Spent 5yrs living in central British Columbia. It would get as cold as -40 degrees in winter. We lived in a 100yr old plus log cabin, which was heated with 2 old cast iron wood stoves. All we burned was Douglas fir, lodgepole pine, larch… and if lucky a few sticks of white birch. We never froze. Back home in Nova Scotia now, and back to burning sugar maple, yellow birch and beech. If I’m unlucky I will have a few sticks of white birch in the pile. Ya burn what ya got. Just make sure it’s dry and seasoned.
To quote him, he said: "I think it's safe to say that the Canadians know what they're talking about..." The phrase 'It's safe to say' does in fact mean that something is a rock-solid understatement beyond question. So... Yeah. 🙄
In Estonia we have birch, alder, spruce and pine. All are good wood to burn. 2 years ago i heated my house entire winter with spruce. But here we even dont have that kind of question can i burn pine or not, everybody knows here firewood must be dry. With wet wood you ruin your masonry oven and chimney fast and soon you don't have house to live.
I live in Canada in a region that only really has pine and poplar, and know people that heat there homes all winter on it and have no problems at all . we have been doing that for hundreds of years and with modern stoves you get better burn times that is for sure, I agree oak is great long lasting wood, but no oak trees around here way to cold for them to grow, I also have to say that fire wood pile is the neatest straightest pile i have ever seen. nice job.
I grew up burning Jack Pine firewood and it worked fine. I grew up in northern Saskatchewan and we got our firewood from areas that had been killed in a forest fire and the trunk was still standing so it seasoned very well and we could burn it the same winter we cut it. Winters are very cold here and we sometimes had to put more wood on the fire one or two times a knight because it is true that pine does burn faster than hardwoods. But the pine was readily available and easy to access.
Nothing wrong with pine woods for your wood stove. It just needs to be dried and seasoned properly. And like any wood chimney, you need to clean your chimney every year at least.
Spot on with the oak analysis. Located in north west lower peninsula Michigan. I have a abundance of Red,White and black oak. I also use the face and lip method. Red oak split 3 years, black and white 2 years. All standing dead when I fall trees. Great video. Gave it a watch as I'm in the mood too fire up the Hearthstone! Cheers too a safe and enjoyable burning season!
Thanks for this. In the olden days the farmers would not burn elm wood because it did leave dangerous creosote buildups in open fireplace and non-airtight cook stove chimneys.
Great overview. Thx for sharing. The key is cleaning your flue - especially if you burn soft woods. Cleaning once a year is a must if burning soft woods.
Here in Australia,use to love having wood heater with Australian Buloke and Red-gum,hard as nails and will burn all night. I use to fall asleep watching the fire🥲
Excellent information in this video and very accurate... One thing... for burning pine burn it hot with the air wide open all the time. Too many people "choke down" the fire in a wood stove too quickly creating smoke and creosote, mostly when going to bed. This will really show up and be a problem with the pine. Keep the air fully open (for your stove settings) and the flames high. Here in PA it is mostly oak. Seasoning hardwood for only 10 months vs. 2 years... there is a big difference... 6 to 10 months is NOT enough time for oak and hickory hardwoods unless the pieces are split very small and skinny. Also, does air move through the wood pile? Many people keep their wood in some sort of shed or 1/2 shed with 3 walls only open on one side. If this is the case drill holes all over the shed so AIR FLOWS at all times. Air flow can "knock off months."
My grandfather was a cook in lumber camps back in his day here in New Brunswick, Canada. They used wood burning cook stoves and he had his wood piled by various species because he knew how hot each one would burn. He would grab the type of wood he required for what he was cooking. I on the other hand just turn the control knob...lol.
My Uncle was a Brick & Stone contractor so was my Dad. My uncle had a huge flag stone fire place, he loaded it up with Pinion pine and it split the fireplace down the middle it got so hot. Pinion is full of pitch and burns super hot. My Dad burned it in hi fire place and wood use 1 pinion and 2 or 3 chunks of cotton wood and no problems. Regular pine works just fine.
Whenever I've done the test of banging two pieces of wood together, I've always used two pieces from the same stack. ie-banging a known wet one with a know dry one--you are hearing both the hollow and the dull sounds at the same time. Grab two pieces that were stacked/split at the same time and you will only hear dull or hollow.
There's still a level of knowledge and skill required (gained only by experience) that enables any type of fire-wood to be efficient and optimal. Fire craft, is essentially a science but when it becomes your passion and life-way (in winter) there becomes a Magical connection with the creative spirit of one's soul and the elemental spirit of the fire. A skilled fire crafter, controls how warm or cool a fire burns. Just positioning the burning logs half an inch closer or further apart (ventilation ) can determine the difference of a smouldering burn or a hot furnace heat burn. I LOVE my winter fire (only heat source of my outdoor life-way) it's my BEST friend. Thanks for sharing your wholesome knowledge, you're a Great human : )
Good morning from south central BC, semi-old guy who has heated with wood for nearly 40 years. Locally we've tried to use either Western larch or Doug fir for colder months, but have had great success with Lodgepole pine in the shoulder seasons. We have Ponderosa pine on the property, but even when it's seasoned for a couple years, it yields more creosote and less heat than the Lodgepole pine. As well, slower growing Lodgepole, say from the north side of the mountain with less moisture will be noticeably heavier/denser than if cut from a moose swamp. All that to say, pine isn't necessarily pine. We do like to season all the firewood for a minimum of 18months and we live at the tip of the only desert in Canada. Hope that made sense and was useful.
Im north of Kamloops. I go for Fir. I think we all do in BC, Birch is nice but the bark can get out of control in the stove if someone doesnt know what they are doing and cause a chimeny fire. Cheers
Come visit Manitoba’s desert, Spirit Sands Desert. Yep real desert with sand dunes, cactus and rattlesnakes. 😊 It’s located near Carberry, Manitoba (south western Manitoba)
New to wood burning here, and I have an outside heat monster to run. I buy/burn mainly maple because this is what grow around, with some ash because they are ill and die, and some birch. I also sometime go and get free donated wood. People cut an old dead tree or whaterver other reasons. There, can come pine and cedar from too old hedges. Cedar is very light and is perfect to light a fire. Pine usually come unsplintered, so I burn it as is, logs often 18 to 24 inches in diameter. What is fun and usufull about burning those, is that when you come in the morning, you are sure to find some braise, tisons.
Here in Western Washington, the hardwoods are alder and maple, of whuich theere is an enormous amount, btu most of the firewood is fir - which is just as pitchy as pine. Pine is the most common firewood on the eastern side of the Cascades. Along with seasoning your firewood, there is the height of the chimney to consider, and the temperature of the outside air. A rambler with a one story flue is much easier to manage creosote than a tall chimney that convects cold air when not burning. A hot fire will keep buildup to a minium, requiring no maintenance. I never cleaned my one story flue for 20 years.
35 yrs burning wood in Northern Ontario. I have no problems burning spruce/ pine. As long as it is dried properly, absoloutley will not burn balsam in a stove and Ironwood can be burned in very small quantities. Because of the nature of Ironwood I no longer harvest it but will mix it into a pile of maple or oak should the tree die naturally. Also when im splitting firewood i cut smaller pieces in the beginning, because im burning that in the spring and I may let the fire go out more often, in the middle of the pile i have larger pieces with mostly hardwoods, with the stove runnung constantly this gets me through peak winter. Finally i split smaller stuff again with a mix of hardwood / softwood for fall buurning. Note poplar/ cottonwoods are good to burn, i let it dry at least 3 yrs and remove as much bark as possible otherwise it is stinky.
Keeping your flue temperature up is also very important. Moisture in the wood causes steam and reduces the temperature of the smoke and creosote condenses on the walls of the chimney. It will ignite and either burn your house down or scare you half to death if it really gets going. I keep a ladder up all winter and had to toss a few handfuls of snow down to settle things down more than once until I got the temperature right.
I live in lower Ontario Canada. I burn whatever tree dies or falls down. My split is roughly 60% softwood and 40% hard. I dry it for about a year. Never had any problems with softwood. It does not last as long, so you'll need more if you only have softwood. Other than that, there is no negative. My fireplace insert is also from Canada, British Columbia in my case. Mine is a Pacific Energy Summit Insert LE (large model). It holds the extra big 20" logs which is great for going all night long. It's WAY bigger than what was recommended, but I don't like waking up in the middle of the night to put logs on, so I bought the biggest possible insert that would fit in my fireplace. It's a really good insert. I love it.
Foresty research have shown no matter is it soft or hard aka loose or dense wood.. ..all you need is burn example 10lbs of any seasoned wood and only difference is how many splits you need to cover that particular weight, more if soft and less if hard etc. etc.
Most people here in the Northeast US won’t burn pine because we’re lucky to have a bunch of good hardwoods. I personally like a little bit of pine for the shoulder season. Usually that’s about late October to early November; and then late March to early April. That’s when we’re starting a fire at night and burning a small fire in the morning to keep the chill off, but letting it burn out by lunchtime because it’s usually warmed up quite a bit. Seasoned pine is great for this time of year.
Agreed. Unfortunately, here on Cape Cod, the only pine to be found is scrub pine, and believe me, that crap will creosote up your chimney in a heartbeat! Absolutely full of pitch.
@@johngolini332 That’s interesting. You think even if you season it? It’s funny I was on vacation down at the Jersey shore this summer and was looking at some of the scrub pine and wondering if anyone burned it for firewood.
I have a cabin in northern Washington County NY on the VT border. There are winter times when we arrive and it's 20 F outside and 35 inside. I always keep DRIED pine to get the fire going and feed it for 1/2 to an hour. It gives off its energy very fast and heats the cabin MUCH faster than oak, maple, cherry etc. I used to start it and feed it with the hardwoods but they take forever to give off their heat. Of course once a coal bed is established and the pine has warmed the cabin I start feeding hardwood. Try it! You'll see what I mean.
Great video. That’s a beautiful stack of firewood and a beautiful fireplace. Two things that I do a little bit differently: 1) I will split a piece of firewood and put it up to my cheek. Similar to what you do, but I’m not so kissy with my firewood 😂 2) when banging pieces together, I try to bang two pieces from the same log to give me a good idea of the sound. Wet splits will have a thud, dryer wood will have more of a crack.
Yes, I occasionally burn pine hemlock in my masonry heater. It burns faster than hardwood, but burns clean and hot as long as properly seasoned. Not a problem and, as stated here, it makes great kindling wood.
Growing up in Northern Ontario (a long time ago) the old timers referred to pine and cedar as walking wood… it kept you walking to feed the stove. However a cord of wood will have between 18 & 24 million BTU with most normal species. Orange and high oil woods will be higher, but in North Ontario that is not something you need to worry about. Keep your chimney clean and split your wood a year in advance.
We used wood heating and cooking with a little water tank on the side for hot water in the 1950s year round Cedar and pine other than starting the fire were referred to gofer wood put a few sticks in and goner some more !
As a country fireman of 30 years, in all of our chimney fires the homeowner was burning pine. Can you burn pine safely? Be sure it is in the right equipment and keep it clean.
And the reason they had chimney fires is they need to clean there chimney more often nothing to do with pine. Now as a matter of fact I have heated with a wood stove for 45 years thats all I use for heat. I once lived in an all hard wood area and that is all I burned, I lived there for 20 years and I faithfully cleaned my chimney every month period. The type of creasot that comes from burning that type of wood is black and shiny almost like thin sheets of coal, it is also very dangours as even at cleaning my chimney out once a month I had one chimney fire. Now I have lived at my present location for the past 25 years and all we have is pine populare and spruce I still clean my chimney once a month faithfully the creasot that builds in my chimney is a black dull powder and it is no where and I mean no where as combustable as the black shiny stuff so I call bull shit to the pine theory . The people that had the chimney fires need to clean there chimney out once a month not once a year because that is bull shit. I also was a member of the fire department.
@@dog_guy-c8x The fact that you find black shiny stuff in the liner after just one month proves the point of not burning resinous woods! I am sure you can get away with burning 5 year seasoned Pine if you really have to, but if hardwood is available that is the one to use, I have just cleaned my chimney after burning 40 Cu Mtrs of hardwood and got hardly any soot, and that was dry black dust that could be vacuumed up easily. Chris B.
@@453421abcdefg12345 Learn to read I did not get black shiney stuff from burning pine I got that from burning maple I get a fine black powder from burning pine. You miss read what I said. And if you get away with burning the way you do all the power to you but I for one dont beleve you at all as I have used a wood stove for over 50 years and have always cleaned my chiminey once a month and even doing that I have esperinced a chiminey fire on one occation I sugest that you have just been lucky.
Pine creates alot of creosote when burning... Hardwoods do not create near as much... best bet is clean more frequently if burning pine, or mix with hardwood while burning
@@dodgeme1986truck Pine and spruce is all I have to burn there is no hardwood around where I live. now in reaguards to your statement that is simply not ture. I have always cleaned my chimney monthly as I have heated my homes for over 50 years on wood. For 20 years all I ever burned was hard maple and beach, I always split and piled and put my wood in a proper vented wood shed a year in addvance of using it, so wood was dry. I owned land at that time in a hard wood bush. The creosote that built up in my chimney was a black shiny matterial, this I found out was quite dangours as even though I cleaned my chimney out once a month I had one chimney fire. Now I have moved to an area that just has pine and spruce, 25 years here I split and pile my wood exatcly the same way as I stated above . I clean my chimney once a month still, the creosote that builds up in my chimney now is really not a creosote that I would call it that , it is more of a powdered soot , not near as flamable as the shiney stuff that I had from burning hardwood. So to me other then pine not lasting as long as hard wood that is the only disadvantage of pine. And even saying that I use a moderon cook stove and the difference in stoking time is 5 hours for pine verses 7 hours for hard maple. So in rounding up this novel I call bull shit to pine creating more creosote.
Burned a lot of pitch pine last winter. Had dead trees that I had taken down. They were well seasoned already. This was the first time I burned a large amount of pine. But due to some health issues I had, it's what was available. I did mix it in with the rest of the wood.
Fun fact The hardest softwood (yew)is much harder than the softest hardwood(balsa) so you can’t make a blanket statement that hardwoods are always harder. Hardwood = deciduous trees Softwood = evergreen trees
It's even more complicated than that, because balsa is an evergreen in wetter climates. Tropical hardwoods are generally evergreen. Apparently softwood just means evergreens that are coniferous or otherwise can exist in colder climates, and hardwoods are everything else. It's weird to me that hardwoods are defined like that regardless of how hard they actually are, but that's the world we live in.
The stove design is very important also. One that you can shut of the lower intake and feed the upper gasses with hit air burns off creosote and is much more efficient.
Terrific job on your video!! You have a knack for keeping the topic interesting!! I used to work for a hardware company that sold wood pellets for pellet stoves. We had 2 types.... hardwood and softwood...and we found that softwood dud indeed give off more heat....so a bag would last longer!!
Good points about using a combination of wood types, to manipulate your fire better but more importantly ease the rate of deforestation. Here in Australia if you buy firewood it will all be Eucalyptus, even though we have pine plantations. The wood burns very well, but trees take 60+ years to mature, even longer to form hollows, which many of our native wildlife depend on for habitat.
I've heated my home in Alberta for decades with mostly Lodgepole Pine. Really the only economically viable option for Alberta as we don't have access to all the fancy hardwoods. I have burned Tamarack but it's really not worth the extra money.
Your experience is the same as mine. I burn jack pine for starting fires and in spring and fall to give a little boost of heat in a cool spell. Mixing woods some can help oak burn better.
Mix of maple and cherry is our primary. Sometimes we burn birch, Tamarack and balsam now and then to warm up the place. No oak in our area of Ontario Canada.
In Northern California I burned almond when I could get it. Burns very clean, very low ash and does not soot the chimney. One season resulted in just 2 cups of white ash whereas with pines & fir I might clean a half bucket of soot at seasons end.
We had a giant ponderosa pine taken down that was threatening our cabin. I processed it and have been burning it for three years, both at home and at our cabin with no problems. We just had the chimney cleaned, and all we had was a bit heavier ash build up. The ash was very dry. No creosote at all.
I've burnt 90% pine wood shop scraps for the whole season last year, and the chimney barely had any creosote . Had un seasoned hard wood and it reduced an 8" pipe to 4" in our wood furnace in ½ a season and dripped creosote from the sweep out (was very dangerous )
As a kid my dad had a deal with the local sawmill, a truck load of slab wood, mostly softwood for a few bucks. Between that and all the dead elms we cut off our property we could fill our woodshed for cheap. Which held about 20 cord
Hi, I am in Quebec and my land is mostly white pine. I let it season for 2 years and also skin it when I split it. You have to be very, very careful not to have resin ! This could set your stove on fire ! so inspect each piece, don't load too much and keep a bucket full of sand and a little shovel near your stove, to kill the fire if its out of control (and an extinguisher near)
Lots of good information presented well. A little research will show all dry wood (soft, hard and in between) produces about the same btu/lb or. Cal/kg. In the early ‘80s everyone was burning wood after the oil embargo in the late ‘70s. Controversy raged over which species became the best firewood. Magazine letters to the editor (how people argued publicly back then) bulged with opinion and vitriol. To my mind it was all settled when a fellow wrote that the best firewood came from the tree closest to the woodpile.
I am 70 years old burned wood every year 5 cords +all is pine and all is well and I prefer bug killed and like it as soon as it is dropped. Pile it for a year and it is too dry I get it in Oct or Nov and burn it right off the trailer I clean the chimney when it tells me it is dirty usually 3 times a year.
A lot has to do with the stove. I had a soapstone on the farm and once it was up to temp i could feed it pine.The stove and chimney would be 400 degrees and the only place i got creosote was on the cap so no risk of fire I'm in the jersey Pinelands and have plenty..
I had 20 pines cut down last year, planning to burn them this year. Will start the fires with alder then throw in pine. Low moisture no matter the wood is key. But also, a hot roaring fire in a high efficiency stove produces little creosote. Much of the resin and smoke is combusted and gets converted to heat
Living in Alaska we only have softwoods, and after coming from the Northeast (New York) I have to say it sucks. Burns hot, burns fast and goes out, leaving you with a cold house. If I am only heating with softwoods I have to wake up several times a night to restock the stove, which interrupts my sleep cycle. If you have a masonry heater or a cob bench stove like a rocket stove, no more problem. If you are using a regular wood stove from Home Depot or an Ashley like we had, it is not going to be fun.
Interesting video thank you. I was in Ontario burning only cherry , oak and maple. Laughing at the bc guys burning evergreen. Now I burn evergreen. I do clean the chimney monthly. I have seen a chimney fire I just want to be safe. Like a lot of comments I use small amounts of pine often in the fall and keep the harder wood for colder weather for it lasts longer and has better coals getting longer through the night
I burn pine all the time in my stove.. u r 100% correct sir moisture is key in fire wood. Almost All wood burns the same if u get the same moisture content
Hardwood leaves embers. I've restarted fires after 24 hours with hardwood. Softwoods only leave ash. No can do with them. Around here Elm, Ironwood, and Larch burn hottest. Poplar and Birch are hardwoods, but on the soft side and rot crazy fast.
I’ve burned larch and Scott’s pine in 3 houses for decades with no problem at all . Brush chimneys once (occasionally twice) per year . Very little creosote. House lovely and warm . Firewood seasons quickly and is easy to cut , split and stack .
Beetle-kill pine (standing dead-wood) (we have tons available in Colorado) burns terribly without hotter coals to keep the firebox temperature up. It acts like it’s still wet and has terrible heat conductivity from outside to core. It makes a terrific charcoal bed, but it needs extra heat to get it there.
It absolutely depends on the species of pine you’re looking to burn, most people call all conifers pines nothing could be further from the truth. I feel most pines and spruces are adequate however I would stay away from eastern white pine as well as a few hardwoods like popular and willow.
Canadian here . Been burning wood on and off for heat for years. Absolutely you can burn pine , it’s actually very clean. Your more likely to have buildup in your stove from Birch bark. That’s the killer . We typically burn pine,birch, and maple . I use the pine for early fall and late spring, birch for the average days of winter, and when it goes real cold I’ll burn maple . Either way burn dry wood :)
If I were a wood stove manufacturer in Canada of course I would recommend Pine as a fuel ! I would not sell many stoves if I recommend only hardwoods, the key factor here is that any wood should be at the correct moisture content, I use 15 % as a guide, and after burning 40 Cu Mtrs of mixed hardwood over 2 years I got very little dry soot dust from a sweep yesterday, and none of the shiny flakes you get from burning Pine, if the wood has a resin content, then that has to go somewhere, after all Amber has been around for thousands of years, the overlooked part is the height of the chimney, a tall uninsulated chimney is a condensing tube, and will quickly build up moisture in a cold environment. As for manufacturers recommendations I read recently in a brochure, that the wood stove should not be used if it was cold or misty outside? Well, I wonder what the stove purchaser would use his wood stove for? Chris B.
I have a similar fireplace in my cabin. The chimney is fully insulated, and it draws air from outside. I typically burn pine and poplar, and Manitoba Maple, which is pretty soft too. In 10 years, I don’t think I have had even 2 cups of creosote total in the chimney. Dry wood, and a insulated chimney keeps the smoke hot, and your chimney clean. If you have an older stove with an un-insulated chimney, then pine can cause problems, like all wood. My neighbour has a bucketful of creosote every year.
No chance I would use it other than to start the fire I use maple beech and birch. If you don't mind cleaning your stove every second day use pine or spruce no thanks. Nobody uses it here in nova Scotia. I'm sure it puts out heat but again have fun cleaning your stove a lot. I have been burning for just about 30 years and it's worth the work for peace of mind, as far as cleaning the chimney I might have done it twice. I have no issues with building up because I'm three years ahead with my fire wood. Great video and info thanks.
Every wood burns different even when seasoned correctly. I used to burn the soft woods like willow and poplar early and late in season and hard woods toward middle. Didn't have much pine available but when i did would early in season at nights. Stoped burning wood after 15 years and went to pellets cause could not be available to tend fire. 7:20
It is really about the moisture of tne wood and how hot you run your stove and how insulated your flute is. I burn ponderosa pine pretty much 90% of the time. Western juniper the other time. Ponderosa pine is the most abundant and cheapest firewodd in eastern oregon.chimney. Our chimney is 22 feet high, but i have ss linner, and only 1 foot of pipe is exposed to the air. We have a cap but no screen. They plug up. We run the stove hot because that is the way the wife likes it. At night, I stuff the stove full of pine and turn the damper down to about 1/4 open. 7 hours later, the house is still warm, and there are hot coals to start another fire. The exterior of the brick chimney is warm to the touch all, winter. Even when it is -10f. We have a blaze king, princess insert.
In New Zealand pine is the most common type of firewood.....as long as its dry it burns fine with no creosote problems...if its wet/green etc it will smoke out the neighborhood and clog the chimney with creosote and its problems with chimney fires
Great video. Pine has been given a bad rap for who knows why. Moisture content for any wood not just pine is very important. Any wet wood is bad for your chimney and will cause creosote build up. Hardwoods do take longer to dry, compared to soft woods as well. I try to stack my wood by species so I can ensure each type of wood has had enough time to dry and use a moisture meter.
I used a lot of bug kill pine for near 10 years and had a well built house in north British Columbia,I cleaned the chimney once a week,it’s best to be safe
I live in a mixed forest in Ontario and I burn probbably 75% softwood and poplar. Anything that is laying around really. For spring and fall I avoid hardwooods, they burn too long. I just want to take the chill out of the air and cook on my cookstove. When they are dry, and dry is key, dried for a year or standing dead and dry, they are excellent. I save the hardwoods for winter when feeding the fire so much with softwood gets annoying. Softwoods are what I exclusively use to make maple syrup. Hardwoods are not good for that. They make coals and do not burn hot enough. Balsam fir and poplar are excellent out there as are small branches and twigs
Mix it up thats the key and ash burns freshly cut once started with say pine or oak. In the UK we have an old saying " Ash old, Ash green builds a fire fit for a queen"
Ive been heating my home with only wood for a longtime. Just a small peace of advise when burning coniferous trees like pine, fur, and cedar. Coniferous trees have a greater amount of tar in the wood witch makes it take longer to dry. The general rule of thumb is to age wood from coniferous trees for 1 to 2 yeaes bependung on how it is stored. Smaller peaces season faster. Lets take this persons wood stack for example. It only had a tarp over the top and was more or less out in the open. This is an excellent way to store your wood to season because the trap will keep the rain off the top of the stack well also leaving the sides exposed allowing plenty of air flow between the wood. The airflow is important because it will whisk away the moisture from the wood preventing the wood from rotting instead of seasoning to be used.
We burned pine exclusively for 6 years in a little cheap box stove but because we dried and seasoned the wood and let the stove burne without cooking it we only had a bit of dusty ash in our chimney.
The simple Answer is yes you can burn pine in your heater but it has some downsides it doesnt burn as hot so you certainly are going to need more of it also you will need to clean your flue more frequently to prevent a chimney fire pine does rot your left over wood wont be good for heating the following winter my suggestion is burn stictly hardwood if you can if you cant supplement your pine with pieces of hardwood when you can if that isnt possible then supplement your pine wood with soft green wood (freshly cut) the green wood will burn slower but remember green wood is will have a lot of sap in it and youll need to let your fire burn out and brush your flue pipe more often i like to brush my pipe at least once a week when i have to burn pine theres also the option of supplementing your fire with coal
I do the wood kiss as well. It works so good. I live with wood heat in the province of Alberta in the north . My favourite properly cured aspen . It is a hard wood . I like making my night fire with birch wood rounds so it lasts a long time and I have coals in the morning it gets tedious to light fires new . I think your right about pine it is good in the wood cook stove fast flame for starting fires. I don't like how it pops it's an active wood trapped gasses make it pop. Be mindful as those coals can travel keep stove area clear of combustible materals
I kiss my splits as well. Been doing that for 44 years in west-central Alberta. I burn mostly dead standing aspen when it's "normal" cold (down to -20C). Colder than that, I've got birch and tamarack - but not very much of it. I haven't cut down a live tree for firewood for as long as I've been living here. Hotter, drier and windier weather conditions over the last 20 years provide me with enough spruce, pine and poplar that needs to be seasoned.
Good advice! Get off your tush-clean the chimney, check moisture content and season your wood whatever you have available! Cannot burn wood you do not have access too. Besides Mountain Pine beetle is killing the Ponderosa faster than I can keep up with😖
Here in Finland the preferred is often birch, but we also burn other (mostly pine and spruce) but our variety of trees is not that big. For me the thing is that when I burn pine/spruce the volume needs to be nearly double relative when burning birch. The best for me (but now hard to get for reasonable money due to Russias war against Ukraine) is ~1kg briquettes made of birch sawdust. But I got 30kg for 10€ before and now just 20kg for that same 10€ so buying them is "stupid", it's more reasonable to let the geothermal heatpump run a litlle more and burn wood "just for laughs"...
Northern Ontario, Canada here. Pine is fine to burn, the only problem with pine, it will leave more pitch on the inside of your chimney that can cause chimney fires. Not a big deal, you just burn one of those store bought logs that has mineral in it that will dry up and cause the pitch to flake and burn off safely.
I burn larch and ash. Larch burns hot and quick and then switch to ash later for longer burn intervals. Larch leaves hot coals but spits, not suitable for open fires.
Pine Birch and Poplar is pretty much all we have here. Sometimes Cedar. Pine being the most abundant. I just finish installing my wood stove and ironically I don't have any pine here yet, only birch, but I will be burning lot of pine as I continue to gather more firewood as that's typically what we get around here. You can buy hardwood from companies that import wood, but I feel that defeats the purpose of wood burning from a cost and environment perspective. If I'm paying money for wood, and fossil fuel is being burned just to ship the wood here I may as well just use my gas furnace.
No it probably doesn't add any more creosote, but if you have creosote already resident in your chimney the hotter faster burn of the softwood makes it more likely that the creosote will ignite into a chimney fire.
I have a massive indoor wood burning furnace. It says don't burn pure pine. It says it gets too hot. It says a mix is fine. It does not have a warning about any other species.
Pound for pound? You by wood buy the cord , a volumetric measurement, not by the pound ,a weight measurement, so you comment makes no sense. I see the first reply to your comment and that's not true anywhere around here or something I've even heard of and if you think about it it's a bad idea because you are going to get wood with differing amounts water weight. If I was asked for so many punds of wood I would just see a sucker and sell him fresh cut wood just sopping with water. You want to ask a Canadian about burning wood? Hello. I sell wood every year, and most people will not buy your wood unless it is at least mostly "rock maple"("sugar maple), and it must be 100% hardwood. Even then, there are hardwoods nobody will buy, such as white bitch or poplar. I do sell softwood also and thus can be a mixture of any softwood, but for every 4 to 6 cords of hardwood (the average needed to a house through a Canadian fall to spring I might sell a half cord of kindling (very dry softwood split smaller for starting fires). As far as answering the question asked in the video, sure, pine is safe to burn and won't hurt your woostove or clog up your chimney, assuming it's properly seasoned,, you'll just need twice as much, twice as mutch spliting, twicw the storage space, and have to make twice many trips to the load the woodstove. So, pound for pound is horseshit.
@Broody4Boglim wow...... passionate reply. Properly seasoned, dry wood. It would obviously take more volume of dry pine to make a 20 pound burn. Specifically talking about the amount of pounds of wood In a single burn. You don't burn an entire cord in one shot so how else would you measure it???? You measure it by the pound. And it obviously it would probably take 2 or 3 times more volume of Pine to equal the btu's/volumes of rock maple. Not saying its effiecient. And as far as the volume of horse shit it takes to equal that of pine and rock maple........ not sure.
@Broody4Boglim there is a deeper science behind fire wood when it comes to Masonry ovens and heaters. Baking and cooking with wood is a different animal then just poking a pile of wood into a woodstove and heating an entire house. The wood becomes an ingredient in the process and it has a measure. Pounds.
@@shaneclark207 you don't burn an entire cord in one shot in anything except making charcoal but are you seriously telling me there are people out there that just buy a few pounds everytime they want to start a fire? Good gods that must be expensive.....why wouldn't you just buy a cord or half cord and save your self some money and time running to the wood dealer. Are we talking buying little bundles like you buy at the lake for way to much money? I'm old enough to remember many people cooking with wood and I can agree there is more finesse in maintaining a cook stove or bread oven but I still have never heard of buying wood by the pound must be a city slicker, I graduated with an Bachelor of arts degree and am now pretending at homesteading kind of thing but I'm not saying I don't believe ya I'm just saying where do these fools live anyway because I'll sell them wood in pounds and if it's all burns the same pound for pound then I've got all kinda of alder, white birtch, Manitoba maple and etc that I'll give ya a good deal on 🤣
Spent 5yrs living in central British Columbia. It would get as cold as -40 degrees in winter. We lived in a 100yr old plus log cabin, which was heated with 2 old cast iron wood stoves. All we burned was Douglas fir, lodgepole pine, larch… and if lucky a few sticks of white birch. We never froze.
Back home in Nova Scotia now, and back to burning sugar maple, yellow birch and beech. If I’m unlucky I will have a few sticks of white birch in the pile.
Ya burn what ya got. Just make sure it’s dry and seasoned.
I agree, l use pine to get it started and then Oak or birch then a big chunk of Elm for the late night burn.
Having heated my house with wood for decades on end, pine is excellent firewood.
I’ll take what you say over any Canadian government official.
Me too. Pine mostly with occasional pieces of fir.
@rogerbrandt6678
What is wrong with Canadian officials' things?
@@rogerbrandt6678 ya what would canadians know about keeping warm...
@@dhache1195 american exceptionalism
Glad to hear that Canadians know a thing or two regarding firewood and that we build quality fire burning stoves and fire places.
Lol uhhh why wouldnt Canadians know about it? Their entire country gets covered in snow and freezes every year
@@cheeseymccheese7249think it may have been a sarcastic comment ….
Because as of late they have failed miserably at literally everything else
To quote him, he said: "I think it's safe to say that the Canadians know what they're talking about..."
The phrase 'It's safe to say' does in fact mean that something is a rock-solid understatement beyond question.
So... Yeah. 🙄
In Estonia we have birch, alder, spruce and pine. All are good wood to burn. 2 years ago i heated my house entire winter with spruce. But here we even dont have that kind of question can i burn pine or not, everybody knows here firewood must be dry. With wet wood you ruin your masonry oven and chimney fast and soon you don't have house to live.
I live in Canada in a region that only really has pine and poplar, and know people that heat there homes all winter on it and have no problems at all . we have been doing that for hundreds of years and with modern stoves you get better burn times that is for sure, I agree oak is great long lasting wood, but no oak trees around here way to cold for them to grow, I also have to say that fire wood pile is the neatest straightest pile i have ever seen. nice job.
Burn any mix of timber when dry, around 10% mc. Rarely have to clean chimney. Good video. Well explained. As a old mate said “ if it’s dry, burn it”
I grew up burning Jack Pine firewood and it worked fine. I grew up in northern Saskatchewan and we got our firewood from areas that had been killed in a forest fire and the trunk was still standing so it seasoned very well and we could burn it the same winter we cut it. Winters are very cold here and we sometimes had to put more wood on the fire one or two times a knight because it is true that pine does burn faster than hardwoods. But the pine was readily available and easy to access.
Nothing wrong with pine woods for your wood stove. It just needs to be dried and seasoned properly.
And like any wood chimney, you need to clean your chimney every year at least.
Spot on with the oak analysis. Located in north west lower peninsula Michigan. I have a abundance of Red,White and black oak. I also use the face and lip method. Red oak split 3 years, black and white 2 years. All standing dead when I fall trees. Great video. Gave it a watch as I'm in the mood too fire up the Hearthstone! Cheers too a safe and enjoyable burning season!
Timely! Thank you. Currently splitting and stacking pine and fir. This video answered more questions than I had.
Thanks for this. In the olden days the farmers would not burn elm wood because it did leave dangerous creosote buildups in open fireplace and non-airtight cook stove chimneys.
Great overview. Thx for sharing. The key is cleaning your flue - especially if you burn soft woods. Cleaning once a year is a must if burning soft woods.
Here in Australia,use to love having wood heater with Australian Buloke and Red-gum,hard as nails and will burn all night.
I use to fall asleep watching the fire🥲
Something magical about watch the flames and embers.
all we have here is pine and a bit of spruce, maybe the odd tamarack. but that's all we ever had and will have. works fine.
Excellent information in this video and very accurate... One thing... for burning pine burn it hot with the air wide open all the time. Too many people "choke down" the fire in a wood stove too quickly creating smoke and creosote, mostly when going to bed. This will really show up and be a problem with the pine. Keep the air fully open (for your stove settings) and the flames high. Here in PA it is mostly oak. Seasoning hardwood for only 10 months vs. 2 years... there is a big difference... 6 to 10 months is NOT enough time for oak and hickory hardwoods unless the pieces are split very small and skinny. Also, does air move through the wood pile? Many people keep their wood in some sort of shed or 1/2 shed with 3 walls only open on one side. If this is the case drill holes all over the shed so AIR FLOWS at all times. Air flow can "knock off months."
My grandfather was a cook in lumber camps back in his day here in New Brunswick, Canada. They used wood burning cook stoves and he had his wood piled by various species because he knew how hot each one would burn. He would grab the type of wood he required for what he was cooking.
I on the other hand just turn the control knob...lol.
My Uncle was a Brick & Stone contractor so was my Dad. My uncle had a huge flag stone fire place, he loaded it up with Pinion pine and it split the fireplace down the middle it got so hot. Pinion is full of pitch and burns super hot. My Dad burned it in hi fire place and wood use 1 pinion and 2 or 3 chunks of cotton wood and no problems. Regular pine works just fine.
Whenever I've done the test of banging two pieces of wood together, I've always used two pieces from the same stack. ie-banging a known wet one with a know dry one--you are hearing both the hollow and the dull sounds at the same time. Grab two pieces that were stacked/split at the same time and you will only hear dull or hollow.
There's still a level of knowledge and skill required (gained only by experience) that enables any type of fire-wood to be efficient and optimal. Fire craft, is essentially a science but when it becomes your passion and life-way (in winter) there becomes a Magical connection with the creative spirit of one's soul and the elemental spirit of the fire. A skilled fire crafter, controls how warm or cool a fire burns. Just positioning the burning logs half an inch closer or further apart (ventilation ) can determine the difference of a smouldering burn or a hot furnace heat burn. I LOVE my winter fire (only heat source of my outdoor life-way) it's my BEST friend. Thanks for sharing your wholesome knowledge, you're a Great human : )
Good morning from south central BC, semi-old guy who has heated with wood for nearly 40 years. Locally we've tried to use either Western larch or Doug fir for colder months, but have had great success with Lodgepole pine in the shoulder seasons. We have Ponderosa pine on the property, but even when it's seasoned for a couple years, it yields more creosote and less heat than the Lodgepole pine. As well, slower growing Lodgepole, say from the north side of the mountain with less moisture will be noticeably heavier/denser than if cut from a moose swamp. All that to say, pine isn't necessarily pine. We do like to season all the firewood for a minimum of 18months and we live at the tip of the only desert in Canada. Hope that made sense and was useful.
Excellent, nuanced answer. You have to deal with what you have.
Kamloops or Kelowna?
@@richarde7649 South of Penticton between Vaseux and Skaha Lakes
Im north of Kamloops. I go for Fir. I think we all do in BC, Birch is nice but the bark can get out of control in the stove if someone doesnt know what they are doing and cause a chimeny fire. Cheers
Come visit Manitoba’s desert, Spirit Sands Desert. Yep real desert with sand dunes, cactus and rattlesnakes. 😊 It’s located near Carberry, Manitoba (south western Manitoba)
New to wood burning here, and I have an outside heat monster to run. I buy/burn mainly maple because this is what grow around, with some ash because they are ill and die, and some birch. I also sometime go and get free donated wood. People cut an old dead tree or whaterver other reasons. There, can come pine and cedar from too old hedges. Cedar is very light and is perfect to light a fire. Pine usually come unsplintered, so I burn it as is, logs often 18 to 24 inches in diameter. What is fun and usufull about burning those, is that when you come in the morning, you are sure to find some braise, tisons.
Here in Western Washington, the hardwoods are alder and maple, of whuich theere is an enormous amount, btu most of the firewood is fir - which is just as pitchy as pine. Pine is the most common firewood on the eastern side of the Cascades.
Along with seasoning your firewood, there is the height of the chimney to consider, and the temperature of the outside air. A rambler with a one story flue is much easier to manage creosote than a tall chimney that convects cold air when not burning.
A hot fire will keep buildup to a minium, requiring no maintenance. I never cleaned my one story flue for 20 years.
Can I ask how long your chimney pipe is?
35 yrs burning wood in Northern Ontario. I have no problems burning spruce/ pine. As long as it is dried properly, absoloutley will not burn balsam in a stove and Ironwood can be burned in very small quantities. Because of the nature of Ironwood I no longer harvest it but will mix it into a pile of maple or oak should the tree die naturally.
Also when im splitting firewood i cut smaller pieces in the beginning, because im burning that in the spring and I may let the fire go out more often, in the middle of the pile i have larger pieces with mostly hardwoods, with the stove runnung constantly this gets me through peak winter. Finally i split smaller stuff again with a mix of hardwood / softwood for fall buurning. Note poplar/ cottonwoods are good to burn, i let it dry at least 3 yrs and remove as much bark as possible otherwise it is stinky.
Keeping your flue temperature up is also very important. Moisture in the wood causes steam and reduces the temperature of the smoke and creosote condenses on the walls of the chimney. It will ignite and either burn your house down or scare you half to death if it really gets going. I keep a ladder up all winter and had to toss a few handfuls of snow down to settle things down more than once until I got the temperature right.
Really important.
I live in lower Ontario Canada. I burn whatever tree dies or falls down. My split is roughly 60% softwood and 40% hard. I dry it for about a year. Never had any problems with softwood. It does not last as long, so you'll need more if you only have softwood. Other than that, there is no negative. My fireplace insert is also from Canada, British Columbia in my case. Mine is a Pacific Energy Summit Insert LE (large model). It holds the extra big 20" logs which is great for going all night long. It's WAY bigger than what was recommended, but I don't like waking up in the middle of the night to put logs on, so I bought the biggest possible insert that would fit in my fireplace. It's a really good insert. I love it.
Foresty research have shown no matter is it soft or hard aka loose or dense wood.. ..all you need is burn example 10lbs of any seasoned wood and only difference is how many splits you need to cover that particular weight, more if soft and less if hard etc. etc.
Most people here in the Northeast US won’t burn pine because we’re lucky to have a bunch of good hardwoods.
I personally like a little bit of pine for the shoulder season. Usually that’s about late October to early November; and then late March to early April. That’s when we’re starting a fire at night and burning a small fire in the morning to keep the chill off, but letting it burn out by lunchtime because it’s usually warmed up quite a bit. Seasoned pine is great for this time of year.
Thatswhat my folks do. Spring and fall. Though a heatpump might eliminate that need
Agreed. Unfortunately, here on Cape Cod, the only pine to be found is scrub pine, and believe me, that crap will creosote up your chimney in a heartbeat! Absolutely full of pitch.
@@johngolini332 That’s interesting. You think even if you season it? It’s funny I was on vacation down at the Jersey shore this summer and was looking at some of the scrub pine and wondering if anyone burned it for firewood.
Used the anti-creosote spray with pine. What a world of difference. Went from filthy chimney burning pine to very clean chimney burning pine.
I have a cabin in northern Washington County NY on the VT border. There are winter times when we arrive and it's 20 F outside and 35 inside. I always keep DRIED pine to get the fire going and feed it for 1/2 to an hour. It gives off its energy very fast and heats the cabin MUCH faster than oak, maple, cherry etc. I used to start it and feed it with the hardwoods but they take forever to give off their heat. Of course once a coal bed is established and the pine has warmed the cabin I start feeding hardwood. Try it! You'll see what I mean.
Great video. That’s a beautiful stack of firewood and a beautiful fireplace. Two things that I do a little bit differently: 1) I will split a piece of firewood and put it up to my cheek. Similar to what you do, but I’m not so kissy with my firewood 😂 2) when banging pieces together, I try to bang two pieces from the same log to give me a good idea of the sound. Wet splits will have a thud, dryer wood will have more of a crack.
Yes, I occasionally burn pine hemlock in my masonry heater. It burns faster than hardwood, but burns clean and hot as long as properly seasoned. Not a problem and, as stated here, it makes great kindling wood.
Growing up in Northern Ontario (a long time ago) the old timers referred to pine and cedar as walking wood… it kept you walking to feed the stove. However a cord of wood will have between 18 & 24 million BTU with most normal species. Orange and high oil woods will be higher, but in North Ontario that is not something you need to worry about. Keep your chimney clean and split your wood a year in advance.
We used wood heating and cooking with a little water tank on the side for hot water in the 1950s year round
Cedar and pine other than starting the fire were referred to gofer wood put a few sticks in and goner some more !
As a country fireman of 30 years, in all of our chimney fires the homeowner was burning pine. Can you burn pine safely? Be sure it is in the right equipment and keep it clean.
And the reason they had chimney fires is they need to clean there chimney more often nothing to do with pine. Now as a matter of fact I have heated with a wood stove for 45 years thats all I use for heat. I once lived in an all hard wood area and that is all I burned, I lived there for 20 years and I faithfully cleaned my chimney every month period. The type of creasot that comes from burning that type of wood is black and shiny almost like thin sheets of coal, it is also very dangours as even at cleaning my chimney out once a month I had one chimney fire. Now I have lived at my present location for the past 25 years and all we have is pine populare and spruce I still clean my chimney once a month faithfully the creasot that builds in my chimney is a black dull powder and it is no where and I mean no where as combustable as the black shiny stuff so I call bull shit to the pine theory . The people that had the chimney fires need to clean there chimney out once a month not once a year because that is bull shit. I also was a member of the fire department.
@@dog_guy-c8x The fact that you find black shiny stuff in the liner after just one month proves the point of not burning resinous woods! I am sure you can get away with burning 5 year seasoned Pine if you really have to, but if hardwood is available that is the one to use, I have just cleaned my chimney after burning 40 Cu Mtrs of hardwood and got hardly any soot, and that was dry black dust that could be vacuumed up easily. Chris B.
@@453421abcdefg12345 Learn to read I did not get black shiney stuff from burning pine I got that from burning maple I get a fine black powder from burning pine. You miss read what I said. And if you get away with burning the way you do all the power to you but I for one dont beleve you at all as I have used a wood stove for over 50 years and have always cleaned my chiminey once a month and even doing that I have esperinced a chiminey fire on one occation I sugest that you have just been lucky.
Pine creates alot of creosote when burning... Hardwoods do not create near as much... best bet is clean more frequently if burning pine, or mix with hardwood while burning
@@dodgeme1986truck Pine and spruce is all I have to burn there is no hardwood around where I live. now in reaguards to your statement that is simply not ture. I have always cleaned my chimney monthly as I have heated my homes for over 50 years on wood. For 20 years all I ever burned was hard maple and beach, I always split and piled and put my wood in a proper vented wood shed a year in addvance of using it, so wood was dry. I owned land at that time in a hard wood bush. The creosote that built up in my chimney was a black shiny matterial, this I found out was quite dangours as even though I cleaned my chimney out once a month I had one chimney fire. Now I have moved to an area that just has pine and spruce, 25 years here I split and pile my wood exatcly the same way as I stated above . I clean my chimney once a month still, the creosote that builds up in my chimney now is really not a creosote that I would call it that , it is more of a powdered soot , not near as flamable as the shiney stuff that I had from burning hardwood. So to me other then pine not lasting as long as hard wood that is the only disadvantage of pine. And even saying that I use a moderon cook stove and the difference in stoking time is 5 hours for pine verses 7 hours for hard maple. So in rounding up this novel I call bull shit to pine creating more creosote.
I put birch into the hardwood category. That’s the best firewood in northern Canada, hard to split in the summer, but pops apart very easy in -40°
Burned a lot of pitch pine last winter. Had dead trees that I had taken down. They were well seasoned already.
This was the first time I burned a large amount of pine. But due to some health issues I had, it's what was available. I did mix it in with the rest of the wood.
Good video - and I agree completely with your assessment on burning pine!
Fun fact
The hardest softwood (yew)is much harder than the softest hardwood(balsa) so you can’t make a blanket statement that hardwoods are always harder.
Hardwood = deciduous trees
Softwood = evergreen trees
It's even more complicated than that, because balsa is an evergreen in wetter climates. Tropical hardwoods are generally evergreen. Apparently softwood just means evergreens that are coniferous or otherwise can exist in colder climates, and hardwoods are everything else. It's weird to me that hardwoods are defined like that regardless of how hard they actually are, but that's the world we live in.
Australian hardwood eucalyptus aren't deciduous.
The stove design is very important also.
One that you can shut of the lower intake and feed the upper gasses with hit air burns off creosote and is much more efficient.
Terrific job on your video!! You have a knack for keeping the topic interesting!! I used to work for a hardware company that sold wood pellets for pellet stoves. We had 2 types.... hardwood and softwood...and we found that softwood dud indeed give off more heat....so a bag would last longer!!
Good points about using a combination of wood types, to manipulate your fire better but more importantly ease the rate of deforestation.
Here in Australia if you buy firewood it will all be Eucalyptus, even though we have pine plantations. The wood burns very well, but trees take 60+ years to mature, even longer to form hollows, which many of our native wildlife depend on for habitat.
Good information Pines. Great for campfires unless you’re gonna be around it all darn day then a mixed bag
Great presentation, direct, solid information, no fluff!
I've heated my home in Alberta for decades with mostly Lodgepole Pine. Really the only economically viable option for Alberta as we don't have access to all the fancy hardwoods. I have burned Tamarack but it's really not worth the extra money.
pine cedar & fir softwoods are best for kindling .. oak maple hardwoods for heat .. burning softwoods can result in creosote buildup ..
I use pine fir, and larch mostly pine though works great I have a airtight wood stove.
Your experience is the same as mine. I burn jack pine for starting fires and in spring and fall to give a little boost of heat in a cool spell. Mixing woods some can help oak burn better.
l have a "FATSO" cast iron woodstove made in Alabama by King stove co. in 1905..it burns pine....just fine.
Mix of maple and cherry is our primary. Sometimes we burn birch, Tamarack and balsam now and then to warm up the place. No oak in our area of Ontario Canada.
In Northern California I burned almond when I could get it. Burns very clean, very low ash and does not soot the chimney. One season resulted in just 2 cups of white ash whereas with pines & fir I might clean a half bucket of soot at seasons end.
The pines and fir, did you season and dry the wood for a year? Did you check the moisture content with a moisture meter?
dead standing jackpine is the fire wood of choice around here. there is poplar and spruce but they dont throw as much heat
We had a giant ponderosa pine taken down that was threatening our cabin. I processed it and have been burning it for three years, both at home and at our cabin with no problems. We just had the chimney cleaned, and all we had was a bit heavier ash build up. The ash was very dry. No creosote at all.
I've burnt 90% pine wood shop scraps for the whole season last year, and the chimney barely had any creosote . Had un seasoned hard wood and it reduced an 8" pipe to 4" in our wood furnace in ½ a season and dripped creosote from the sweep out (was very dangerous )
😮 I have never, EVER 👀 seen any firewood so neatly stacked. Makes one wonder about this upload 🫤
_Obviously_ CGI.
😁 Just kidding.
Ya it's some Serial Killer type sh!t... hahaha there is something wrong there.
Firewood stacked tightly takes longer to season.
As a kid my dad had a deal with the local sawmill, a truck load of slab wood, mostly softwood for a few bucks. Between that and all the dead elms we cut off our property we could fill our woodshed for cheap. Which held about 20 cord
Hi, I am in Quebec and my land is mostly white pine. I let it season for 2 years and also skin it when I split it. You have to be very, very careful not to have resin ! This could set your stove on fire ! so inspect each piece, don't load too much and keep a bucket full of sand and a little shovel near your stove, to kill the fire if its out of control (and an extinguisher near)
Very informative video.
Thanks for taking the time out to create it.
Love burning pine in evening to watch the flame, then larger hardwood for overnight heat.
Lots of good information presented well. A little research will show all dry wood (soft, hard and in between) produces about the same btu/lb or. Cal/kg.
In the early ‘80s everyone was burning wood after the oil embargo in the late ‘70s. Controversy raged over which species became the best firewood. Magazine letters to the editor (how people argued publicly back then) bulged with opinion and vitriol. To my mind it was all settled when a fellow wrote that the best firewood came from the tree closest to the woodpile.
I am 70 years old burned wood every year 5 cords +all is pine and all is well and I prefer bug killed and like it as soon as it is dropped. Pile it for a year and it is too dry I get it in Oct or Nov and burn it right off the trailer I clean the chimney when it tells me it is dirty usually 3 times a year.
A lot has to do with the stove.
I had a soapstone on the farm and once it was up to temp i could feed it pine.The stove and chimney would be 400 degrees and the only place i got creosote was on the cap so no risk of fire
I'm in the jersey Pinelands and have plenty..
I had 20 pines cut down last year, planning to burn them this year. Will start the fires with alder then throw in pine.
Low moisture no matter the wood is key. But also, a hot roaring fire in a high efficiency stove produces little creosote. Much of the resin and smoke is combusted and gets converted to heat
Sage advice, completely agree.
Living in Alaska we only have softwoods, and after coming from the Northeast (New York) I have to say it sucks. Burns hot, burns fast and goes out, leaving you with a cold house. If I am only heating with softwoods I have to wake up several times a night to restock the stove, which interrupts my sleep cycle. If you have a masonry heater or a cob bench stove like a rocket stove, no more problem. If you are using a regular wood stove from Home Depot or an Ashley like we had, it is not going to be fun.
Interesting video thank you. I was in Ontario burning only cherry , oak and maple. Laughing at the bc guys burning evergreen. Now I burn evergreen. I do clean the chimney monthly. I have seen a chimney fire I just want to be safe. Like a lot of comments I use small amounts of pine often in the fall and keep the harder wood for colder weather for it lasts longer and has better coals getting longer through the night
Being from socal I was glad to learn the term shoulder season! I knew it but I just didn't know it ! Get it? 👍
I burn pine all the time in my stove.. u r 100% correct sir moisture is key in fire wood. Almost
All wood burns the same if u get the same moisture content
Hardwood leaves embers. I've restarted fires after 24 hours with hardwood. Softwoods only leave ash. No can do with them. Around here Elm, Ironwood, and Larch burn hottest. Poplar and Birch are hardwoods, but on the soft side and rot crazy fast.
Learnt something new today all these dead pines going for firewood.
I’ve burned larch and Scott’s pine in 3 houses for decades with no problem at all . Brush chimneys once (occasionally twice) per year . Very little creosote. House lovely and warm . Firewood seasons quickly and is easy to cut , split and stack .
Beetle-kill pine (standing dead-wood) (we have tons available in Colorado) burns terribly without hotter coals to keep the firebox temperature up. It acts like it’s still wet and has terrible heat conductivity from outside to core. It makes a terrific charcoal bed, but it needs extra heat to get it there.
It absolutely depends on the species of pine you’re looking to burn, most people call all conifers pines nothing could be further from the truth. I feel most pines and spruces are adequate however I would stay away from eastern white pine as well as a few hardwoods like popular and willow.
Canadian here . Been burning wood on and off for heat for years. Absolutely you can burn pine , it’s actually very clean. Your more likely to have buildup in your stove from
Birch bark. That’s the killer . We typically burn pine,birch, and maple . I use the pine for early fall and late spring, birch for the average days of winter, and when it goes real cold I’ll burn maple . Either way burn dry wood :)
what about Cedar?? I have Hemlock on my property as well. My best firewood is Beech.
If I were a wood stove manufacturer in Canada of course I would recommend Pine as a fuel ! I would not sell many stoves if I recommend only hardwoods, the key factor here is that any wood should be at the correct moisture content, I use 15 % as a guide, and after burning 40 Cu Mtrs of mixed hardwood over 2 years I got very little dry soot dust from a sweep yesterday, and none of the shiny flakes you get from burning Pine, if the wood has a resin content, then that has to go somewhere, after all Amber has been around for thousands of years, the overlooked part is the height of the chimney, a tall uninsulated chimney is a condensing tube, and will quickly build up moisture in a cold environment. As for manufacturers recommendations I read recently in a brochure, that the wood stove should not be used if it was cold or misty outside? Well, I wonder what the stove purchaser would use his wood stove for? Chris B.
I have a similar fireplace in my cabin. The chimney is fully insulated, and it draws air from outside. I typically burn pine and poplar, and Manitoba Maple, which is pretty soft too. In 10 years, I don’t think I have had even 2 cups of creosote total in the chimney. Dry wood, and a insulated chimney keeps the smoke hot, and your chimney clean. If you have an older stove with an un-insulated chimney, then pine can cause problems, like all wood. My neighbour has a bucketful of creosote every year.
No chance I would use it other than to start the fire I use maple beech and birch. If you don't mind cleaning your stove every second day use pine or spruce no thanks. Nobody uses it here in nova Scotia. I'm sure it puts out heat but again have fun cleaning your stove a lot. I have been burning for just about 30 years and it's worth the work for peace of mind, as far as cleaning the chimney I might have done it twice. I have no issues with building up because I'm three years ahead with my fire wood. Great video and info thanks.
Every wood burns different even when seasoned correctly. I used to burn the soft woods like willow and poplar early and late in season and hard woods toward middle. Didn't have much pine available but when i did would early in season at nights. Stoped burning wood after 15 years and went to pellets cause could not be available to tend fire. 7:20
It is really about the moisture of tne wood and how hot you run your stove and how insulated your flute is. I burn ponderosa pine pretty much 90% of the time. Western juniper the other time. Ponderosa pine is the most abundant and cheapest firewodd in eastern oregon.chimney. Our chimney is 22 feet high, but i have ss linner, and only 1 foot of pipe is exposed to the air. We have a cap but no screen. They plug up. We run the stove hot because that is the way the wife likes it. At night, I stuff the stove full of pine and turn the damper down to about 1/4 open. 7 hours later, the house is still warm, and there are hot coals to start another fire. The exterior of the brick chimney is warm to the touch all, winter. Even when it is -10f. We have a blaze king, princess insert.
In New Zealand pine is the most common type of firewood.....as long as its dry it burns fine with no creosote problems...if its wet/green etc it will smoke out the neighborhood and clog the chimney with creosote and its problems with chimney fires
Great topic. Nicely done.
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Great video. Pine has been given a bad rap for who knows why. Moisture content for any wood not just pine is very important. Any wet wood is bad for your chimney and will cause creosote build up. Hardwoods do take longer to dry, compared to soft woods as well. I try to stack my wood by species so I can ensure each type of wood has had enough time to dry and use a moisture meter.
I used a lot of bug kill pine for near 10 years and had a well built house in north British Columbia,I cleaned the chimney once a week,it’s best to be safe
Wow, once a week?! I sweep the ol' stack once a year. I knock down about 2 cups of soot.
I live in a mixed forest in Ontario and I burn probbably 75% softwood and poplar. Anything that is laying around really. For spring and fall I avoid hardwooods, they burn too long. I just want to take the chill out of the air and cook on my cookstove. When they are dry, and dry is key, dried for a year or standing dead and dry, they are excellent. I save the hardwoods for winter when feeding the fire so much with softwood gets annoying. Softwoods are what I exclusively use to make maple syrup. Hardwoods are not good for that. They make coals and do not burn hot enough. Balsam fir and poplar are excellent out there as are small branches and twigs
Mix it up thats the key and ash burns freshly cut once started with say pine or oak. In the UK we have an old saying " Ash old, Ash green builds a fire fit for a queen"
Ive been heating my home with only wood for a longtime. Just a small peace of advise when burning coniferous trees like pine, fur, and cedar. Coniferous trees have a greater amount of tar in the wood witch makes it take longer to dry. The general rule of thumb is to age wood from coniferous trees for 1 to 2 yeaes bependung on how it is stored. Smaller peaces season faster. Lets take this persons wood stack for example. It only had a tarp over the top and was more or less out in the open. This is an excellent way to store your wood to season because the trap will keep the rain off the top of the stack well also leaving the sides exposed allowing plenty of air flow between the wood. The airflow is important because it will whisk away the moisture from the wood preventing the wood from rotting instead of seasoning to be used.
My granpas forest is mostly pines so he always almost heated the house with pine quite fine.
Poplar, birch, pine and spruce. That's all I got here on my land and I'm doing fine. Greetings from Taivalkoski, Finland.
We burned pine exclusively for 6 years in a little cheap box stove but because we dried and seasoned the wood and let the stove burne without cooking it we only had a bit of dusty ash in our chimney.
The simple Answer is yes you can burn pine in your heater but it has some downsides it doesnt burn as hot so you certainly are going to need more of it also you will need to clean your flue more frequently to prevent a chimney fire pine does rot your left over wood wont be good for heating the following winter my suggestion is burn stictly hardwood if you can if you cant supplement your pine with pieces of hardwood when you can if that isnt possible then supplement your pine wood with soft green wood (freshly cut) the green wood will burn slower
but remember green wood is will have a lot of sap in it and youll need to let your fire burn out and brush your flue pipe more often i like to brush my pipe at least once a week when i have to burn pine theres also the option of supplementing your fire with coal
I do the wood kiss as well. It works so good. I live with wood heat in the province of Alberta in the north . My favourite properly cured aspen . It is a hard wood . I like making my night fire with birch wood rounds so it lasts a long time and I have coals in the morning it gets tedious to light fires new . I think your right about pine it is good in the wood cook stove fast flame for starting fires. I don't like how it pops it's an active wood trapped gasses make it pop. Be mindful as those coals can travel keep stove area clear of combustible materals
I kiss my splits as well. Been doing that for 44 years in west-central Alberta. I burn mostly dead standing aspen when it's "normal" cold (down to -20C). Colder than that, I've got birch and tamarack - but not very much of it. I haven't cut down a live tree for firewood for as long as I've been living here. Hotter, drier and windier weather conditions over the last 20 years provide me with enough spruce, pine and poplar that needs to be seasoned.
Good advice! Get off your tush-clean the chimney, check moisture content and season your wood whatever you have available! Cannot burn wood you do not have access too. Besides Mountain Pine beetle is killing the Ponderosa faster than I can keep up with😖
Here in Finland the preferred is often birch, but we also burn other (mostly pine and spruce) but our variety of trees is not that big. For me the thing is that when I burn pine/spruce the volume needs to be nearly double relative when burning birch. The best for me (but now hard to get for reasonable money due to Russias war against Ukraine) is ~1kg briquettes made of birch sawdust. But I got 30kg for 10€ before and now just 20kg for that same 10€ so buying them is "stupid", it's more reasonable to let the geothermal heatpump run a litlle more and burn wood "just for laughs"...
a lot of colder climates don't have the access to hard woods.. burn what you have to stay warm, 400 F is still the same temp no matter what wood it is
Northern Ontario, Canada here. Pine is fine to burn, the only problem with pine, it will leave more pitch on the inside of your chimney that can cause chimney fires. Not a big deal, you just burn one of those store bought logs that has mineral in it that will dry up and cause the pitch to flake and burn off safely.
I burn larch and ash. Larch burns hot and quick and then switch to ash later for longer burn intervals.
Larch leaves hot coals but spits, not suitable for open fires.
Pine Birch and Poplar is pretty much all we have here. Sometimes Cedar. Pine being the most abundant. I just finish installing my wood stove and ironically I don't have any pine here yet, only birch, but I will be burning lot of pine as I continue to gather more firewood as that's typically what we get around here. You can buy hardwood from companies that import wood, but I feel that defeats the purpose of wood burning from a cost and environment perspective. If I'm paying money for wood, and fossil fuel is being burned just to ship the wood here I may as well just use my gas furnace.
No it probably doesn't add any more creosote, but if you have creosote already resident in your chimney the hotter faster burn of the softwood makes it more likely that the creosote will ignite into a chimney fire.
I have a massive indoor wood burning furnace. It says don't burn pure pine. It says it gets too hot. It says a mix is fine. It does not have a warning about any other species.
Since when is birch a softwood?
Pound for pound hard wood and soft wood gives the same amount of energy
Pound for pound....... key words. I agree. The Masonry heater/oven community in the US measures firewood by weight/pounds.
Pound for pound? You by wood buy the cord , a volumetric measurement, not by the pound ,a weight measurement, so you comment makes no sense. I see the first reply to your comment and that's not true anywhere around here or something I've even heard of and if you think about it it's a bad idea because you are going to get wood with differing amounts water weight. If I was asked for so many punds of wood I would just see a sucker and sell him fresh cut wood just sopping with water. You want to ask a Canadian about burning wood? Hello. I sell wood every year, and most people will not buy your wood unless it is at least mostly "rock maple"("sugar maple), and it must be 100% hardwood. Even then, there are hardwoods nobody will buy, such as white bitch or poplar. I do sell softwood also and thus can be a mixture of any softwood, but for every 4 to 6 cords of hardwood (the average needed to a house through a Canadian fall to spring I might sell a half cord of kindling (very dry softwood split smaller for starting fires). As far as answering the question asked in the video, sure, pine is safe to burn and won't hurt your woostove or clog up your chimney, assuming it's properly seasoned,, you'll just need twice as much, twice as mutch spliting, twicw the storage space, and have to make twice many trips to the load the woodstove. So, pound for pound is horseshit.
@Broody4Boglim wow...... passionate reply. Properly seasoned, dry wood. It would obviously take more volume of dry pine to make a 20 pound burn. Specifically talking about the amount of pounds of wood In a single burn. You don't burn an entire cord in one shot so how else would you measure it???? You measure it by the pound. And it obviously it would probably take 2 or 3 times more volume of Pine to equal the btu's/volumes of rock maple. Not saying its effiecient. And as far as the volume of horse shit it takes to equal that of pine and rock maple........ not sure.
@Broody4Boglim there is a deeper science behind fire wood when it comes to Masonry ovens and heaters. Baking and cooking with wood is a different animal then just poking a pile of wood into a woodstove and heating an entire house. The wood becomes an ingredient in the process and it has a measure. Pounds.
@@shaneclark207 you don't burn an entire cord in one shot in anything except making charcoal but are you seriously telling me there are people out there that just buy a few pounds everytime they want to start a fire? Good gods that must be expensive.....why wouldn't you just buy a cord or half cord and save your self some money and time running to the wood dealer. Are we talking buying little bundles like you buy at the lake for way to much money? I'm old enough to remember many people cooking with wood and I can agree there is more finesse in maintaining a cook stove or bread oven but I still have never heard of buying wood by the pound must be a city slicker, I graduated with an Bachelor of arts degree and am now pretending at homesteading kind of thing but I'm not saying I don't believe ya I'm just saying where do these fools live anyway because I'll sell them wood in pounds and if it's all burns the same pound for pound then I've got all kinda of alder, white birtch, Manitoba maple and etc that I'll give ya a good deal on 🤣