# What to do with pine log?



## burroak (Oct 18, 2010)

I cut down a white pine that was 30" at the stump, and had fun doing it. But now comes the hard part. What the heck am I going to do with such a huge pine log? I already have a 4-year supply of hardwood firewood, so using it for firewood is out of the question. What are my options? Is there a way I can use this thing, or even make money off of it? I'm not sure if a sawmill will buy it since it had some very large branches, but I guess I should ask before "throwing it away."

Right now the best plan is to pull it into the woods with the tractor and let it rot. However I would like to be more creative than that. Any ideas??


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## banshee67 (Oct 18, 2010)

burroak said:


> I cut down a white pine that was 30" at the stump, and had fun doing it. But now comes the hard part. What the heck am I going to do with such a huge pine log? I already have a 4-year supply of hardwood firewood, so using it for firewood is out of the question. What are my options? Is there a way I can use this thing, or even make money off of it? I'm not sure if a sawmill will buy it since it had some very large branches, but I guess I should ask before "throwing it away."
> 
> Right now the best plan is to pull it into the woods with the tractor and let it rot. However I would like to be more creative than that. Any ideas??



put up an add on craigslist for "free firewood" .. buck it into lengths and leave it by the road for pickup.. i bet someone comes and takes it, worth a shot, free to list it on craigslist and only takes a couple minutes to do


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## climber338 (Oct 19, 2010)

invite half the world over and have a huge fire at your place. it burns fast and very hot so it would not take long for you to eat it up. You even have a tractor to move the huge rounds. bon fires when its snowing is always a good time. Just a thought.


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## PLMCRZY (Oct 19, 2010)

banshee67 said:


> put up an add on craigslist for "free firewood" .. buck it into lengths and leave it by the road for pickup.. i bet someone comes and takes it, worth a shot, free to list it on craigslist and only takes a couple minutes to do



2nd that!

Anything thats free on craigslist goes quick!


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## flewism (Oct 19, 2010)

climber338 said:


> invite half the world over and have a huge fire at your place. it burns fast and very hot so it would not take long for you to eat it up. You even have a tractor to move the huge rounds. bon fires when its snowing is always a good time. Just a thought.



That's what we do with any wood that is not going in the stove.


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## trailmaker (Oct 19, 2010)

I'm in the same situation, I have a huge doug fir down. I've considered making a small timber frame shed with huge hewn beams from the fir. I'm talking ridiculously oversized beams relative to overall shed dimensions. I've never seen anything like that and I like having stuff no one else has or can buy. 

Another thought I had was to cut a bunch of cookies and lay them over some troublesome areas of brush. Cookies may rot quickly laid out like that however, so it might not be worth the effort.


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## Swamp Yankee (Oct 19, 2010)

Agree on free

An add on CL should get someone with an OWB interest. 

The other option, if there are any locally, is to process it and sell it to campers at a campground. Just don't expect to get rich on this option.

Take Care


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## avalancher (Oct 19, 2010)

Take a look around and maybe put in a craigslist ad looking for someone with a portable bandmill.Some guys will mill into lumber on shares, they take half for their share, you get the other half.Pine dries rather easily if stored on stickers,air dried pine if stored properly should be ready for use after a year.Another advantage to pine is you shouldnt have to paint the edges to minimize cracking and splitting,simply stack on stickers and let nature take its coarse.


I milled over a dozen big pine trees back in 2004 with a homemade chainsaw mill intending to use them for pine flooring,but opted later to use a good deal on oak.Now I have hundreds of board feet of pine for all kinds of projects like bookshelves, shoe racks, etc.Handy to have lumber on hand for projects like that,and a lot of money saved too.


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## mga (Oct 19, 2010)

make a swedish candle out of it


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## adamc (Oct 19, 2010)

I have taken logs like this and ripped them into a few pieces with a chainsaw to lay on the ground and stack "good" firewood on. I have also cut them into 6-8" thick cookies to use as feet under pallets to stack firewood on. It only lasts a couple of years, but when it gets buggy or punky, then it gets chucked into the woods to finish rotting.

Adam


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## beerman6 (Oct 19, 2010)

Totem Pole!


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## BlueRidgeMark (Oct 19, 2010)

Mill that sucker!



You always need lumber around a farm, don't you?


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## cedarman (Oct 19, 2010)

climber338 said:


> invite half the world over and have a huge fire at your place. it burns fast and very hot so it would not take long for you to eat it up. You even have a tractor to move the huge rounds. bon fires when its snowing is always a good time. Just a thought.



I agree^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


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## Jredsjeep (Oct 19, 2010)

i use my pine for all the outdoor "fun" fires and save the good stuff for my woodstove.


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## hoogie (Oct 19, 2010)

For my OWB i only use hardwood except early in the fall where temps are up a little then i throw some pine in er to use some of it up...But this summer i cut it in 20" lengths and split small shrink wraped the bundles and sold em for $5...made over $500 doin that...it payied for all my splitter gas and chainsaw gas...just a thought...


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## gwiley (Oct 19, 2010)

Burn it. Pine seasons quick, smells great and burns easily.

If you don't burn it in the wood stove/OWB then make a few bonfires out of the logs over the winter. I really love a pine campfire/bonfire.


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## leon (Oct 19, 2010)

*pine stumpage*



burroak said:


> I cut down a white pine that was 30" at the stump, and had fun doing it. But now comes the hard part. What the heck am I going to do with such a huge pine log? I already have a 4-year supply of hardwood firewood, so using it for firewood is out of the question. What are my options? Is there a way I can use this thing, or even make money off of it? I'm not sure if a sawmill will buy it since it had some very large branches, but I guess I should ask before "throwing it away."
> 
> Right now the best plan is to pull it into the woods with the tractor and let it rot. However I would like to be more creative than that. Any ideas??



Good morning Burroak,


About your white pine bonus


I would strong suggest that you invest invest in an alaskan mini mill or 
locate someone with a portable band saw mill and do the following which will allow you to have fun and make money at the same time.


1. cut the log to what ever length the band saw mill can cradle safely-
with an Alaskan Mini mill it will not be an issue but will be a bit more 
work as it is a system that will require tow folks using a helper handle.

2. Dimension the pine to four by four inches(actual) and then cut the four by 
fours slightly longer than eight feet to acount for shrinkage.

3 dimension the four by fours to one by ones (actual size) and then stack them to dry out with a tarp and fan to push air through them using a box fan or two.


a. the bandsaw mill will allow you to do this safely and quickly. 




4. The one by ones will be excellent kindling you can sell for fire starters dipping them in paraffin which will be wicked in to the wood fiber. 



5. you could sell one foot by one foot blocks of soft wood kindling soaked in Paraffin.

6. cutting the one by ones to the one foot length or smaller with the band saw mill will be much safer than using a chain saw or circular saw.

With balance of the short log/blocks let you can make one by one stickers for drying the four by four blocks.


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## Mike Williams (Oct 20, 2010)

Guess I'll be finding out next year how pine burns. The guy I'm getting the oak from has several 10 - 20" pines he wants gone as well. I've always avoided burning pine but from the posts here doesn't sound like it will be too bad, especially if I mix in some hardwood with it.


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## avalancher (Oct 20, 2010)

leon said:


> Good morning Burroak,
> 
> 
> About your white pine bonus
> ...



Now why in the hell would you want to go to the expense of hiring a bandmill operator just to make firewood out of it?If you are going to burn it, block it up, split it, and burn the thing.
Pine is good wood to burn, burns hot but fast and for one I no longer turn my nose up at it.Its nice taking a day off from all these heavy hickory logs once in awhile and chunk nice lite weight blocks of pine on the splitter.


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## gwiley (Oct 20, 2010)

Pine is one of the best kept secrets of the OWB.

I load pine logs, unsplit, up to 18" or so directly into the OWB. They are light enough to handle and burn nicely for overnight/untended periods in the milder parts of the year. They restart more reliably after long smoulders too.

Pine doesn't form creosote any more than any other wood - that is a function of moisture in the wood. Dry it properly and you get very little smoke and very little creosote.


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## Cowboy Billy (Oct 20, 2010)

Actually there is a guy that posts here in IN by the Michigan border looking for big pine logs to make chainsaw carvings out of. But I can't remember his log on name.

Billy


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## BlueRidgeMark (Oct 20, 2010)

gwiley said:


> Pine doesn't form creosote any more than any other wood - that is a function of moisture in the wood. Dry it properly and you get very little smoke and very little creosote.





Somewhere around here somebody posted links to some university studies that showed that there is not much difference in creosote between different kinds of wood. Moisture content and how hot the fire is were WAAAAAY more important.


I think pine gets a bad rap because people see the sap burning with its typical smoky flame and ASSUME that it makes more creosote.


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## John R (Oct 20, 2010)

I burn pine in my OWS with no problems at all, I prefer the hard woods, but when the pine is free, it's worth going after.
In an OWS anything that makes BTU's works.


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## avalancher (Oct 20, 2010)

Yeah, makes me kinda sad when i think about all the pine i have turned down. Three years ago a guy that worked at the pallet plant told me he had a whole pile of logs he needed gone.He had cut them down, piled em up nice and neat,then found out the mill wouldnt touch them when he told them he had cut them out of his front yard.
I got over there to take a look, and there were over two dozen pine logs stacked up,all been limbed and sitting high and dry.Most where in the 20 inch range,but since I was pretty stuck on "No Pine In My Stove" I told him I wasnt interested in it.Now I realize that would have made some good wood!


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## Tofurkey (Oct 20, 2010)

I always wanted to make a dug-out canoe. I would at least try some carving or rip them down and make benches for around your fire pit.


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## ultimate buzz (Oct 20, 2010)

*pine log*

You do not say what type of pine logs you have but a lot of chainsaw carvers are always looking for larger diameter logs. Here is a post from the chainsaw carving area off of of arboristsite: 

Thumbs up Chainsaw Artist Map Project
I have been working on a Google Map project to create a publicly accessible map showing all of the chainsaw carvers in the world. It's my hope this map will become a good marketing tool for all chainsaw carvers.

Many carvers have already been listed and I need help finding carvers who are not yet listed. Are you listed yet? Check the map to see... If not, you can send your information to me at [email protected]

Example:
carving business name
your name
location {full address or just city but is mandatory}
contact informaton {optional if you have a website}
website

I have examples of my map at custom zoom levels and code snippets for including it on your personal website or blog at:
http://woodhacker.com/map/
__________________
There is nothing which everyone knows.


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## burroak (Oct 20, 2010)

Thanks for the ideas, guys. You know, If anyone who is a member of this forum wants it, they can have it. Come and get it. Flora, Indiana. If not, I'll see if the mill will buy it.

There are more pine trees besides that 30 incher too. All have been cut down. Just need hauled away. :rockn:


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## goanin (Oct 21, 2010)

Give it to people who do need it..


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## slowp (Oct 21, 2010)

mga said:


> make a swedish candle out of it



Yah.


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