A few of the Amish up here are giving away pine slabs cut 16” free. Never burned pine. Question, once dry will pine throw a lot of sparks?

it makes fires
and you can get it dry

dry pine doesn't throw as many sparks but in a wood stove not an open fire place it is a non issue

i have used pine split small and dry as a good way to stoke up a fire in the morning
and get them going , it burns easy

had a big pine fall at a friends place I burned all kinds of it it was a huge tree like 40 inches in diameter

If they have any of the pine knots that is what you are looking for. A pine knot will get a fire started and rolling good in no time. If its free I'd say take it!

My experience with pine is that it throws fair heat, burns up fairly fast, and leaves quite a bit of ash. But, it makes good kindling for starting fires.
When I burned pine logs, I liked to throw a hard wood in with them like oak or ash. By the time the pine burned out the hard woods were going good.

I burn about 12 cords of Ponderosa Pine every winter. Keeps the house and garage warm. It doesn’t throw sparks

Nothing wrong with pine, it's wood, it burns, it makes heat...

I once heated the house with white pine a friend had that broke during a hurricane, probably 30" diameter. Just had to load the stove more often. Is there better wood? yep, but free trumps all...

Dry pine is great firewood, I burn 4-5 cord each year.

I like it in the fall and spring, easy to light and warm up the house quick then let it burn out.

Dry pine makes great kindling, problem is, it makes a lot of creosote, so full time heating with it is problematic.

creosote is cooling exhaust gas the first fire of every day should be air controls open to really get the chimney warmed up good and the wood burned up completely

if you burn small pieces hot and fast you warm the flue quickly and dry it out and creosote flakes off and falls back to the bottom

it is when you have cool flue gasses , a cold chimney and incomplete combustion that the unburnt gasses and water vapor condense and make the sticky creosote mess

once you have it all up to a good operating temp larger pine or other wood can be burned and dampered down once fully consumed in flame for several minutes , you alwasy want to get stuff going well before dampering it down

I use pine slab wood for kindling every year ....also prefer to burn pine in my campfires it puts of a good amount of light and a lovely odor ....

Thanks for the info. Going to pick up a load Thrus.

If we were a bit closer I'd get u some fat lighter. Still common down here.

Heck it’s only about 1100 miles. lol

I pick up the lightered pine when I see it. Have a small pile at my hunting property. This is what has traditionally been used here for kindling as long as I can remember. It is the sap saturated core of old southern pines. There are many stumps scattered around the southern piney woods. Logging ops expose them. Some are huge and are the core of virgin pines.

In the western mountain states pine is all there is to burn. When in Rome do as the Romans.

I don't know what western mountain states you are thinking of but here in north Idaho you can't give ponderosa pine away. I have two decks of it from when we cleared our house site I wish someone would take. I burn it but to most locals it is considered barely better then cottonwood. Here everyone wants larch,douglas fir and birch in that order.

Send it over that’s all we got here!

the issue with cotton wood is trying to move it , it looses more than half it's weight when dry , mas is it heavy when fresh cut

ponderosa pine is only 1/3

btu values , weights and ash https://forestry.usu.edu/forest-products/wood-heating