Firewood question - Old man pine

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › Firewood question - Old man pine

FKM

50 posts

Geek

#293806 14-Feb-2022 22:28

I have moved into a house that uses a log burner and trying to source firewood for the upcoming winter. I am receiving seemingly conflicting advice for old man pine.

Some said it is not good for heating at all as it smokes a lot during burning and will clog the chimney. Some said it is great as it is easy to burn like pine but burns longer like the harder wood.

Which of that is true?

neb

11294 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 10018

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2868438 15-Feb-2022 00:30

The name is a bit of a misnomer, it's radiata pine but not grow-quickly-harvest-quickly, it's stuff that's been standing for a long time and so is more dense and resinous than quick-grown radiata. So both of the comments sound true, it's more dense and so will burn longer, but with the extra resin will probably also produce more soot.

k1w1k1d

1715 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1317

#2868466 15-Feb-2022 08:19

We normally use pine, oregon, and macrocarpa in our log burner.

One year we got "old man pine", but NEVER again. It had that much resin in it that we couldn't control the heat. The top of the fire was glowing red. Even the bottom 200mm of the flue was red. Very scary! I chopped it down into smaller blocks so that we could mix it with normal pine to get rid of it.

duckDecoy

946 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 432

Subscriber

#2868507 15-Feb-2022 09:55

It generally refers to pine that's been slowly growing, so its more like hardwood than the pine you get from plantations.

I have burned old man pine for many years and it is definitely hotter and slower burning that the normal pine you get from suppliers, although I never ever had the issue a previous poster had with it making my firebox too hot. I'd definitely use it again if I was given access to it.

MikeAqua

8032 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3823

#2868521 15-Feb-2022 10:30

I'd call it a medium burn wood.

Burns hotter and slower than regular-pine/willow/poplar and slower and colder than gum, manuka etc.

No good for banking a fire. Good to mix a little in with a soft wood like pine/willow.

Mike

eracode

Smpl Mnmlst
9336 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6209

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2868528 15-Feb-2022 10:44

k1w1k1d:

We normally use pine, oregon, and macrocarpa in our log burner.

One year we got "old man pine", but NEVER again. It had that much resin in it that we couldn't control the heat. The top of the fire was glowing red. Even the bottom 200mm of the flue was red. Very scary! I chopped it down into smaller blocks so that we could mix it with normal pine to get rid of it.

That's very interesting. Would it have been OK if you had put less in the fire? Maybe you stoked it up as you would for less-hot-burning wood.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

MikeAqua

8032 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3823

#2868584 15-Feb-2022 12:58

I once had a whole lot of old rimu weather boards to burn (they all splintered coming off). Had to be careful how many we put into the fire at once. We called them rocket fuel.

Mike

Dell

Shop now for Dell laptops and other devices (affiliate link).

Swept

46 posts

Geek
+1 received by user: 84

#2877075 1-Mar-2022 16:25

Hi, Chimney Sweep here.

Avoid using Old Man Pine - very resinous hard wood. As other posters have mentioned, it burns very hot due to the high resin content and also leaves a massive amount of soot build-up in the flue and will often require multiple sweeps in a season.

It comes out like big chunky soft pillow insulation and is very dangerous (soot, or more correctly, creosote is flammable and this is what starts chimney fires).

So, at best, avoid it. At worst, use a small piece and mix it in heavily with other dry woods.

More resin = better burn at higher temps (so Old Man Pine & Blue Gum should not be used on start up), but can smoke and block the chimney.

Canterbury Chimney Sweep

neb

11294 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 10018

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2877394 1-Mar-2022 21:19

Swept:
Hi, Chimney Sweep here.

That's what I like about this place, there's always someone on here who can answer the question. Coupled-cavity TWT alignment problem? Sure, I used to service those at work, here's what you do...