# Recycle My Pine Trees?



## pawleys (Oct 24, 2010)

I'm having 5 huge pine trees cut down in my yard.

Would this be good for firewood for an outside firepit?

Or kindling?

Even consider hiring someone with a portable saw mill to cut up for lumber, 
but don't know how I'd dry the wood properly without a kiln, or what this 
lumber would be good for. 

It just seems like a whole lot of wood to let go to waste, if it were practical to save.

Does anyone have any recycling ideas?


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## Bspring (Oct 24, 2010)

Wood is too abundant in SC for anyone to mess with 5 trees for lumber. It is unlikely that you will find anyone willing to use it as fire wood. Pine usually goes to the dump unless there are several acres of it.


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## Dix (Oct 24, 2010)

If you have a wood stove or insert, you can burm it as firewood. You can burn it in a fireplace, too.


It just has to be seasoned.


Welcome to the forums !


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## pawleys (Oct 24, 2010)

Thank you for your welcome (and ideas!)

(Sounds like the lumber idea is out.)

It's for me to burn in my backyard this winter.

Doesn't sound like it would be seasoned in time.


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## geoffm24 (Oct 25, 2010)

Burning outside is fine, it needs to be seasoned to burn correctly indoors so it doesn't create creosote.  Creosote isn't an issue in firepits.


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## Wood Duck (Oct 25, 2010)

I'd season it and burn it in the wood stove in a year or two. If you are burning it outside, you don't need to be too concerned with seasoning, since you don't care about wasting a little energy evaprating the water in the wood, and you don't care about creosote, since there is no chimney. Pine is nice for outside fires because it burns nice and brightly, giving off a lot of heat and light quickly. It won't burn as long as hardwood, but who cares? Adding wood to the bonfire is part of the fun.

I think sawmill operators would be concerned about nails and wires in a backyard tree.


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## CJW88 (Oct 25, 2010)

Cut and split it for firewood next winter.


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## firefighterjake (Oct 25, 2010)

I'm with the Duck and CJ . . . buck it up, split it up and let it season for next year . . . or if you are so inclined throw some in the outside fire pit once in awhile. Pine also makes nice kindling . . . sounds to me like you're sitting on a near life-time supply of kindling and some good shoulder season wood (if you're willing to let it sit around for a year or so to season) and fire pit wood . . . 

As mentioned . . . five trees will not make a lot of lumber and will most likely not be worth the time or expense of getting a portable mill to come to the site . . . especially if you don't have any concrete plans for using the lumber . . . and as Duck mentioned some folks would be leery of cutting up wood in a yard due to nails, wires, etc.


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## Backwoods Savage (Oct 25, 2010)

pawleys said:
			
		

> I'm having 5 huge pine trees cut down in my yard.
> 
> Would this be good for firewood for an outside firepit?
> 
> ...




Welcome to the forum Pawleys.


Generally, you can forget almost everything you hear about burning pine. Most say to not burn it in a stove which is pure baloney! Pine is fine. As for the outdoor burning, you can do that any time you can get it to light. So do not waste it!

To burn in an outdoor fire or in an indoor stove is the best way to recycle pine.


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## pawleys (Oct 25, 2010)

Thank you for giving me hope.

Practically speaking, how much of a hassle would using the pine trees 
for outdoor burning really be?

Wouldn't the logs need to be split?

What about the sap factor?


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## Backwoods Savage (Oct 25, 2010)

For an outdoor fire it just depends upon how large of a fire you want. No, they do not have to be split so long as you can get them started to burn. Naturally, start with small stuff and wait to throw the bigger logs on after the fire gets going good. 

As for the sap factor, the only concern is getting it on yourself. That is easily taken care of though as there are many ways. Our favorite was is to put a dab of Miracle Whip on the sap and rub it in. That same comes off easier than dirt that way.


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## jeff_t (Oct 25, 2010)

I wish I had some pine for the fire pit. We just got home from the last camping trip of the season. It's only 20 minutes from my house, so it's the only time I can actually take my own firewood. Just burned up 1.5-2 weeks worth of the good stuff in 2 days.


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## Backwoods Savage (Oct 25, 2010)

Perhaps I should have added that within the last month I cut down a small pine. I simply hooked it onto the atv and drug it over to the neighbor. They almost always have a fire going in an outdoor pit so they really like it when I give them wood. It burned just fine for them. What were they then burning? Another pine which had fell on our place and I told him if he wanted it to just go cut it up and haul it away. It is nice to keep the neighbors happy.


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## firefighterjake (Oct 25, 2010)

Backwoods Savage said:
			
		

> pawleys said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



+1 to what Dennis said . . . pine is fine!


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## mesuno (Oct 25, 2010)

I saw recently, can't remember if it was on here or elsewhere, someone who had made an outdoor fire from one 4ft long log. Simply use your chainsaw to cut down the length of the log through the centre to about 1ft from the far end. Repeat two more times, turning it each time so that your three cuts end up evenly spaced.

Stick some kindling and small stuff in the top of the cuts and light it.

The whole thing burns like an upright bonfire.

Might save some effort cutting and splitting logs if you are planning to burn them outdoors anyway.


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## PapaDave (Oct 25, 2010)

Do any of those things with it. If you plan to burn it, dry it first.
Look for someone local who has a portable sawmill if you want some lumber. Sticker it up on some treated 4x4's in the yard or under a lean-to.
I've got some stickered in the side yard from a couple years ago. I used a bunch of it to side the new woodshed I built this spring. It's also being used to finish trim the stove room. I'll find other uses for it. Oh yeah, the cutoff pieces get used in the stove, or if they're nice enough, they go to a friend who likes to make signs. I also have some split and stacked since this spring. Been burning that almost exclusively so far this year, and will continue until it's gone. In the woodstove .....that's in the house. 
All is well.


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## Pagey (Oct 25, 2010)

Half or more of the wood I burn each year is pine.  I cut/split/stack it for at least 6 months, and it burns as clean or cleaner than anything else I run through the stove.  Forget the legends of pine being a creosote monster.  Sap is not what "makes" creosote: moisture and inefficient combustion make creosote.  Personally, I use pine exclusively for all my shoulder season fires in the fall and spring.  I save the oak, hickory, and locust for the overnight burns when it's really needed.  If I don't burn all this beetle kill pine it will just lay around and rot.  I hate to see it waste like that.


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## pawleys (Oct 25, 2010)

Great, great information.   Thank you everybody for your help.  Pine IS fine.

To follow up to Mesuno in the United Kingdom concerning "someone who had made an outdoor fire from one 4ft long log",  if I understand correctly, this is called a Swedish Candle Log.

Very neat suggestion, and this is new to me.  Here are some links about the Swedish Candle Log:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEHSJftQ9Vg&NR=1

Swedish Fire Log


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CypliISMfc&NR=1

Fire Log


http://www.associatedcontent.com/slideshow/11224/swedish_log_candles.html?cat=24

Swedish Log Slideshow


http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1385761/swedish_log_candles_burn_like_magic.html?cat=24

Swedish Log Candles Burn like Magic


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## Wood Duck (Oct 26, 2010)

It looks like that swedish candle log was seasoned a while before it was burned. There is no bark and the wood looks a little weathered. If I was plannig to use the pines outdoors, I'd do the same as if I was going to use them indoors. I'd cut to a useable length, maybe 18 or 20 inches, and split each length a few times, then stack to season. Split wood is a lot easier to light than rounds, and really big rounds like your trees are not easy to toss on a fire. It is just easier to have split firewood if you are starting with large diameter trees, in my opinion. I enjoy splitting, so that probably has a large influence on my answer...


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## mesuno (Oct 26, 2010)

Yup - thats the bunny a Swedish Candle :D

I'm dying to try one of these out next time I have a fire out in the woods. But the we have lots of old down trunks out there - a mix of oak, chestnut and beech. I'm sure I could donate a log to the cause.

And yes, I think they do need to be well seasoned before lighting. I guess if you put the cuts in place before stacking it it would dry much faster than a whole round log.


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## jebatty (Oct 26, 2010)

I own a portable mill, Woodmizer, and transporting it to cut up a few trees all depends on how big the trees are plus some other factors. You said your trees were huge. I got more than 1000 board feet of lumber out of one huge white pine tree; quite a quantity of the boards were 18" wide, and I used these for plank flooring in our bedroom - pretty dramatic. 

5 huge trees with 40' feet or more of straight trunk could produce more than a day of sawing and well make it worth hiring a sawyer. If you go that route, have the logs cut into the final length dimension you want + 4" (8' log is 100", 10' is 124", etc.). Also know how thick you want the boards cut: 1", 4/4, 5/4, etc.; maybe some 2 x 6 or larger (where I live 2 x 4's are too cheap to buy to bother making my own).

Now the caveat. If these are yard trees, there is a high probability that they will have nails or other debris in them. I tell my customers that each time I hit a nail, the cost is an additional $35. Nails do a bad number on saw blades. This can mean that the bottom 6-8' may be unusable for sawing, and there is lots of lost lumber here.

If you have space, drying the freshly cut boards is not necessarily a problem Talk to the sawyer as to how to do this correctly. In a nutshell, it is a must that the boards be immediately stacked flat outdoors on stickers with good ventilation. Late fall may not be a good time to to do this if you have low temperatures and/or lots of rain due to slow drying. In summer, a stack of wood in my area may dry to 18-20% in about 4-6 weeks. At that point the boards may be stacked indoors for future use, which may require planing, edging, and dimensioning, unless you can use them rough cut as is (great for utility shelving, interesting ceiling or paneling, and other uses).

I also give a strong endorsement of use for firewood. I burn pine almost exclusively in my Tarm.


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