Best way to start a fire Paper vs Fatwood vs super Cedars or make your own (from a Cedar fence)?

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gzax

gzax

New Member
Sep 22, 2015
44
Framingham, MA, US
Hello everyone,
Just got my quadrafire Voyager installed yesterday. The installer who has been doing this for about 20 years told me not to use paper to start the fire as the ash gets easily picked up by the draft and often ends up in the chimney and it only gets ugly once you start burning wood with a little bit of moisture(that could build creosote it only makes things ugly). He recommended using fatwood as it is the best way to do it.

I was on the forum and online in the evening and noticed some of the folks recommend super cedars over fatwood.. I did notice an interesting post from one of our members(Kenster) .. Here it is. Unfortunately the post was closed for further comments,

"Go buy you a cedar fence post for a three rail fence. Cut it into ten inch lengths then split it up into pencil size sticks. The wood is super dry, and being cedar, will light fast and burn hot to help get a fire going very quickly. A nine dollar post will give you about eight hundred home-made "fat wood" starters. I've been doing this for years."

This sounds like a great idea.. Anyone has tried this? Does the Cedar fence have any pressure or chemical treating on it as it is supposed to be out and has to withstand all the elements?
 
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I get 2x4s from work. I cut them with a chop saw and then split them small with my little 5 ton electric splitter. One Rutland fire starter square and it takes off. I also have scrap wood from the local high school wood shop that works well. I'm gonna buy some super cedars though just because they get great reviews.
 
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Babaganoosh said:
I get 2x4s from work. I cut them with a chop saw and then split them small with my little 5 ton electric splitter. One Rutland fire starter square and it takes off. I also have scrap wood from the local high school wood shop that works well. I'm gonna buy some super cedars though just because they get great reviews.
Click to expand...

Thank you..
 
I use scrap lumber too but eventually it does run out. I always keep a few dozen super cedars around when
I want a fire fast. They light much better than the store bought starters.
 
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Oh and I used fatwood last year until it ran out. It works well.

You might want to hit up the shorts area of the lumber department of home depot because they will sell you scraps for next to nothing A little work and you will have lots of kindling.
 
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Cabinetry and flooring shops are also a good source of unfinished scraps.
 
That and/or find someone that has or uses a planer. My neighbor uses one fairly often so I pick up a trashbag full of the shavings (almost look like long pencil shavings).

A small pile of the shavings under some scrap lumber bits and a single match will light it off. Make sure the scrap lumber bits are small (long and narrow tend to work the best).

I also use paper from time to time and havnt had any issues...

-Chris
 
I reach in the closet and take out a Super Cedar. I never want to see another piece of kindling or fatwood again as long as I live. Life is too short to mess with cutting up kindling.
 
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For around six years here I avoided Super Cedars and stuck with messing with kindling. Tried just two and it was like the first time having sex. Wanted to kill myself for what I had been missing.
 
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Am I reading correctly that you guys do not use newspaper?
 
I'm gonna have to try the super cedars. Can you buy them at big box stores or do you buy them online?
 
I use newspaper, junk mail, office paper, whatever I can get my hands on. I also have an entire room full of lathe boards from my house renovations. Chimney gets cleaned once a year. Should be noted I only burn wood in shoulder seasons tho. Switch to coal in winter time in stove.
 
My favorite is a nice bed of hot coals. Whatever construction scraps I generate around the house over the summer go first. I also pick up the small pieces around my splitter, plop them into laundry baskets, keep them out of the rain and use those next.

When I run out of all of the above, I can generally pull some kindling off my splits and get those going with a bit of paper, just a sheet or two of 8.5x11 is enough, I don't like paper ash wafting up my chimney either. I am careful to pile a bunch of little pieces of wood on the paper to hold it down.
 
I might have to try the cedar fence post idea. I usually just split my own kindling and I'm too cheap to buy any sort of fire starter.
 
Ash said:
I might have to try the cedar fence post idea. I usually just split my own kindling and I'm too cheap to buy any sort of fire starter.
Click to expand...

I was too until I tried one. Way easier than splitting a wood post down. Very little mess and small storage space.
 
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In the 17vl I was starting a cold stove virtually every day. I tried multiple firestarters and eventually stuck with a quarter of a Super Cedar and some kindling. As far a firestarters go I've tried four or five different brands including Fatwood and there's just no comparison to SuperCedars. They really are, by far, the best firestarter available. Lots of methods and firestarters are going to work including good ol kindling and newspaper. It's really a matter of how often you have to start a cold stove IMO.
 
I use newspaper and pine, any kind of pine tree I can get. Cut it into 12 inch lengths and split real small, let it dry for a year.
I don't know of any particular problem with newpaper ash clogging the pipe, never heard of that one. I clean the pipe once a year and I burn a lot of wood.
 
Scrap lumber, Rutland safe lite fire starters cut into 4 pieces use one at a time, news paper, whatever works and is on hand.
When I have scrap cedar it does split super easy and lights easily as well. A 10" long chunk of 4 x 4 cedar will yield 30 sticks.
The news paper and creosote sounds a little overly cautious. ...
 
daleeper said:
I was too until I tried one. Way easier than splitting a wood post down. Very little mess and small storage space.
Click to expand...

Same here . . . but that said . . . I still use kindling . . . and every once in a while I'll go "old school" and touch off the fire without a Super Cedar -- but those Super Cedars sure make things easier.
 
I have tried them all...
As far as firestarters go - Super Cedars are, by a large margin, the best on the market.
1/4 of a puck, a stick lighter and shut the door.
 
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I always thought fire starters were silly when there was newspaper, scrap wood, etc. but once I tried them I was a convert! SO much easier than either of those options and much better at starting fires. I use 1/2 a puck, light it up, close the door and it starts up no problem. I've tried fatwood and other starters but Super Cedars are BY FAR the best!
 
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What alot of people dont realize is even if you have a bed of hot coals you can use a Super Cedar to make startups faster so you can get your stove shut back down quicker and on your way for the day.

More importantly, if your wood isnt the best it helps to kick things into gear on bed of hot coals. Hot coals on the bottom and a super cedar up on top of the wood load.

For newbies you load the wood filling the stove completely full and just leave enough space up top to put your super cedar. Leaving this small space allows that supercedar to really heat up that small space up in the top of the stove and since the heat builds fast and intense it ignities the wood for you quicker than leaving a large space.

If you burning North/South leave a tunnel of love a small space in the middle of all the North South wood to insert your super cedar and light it off. Did I just type all that? Wow!
 
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