# Can Pine Cones be used as firestarters?



## sandie (Dec 6, 2009)

I was wondering about pine cones as firestarters, will they create creosote or not enough to matter?  They have the resin on them and that will start a fire even if the pinecone is wet so thought why not but thought I would ask since do not want to create a problem.  
I am now able to get my fire up to 400 -450 but with kndling and a couple of small splits but then when I add a bigger split I am not able to sustain the hot fire, it drops to maybe 300 and do not how to sustain a higher temp.  Do I add one or two splits when I am at the 400  or do I load in one get a good licking fire and then load in a few splits leave the damper open and thermostat open til it is up to 500 and then close the damper, and slowly close down the thermostat to half open ?  I would love to get to 500 and sustain 500 for a while to burn off what I am sure I have got in pipe since I am not sustaining the 500.
So pine cones yes or no and how to keep the temp up in stove are the questions.


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## John the Painter (Dec 6, 2009)

My opinion is that pine cones are fine.I don't think you'd use enough to make creosote a problem.As for maintaining the temp. I use kindling the smaller splits and leave my door open a crack until the wood gets burnt down to almost a bed of embers then trough on some bigger stuff.It takes a little while but what's better than enjoying sitting in front of a crackling stove that you started.


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## begreen (Dec 6, 2009)

Pine cones make great fire starters are long as they are dry.


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## North of 60 (Dec 6, 2009)

sandie said:
			
		

> I was wondering about pine cones as firestarters, will they create creosote or not enough to matter?  They have the resin on them and that will start a fire even if the pinecone is wet so thought why not but thought I would ask since do not want to create a problem.
> I am now able to get my fire up to 400 -450 but with kndling and a couple of small splits but then when I add a bigger split I am not able to sustain the hot fire, it drops to maybe 300 and do not how to sustain a higher temp.  Do I add one or two splits when I am at the 400  or do I load in one get a good licking fire and then load in a few splits leave the damper open and thermostat open til it is up to 500 and then close the damper, and slowly close down the thermostat to half open ?  I would love to get to 500 and sustain 500 for a while to burn off what I am sure I have got in pipe since I am not sustaining the 500.
> So pine cones yes or no and how to keep the temp up in stove are the questions.



Pine anything can be used in your stove.  For starting and burning.  Dry is the key for any wood.


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## pgmr (Dec 6, 2009)

"Ever eat a pine tree? Many parts are edible."


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## sandie (Dec 6, 2009)

GREAT because we have lots of pinecones around here/  Would you use instead of the kiindling wood or in addition?  O have a good fire going right now and about 450 degrees so will let it burn down to hot coals and then put on a nice good sized split and see where that takes me but would like not to drop down and then go back up, would love to stay at 500 for at least 45 min and then go back to 350 or so but for sure the wood was the problem, I have some many year dry that are about 1-3 inches round and 16 inches long and that is what is burning now along with the kindling one piece of which was I think some pine board but very dry.


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## Motor7 (Dec 6, 2009)

Dip them in candle wax and they go up like a torch. I know...too much work, but some friends gave us some like that in a basket of fatwood. 

RD


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## sandie (Dec 7, 2009)

I probably set the house on fire getting the candle wax to melt to put the pinecones in.  Candle wax has a low flash point.  The pine cones are dry and the resin on them light quickly but di not want to gunk up the chimney pipe but with y'alls encouragement will use the huge supply of pine cones.  How long does it take for them to dry from time they fall?  The ones I have, have been on ground for a long time and in house for a while.


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## pgmr (Dec 7, 2009)

I wouldn't keep them in the house to dry out.  Lots of bugs like to take up housekeeping in pine cones.


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## sandie (Dec 7, 2009)

Thanks, I will put them out in garage.


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## bsa0021 (Dec 7, 2009)

Difficult to stack for drying


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## Valhalla (Dec 7, 2009)

Almost pine everything! From natural fire starters to kindling
and fuel. 

The good folks in Scandanavia and the Northwest have 
so much of it.


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## creeker (Dec 7, 2009)

Good to hear about pine cones.  Next year.  

I'm a newbie, and I've been working on keeping the temp up, too.  With my Hearthstone Phoenix, my best results have been with using kindling and several very small splits to get the temp up quickly, and establsh a bed of coals.  I seem to have a 'critical heat' point (for want of a better term) of about 350.  Once I attain that, I can start tossing in slightly larger splits.  I do not leave the door open for too long.  Just a crack for about 5 minutes to engulf the kindling, then shut the door and leave the damper wide open.  I'm finding that so so much depends on the wood.  Good soft basswood or pine for flashing up the temps, then the harder stuff.  What I'm learning is that keeping the splits smaller (about half the size of a typical split-wood delivery - although I personally am a scrounger).  They're just easier to control the fire with.   I'll toss a big sucker on for overnights, and don't mind tending a bit more often with the smaller splits.  If I want more heat, I just increase the overall mass of wood in the box.  Good luck.

What kind of stove do you have?


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## sandie (Dec 7, 2009)

Recently got some seasoned Maple. but before that it was "seasoned oak and kiln dried oak" and it was neither seasoned or kiln dried.  I must look like a real sucker.  Anyway I need to find a motherload of seasoned wood, like some older person who has wood but does not want to bother with a stove anymore or something have a friend who offered me the Maple and he has some but it is not split and he mixed old with new so ,,,,, do not want to start splitting now but if I need to, will.   There is a guy down the road who cut every single tree out of his yard so now is BALD and cut the wood and it is sitting at the fence of his property but not sure if he uses it.  Will go get a sledge hammer and two wedges to split the wood soon if I need to.
Where do you scrounge wood?


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## CrawfordCentury (Dec 7, 2009)

Pine cones are great, as are the old knots. All that resin puts out a lotta heat real quick. 

We go through a lot of pine in our stove. No one around here wants to touch it. Which is fine by me.

I split it up real fine with an ax for kindles, and the sections that are a little knotty are used for shoulder season heating.

Pine in general gets a bad rap because people damper down those quick hot fires to artificially extend their burn times.

It's great wood for what it is. Just don't try to make oak out of it.


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## highmark800 (Dec 7, 2009)

We burn pine, spruce, fir and aspen. Pine cones if dry are good for fire starter. Smaal spilts of soft wood are good too. Like what was said ^ dont make something out of what is not.


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## firefighterjake (Dec 8, 2009)

Yes . . . you can burn pine cones providing they are dry. I usually gather up a bag full of them in the Fall, although to tell the truth I don't tend to use them much since a) they often have sap on them which is sticky, b) they don't stack as well as kindling, c) I've got a lot of cedar and pine board kindling already and d) I prefer the kindling since it is a little more "meaty" for the restarts . . . however I still collect the cones . . . figure I might use them. I know my wife likes using them . . . and that is a good enough reason for me to collect a bag of them.


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## Skier76 (Dec 8, 2009)

I have a huge bag of them. I usually use two when starting a fire. If they're not 100% open and dry, I'll toss them in the middle of my kindling. Once a little heat gets to them, they go up instantly. We had so many in the yard and woods by our house in VT. I spent a grand total of 20 minutes collecting what I imagine will be an entire burning season's worth.


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## ROYJ24 (Dec 9, 2009)

WARNING!  DO NOT USE PINE CONES AS STARTERS.  OR BURN PINE.  Just send it to me, I will dispose of it properly.  NO need for Thanks.


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## sandie (Dec 13, 2009)

The use of pine cones has really worked out well for me and then some ?kind of wood from pallets for kindling and I am off to the races with 400-500 stove in 15-30 min later.  I put in one split and some small diameter wood(2-4" )along with the kindling and this gets good hot coals.  I then wait til it drops to about 200 degrees and then put in 2-3 splits of good size and have a 400 degree fire for only a couple hours at most and then have to reload.  so I feel I am getting the knack but seem to think it should last longer but maybe I am wrong. How to get a longer burn?  I as of yet do not have a blocking plate down at bottom of chimney and feel I am losing lots of heat up the chimney around the pipe, there is a plate at top but my bet is that is not a great plate up there either.  I have a call into the chimney guy who installed and he called saying he has NEVER put in a blocking plate at the lower end of the chimney and will check out cost of the plate and firewool to insulate it.  Hope that will retain the heat better, also the stove is placed in between two stone walls and backs to the fire place so the heat from sides and back go straight to the rocks and not out to the roon so air only really is circulating by the front and the top of the stove which I think also is aproblem.  I started the stove at 9 this AM and the room was 59 degrees, it is now110PM and the room is 64.4 and the outside tem is 40 but this morning it was 27 degrees outside.  I feel I am not getting the heat I should for the amt of wood I am using.  I am using dry wood now and well seasoned.  I need more and may try BioBricks
Suggestions??????????????


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