I live in a forested mountain area where many burn wood for heat. The easy accessible fir, oak, and madrone disappear rather quickly. Folks around here leave the pine behind. The owner's manual for theBK states that softwoods burn only slightly faster than hardwoods in the BK. Go figure. So, I've been harvesting the pine that I too have in the past left behind. Is this wise? Or should I concentrate my efforts on gathering the fir and hardwoods that I have always hunted in the past? My experience has been hot and fast burning pine.
Just make sure your pine is under 20 percent moisture content. We live in a much much colder climate, and burn lodgepole just fine. Everybody would have froze to death thousands of years ago if burning pine was truly futile. Lots of people in the know will drop dead standing pine and only burn the wood from DBH on the first year. Just don't try to look for success burning wood over 20% moisture content.
Only people who don't know what they are doing leave pine or other softwoods behind. As Camber said if you make sure you are under 20% (goes for ALL your wood) then you are good to go. People get in trouble with pine because it burns so well when it's over 20% because of the sap. And then they get creosote build up because of it. I lust after pine and spruce. I use it for kindling and to get the fire going. I use a fireplace vs a stove but it's very similar. It's always nice to have a mix of softwood and hardwood.
I've been burning Lodgepole in my BK King for 10 seasons now. I've burned Ash, Black Walnut, and Osage also. I prefer the Lodgepole , primarily for it's low coaling. As was mentioned, keep the moisture to less than 20% and you're good to go.
Pine burns just fine. As others have already said, be sure its dry so it burns completely. I used to live in the Black Hills and Eastern Wyoming and about all we had to burn was Ponderosa Pine. Heated my houses with no problems. Get the Pine!! Sent from my SM-G930VL using Tapatalk
As everyone else has said pine is fine, we burn it all the time. BUT ONLY IF IT'S PROPERLY SEASONED. NOT MORE THAN 20% MOISTURE CONTENT.
I don't know what kind of pine you're burning in Ca., but the eastern white pine I burn here - the downside is the burn time. It can be rather short, which is an advantage at times. I'd probably leave the pine behind too if I didn't have so much of it on my lot - but I use it whenever I can. Burning quick and hot can be useful at times.
Pine is fine as long as its dry below 20% MC as stated prior. Pine can be for shoulder season (early and late during burning season) Harvest the others (if you can get there first) for the colder burning times. I personally dont burn softwoods (other than for kindling or firepit) as we have more than enough hardwoods at my disposal.
As others have stated, pine is okay. Still, hardwoods are better and you will get more heat with less effort by gathering hardwoods. It takes no more time to cut good hardwoods than it takes to cut softwoods or any questionable wood.
In fact, splitting pine and spruce when green is not easy by hand. They have built-in pieces of re-bar - since all the branches come out of the main trunk. So you can actually argue that some softwoods are more difficult to process than hardwoods. The flip side of that is that hardwoods tend to be a lot heavier but, in general, split a whole lot easier than softwoods. If the wood is easily accessible and/or already bucked and/or free then take it. If something is very difficult to get to (i.e. I have to drag it up a steep hill) then I'll just pass. Also, while softwoods have less overall btu than hardwoods, they do get a fire hotter faster. Lighting up I always use kindling (mostly softwood) and try to mix in softwood splits as well. When I bring wood into the house I always bring in a bit of softwood.
My Sirocco eats Pine just fine. Yours will work excellent digesting dry pine. It actually is one of my favorite type's of fuel. Easy lighting, plenty of heat and it burns down to almost zero coals. Your BK was designed in Pine country. No worries about the stove. As mentioned any wood you put in the stove needs to be good and dry. If it isn't you will struggle with performance and heavy deposits in the pipe. Enjoy the stove. They are really remarkable.
I agree with most everything everyone else has said here. I personally use pines, firs, spruces, basically soft woods, as a fire starter, because they burn quick and hot. Once I get a decent bed of coals then I throw in the hardwoods, maples, ashes and elms. Oaks don't grow well in my area, and the only one that does (Burr Oak) is very hard to come by. Welcome Aboard!
