old pine

[Forrest hunters]

I have as much old dead pine as I want, but will it burn good? Most of this is red or jack pine that had a disease about 10-15 years ago. Some of is has been down on the ground for years but was cut up and stacked last spring to clean up the property. How well will this burn in an evaporator?

[Forrest hunters]

Sorry this may be the wrong place for this. Can a moderator please move this to the room talking about fire wood.

Thanks,
Rob

[BryanEx]

Taken care of Rob... and to answer your question, I wouldn't bother with it if it's old and decaying. I haven't used it in my rig but based on the fire pit it has always been far more work to keep punky logs burning than it's worth and often requiring perfectly good wood to do it.

[jasonl6]

We used pine last year. it burns great however you won't get the BTU of a hardwood from pine. This year we have mostly hardwood that is split wrist sized. I do have some pine that i will mix in. I like pine for getting the fire going and hardwoods for long hot fires. With the pine we had to fire about twice as much as when we used hardwood. Here is a list of the BTU output of wood. Should help you. If it's cut already then burn it.

Jason

[maple flats]

Pine burns very well, if there is little or no bark as long as it is not punky. The bark on most evergreens has evolved to protect the tree in a forest fire. It has it's own retardant. If split well, this does not hamper it but do not leave whole unsplit pieces with good bark still on it. This should not really be an issue for 15 yr old wood.
I once put 1 pc of unsplit fairly fresh cut hemlock with a huge number of limb stubs, maybe 6-7" diameter in the evaporator just to get rid of it. That piece was still there an hour later, and after re fueling around it every 7 minutes. Never again, it messed up my boil rate for over an hour. That was before I had any blower for combustion. I don't know if that might help.

[adk1]

My evap is fed every 7 minutes using pine

[Forrest hunters]

Thanks guys. Some of it i am sure is punky. I wonder if a blower on it will help out the punky wood though. If i decide to use it i plan to move some of it this weekend and cover it until it is needed in the spring. It should dry out nice by then. I would think even dry punky wood would burn then. Am i wrong?

[wiam]

Thanks guys. Some of it i am sure is punky. I wonder if a blower on it will help out the punky wood though. If i decide to use it i plan to move some of it this weekend and cover it until it is needed in the spring. It should dry out nice by then. I would think even dry punky wood would burn then. Am i wrong?

I have had a hard time gettin pine that was punky to dry. And when it gets dry not much heat. If it is not punky it is worth using.

[SeanD]

We used pine last year. it burns great however you won't get the BTU of a hardwood from pine. This year we have mostly hardwood that is split wrist sized. I do have some pine that i will mix in. I like pine for getting the fire going and hardwoods for long hot fires. With the pine we had to fire about twice as much as when we used hardwood. Here is a list of the BTU output of wood. Should help you. If it's cut already then burn it.

Jason

Will a larger piece of pine generate the kind of BTUs that a wrist-sized piece of hardwood puts out?

I picked up a batch of seasoned quarter-round pine that is so knotty I can hardly get my maul through it. I'm at the point where a lot of the pieces may just have to go into the evaporator as is. I have enough other wood split small that I could just work one big piece in once in a while.

Do you think the big pieces kill the boil?

Sean

[3rdgen.maple]

Am I the one thats confused or you BTU guys? Seriously here is my thoughts and deal with the BTU debate. BTU's for wood are based on a cord of wood correct? Now we all can agree that a cord of hardwood burns longer than a cord of pine right? So with that said you get more BTU's out of a cord of hardwood than a cord of pine. Any one disagree? But guess what I could really truly give a rats behind how many BTU's I get out of my sugar wood cause my only concern is how darn hot the wood burns to get those pans ripping. I am willing to bet that if you were able to measure the temp of a good dry piece of pine and a good dry piece of hardwood you will find that the pine burns alot hotter just for not as long. Personally I would rather be shoving wood nonstop so I can get to bed sooner than be throwing in wood less often and be up longer. Done it both ways and I will pick up a piece of pine before I reach for a hardwood in my evaporator.

[allgreenmaple]

Am I the one thats confused or you BTU guys? Seriously here is my thoughts and deal with the BTU debate. BTU's for wood are based on a cord of wood correct? Now we all can agree that a cord of hardwood burns longer than a cord of pine right? So with that said you get more BTU's out of a cord of hardwood than a cord of pine. Any one disagree? But guess what I could really truly give a rats behind how many BTU's I get out of my sugar wood cause my only concern is how darn hot the wood burns to get those pans ripping. I am willing to bet that if you were able to measure the temp of a good dry piece of pine and a good dry piece of hardwood you will find that the pine burns alot hotter just for not as long. Personally I would rather be shoving wood nonstop so I can get to bed sooner than be throwing in wood less often and be up longer. Done it both ways and I will pick up a piece of pine before I reach for a hardwood in my evaporator. Pine does burn hot. Must be why I've got about 15 cords of it.....:lol::lol::lol:

[SeanD]

Am I the one thats confused or you BTU guys? Seriously here is my thoughts and deal with the BTU debate. BTU's for wood are based on a cord of wood correct? Now we all can agree that a cord of hardwood burns longer than a cord of pine right? So with that said you get more BTU's out of a cord of hardwood than a cord of pine. Any one disagree? But guess what I could really truly give a rats behind how many BTU's I get out of my sugar wood cause my only concern is how darn hot the wood burns to get those pans ripping. I am willing to bet that if you were able to measure the temp of a good dry piece of pine and a good dry piece of hardwood you will find that the pine burns alot hotter just for not as long. Personally I would rather be shoving wood nonstop so I can get to bed sooner than be throwing in wood less often and be up longer. Done it both ways and I will pick up a piece of pine before I reach for a hardwood in my evaporator.


I must be the one confused about BTUs, so skip that part. The rest of the post is what I really want to know the answer to.

Sean

[jasonl6]

Will a larger piece of pine generate the kind of BTUs that a wrist-sized piece of hardwood puts out?

I picked up a batch of seasoned quarter-round pine that is so knotty I can hardly get my maul through it. I'm at the point where a lot of the pieces may just have to go into the evaporator as is. I have enough other wood split small that I could just work one big piece in once in a while.

Do you think the big pieces kill the boil?

Sean

A large piece can kill the boil. I know some folks around me use slab wood and if the though a huge flat piece in you can see in the pans were it is not boiling as good. I have AOF/AUF and can burn just about everything and anything. Last year i had a pallet full of bunks from lumber (4"x4"x4') i through those in whole and they really ripped (they are kiln dried). As for the pine/hardwood debate. I use both. I normally use wood that i am cleaning up from around the property so if i have hardwood i use that and split it small. If i have pine i use that and split is small. As for using a mall on knotty wood...get a gas wood splitter, you can split wood sideways if need be.

Jason

[3rdgen.maple]

Pine does burn hot. Must be why I've got about 15 cords of it.....:lol::lol::lol:

Good point must be why I have 12 cords of it too lol.

[SeanD]

As for using a mall on knotty wood...get a gas wood splitter, you can split wood sideways if need be.

Jason

Yeah, I know. It's on the wish list. I'm still at the point where I don't need it quite enough to justify the big money. Someday.

Sean

[BryanEx]

The original post in this thread was asking about 10~15 year old dead pine... some of which was on the ground. If the trees had died a year or two ago I would recommend the wood but not at over a decade ago. If you can split it cleanly okay, but if it comes apart in chunks it's far more suitable as mulch or a bug's breakfast that firewood.

[adk1]

I agree. Not much sence of taking the time to split it if what your going to get out of it is miniscule.

[Forrest hunters]

So I was in the woods yesterday and looked at this old pine. I found a lot of it i could push my thumb into but there is also a lot of good wood there too. I will leave the squishy stuff for the bugs and use the rest. Found some good old sassafras i can use up too. clean up a little bit of the old stuff out there anyway.

Thanks,
Rob