Seasoning firewood

[Luvin' Labs]

Don't burn ANY Pine in your fireplace. Fat lighter is ok for starting the fire, but pine logs can leave a lot of build up in the flue which can catch fire later. Stick to hardwoods for burning.

[LabLuvR]

You can burn pine, but go to my rule #1. You must burn a HOT fire every now and then to keep creosote from builing up. Pine is not a great choice, I will admit, however, if you follow rule number 1 you can burn about anything in moderation.

[Luvin' Labs]

You can burn pine, but go to my rule #1. You must burn a HOT fire every now and then to keep creosote from builing up. Pine is not a great choice, I will admit, however, if you follow rule number 1 you can burn about anything in moderation.

Most people don't follow this rule. It's easier to burn hardwoods all the time then having to worry about build up and house fires later.

[tsigmon]

Green wood= cresote= potential chimney fire . Green wood won't burn hotter even if you have a substantial fire to put it on. Green wood has water in it , water don't burn. Any hard wood will be good, some better than others . Oak ,Hickory, Locusts, Ashe, Walnut, Cherry, Sweet Gum, Black Gum Poplar and pretty much and thing else that is deciduous. Try to stay away from pine and cedar. Try to get a stockpile to where what you cut this year you burn next year , keep the rain off of it.

[GBelly]

its just hardwood
same as deer

[Duck cutter]

I’ve heard the “throw a piece of green on there to make it burn hot at night” thought process from a bunch of folks over the years. Never have it any consideration if there was merit to it or not.

Too much fat light does create a lot of soot, as others have said. Rutland makes some good brush and rod sets for cleaning metal chimney pipes and they also make a powdered additive that you can throw into a bed of hot coals on occasion that is supposed to really reduce creosote buildup and make end of season cleaning easier. I ordered some of it a while back but have not used any to see how well it actually works. It gets pretty good reviews on Amazon though.

If you want to get into the science behind some of it check out the FHC forum, lots of good knowledge over there from people that burn way more than you’ll have to in the South. You can also look up BTU charts for different kind of woods if you really want to go down the rabbit hole.

I’ve never cared for sweet gum to burn, always heard my dad said it burned too fast and is aggravating to split. Elm is aggravating to split as well, very fiberous and doesn’t cleanly pop apart when on the splitter but it does burn okay for me. My Grandad tells a story of how they used to split wood with homemade wedges made from leaf springs and he had seen the wedges break when splitting elm with them.

If you decide to buy a log splitter don’t even think about a small one. I have a deal with one of my neighbors, I keep his log splitter running and in good operating condition and I can get it whenever I need it. The one we use is a 27ton and It still strains sometimes with a big piece of oak or elm, no way I’d consider anything smaller than that.

[CurLee]

DC, do you use any special kind of chain(or grind)for cutting lighter stumps? I have seen you're truckload pics. Ive got enough to last three lifetimes and usually just take a hatchet out and collect a years worth, but I wanna take some big chunks to some friends in WV. Those pines up there don't make fat lighter.

[charlie horse]

Get one of these, I can split my hickory into smaller pieces for my cooker, and i make the wife small pieces of oak for the indoor fireplace. I have a 25 ton splitter but i don't fire up to split a few pieces.

https://www.northerntool.com/shop/to...6b67494b1eab73

[Duck cutter]

DC, do you use any special kind of chain(or grind)for cutting lighter stumps? I have seen you're truckload pics. Ive got enough to last three lifetimes and usually just take a hatchet out and collect a years worth, but I wanna take some big chunks to some friends in WV. Those pines up there don't make fat lighter.

No, I’ve never done anything other than just a standard chain. May have cut some of the bigger ones with a skip tooth chain on a bigger saw once or twice but it wasn’t really intentional or for special reason

[everlast]

Eric - I will give you a fat lighter stump or two if you need them. When they stumped the hay fields around me 100 years ago they piled it all on the edge of my property. I’ve got more than me and my next 3 generations will ever burn.

That would be awesome, Jon. I appreciate it

[DRDUCK]

I got alot of chimney brush's and 3 fiberglass sections that need to go if anybody needs them. Last time the roof got gone we took the woodstove out. Not because of the woodstove--Tornado

[Tigerbdog]

No, I’ve never done anything other than just a standard chain. May have cut some of the bigger ones with a skip tooth chain on a bigger saw once or twice but it wasn’t really intentional or for special reason

Knowing that, how often do you re-sharpen or change your chain when cutting fat lighter?

[CUduckreeper]

Knowing that, how often do you re-sharpen or change your chain when cutting fat lighter?

I always go off what my chips look like to determine when it’s time to sharpen.

[Sasha and Abby]

I have never cut a live tree for firewood.
Much easier and better for the trees to cut a dead one or one that blew over in a storm. This way, they are already seasoned. I look for a "blue" oak... the bark turns a shade of blue/gray after they have died and are still standing. These make the best firewood in my opinion. Live oak is the bee's knees but it is hard on saw teeth and a bitch to split.

[2thDoc]

Google is helpful, but not too much interactive dialogue. It's always a gamble here, the ratio of helpful/ not helpful but more times than not you'll get at least one person who's willing to answer some specific

not it

[2thDoc]

You can burn pine, but go to my rule #1. You must burn a HOT fire every now and then to keep creosote from builing up. Pine is not a great choice, I will admit, however, if you follow rule number 1 you can burn about anything in moderation.

I've been burning my fires too cool. Can someone help me burn a HOT fire?

wtf
its monday. did i miss a memo over the weekend? isn't duck season sort of here? Are we really discussing aging firewood and burning HOT fires?

this week is just gonna suck, huh? thanks for the heads-up you bunch of fucking weirdos.

[2thDoc]

now i get it
sasha is here, too

i'm telling you. strange things are afoot....

hey carl!!!

[Duck cutter]

I've been burning my fires too cool. Can someone help me burn a HOT fire?

wtf
its monday. did i miss a memo over the weekend? isn't duck season sort of here? Are we really discussing again firewood and burning HOT fires?

this week is just gonna suck, huh? thanks for the heads-up you bunch of fucking weirdos.

We already determined you gotta throw some green on there if you want it HOT

stick with the program

[Palmetto Bug]

The fast growing pines don't make as good of fat wood as slow growing varieties like Long Leaf. Note in the picture how close the annual rings are. On a Loblolly, each ring might be a half inch wide and most of it is the pithy light wood that doesn't have a lot of sap.

Not all fat wood is from stumps. My favorite kind of fat wood is the left over inner heart of a pine snag that stood dead and let the sap run down and the outer layers rot off. This lighter wood is straight grained and splits really well into nice, consistent strips.

I don't think fat lighter is really that bad on chainsaw blades. Dirt is the real problem. If you just barely touch the dirt with the blade or sometime even cut a dirty piece of wood, it will dull the crap out of the blade instantly.

I like burning live oak but I wouldn't even try to split it with anything but a hydraulic splitter. It has a twisty grain that doesn't like to let go.

fat wood rings.jpg
fat wood.jpg
fat wood2.jpg

[charlie horse]

kfc-logs.jpg