Pine Logs...What To Use Them For?

V

Vivi

BANNED
Joined
Dec 4, 2005
Messages
5,095
I have a bunch of pine tree logs, ranging between 5 inches in diameter to about 10. I'm trying to decide what to do with them outside of using them for fires this winter. Anyone have some ideas?
 
Vivi said:
I have a bunch of pine tree logs, ranging between 5 inches in diameter to about 10. I'm trying to decide what to do with them outside of using them for fires this winter. Anyone have some ideas?
Click to expand...

I have literally thousands of pine trees (lodge pole and ponderosa) on my property. When a few have to come down, I will often build lamp stands, coat and hat racks, furniture, etc. Most of it has gone into the wood stove or fireplace, but if it has some nice personality to it, I put it aside for those winter projects.
 
Most no longer than a foot. Forgot to mention my only tools are SAKs and the usual assortment of knives.
 
Well, pine is soft enough to practice carving, notching, etc. It can produce lots of splinters though, and some of it is filled with pitch, which will get all over you as well as anything you use to cut it.

Other than that, sounds like good firewood.
 
Firewood oudoors, maybe. Pine is a killer to burn indoors. It will build creasote in your chimney and cause a chimney fire.
 
If you are overwhelmed with them, split them and sell them to summer tourists for campfire wood.
 
Build yourself or someone else some "cabin" funature, such as a chair, bench, table, bed frame, you know... get crazy with it. :thumbup:
 
Firewood oudoors, maybe. Pine is a killer to burn indoors. It will build creasote in your chimney and cause a chimney fire.
Reply With Quote
Click to expand...

If you live in a a neighborhood that is inhabited by families other thasn your own, they will hate you if you burn pine. It stink the place up. My neighbor would burn the stuff, and I hated it when he did such- especially when I *knew* that he had plenty of perfectly good wood handy.

As mentioned pine oils and creosote build up in the chimney, which will lead to a fire.

If you have a wood stove, the only use for softwood is in kindling.
http://www.slocleanair.org/programs/woodstoves-tips.asp
 
Chop it up and heat it (very hot) in a in big metal tub, with a fire around the edge and on top, usa a hole in the bottom to collect the "tar" that comes out. You can use it to water proof rope, cook it down for grease. This used to be called Russian Black Gold during WWII, when it was used to replace grease and other oils, as well as being used to protect the Royal Navy's ropes on their sailing ships.
 
My great uncle would burn pine in his woodstove, but, he would split it, and allow it to dry for 2 or 3 years. It would be split into thin pieces, also.
He did so because he didn't have access to any hardwood, at all.

You have to burn it hot, no low slow fires, it's best in a regular fireplace, blazing, to burn off as much of the "gunk" as possible.

And finally, do so on the coldest of nights, better draft and the the smoke will lift out of the area.

If you have access to other woods for firewood, leave the pine alone.

I cut it into sections and put it on the forest floor, or in a ravine, so it rots quicker.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top