# Burning Pine for firewood?



## MisFitFarm (Dec 31, 2007)

I know that green pine is not good for firewood, doesn't it gum up the chimney or stovepipe? But what about seasoned pine? Is it any better? The reason I'm asking is that the new farm has a whole lot of pines, and so does the general area. There are several that need to be cut down due to storm damage, and there are a whole lot of them that are already down in the general area. I hate to waste anything! So I was wondering if it would be worth cutting them in to firewood lengths and putting them back for this Winter? Thanks!


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## tamsam (May 12, 2006)

We burn a lot of pine here but it is slabs from the saw mill. We have a 6in heavy wall 1/4 in thick chimney that is about 3 ft from the house and after burning the not so cured wood we build a really hot fire to burn out the chimney when it rains or we get a good coating of snow. The pine burns hot and fast and I don't know how lpng it will take to cure. Good luck with it. Sam


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## agmantoo (May 23, 2003)

Seasoned pine is an excellent firewood for a savvy user. Just burn it hot and control the amount of heat by the quantity of wood placed into the stove. Have some hardwood for overnight fire holding or bury a chunk of pine in the ashes to aid in getting the fire going in the morning.


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## Country Lady (Oct 2, 2003)

I don't know if the pines, in my neck of the woods, are different from other areas, but everyone around here says "no, no".:nono: We don't risk it.


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## Bonnie L (May 11, 2002)

We burn mostly pine because that's mostly what we've got. Works fine.


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## RiverPines (Dec 12, 2006)

As long as its cured well and your stove/pipes are kept maintained, its good but it does burn fast. I like it for the first starting fire so I have a nice coal bed to keep the hardwoods going. 
I say its a good first morning fire starter.

Uncured pine is a chimney fire asking to happen!


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## Just Little Me (Aug 9, 2007)

Like the other said, it burns really fast. I like hardwoods for the long term heat.


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## stranger (Feb 24, 2008)

everyone burnt pine and other softwoods fro m the local mills back before the sixties when most closed, soft slab wood was 5 bucks a cord, hard slab wood was 8 bucks a cord. delivered


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## goatlady (May 31, 2002)

I burned seasoned pine for 17 years in SD - that's ALL the wood available out there. never has a problem, only had to clean the stove pipes once or twice all those years as seasoned pine burns sooo hot creosote does not have a chance to form. But then, I always keep the fire bright, hot, and briskly burning. It's taken me several eyars to barely get used to burning oak since my move!


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## Macybaby (Jun 16, 2006)

We burn what ever is dead in the tree line. Don't have a lot of wood here in this area of SD, so we can't be too picky. We have a lot of redcedar, which is in the juniper family. I think this might be the stuff they use for smelly cedar - it's red inside and sure does have the cedar smell - kind of neat.

Last year we burned a lot of cured pine. We gutted and repaired a section of the house. Salvaged what we could and cut up the rest that wasn't rotted and heated the house for several months on that. Talk about fast, hot burning. Our chimney is 4 years old, round insulated pipe and not very tall, so it's very easy to clean. So we keep an eye on it all winter long, and DH can run a brush through it as needed.

It is very messy - I've got to wash the ceiling again, but we painted it so that could be done easily. Would like to switch over to a corn stove, but those are spendy.

Cathy


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## ginnie5 (Jul 15, 2003)

we got a whole load of pine last year. It had just been cut and was way to wet to do anything with. this year we'll be moving the woodstove to a better place and the stovepipe will go straight outside. I wonder if that pine will be seasoned by then? We don't do enough campfires to use this much any other way.


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## Beeman (Dec 29, 2002)

Burn it. Pine is great for kindling so split a lot of it real small for fire starting. Then split some a little larger for putting on the fire in the morning to get a little fast heat. If you have a wood cookstove a little pine now and then for quick heat works good. Cure the pine well and clean your chimney often. Pine also attracts insects, which is probably why you have downed pines. Be sure to cure it away from your other wood and away from your house. If you keep it too long the insects will turn it to dust.


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## Cheryl in SD (Apr 22, 2005)

All we burn is pine. After 11 years (& we check every year) we have never had creosote in our chimney. Dh faithfully, goes up & cleans it out, & there is never anything to clean out. Pine burns hot & creosote never forms. Everyone here burns pine and I have never heard of a chimney fire. This year we were give elm. YUCK. Everyone talked about how great it would be. I hate it. The stuff won't burn. I went through 4 cords of pine and 1/2 a cord of elm, most of it is still out there. We have another couple of loads of elm to pick up, but I just don't care, it is so hard to use. And ash? Pine doesn't leave hardly any, but that elm is awful. I have to clean out the pine ash once or twice a month, elm, was every couple of days. Bleck.


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## Scrounger (Jan 6, 2007)

Yup - burn it. I have a LOT of cedar trees that get burnt in my shop stove. I also use tons of scrap ends from lumber. Both burn great, and I have had ZERO creosote buildup problems. I burn whatever we get - excet Oak. I take Oak as a LAST resort. Even split and aged 3-4 years, the stuff just smoulders. Give me Pine, Maple, Locust, Ash, Hedge, etc, ANY day over Oak.


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## Cygnet (Sep 13, 2004)

What type of pine? If it's still standing and only recently dead you may be able to cut it for lumber. If it's getting a bit punky, you can use it for borders for garden beds, parking areas, LOW retaining walls, erosion control, etc.

Depending on the type of pine it may or may not be a good firewood. 

--Leva


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## Hoop (Jan 1, 2003)

This is not a "one size fits all" answer. The use of pine here in Wisconsin is strictly a no-no. At best, it gets used for kindling. Mainly because there is an abundance of hardwoods such as oak,maple, ironwood, cherry, bitternut, hickory, birch, etc. 

Pine in the western states seems to be of a much more dense nature, and burns much longer than the pine around here.

Every location is likely different.


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## ET1 SS (Oct 22, 2005)

We burn pine.

We also burn anything else that is dead.

We make no effort to burn 'seasoned' wood, though our stove has a secondary combustion chamber. So that may account for the total absence of creosote.

To be fair we also burn a lot of lumber, and woodchips, and cardboard, and peat.


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## AVanarts (Jan 2, 2011)

I just ran across this old thread when doing a google search on firewood. Just about all we have in the PNW is soft wood. Hardwood seems to be a "back east" or so it looks.


The cordwood sold in the area is pretty much all fir and tamarack. I just had a fair size pine tree taken down so we could add a bedroom to our off grid cabin before we move in. I plan to cut up that tree and add it to the firewood pile. I may let it season for a couple of summers to make sure the pitch is as dry as I can get it, but it will burn along with the other soft woods.


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

Creosote is formed by burning ANY wood. The key is the moisture content of the wood, and the amount of air you burn with it. You can get just as much from 'simmering' uncured hardwoods as any softwood.

That said, I burn only hardwood as it is more dense than most pine, and will hold a fire longer.

If you're buying wood, and buying it by volume ( like a cord ), then you want the densest wood you can get for the same volume.

White pine is one of the few I certainly would NOT burn if I could avoid it, as it is a very low density wood.


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

ET1 SS said:


> We make no effort to burn 'seasoned' wood, t*hough our stove has a secondary combustion chamber.* So that may account for the total absence of creosote.


That secondary burn makes a HUGE difference. You can lower the amount of air inlet to the stove and still not make much in the way of creosote. The newer stoves beat the old ones all to pieces.


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## big rockpile (Feb 24, 2003)

In Colorado we burned Pine, Aspen, mixed Coal in it.

big rockpile


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## Silvercreek Farmer (Oct 13, 2005)

I burn tons of pine, both white and yellow, because that is what we have on the property. All is well seasoned and stored under cover. The white pine is about like balsa wood and burns fast, fine for taking the chill off in the early and late spring as well bring the house up to temp in the evening during colder weather, takes a bunch of it though. The yellow pine is better than some of the local hardwoods, such as yellow poplar, and can be damped down for a nights worth of heat when the temps are above freezing. Both leave a noticeably darker soot in the stove than hardwoods and will make greasy black mark on your skin in you bump the side building the next fire. I clean 2-3 times a winter with no issues.


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## woodsy (Oct 13, 2008)

Burn it
Pound for pound dry firewood is dry firewood whether it be Oak
or Pine. Sure Oak burns longer but it is twice as dense.
I think there is about a cord of pine here drying in next winters mix of firewood.
Good shoulder season wood like poplar is.


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## unregistered41671 (Dec 29, 2009)

I have burned a fair amount of Southern White Pine with no problems. I prefer hard wood but have lost some pines and hated to see them rot so we just burn them in our heater.


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## Jolly (Jan 8, 2004)

Down here it's yellow pine.

I've used dry for kindling, but never for my main wood.

I've been through one chimney fire. Don't care to do that again.


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## Gray Wolf (Jan 25, 2013)

We burn only pine, because that's what grows on our property. Never had a problem but we never damp down the woodstoves and let them roar.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

agmantoo said:


> Seasoned pine is an excellent firewood for a savvy user. Just burn it hot and control the amount of heat by the quantity of wood placed into the stove. Have some hardwood for overnight fire holding or bury a chunk of pine in the ashes to aid in getting the fire going in the morning.


Agmantoo beat me to it get it dry seasoned , burn it hot and control it by how much you add 

if burnt small but hot it will work very well

by small i mean add 2-3 pieces don't fill the fire box , it will burn fast and you control that by how much you add at any one time 

when i say pieces i think of each piece as approximately the same volume as a 16 inch long 4x4 , if you have larger pieces add fewwer and add them to a good bed of coals 

the problem with green pine is really the same as any green wood the water vapor will carry unburnt gasses into the chimney that will condense on a cold flue and build up , pine being soft will burns easier green than hard woods that you need a lot more heat to get and keep going so flue temps will be lower allowing it to condense easier 

the big issue is it burn a bit like solid rocket fuel the second time around 

after building a 3 sided shed to store my wood in a few years ago , I can tell you it was very wise money spend , wood stored under a roof gets so much drier than any i had stored under a tarp and burns that much easier and safer and i don't have to knock a foot of snow off before i can get to my wood


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## fullmetal (Nov 2, 2013)

from everything ive heard it is just fine as long as you burn it hot and fast. i talked to a guy who has a high mass masonry stove (which always burns verry hot and fast) and he collects discarded Christmas trees in town every year, chops them up and stores them. then he can keep his house warm all winter using last years trees. just dont let them smolder.


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## crwilson (Feb 9, 2005)

My wife and I went to a nice resort with chalet style cottages along a large river on our second anniversary, the cottages were not insulated and it dropped down to about 3 degrees that night "June 21" The only firewood provided was wet pine, and my wife started feeling really sick from the cold as I sat in a chair all night long feeding the fire about every 10 minutes. went through the entire contents off the wood box that night my chair was probably about 2 feet from the fire and I was cold. At one point I put my hand on the stove and held it there for about 5 seconds without it even coming close to burning. 

I cannot possibly try to imagine heating a home with pine unless you don't enjoy warmth or sleep.


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## Gray Wolf (Jan 25, 2013)

We keep our 3,500 sq ft home around 75 (our ideal temp) all winter long with pine. We burn only dry pine in the wood stoves that we don't ever damp down. It got down to -6 last winter but usually is in the teens for a couple of months.

Wet wood of any sort won't put out much heat.


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## ronbre (Apr 26, 2009)

i would suggest mixing the pine with other woods in your stove..also if it is an open fireplace make sure you have a screen and a fireproof rug to protect floors from sparks


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## Travis in Louisiana (May 14, 2002)

I live in Louisiana, and the pine we have is VERY sappy. The pine at my cabin in Montana is low in sap. People tell me in Montana they burn the pine. In Louisiana, it is a NO-NO!!
In 1982, six weeks after my youngest daughter was born, a chunk of my LIGHTER pine got accidently put in our wood stove. When the fire alarm went off, I took the baby to my neighbors in a run, call the fire department. The stove was not that air tight. Smoke was rolling out of the stove. The chimney pipe in the house was ORANGE! I could see through it. I grabbed my wash tub, put on leather gloves and opened the stove, reached in and took out the lighter pine, put it in the wash tub and out the door I went with it. This all happened in a matter of minutes. I then shot water from the hose at the chimney from outside. By the time the fire department got there, it was already cooling off. So I use NO PINE, only hardwoods in the south. I keep my lighter pine, if I use any, very well marked!!


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## patty12 (Jan 25, 2011)

you might burn your house. mama got a fire going with pine once. she had to open the door and pour water in. the walls were to hot to touch.


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## FarmboyBill (Aug 19, 2005)

When I FIRST got married, my granddad gave me a old post pile made outa bo dark. I cut it on the buzz saw and saw sparks. One night I went down to the barn to milk and do chores. When I came up the wife, a city gal had loaded the stove with bodark. I had locust there also and cant remember why she picked it. maybe she made a mix. Anyway, it was a sheet iron stove, otherwise known as tin to noobs. It was red or orange, ive forgotten, that was in 68. The sides bowed out. All the water we had came from a cistern with one of those wind around gem pumps. We stayed up 1/2 the night watching it. 
Didn't touch it with water for fear the sudden change in temp would split it.


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## MichaelZ (May 21, 2013)

Cut it, split it, and dry it out, like any other wood. It burns hot and fast. I like it for a quick fire in spring or fall when it is not too cold out. It is great for starting up a new fire (if it is dry). The downside is that for me a pine fire will never make it through the night. I was burning a lot of pine and fir from dead standing trees and an old broken down fence this spring after we ran out of firewood - it served the purpose well. Will even start up one last fire tomorrow as it is in the 30's here day and night lately. For the subzero temps of January, I need something with some more mass like oak or birch however. For Kentucky, pine might work out just fine.


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## MichaelZ (May 21, 2013)

ginnie5 said:


> we got a whole load of pine last year. It had just been cut and was way to wet to do anything with. this year we'll be moving the woodstove to a better place and the stovepipe will go straight outside. I wonder if that pine will be seasoned by then? We don't do enough campfires to use this much any other way.


If it was split, it is ready now. Otherwise, split it all as soon as possible and it will be ready by next winter. I like to have my wood cut, split, and stacked out of the weather about 10-12 months prior to burning.


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## MichaelZ (May 21, 2013)

Travis in Louisiana said:


> I live in Louisiana, and the pine we have is VERY sappy. The pine at my cabin in Montana is low in sap. People tell me in Montana they burn the pine. In Louisiana, it is a NO-NO!!
> In 1982, six weeks after my youngest daughter was born, a chunk of my LIGHTER pine got accidently put in our wood stove. When the fire alarm went off, I took the baby to my neighbors in a run, call the fire department. The stove was not that air tight. Smoke was rolling out of the stove. The chimney pipe in the house was ORANGE! I could see through it. I grabbed my wash tub, put on leather gloves and opened the stove, reached in and took out the lighter pine, put it in the wash tub and out the door I went with it. This all happened in a matter of minutes. I then shot water from the hose at the chimney from outside. By the time the fire department got there, it was already cooling off. So I use NO PINE, only hardwoods in the south. I keep my lighter pine, if I use any, very well marked!!


You make a good point. If the stove is not one where you can restrict air intake a lot, a pine fire might get too hot. Sounds like your chimney may have had creosote build up too if smoke was coming out the stove as opposed to up out the chimney.


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## ||Downhome|| (Jan 12, 2009)

Macybaby said:


> We burn what ever is dead in the tree line. Don't have a lot of wood here in this area of SD, so we can't be too picky. We have a lot of redcedar, which is in the juniper family. I think this might be the stuff they use for smelly cedar - it's red inside and sure does have the cedar smell - kind of neat.
> 
> Last year we burned a lot of cured pine. We gutted and repaired a section of the house. Salvaged what we could and cut up the rest that wasn't rotted and heated the house for several months on that. Talk about fast, hot burning. Our chimney is 4 years old, round insulated pipe and not very tall, so it's very easy to clean. So we keep an eye on it all winter long, and DH can run a brush through it as needed.
> 
> ...


Are you cleaning from the bottom? 

You lost me at the messy part???


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## Jolly (Jan 8, 2004)

Are y'all familiar with what we call "fatwood" or "lighter pine"?

Some of that stuff has so much resin in it, it will clear your sinuses just to sniff the wood.


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## MichaelZ (May 21, 2013)

Actually, what we often call "pine" up here is white spruce. It has some sap, but not excessive amounts. 

I would concede that excessive amounts of sap might get the stove going a lot hotter than you would like. Sounds like some of that wood down south (fatwood) is in that category.


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## JoePa (Mar 14, 2013)

I burn all kinds of wood - don't let any go to waste - I burn fir, spruce, and pine along with all kinds of hard wood and semi-hard woods - just make sure it is dry - I have a new wood stove that uses very little air - as many have said - some places all they burn is the soft pine woods - I usually mix the woods when I put wood in the stove - 

No matter what kind of stove or fireplace you use to burn wood - you need a means of controling the air intake - that determines the way the wood will burn -


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## Hoopjohn (Mar 8, 2013)

In this area, where maple, oak, ash, ironwood are abundant, and lesser hardwoods such as birch are plentiful, pine is used for campfire wood, if at all. It burns too quick for the all too common subzero winter temperatures.

Basically, one invests the same amount of time cutting/splitting/stacking any species of wood. The payoff for hardwoods is many times higher.

Geographically, what works here isn't necessarily the answer throughout the land. Hardwoods are not plentiful in many areas, and people made do with what's available. I also think some species of western pine are more dense, and likely burn longer than the pines in this area.


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## brownegg (Jan 5, 2006)

I agree that's it's fine to burn pine, if you mix it with hardwood. If stored outside it should be covered....it will cure and burn much better.

brownegg


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