Preparing "Heart Pine" for Kindling

I can remember when I was a kid on the farm.  From time to time, Dad would "bring new land" into the farm, meaning we would plant rice on a piece of land that had been fallow since, well forever.  Clearing that land was quite an undertaking.  One of the last things we'd do before opening up the land with a plow was collecting pine knots and heart pine.  We would pull a wagon through the field and toss all the pine knots on top.  Eventually we'd pile up the old pine somewhere.  This heart pine was the very center part of old-growth long-leaf pine trees.  It was resistant to rot and decay and insects.  It lasts forever.

I still have some and still use it.  We never hooked up the gas jet to our fireplace to start firewood.  Why do this when you have heart pine that you can split into kindling?  Below I'll show you how I did it the other night.

I use a double-headed ax that I sharpen up.  Cutting heart pine is not like cutting any other wood.  It is hard as stone.  I stand the heart pine on end and then commence to cutting kindling off of it.

I said heart pine lasts forever.  I may be exaggerating there, but there is really no telling how old some of this stuff is.  I want you to look at the photo below closely:

That old post is solid heart pine.  If you look closely, you can see an old, rusty hinge on it along with a dozen or so nails and staples that were all hammered into it decades and decades ago.  I'm sure it was not easy to drive nails into this wood.  I have that old post, but I'll probably never cut it for kindling.  I think it has a lot of character and longevity and speaks volumes about quality.  If you buy a "landscape timber" at a hardware store, that thing will begin rotting as soon as you put your turn signal on leaving the parking lot.  This old log of heart pine stands the test of time...

From another heart pine log, I carefully cut long skinny pieces of kindling.  The wood smells like Pine Sol and is sticky to the touch.  The colors of red, yellow, and amber are rich.  If you inhale the scent, it reminds you of simpler times.

I put these pieces in the wagon along with some firewood.  I'll put a stick or two of heart pine kindling on the fireplace grate and then put some dry firewood on top.  I crumple up a piece of newspaper or two and strike a match.  Fire consumes the newspaper I've placed under the heart pine and it quickly ignites.

The sap-enriched wood crackles, sending up billows of black smoke that coats the inside of the fireplace, ensuring that we'll need to call a Chimney Sweep to come and clean our chimney from time to time.  Heart Pine is an old relic from the past.  I'm glad I have a pretty good supply of it as its existence is growing rarer by the day.

Keep the Home Fire Burning!