# wood burning questions



## rmest (May 6, 2011)

I had a wood stove put in the house. Heating fuel was costing to much. I do not have enough wood to make it through my first winter. I work in a machine shop and we get shipments of steel every day. On these trucks there are tons of oak 4x4s. All these are used for is to make clearance for the forklift to get its forks under the load. These boards are anywhere from 4 to 12 feet long. They have a stamp on the ends that say 913 HT. I am guessing that the HT stands for heat treat. I don't. Know what the 913 stands for. I can have all I want. Would these be ok to burn in my wood stove? I can probably get enough to heat my home for a couple of years. They are free. So if safe I want to get as many as possible.


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## flewism (Apr 2, 2007)

913 is the Celsius temperature of the heat treat. Great job on the oak 4x4 I sometimes get the same.


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## rmest (May 6, 2011)

So these would be fine to burn in the house. I have two little ones at home and would hate to poison them with some nasty chemicals. These are not treated with any chemicals correct? I also get bundles of tubing that is secured by 16 peices of 18 inch 2x4s these are soft wood. Pine or fir, not sure these also have a HT stamp on them. They are already the perfect size for the stove. Would these be ok to burn as well? I heard pine will clog up the chimney. But being heat treated they should be dry enough not to do any harm. They feel dry as a bone.


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## flewism (Apr 2, 2007)

The 913HT is labeling the steel on the pallet not the wood. 913 is the standard stress relieving heat treat for specially steels. Basically telling the purchaser the movement should be minimum during processing.

I won't speak about the wood it self as I can't see it. Rough cut kiln dried hardwood 4x4's is a common way to move such steels. My gut feeling is telling me you have a great source. I'd be more concerned with any oil and grease.
Cut one in half and smell it is about the best I can do to check it out.


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## rmest (May 6, 2011)

I have done that very thing. I cut a couple up the other day. What exactly should I be smelling for. It smelled like nothing really. It is rough cut also. If that helps with anything. As far as oils it all looks pretty clean. Some of them look to be a little stained but that could just be from rubbing on the metal.


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## flewism (Apr 2, 2007)

Like wood no chemical smell


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## wannabechef (Nov 20, 2012)

Burn it...


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## rmest (May 6, 2011)

Yes like wood. Its not all oak. Some of it looks like it could be cherry. Some may be maple. That one had a sweet smell to it. But not like chemicals. Some of it is even softer and smells just like sassafras.


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## AVanarts (Jan 2, 2011)

I sure wouldn't expect them to use treated wood for an application like that. It's a "disposable" application like pallets. They are going to try and keep the cost as low as possible, so no chemical treatment.

I'd burn that wood in a heartbeat.


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## RedDirt Cowgirl (Sep 21, 2010)

Just be very careful burning the pine - it's best for starting a fire, but it can build up nearly explosive heat by itself.


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## AVanarts (Jan 2, 2011)

Pallets are another great source of heating wood. I heated for a whole winter one year with a truckload of old pallets that a local food processing company was glad to get rid of.

I used an electric chain saw to cut the "one by's" off of the "two by's" and then cut the "two by's" into about three pieces.

This left me with a lot of what were basically 1x4's a little over a foot long and some 2x4's with little pieces of 1x4 still nailed to them. The 2x4's were a bit of a pain to work with but would make a big roaring fire. I liked to stack the 1x4's tightly together on top of some coals. They would start with a slow burn that way but would end up with a fast, hot fire.

My wood stove that year was an old 55 gallon drum made into a stove with a conversion kit I got on sale for about $20. That was 1979 dollars.


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## farmrbrown (Jun 25, 2012)

You made a score, burn it.


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## Micheal (Jan 28, 2009)

Sounds like quite a find, personally I'd be getting all the "hardwood" I could; leaving the pine behind. I've found that pine burns to fast and way to hot to be used for anything other than kindling.


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## rmest (May 6, 2011)

Well I live in Michigan now, But I grew up in western Washington. All we had when I was growing up was white pine, douglas fir, western hemlock, we also had alder. The only hard wood we could get a hold of was madrona. If I remember right we never had a problem with burning the pine and such. So if I mix it with the other wood I have saved up, would that be ok, as long as I am not just burning the pine by itself. It has after all been HT as well, so it should not have much if any pitch sap or what ever in it.


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

There wouldn't be a scrap of that wood to be found on the place, each day, when my shift was over....softwood or hardwood.

That's the modern version of living off the land, right there.


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## rmest (May 6, 2011)

I have been taking everything I can get my hands on. Every piece I can get is one less piece I have to cut next spring or summer. Besides on my property there is not much good wood to cut up. It is pretty wet with two ponds most of the trees are, I am guessing here, cottonwood. They grow in the real wet ground. Heavy as hell when wet and don't way anything when dry. Easy to spit though. I have been using the wood from work for building heavy duty rabbit hutches. Then I realized I have a new woodstove why could'nt I burn this stuff. I was just a little worried about chemicals in the wood. But now I know that HT wood does not use chemicals. I didn"t know that before.


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

I'm thinking chicken houses, outhouses, smoke houses, etc. and heavy shelving for the shop, among other things, along with an abundance of scraps for the stove. :thumb:


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## rmest (May 6, 2011)

I just loaded about 25 4x4s in the back of my truck yesterday after work. I got into a bunch that were really dark wood. Hard as a rock. I mean really dark could that be black walnut? The boss does not care if I take it. He said as long as its not laying around the shop he don't care what I do with it. And I know for a fact before I started taking it home that it would just build up and eventually be thrown in the dumpster. A lot of good wood just wasted.


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## flewism (Apr 2, 2007)

Yes, save some to build with. They are not the straightest pieces and I needed to drill pilot hole to even sink a nail in some.
I grab my share a few years ago, but others at work that were burning them got upset.
My son and I built large heavy wishing wells years ago out of them and was selling them for $250 each on craiglist.
Here is an old picture that I had from my flyers and ads.
This withing well is still in my front yard covering my well head this picture is 5 plus years old.


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## rmest (May 6, 2011)

Good work. That is really nice. You are a lot more skilled than I am. You are right about driving nails through them. Bent many nails building those rabbit hutches. I finally wised up and started using screws.


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## flewism (Apr 2, 2007)

Well, skill is a bit of a stretch. I am a die maker and when the auto industry tanked a few years back, overtime cut, wages reduced I still owed a lot of people money. This was one way to generate extra income that worked out. I had accumulated the tools over the years as I'm probably a bit older. It is just an example of the possibilities.


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## lovinthislife (Aug 28, 2009)

my husband got some of those one year and he made me a patio out back of our kitchen. We loved it, it was nice and strong. Lasted 5 or 6 yrs. He also cut some of the smaller pine I think and used them for molding around my windows inside the house. It looked pretty and it was the best price...free.


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## rmest (May 6, 2011)

I really don't need anymore for building anything. I have use a bunch for rabbit hutches. Since it's free though I would use it now for burning. As long as it is safe to burn in the house. I will continue to take it. As far as I'm concerned it's beautiful and fee fire wood. It would eventually end up being thrown out anyways. Might as well use it up.


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## flewism (Apr 2, 2007)

Absolutely than burn it, easy and cheap, put your efforts else wear.


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## AtomicFarmer (Sep 16, 2012)

Years ago I worked at a sheet metal shop. At the time my parents were heating with an indoor wood furnace in their basement (baseboard hot water heat). I got the plant to deliver, WITH THEIR BIG FLATBED TRUCK, load after load of pallets and 4x4 wood spacers like you say for loading coils onto trucks. We never had a bit of trouble with any of the wood. A lot of the pallets were supersize, built from 4x4's with 2x4's (all rough cut) for the crosspieces. Man, that was good fire wood.


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## Ross (May 9, 2002)

I couldn't get in therer witha truck fast enough and I would take the Pine as well but as said it can burn extremely quickly giving off tons of heat. Keep your chimney clean!


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## Bob Huntress (Dec 17, 2012)

Several years ago a barge company gave my shop and I a dumpster fill of dunage (wood used to shore things on the barge during transport. A bunch had been compacted very tight, and will almost never rot. I built a chicken pen, a goat milking stand, some stalls in my goat barn and various other things around here. If your wood is the same grade, it will be great to start a fire, but while it will burn hot, it won't last long. It would be pretty hard to keep a fire overnight without staying up all night adding more and more. If it is the same grade as mine was it is as safe as anything else. It shouldn't have the arsinic of that old time pressure treated wood, or fumes or anything else, but it burns hot and fast and won't last long. If your old wood is the same as mine, there are way better uses for it than the wood stove.


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## haypoint (Oct 4, 2006)

A while ago, a company opened up that was supplying a window frame company. They shipped pre cut boards to order. But it had to be clear pine, no knots. They cut out the knots and finger jointed the boards. Lots of scrap, all pine knots. I dropped my big trailer and they filled it up. Mostly 4 inch wide, 1 inch thick pine knots. 4 inches long. Was kiln dfried and the kitchen stove liked it. Talk about hot!
Lots of free stuff around if you aren't too picky and know here to look. Subway will give away their 5 gal. green pails, that they get pickles.


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## ET1 SS (Oct 22, 2005)

Sweet find ! 

Burn it all, even the pine. Diss the haters


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## woodsy (Oct 13, 2008)

Pine knots, hottest part of the fire.
Been burning some pasture pine i cut last spring, like it. 
Got lots more of it to cut too now that i've culled most of the poplar. 
Oh yeah, poplar, good firewood. Get it dried good first.
Like Pine BTU wise.


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## Gianni (Dec 9, 2009)

In Montana it would be rare to burn something other than pine/fir/larch all evergreens. Get what you can and good score on it.


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## Marcintosh (Dec 30, 2012)

If you have doubts about the wood being wet, take a shorter piece (12"-18") lay it on the ground/pavement/ concrete/ rock ledge and belt it with a sledge, hard as you can. If you don't get splashed - that's good - then look at the head of the sledge- wet? No? More good news. Now shift the wood from where it's been resting, water on the concrete? No? You've got at the least, fairly dry wood.

I have lots of Ash near me, just last year I found that you can drop an Ash, cut it up and burn it the same day. I don't know of another wood you can do that with though. 

M.


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## Lilith (Dec 29, 2012)

I am curious about this wood you are getting. Where it is used for packaging and possible international shipping, Are there two letters in front of the 913 HT? If there are, you are looking at ALSC tracking information for international shipping of wooden packaging materials. The first two letters would identify the Country of the wood's origin, and the numbers would identify the plant that treated the wood. HT as you already guessed, stands for Heat Treat, if the 3 digit number was followed by "KD HT" it would be kiln dried heat treated wood. 

The good news about that would be you could then track down the manufacturer of the sticker Boards and find out for sure if they have used any glue compounds in the creation or repair of the HT Lumber. Another good thing: HT shipping lumber is dried to a maximum moisture content of 19% or less, so it could burn really well. 

As a general rule, (pls don't ask me how I know) I have observed that most wood that has been treated with chemicals burns with a different color flame than their untreated counterpart. you could do a field test, and if you come back convinced that it has chemicals, you will have saved yourself a lot of time, and if not, you can look into it further.


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