How do you light your stove?

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This is one area where pine really shines. Many wood burners shy away from pine,but they all agree it burns hot and fast. Old lathe boards ,if you can find some are excellent for starting a wood stove. I have barrels of them from my line of work. I still cant use em all.
 
Cedar, too. I have a near infinite supply of that stuff, and it's my primary kindling wood.
 
Cedar, too. I have a near infinite supply of that stuff, and it's my primary kindling wood.

I once dug a couple of small cedars out of the "bog" (mucky area in a low spot on adjacent property) and propped them up for the season (actually can't recall exactly for how long). Eventually they dried right out, I cut and split into kindling, plus a few uglies that just went into the fire. Not big trees, and no idea how long they'd been down, and they were really stuck in the loon sh** - but they were still solid, dried out and burned great. Cedar is awesome. I still throw some bits in with my "dog's breakfast fire starter" when I can. Love to bring an armload inside when I can just for the aroma - love the smell of fresh split cedar. I could sit in a room with a handful of these, and an open can of fresh ground coffee, and almost get high. OK - that's a bit weird - but these are 2 amazing aromas to have in the room.
 
Sometimes i use fire starters sometimes newspaper.

One of my main goals is getting the chimney up to temps as quick as possible.
 
i only use a few small splits and news paper. lights right up with no problem. i think the biggest key to it is the smaller splits and to make sure its properly seasoned wood.
 
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2 pieces of crumbled newspaper, small strip of cardboard, and a piece or two of pine kindling... This can be lit in between the top layer of splits (I load N\S).

I have a hot fire going in 10 minutes with stuff that I already have around the house, everytime.
 
I really like a fatwood stick or piece of a supercedar in the morning. There are coals and sometimes it works, but I'm usually in a hurry, haven't had coffee yet, and don't want to spend 10 minutes coaxing newspaper and kindling to light my wood. Works fine the rest of the time but in the morning I need the super simple solution. Maybe there's an idea for supercedar packaging in here...before your coffee firestarter, or something....
 
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I once dug a couple of small cedars out of the "bog" (mucky area in a low spot on adjacent property) and propped them up for the season (actually can't recall exactly for how long). Eventually they dried right out, I cut and split into kindling, plus a few uglies that just went into the fire. Not big trees, and no idea how long they'd been down, and they were really stuck in the loon sh** - but they were still solid, dried out and burned great. Cedar is awesome. I still throw some bits in with my "dog's breakfast fire starter" when I can. Love to bring an armload inside when I can just for the aroma - love the smell of fresh split cedar. I could sit in a room with a handful of these, and an open can of fresh ground coffee, and almost get high. OK - that's a bit weird - but these are 2 amazing aromas to have in the room.
Yeah thats wierd lol
 
I use scraps of construction lumber whenever I have it, split 2x4s, etc. Since I recently finished renovating my cabin I have lots of cutoff pieces of pine moldings and such (lots of long tapering pieces since nothing in that cabin is straight!) that work great for kindling, whether started with newspaper of the Cape Cod firestarter I mentioned a page or two back.
 
Handful of noddles and a handful of splitter trash and in 2 min shes aroaring...throw on some 1 to 2 inch pieces and I can have the stove top up to 4-500 in nothing flat... Oh-yea that NW Piney wood too...
 
I still have a lot of scraps of wafer board from house building. I cut it up into small pieces for kindling. I also have quite a supply of scrap lumber around, from the house building, and from some woodworking that I do.

We use the 5 oz waxy Dixie cups in the Bathroom for mouthwash, taking pills, etc. I save these all year for fire starting.

When I have no coals to start with, I lay down two medium-sized splits, with a space of about 3" between them. I crumple up 1 or 2 sheets of newspaper and place it between the splits. I then tear up 2 or 3 of the paper cups and place them on top of the newspaper. Next, I place a few pieces of kindling wood. I top it off with some small to medium splits. I light the thing off with a long-snout butane lighter. This almost always works great.

Rarely, the newspaper and paper cups burn up without getting the kindling going (probably because I did not use enough paper or paper cups). On those occasions, I pull out Plan B. Plan B is my MAPP gas torch. That never fails. I only have to hold the torch to the firewood for 30 or 45 seconds and the fire is started. My wife kids me when I do this. I think of my MAPP gas torch (with the pushbutton igniter) as a lighter on steroids. The torch shuts down as soon as you let up on the button, so I think it is as safe as most any other method.
 
sooo super ceder is the way to go aye. i have been using the rutland squares for about 3 years may have to give super ceder a try.
 
just got a reply from supercedar saying my samples our on their way, look forward to trying them out
 
Ya know.... I heat my shop, a seperate building, 2k sq ft open floor plan, with my vigilant..... My house is heated with gas boiler.... It's November, in Buffalo..... I have yet to turn the heat on in my house. In fact the other night the boiler kicked on because I forgot to remove one screw on the thermostat so that wouldn't happen (off level the thermostate = won't turn on). Meaning the house was down to 50f or so. Some of us don't have the luxury for such things as bottled water, and a huge house and 75f year round.... Just saying....

Some of us, we're forced to switch completely over to wood heat because the gas bill for heat is too high... Something to consider... For me, $600 a year for firewood, to keep my work space, my shop, comfortable, is alot cheaper than $200 a month during the slow season - winter.. To keep the shop chilly at 50. Not to mention, condensation on tools does horrific damage.

I have seriously contemplated putting in a wood stove in my house. However I do need atleast 2 more years with my stove before I make that move. I didn't grow up with wood heat and have learned everything I know first hand... Need less to say, the ceiling in my chop is now a nice shade of grey from my learning experience. I don't want my homes ceilings grey too, so need to do some painting and see how all works out before I make the plunge... The $2,000 plunge... As much as my local govt charges me to send a bunch of spoiled rotten rich kids to school for the year....but that's another rant...

Just know, that some of us, arnt as gifted as you. I looked up the super cedars... I'll stick with my free saw dust, and super cheap wax... It's too expensive for a convenience. It is what it is....

I apologize if that came off as prickish

Do what you will but look for a used stove and tractor supply at least around here among other places had good pricing on Dura-vent+ chimney stuff I have well under 1k tied up in my setup with stove hearth chimney all of it plus the first 1.5 cords of wood bought the year before the install. I do not need the latest and greatest i need heat rather than perfect.
 
sooo super ceder is the way to go aye. i have been using the rutland squares for about 3 years may have to give super ceder a try.
Glad this thread has been revived--very helpful because I just had a T5 installed and haven't used it yet. The installer told me to break it in with three fires each using one duraflame log with increasing amounts of wood. What do you think?

For 10 years, in my old stove I used one firestarter (Duraflame or similar) in between a couple of large splits, a couple of smaller splits on top and then a couple of pieces of newspaper tucked in the back to warm up the pipe (it was a cat. and firebox opened directly to pipe). Lit the paper and the firestarter with a long match. Usually had a fire within 10 minutes. I don't know if that will work in this new stove.
 
2 or 3 pieces of junk mail usually does the trick or a few pieces of cardboard or newspaper. Why pay for something fancy. If your wood is dry. I bought some firestarters dirt cheap from wal-mart off season 75% off an i still dont use em. Got to get rid of the junk mail somehow.
 
2 or 3 pieces of junk mail usually does the trick or a few pieces of cardboard or newspaper. Why pay for something fancy. If your wood is dry. I bought some firestarters dirt cheap from wal-mart off season 75% off an i still dont use em. Got to get rid of the junk mail somehow.

Every time i get junk mail I laugh and think free fire starter..
 
Thanks to this forum I have changed the way i start the fire for this season. Last year I used heaps of news paper and messed around with different layers and patterns of small wood. This year I only use a hand full of scrunched news paper and have dry cedar to do most of the starting. as a result I don't have to split as much small wood, and go straight to large bits.
 
Have a small fire going tonight using up the trash wood on a 40 degree night and not able to sleep but at least quite warm! Starting is easy 2 large EW a bunch of small stuff on top a couple sheets of newspaper in the corners. 30 seconds with a propane torch in the small stuff then light off the paper job done in under a minute.
 
I dont have to chop kindling as i have an unlimited supply of lathe boards i need to get rid of they are about 1.5" wide and 1/4 "thick.
 
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