What is the next best firestarter after a super cedar??

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If you have a Home Depot near you they are selling bags of fat wood sticks for $5. I've found maybe 3 or 4 sticks will easily get a fire going along with a couple news paper knots. Any of you do that with the newspaper?
 
A little bit of paper in the center and log house style of thin splits is all I've ever used, works well getting the firebox preheated.
 
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My first year burning I used paper knots and smaller splits to get a fire going. It sometimes used quite a bit of paper!! lol

Andrew
Newspaper knots, pffft, can't believe I ever used those myself. They work well enough if that is what you have. Check out my Magic Oak Noodles!
 
I use a couple different things.
- Dryer lint and toilet paper tubes (you take your dryer lint and cram it in the toilet paper tube and it only takes a couple to get a log cabin started.
- Pine cones

If I use them both together it works even better and they are both free :)
 
I use a couple different things.
- Dryer lint and toilet paper tubes (you take your dryer lint and cram it in the toilet paper tube and it only takes a couple to get a log cabin started.
- Pine cones

If I use them both together it works even better and they are both free :)
I love the TP tube idea!
 
I would not use the TP/lint combination in a cat stove. Maybe I'm too conservative, since presumably all fumes/chemcials would be burned away by the time the cat is engaged. But I would not do it. Just like I would not burn cardboard or cloth in my cat stove.
 
I tried pine cones dipped in candle wax. OK, but then a member from Texas
put me onto pine cones soaked in kerosene. Just so happens I had a bunch
of Y2K kerosene. Heh! Too old now to use for anything other than cleaning
greasy auto parts- but boy does it enhance pine cones! Easy starting this
way. This has been so successful and reliable a method for me that I'd no
longer even bother trying other methods. But Super Cedars definitely are
awesome! Guess I've got a poor man's form of them. BTW old, sour
kerosene seems to have a very long shelf life in this particular application.

May not be a good idea if you have a catalytic wood stove.

BTW let me hasten to add that Kerosene is about the only accelerant I would
consider using this way. I know of no other which has all the necessary
properties. Many are quite explosive, like gasoline, etc.- or the flame spread
is too fast, whereas Kerosene is pretty slow.

Think of it this way- you've heard of kerosene lanterns, right? Or oil lanterns,
etc. But not gasoline lanterns, right? There you go...

I've come to think of cones and kero as quite a safe and reliable method.
YMMV...
 
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I tried pine cones dipped in candle wax. OK, but then a member from Texas
put me onto pine cones soaked in kerosene. Just so happens I had a bunch
of Y2K kerosene. Heh! Too old now to use for anything other than cleaning
greasy auto parts- but boy does it enhance pine cones! Easy starting this
way. This has been so successful and reliable a method for me that I'd no
longer even bother trying other methods. But Super Cedars definitely are
awesome! Guess I've got a poor man's form of them. BTW old, sour
kerosene seems to have a very long shelf life in this particular application.

May not be a good idea if you have a catalytic wood stove.

BTW let me hasten to add that Kerosene is about the only accelerant I would
consider using this way. I know of no other which has all the necessary
properties. Many are quite explosive, like gasoline, etc.- or the flame spread
is too fast, whereas Kerosene is pretty slow.

Think of it this way- you've heard of kerosene lanterns, right? Or oil lanterns,
etc. But not gasoline lanterns, right? There you go...

I've come to think of cones and kero as quite a safe and reliable method.
YMMV...

I can certainly agree about that method. I have used pine cones dipped in Kerosene before. Usually for outdoor fires though.

I remember kerosene heaters in the 1980s. Man oh man it made the ceiling yellow!
 
Think of it this way- you've heard of kerosene lanterns, right? Or oil lanterns,etc. But not gasoline lanterns, right? There you go...

Ummm....

coleman.png

But your point is still valid.
 
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Next best are. Rutland Safe Lite Fire Starter Squares $13 ,144-Squares
 
I use a little cardboard, some splitter trash on top of that and light with torch. I think a tank of propane is $3 and will last a couple seasons if that's all you use it for.
 
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I just got an awesome gift -a whole box of Fatwood from L.L. Bean!!!

I've never used this before for a firestarter. Typically I just use newspaper and twigs to get it going.
This will be the first pine I've ever burned in my fireplace insert!

Any experience (good or bad) with Fatwood?
 
I have always heard that you gotta be careful with pine. I think it is because it burns quite hot (burning purely pine wood, not using it as a firestarter).
 
Fatwood is from the stumps of conifers. It has concentrated resins in the "sticks". They light well enough but they give off a black smoke. I used to buy them in 30lb boxes from Plow &Hearth catalogue. LL Bean is the next volumn seller.
I put them on top of newspaper and then pile kindling on top of fatwood sticks(3-4).
But I process 5cords of wood a year from trees harvested from my own woodlot. I have all the kindling Im willing to pick up.
I like the kerosene soaked pine cones idea, it sounds effective. I think Ive seen smudgepots in Plow & Hearth as well.
 
Fatwood is from the stumps of conifers. It has concentrated resins in the "sticks". They light well enough but they give off a black smoke. I used to buy them in 30lb boxes from Plow &Hearth catalogue. LL Bean is the next volumn seller.
I put them on top of newspaper and then pile kindling on top of fatwood sticks(3-4).
But I process 5cords of wood a year from trees harvested from my own woodlot. I have all the kindling Im willing to pick up.
I like the kerosene soaked pine cones idea, it sounds effective. I think Ive seen smudgepots in Plow & Hearth as well.

Thanks for the insights on these!
 
I had forgotten about the old Coleman 'white gas' lanterns. Oops! My bad. Bad example.
But anyway, the flame spread and volatility of gasoline are horrendous, unless you
harness them in an internal combustion engine, etc. Kerosene is a nice, well-behaved
accelerant with slow flame spread, perfect for 'open flame' type situations like lantern
wicks or as fire starters.

Ummm....

coleman-png.113635


But your point is still valid.
 
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