Burning conifers

[Bearcreek]

My dad burned wood for over 30 years, and from my childhood, it was FORBIDDEN to put ANY KIND of pine in that wood stove! I'd have got beaten!

A lot of folks in the east think that way and generally speaking, the eastern pines aren't great firewood. Here in the west though, I've found Lodgepole to not be too bad at all. Not top of the line certainly, but better than red maple. About like ash maybe.

Side note: There is quite a large contingent of eastern firewood burners who think that anything with needles is a pine. That confuses the issue further.

 

[xraydaniel]

A lot of folks in the east think that way and generally speaking, the eastern pines aren't great firewood. Here in the west though, I've found Lodgepole to not be too bad at all. Not top of the line certainly, but better than red maple. About like ash maybe.

Side note: There is quite a large contingent of eastern firewood burners who think that anything with needles is a pine. That confuses the issue further.

I tend to burn EWP in my firepit due to the smell and crackle pops. All the high btu hardwoods go in the Jotul because those give me an all night burn.

 

[Del_]

Burning variegated china berry for the past few day with a few rounds of crepe myrtle and a chunk or two of sycamore.

I'm an equal opportunity pyro.

Burnt some Leland cypress last week.

 

[freeasaburt]

In the midwest, the only thing we have that is Thuja is the Western Red Cedar. They can get 30 feet tall, and they burn real well once dried.

I had a friend ask me once (long before I became a woodburner) to bring some firewood to his house for a party he was having. I didn't have any seasoned firewood, but I thought that cedar tree we just cut up would take off like a torch. All those volatile terpenoids, right?

Nope. Boy was I wrong. He had that wood in the fireplace with the gas ignitor under it for an hour or more. It smelled nice, but it obviously was never going to burn on it's own.

Branches burn quite ok when green, obviously with lots of smoke. Some put them in their stove, which I think is pretty stupid. Outside it's fun to do, although I usually wait untill they are somewhat drier.

 

[Smitty Smithsonite]

Here in their native range, Western red cedar gets huge. 200+ feet tall and 8+ ft. diameter isn't unusual. Here's one that I drove past on a recent hunting trip. For reference, my pickup bed is 6' 4" wide. The wood catches fire easily and burns fast.

WOW that thing is HUGE!! All the trees that big around here were cut down for lumber over 237 years ago. I probably have a few planks from them in this house. Actually on this side of the country I don't think anything ever came close to that size.

 

[Smitty Smithsonite]

A lot of folks in the east think that way and generally speaking, the eastern pines aren't great firewood. Here in the west though, I've found Lodgepole to not be too bad at all. Not top of the line certainly, but better than red maple. About like ash maybe.

Side note: There is quite a large contingent of eastern firewood burners who think that anything with needles is a pine. That confuses the issue further.

Yep, I'm one of them, lol. Anything out this way with needles is a pine.

 

[Bearcreek]

Yep, I'm one of them, lol. Anything out this way with needles is a pine.

You've got lots of non-pine conifers in MA. Should get you a good eastern tree ID book and do some reading.

 

[Smitty Smithsonite]

I never cared enough to look into it. IF I were burning wood, anything with needles ain't goin' in my stove - don't much care what it actually is.

 

[snobdds]

I have never burned a piece of hard wood in my life. I'll gladly take the pine, fir, and spruce. Easy to process, easy to dry, easy to burn.

You don't know what you don't know.

 

[nathan4104]

Our only hardwood in this area is White Birch. Or Poplar/Aspen if you want to consider it a hardwood...... so we burn alot of Conifer. We have Jack Pine and Spruce (white and black) Tamarack is also around. Soft wood can only be harvested dead standing for fuelwood. Most land around here is public land, so that's the rules..... some loggers will sell softwood for firewood but it's usually small pecker pole stuff. Dead sstandingis good to burn almost right away, anything else is good to wait 6 months to a year. We don't seem to have many chimney fires around here and I know a lot of people burn green/ not good dry wood.

 

[Bearcreek]

I never cared enough to look into it. IF I were burning wood, anything with needles ain't goin' in my stove - don't much care what it actually is.

I have never burned a piece of hard wood in my life. I'll gladly take the pine, fir, and spruce. Easy to process, easy to dry, easy to burn.

You don't know what you don't know.

For most folks, there's no immediately pressing reason to educate themselves about really much of anything that goes on outside their own little area. IMO, knowledge of these sorts of things is worth having, even if I may never have a practical use for that knowledge. At the very least, it helps you to have more intelligent conversations.

 

[Chris-PA]

I never cared enough to look into it. IF I were burning wood, anything with needles ain't goin' in my stove - don't much care what it actually is.

Actually, it (conifer, fir, pine, stuff with needles) burns fantastic in a secondary combustion stove, which is all about igniting the volatile compounds cooked off by the hot coals. It burns hot and clean.

Sassafras will do the same for a little while - unfortunately what's left after the volatile stuff burns is almost fireproof.