Becareful What You Do....

[Henro]

Maybe a little of that - CausticUrbanCoast. But my 80 acres is all Ponderosa pine. Nothing like the growth( jungle ) I see in the pics others post. Loooong ago, when I cut my pines for firewood, I had one gigantic pine - kick back. Barber chair - ?? I was at quite a distance when it fell. Had I been behind the cut - I'd have been sliced in half. I was falling pines - 32" to 40" on the butt.

I soon learned that the really big pines were just too much of a PITA to be falling for firewood. Required too much planning in the falling and the rounds, cut to 16" long, were a real ***** to get up on the splitter and split. I had the property selectively logged and I went with the pines - 20" or less for firewood.

I don't burn wood for heat, so this is just an educational question.

I always heard that around where I live, people do not burn pine, due to creosote, sap, or whatever, being deposited in the chimney and possibly resulting in a chimney fire.

Is this just a wife's tale?

Seriously, just curious...

 

[CausticUrbanCoast]

I don't burn wood for heat, so this is just an educational question.

I always heard that around where I live, people do not burn pine, due to creosote, sap, or whatever, being deposited in the chimney and possibly resulting in a chimney fire.

Is this just a wife's tale?

Seriously, just curious...

It has a higher sap content depending when you cut it and which pine, so it can burn a lot faster and hotter. Which is not a bad thing, but you should mix it with other wood to increase burn time and finish with a hardwood of some type if you can.

It also needs to be seasoned, burning green/wet is a last resort as you will get a lot of creosote buildup since it will not burn hot enough to keep your chimney clean.

Makes good kindling and initial startup logs. If you have an open fireplace it also tends to spit sparks and embers more than other wood.

 

[oosik]

The ONLY wood I burned for 18 years - Ponderosa pine. That's all I have here on the property. I seasoned( stacked up to dry out) it for a full year before burning. It burned hot and provided good heat.

I never had any problems with creosote. Brush down the chimney every fall before starting the stove. Never got more than a quarter cup of creosote.

Would I have rather had other types. I cut down my old apple orchard and burned it. Not that much different than pine. Except - a whole lot more ash.

Went down the road a couple miles and cut down two black locust trees that were on an old homestead. Seasoned for a full year prior to burning. That WAS some very fine firewood. Good heat and properly banked - the fire held all night. After seasoning for a year the locust was hard as a rock. If I had access to more - split while it's green - then rack up to season.

Splitting after a year of drying - that locust gave my hydraulic splitter a good workout.

After 18 years we quit burning firewood and went to pellets. Got tired of all the dirt, bugs and volcanic ash ( Mount Saint Helens - 1980 ) brought into the house with the wood.

 

[KennyG]

Pine has higher moisture and sap when green. It dries faster. Any dry wood will burn clean. Only disadvantage of pine is the lower BTU content.

 

[Jchonline]

That pict. has been around a LONG time, anyone have more info on it??

SR

Yes… I saw it years ago lol

 

[Jchonline]

The ONLY wood I burned for 18 years - Ponderosa pine. That's all I have here on the property. I seasoned( stacked up to dry out) it for a full year before burning. It burned hot and provided good heat.

I never had any problems with creosote. Brush down the chimney every fall before starting the stove. Never got more than a quarter cup of creosote.

Would I have rather had other types. I cut down my old apple orchard and burned it. Not that much different than pine. Except - a whole lot more ash.

Went down the road a couple miles and cut down two black locust trees that were on an old homestead. Seasoned for a full year prior to burning. That WAS some very fine firewood. Good heat and properly banked - the fire held all night. After seasoning for a year the locust was hard as a rock. If I had access to more - split while it's green - then rack up to season.

Splitting after a year of drying - that locust gave my hydraulic splitter a good workout.

After 18 years we quit burning firewood and went to pellets. Got tired of all the dirt, bugs and volcanic ash ( Mount Saint Helens - 1980 ) brought into the house with the wood.

Exactly the same for me. Pine, aspen, and Fir. After the fire last year I have so many trees to take down I will never, ever run out of firewood.

 

[Boss 302]

WOW, there's no good way out of that. Thanks for sharing, I need a good reminder every now and then to slow down and take a second look.

 

[SmallChange]

It's been a long time since I heated with wood, but, doesn't pine also tend to pop a lot and throw sparks? In a closed wood stove I guess that's fine, but when you open it, or if you have a fireplace, seems a bit scary. A wood fire is only nice when the wood isn't part of your house.

 

[KennyG]

It's been a long time since I heated with wood, but, doesn't pine also tend to pop a lot and throw sparks? In a closed wood stove I guess that's fine, but when you open it, or if you have a fireplace, seems a bit scary. A wood fire is only nice when the wood isn't part of your house.

In my experience, not if it's dry.

 

[Kschwennsen]

That's cool but I'm just wondering how you would get that down without crushing yourself or damaging the tractor further? Slowly chunks out of the top of the tree and let the weight of the tractor set it back down?

 

[Gord Baker]

That is called "Barber Chair" in Forest Speak.

 

[k0ua]

That's cool but I'm just wondering how you would get that down without crushing yourself or damaging the tractor further? Slowly chunks out of the top of the tree and let the weight of the tractor set it back down?

They used an excavator to let it down

 

[CausticUrbanCoast]

That's cool but I'm just wondering how you would get that down without crushing yourself or damaging the tractor further? Slowly chunks out of the top of the tree and let the weight of the tractor set it back down?

You cut it down properly!

 

[ning]

That's cool but I'm just wondering how you would get that down without crushing yourself or damaging the tractor further? Slowly chunks out of the top of the tree and let the weight of the tractor set it back down?

They used a big excavator to pick up the tractor.

I'd probably do what you suggested as well, but you're chancing the barber chair completing its promise of destruction by detaching at the base, dropping the tractor hard on the ground - and then the rest of the log on top of it too.

 

[ljjhouser]

That would make you stop and take a better look at the posibilities before taking that kind of action. Looks like the wedge cut is not very deep.

 

[Oaktree]

The ONLY wood I burned for 18 years - Ponderosa pine. That's all I have here on the property. I seasoned( stacked up to dry out) it for a full year before burning. It burned hot and provided good heat.

I never had any problems with creosote. Brush down the chimney every fall before starting the stove. Never got more than a quarter cup of creosote.

I don't know how ponderosa pine compares the the white pine we have here, but to me it's firewood of last resort...best used only for kindling. I use it in my workshop, but I'm only out there for a few hours at a time and I want something that burns hot, but doesn't need to last long. In the house, not so much.
Fortunately, we have plenty of hardwoods here, I feel bad for some of you westerners for whom evergreens are pretty much all there is for trees.

 

[Tony H]

Quick google took me to ODWTM, some actual video of the recovery in there at about 6 min mark.

The Morgana... Yuck.
All his sponsors, all the toys they send them and honestly, after seeing some of their videos, they are just a couple that stumble through and people are watching the videos and THINKING they know what they're doing. Scary

 

[TreeToad]

Here hold my beer immediately followed by first you say it then you do it. Dont see any in the snow??

 

[m1garand762]

That’s an old photo it’s been around at least 3 years and I believe at some point the person involved was on this site

 

[BenjiMac]

You know the tree you partially cut and it would not go down, so you tried pushing it over with your tractor....

View attachment 721141

And no it was not me, don't own a blue tractor...

I pushed one over. The reason it would not go down was that it rocked back and trapped the chain saw, so no further cutting was possible. Pushed it the other way with my tractor, no problem.