. Not burning pine inside is an old wives tale Cherry is great firewood IMO. Pretty average BTUs, but easy to split and it smells awesome! I'd also give the cherry at least a year. All wood needs to be split in order for it to dry in a reasonable time, and aside from very dry standing dead trees, no wood should be burned straight off the stump If you give all your wood time to dry, you'll get a lot more heat and a lot less hassle when burning
Ok, here's the real deal......pine, when dried, burns just fine. Just like any other wood. Some have nothing but various types of pine to burn, and do fine every year. It can dry in the right conditions in less than a year, but after a year, it's in great shape to burn. No experience with Cherry, but I've heard it's decent firewood.
Generally speaking, the softer the wood, the faster it will dry, and the faster it will burn. EWP is about as soft as they come, so the BTUs aren't all that high. It'll burn hot, but fast. But it should work great for "shoulder season" wood - when it's too warm out to burn full time, but cool enough where you want to "take the chill out". Should work great as a firestarter too. I'm planning to burn some red pine next year myself. Cherry is a great wood to burn. Like other fruit woods, it's about mid range BTUs, and it's great to use in the smoker too. Burn it all!
season the cherry for a year - should be good to go I've had cherry roundwood rot but it sat around a bit too long uncovered I like it a little better than the silver swamp maple that grows here. Some consider (wild) cherry a weed tree and it does harbor the same black knot fungus that attacks plum trees so turn it all into fuel ! We have an abundance of EWP and I've burned it and swamp cedar (not much left here) and these both burn hot and fast. Which can be advantageous when you only want a short-lived fire. A bit of extra work when you want to maintain one.
Was there fungus working on it? Or was it getting waterlogged? I've heard that cherry heartwood is quite resistant to rot, and that seems to be consistent with what I've seen in my woods. I had a couple smaller ones on the forest floor, bark falling off, but they were still in good shape, and a few standing dead that seem a little soft on the outside, but the heart is still solid.
nothing obvious - pretty much everything that was too small to split. I lost track of how old some of my firewood was. Up until 2 years ago some of it could have been 10 years old.
Pine is fine.......I've burned quite a bit of it, matter for fact a couple years back I used a pile of it to make 20 gallons of maple syrup. Pine burns hot and very clean when it's seasoned. But it does burn a lot faster.
You can burn any type of wood in a wood stove. All woods should be split and dried or 'seasoned.' Most woods require at least a year of seasoning to be at their best, while some hardwoods like oak and Sugar Maple require two years at least. Most of the pines and other conifers like spruce and fir should be pretty well seasoned in a year, if they are split and stacked in a sunny, breezy spot. The different woods have different burning characteristics. There are 20 kinds of hardwood, and each is a little different from any other. Pine tends to burn faster than most hardwoods, and thus can make the stove hotter than a similar load of hardwood. I don't know that pine actually burns hotter, but since it gives off its heat faster, the stove can get hotter. This is fine, as long as you know it is going to happen. keep in mind that everyone in the Rockies, most of western Canada, Alaska, etc. burn mostly conifers, since that is what grows there. They don't burn their houses down any more often than people in the eastern hardwood forests do.
It's all BTUs. Don't underestimate the heat values of the evergreens. Many have some pretty good heat value / cord http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/howoodbtu.htm 1 pound dry (non resinous) wood has 8500 BTU (±) Don't mater if it's locust, oak, birch , poplar . Pine is a resinous wood, a little more BTU per pound Resinous wood can be up to 9700 BTU per pound ( http://centraloregonfirewood.com/gotwood/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54&Itemid=61 ) : "All firewood has about the same BTU per pound. Non resinous wood has around 8000 to 8500 BTU per pound and resinous wood has around 8600 to 9700 BTU per pound. Less dense softwoods have less BTU per cord than more dense hardwood but they also weigh less per cord. Resinous wood has more BTU per pound because the resins have more BTU per pound than wood fiber has. The information above was sourced from www.firewoodresources.com please visit their website for more information." Spruce here has a lot more BTU than aspen & cottonwood: The BTU charts vary, depends how many cubic feet in the cord ( 70 - 90 cubic feet), on their moisture content factors (some use 20%, some 15% some 12% ) & many times on the location, some areas the same wood species has more/less BTUs, (growth seasons & wood density vary) Here's some resinous wood BTUs (90 cubic feet per cord) :
Jason, it is good that you brought up this subject as most folks do not seem to understand it at all. Mostly they have heard the old stories but have never had any experience with it. Even last year when we cut a lot of pine, I was warned by 3 people about not burning that in the stove. As expected, not one of those three even burn wood but they "seemed" to "know" what was good and what was not good. They about crapped when I told them that, of course, we will burn that pine in our stove. Mostly the old stories came from long ago when people knew little about the correct way of handling and burning wood. Creosote was the order of the day and so were chimney fires. So just imagine if you will, some poor sucker gets his chimney clogged with creosote so decides it it time to build that hot fire to "clean out the chimney." Yes, even today, we hear of people saying that at least once per day it is good to burn a really hot fire to clean the chimney. Pure grade A baloney is what it is. But, they clogged the chimney then some burned pine to clean the chimney. Chimney fire gets out of hand and house burns down. What gets blamed? Of course it was that nasty pine they put in the stove. So the old tales continue year after year after year. Sadly, most of the tales come from folks who don't even burn wood! Here's another foolish statement that many will make. White ash! Wow, that is good stuff. Why you can cut it one day and burn it the next. Right..... Well, I can also start a fire with fresh cut oak if I so choose but that does not make it good. Even white ash needs to be dried. Generally speaking white ash comes in around 35% moisture off the stump and that is a far cry from the 20% or less that is required....but it is drier than oak. Shoot, I remember working in a sawmill when we burned all the slab wood. No problem once you get the fire going. It didn't make any difference and one particular woods we worked one winter was all cottonwood. The tree gets cut today and also milled today so the slabs went into the fire the same day. It burned. But, would you try to burn fresh cut cottonwood in your stove? I hope not.
I would love oak,ash or maple to burn. . Most plentiful here is beetle kill lodge pole pine. My question is what would my optimal moisture content be for lodge pole pine.
Yea, some of the hardwood would be sweet but lodgepole is pretty good BTU rated wood . Between 12% & 20%. I would think some of it is close to that when you cut it & in your area , it should season relatively quick, 1 Summer CSS & I bet it's prime wood to burn PS : Welcome
Lots of good info above. I burned a 1/2 cord of 2 year dry white pine so far this fall, with another 1/2 cord in the barn to finish the burn season. I get good burn times - the main pain is the coaling - have to start a lot more fires since the coals don't hold for long. Stacked a little over a cord this month - people here are always posting on CL to have folks come and take pine for free - I do! Cheers!
Pine & Cherry are great.Not much pine around here except what was planted for shade a century ago,and Black Cherry is widely scattered,dont get real big compared to the various Oaks,Maples,Ashes,Hickories etc.
I burnt pine for a majority of my first year in my new place. As it turns out pine needs anywhere from 6 months to a year to season, depending on the conditions. However unseasoned pine did pretty well for me in a pinch, easy to cut and easy to find (majority of the conifer trees in my area are hemlock and pine). The issue is that the fire burns pretty hot but not for very long so you'll burn a lot of it if it's your primary source of heat, and on a side note never turn down free wood regardless of what it is they all turn into btu's no matter what the species. Another thing is that burning pine smells pretty damm good.
