I think it comes down to space and how available better wood is to you. The white pine is only marginally better than most spruce trees but I would keep it if I were you.
Ive had this with my pine on my electric splitter a few times especially when I have a knot that the wedge is forcing open. Ive had a few sore knees over the years.
Wait what....? Oh geez..... I need to pay as much attention to my posts as I do in the field. It won't get me injured or killed, but it'll sure make me look foolish. Thanks for pointing it out and it won't happen again.
Don’t worry I won’t tell. Ive read posts and commented just to see that someone already did it like a year ago.
Outdoor fire might help. If its been 3 years and at that mc% you think that might be solved with the splits being inside? Just a thought I keep a few under my stove for ease of the wood being ready to just put in the stove, they do start up well.
Heavenly words bud! If you got that much passion to hate a tree I could see why some people try to eraticate this stuff by the metric giga-ton. Carry on!
Walnut is at the very bottom rung of my admitted wood snob list-As others have said, 1) Messy 2) Medium heat at best 3) Ashes like sand and dirt...Lucky to live in hardwood heaven...I pick and choose and yes, I separate by species
I guess the reason for my hate is, from what I understand about the tree, it's allelopathic and keeps the better trees from germinating and reproducing. I don't care so much that it smells like burnt power steering fluid and makes horrible firewood, but this sob just takes over if you let it at the expense of displacing most of the better trees.
My least favorite would be walnut. It burns ok but leaves way too much ash. Two years ago I burned a lot of walnut and by the end of the year had made up my mind that I would not purposely go after any. I had a huge one that I dropped in my backyard. I got two 12’ logs out of it to mill and gave all the rest of the wood away. I’ve got plenty of firewood and did not need it. A guy that sells firewood ended up getting it so he didn’t care about what he was cutting.
I can’t believe there has not been a comment yet to wind people up..... that being said my 3 least favorite woods are: locust, oak and ash.
I’ll trade you gum, sycamore and elm for those 3! Since I split by hand and am years ahead I won’t even take those 3 anymore - unless the rounds are small enough to go in the stove without splitting. Least favorite to burn would be tulip poplar and black walnut.
Box Elder, Silver Maple, Willow and Cottonwood. For me, just not worth the effort for the results. I am fortunate to have access to plenty of higher btu content firewood.
Red maple and poplar definitely get me through the times when I have to wait for my oaks to dry. Abundant, easy to split, fast drying but low BTU. Not the best, but not the worst.
It used to be Catalpa for me but Quaking Aspen now takes the cake. I had some dry splits of it that barely burned in the outdoor pit, they just smoldered for a while until I threw plenty of better wood on top.
I do not cut or carry basswood, popple (aspen), cottonwood, or walnut. None of these are any worse than the other, just my list of wood to avoid.
Basswood is low, aspen is low, any SPF and even Hemlock species is low, but the lowest for me is probably willow. I will not mess with that again. And, I primarily use a OWB! No sir.
