Started a fire with some spruce and am really happy with the results. It caught quickly and burned hot and clean, establishing a nice draft. I am really happy because I have hundreds of what I believe are large Norway spruce on my property so I look forward to burning a lot more spruce in the future. Just wanted to share my results because I asked some questions about it in another thread.
Good stuff (if you can split it) Many who pass over it don’t know what they’re missing. I have a few sticks of it myself.
Honestly it wasn’t that bad splitting if I remember correctly. I’m sure when I cut some more this winter they will be hell to split lol.
I'll take Spruce over the Austrian Pine I've got around here any day. I like it also, good shoulder wood.
Only people who are uninformed or misinformed think soft woods cannot be used indoors. Get your wood dry below 20% and you shall see the light. Glad you are enjoying the spruce. I had a helluva time splitting this spruce that was just cut down so green as can be. This was Mar-2020, a few days after getting my truck. I thought I hit the jackpot (I sort of did). I think it was something like 10 truckloads full of massive rounds. The tree service that cut these rounds didn't care about firewood. They were all super long and massive dbh. I had to split them in order to be able to lift them into the truck. That little electric HarborFreight 5-ton splitter did well for a while there....until I ran into pin oak and black birch. Then I broke down and got the 34-ton champion. I love spruce and pine and will get as much as I can. Take the shorties and make kindling out of it. I use the splitter or the maul to make thin wedges (easier on the splitter) and then whack away with the hatchet.
Spruce is nice I burnt about a cord of it last winter, still have a handfull of random pieces around. It sure does like to shoot embers though.
I intentionally seek out some spruce every year and put it in a separate pile. I use it to get the woodstove going in the winter when I need to get it going hot and fast.
I'm about out of spruce now. I usually don't have any as we have only a few here but we cut some for a neighbor several years ago. It is okay for quick fires as is some pine but I'll still go for hardwood.
I don’t usually burn any evergreen but a couple years ago i had one taken down (on my neighbor's ground) that was leaning towards my garage. He let's me cut firewood on his property but i didn't want to let this one go to waste since i took it down. Mostly was used for campfire wood, but it burned fine and made plenty of heat. Burning aspen (popple) also this year.
I cut some dead and down yesterday. One of them was an aspen that had busted off at about 12' high and just got hung up and never fell to the ground. I plan on having a snowshoe trail but it goes underneath that widow maker. I finally got it cut and dropped (carefully) and cleared away. This is where you notice that I did not grab any for firewood, no sir!
I don't go out of my way to get softwoods (too much dead and down hardwoods around here when scrounging). However, when I have spruce, hemlock, or white pine dead or dying on my property, I have no issues processing them for firewood. Softwoods I usually let season for around two years (unless obviously standing dead timber and then I still season for at least one year). As others have said, great for getting the wood stove going and for shoulder season.
