Making kindling

There's a toothpick in this log somewhere...

Like the old Chip and Dale cartoons. Logging company takes a large tree, feeds it into a pencil sharpener like machine and grinds it down to produce 1 toothpick per tree.

Jags said:

I take my trusty boy scout whittling knife, grab a log and whittle it down to the perfect size for kindling. It takes a while, and I only get 1 piece of kindling per log, but it works.

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Another good use for my wood carvings... Heat!
Now if I could only figure out a way to get my wife's pottery to burn!

sly22guy said:

We need some pics or even better a video of that
I agree i nearly lost a finger trying to split smaller pieces, just look for a local wood working shop, around here we have a lot of cabinet making shops and they always put out big bins of scrap.

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When I get some pallets together, will do.

My wife bought me one of these a couple years ago http://www.firewood-splitter.com/

One of the better maual designs (imo), but not great for processing knotty or gnarly stuff. What it IS good for is making kindling! You can place the wedge right where you want it and keep your hands out of the way. I have a need for a lot of small stuff during the season so this thing comes in handy.

I have a 40 gal trash can filled with scraps from splitting, plus there is a massive downed pine behind where i work that i cut a few rounds off and split then pretty small with the hydraulic splitter for kindling...

Here what i use its Sweeet!http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=274937-302-1215300&lpage=none

I found a guy (customer) that has a pallet repair business. I go over there and he has a dumpster about 40' long and 8' tall filled with pieces of broken pallets. I take a trailer, climb up and throw a ton in and at home store stacked up in the garage. Since I have a bakery I just trade some donuts, believe me, donuts talk.

andybaker said:

I found a guy (customer) that has a pallet repair business. I go over there and he has a dumpster about 40' long and 8' tall filled with pieces of broken pallets. I take a trailer, climb up and throw a ton in and at home store stacked up in the garage. Since I have a bakery I just trade some donuts, believe me, donuts talk.

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Wish you lived closer

I don't NEED kindling. I think it's a hassle to deal with. The only time I use kindling is when it builds up and I want to get rid of it. Then I just throw a bunch of it in the stove to get some quick heat. I use SUPER CEDARS. One puck can be cut into 8 pieces bringing the cost to approx. 8 cents/each fire. Lay the piece of SUPER CEDAR on a split on the bottom of the stove and light it. Then load the stove with all your wood (regular sized,no kindling necessary),open throttle full. Set it and forget it (check it in 10-15 minutes to drop the throttle down). I used kindling when I first got my stove. I had to baby-sit and make sure it didn't go out. Not any more . . . .

I use a pair of bbq tongs to hold the small stuff and split with hatchet : )

Great idea donatello, where do you get these cedar blocks? That would be cheaper and easier, less time, than what I do. I've got to check that out.

andybaker said:

Great idea donatello, where do you get these cedar blocks? That would be cheaper and easier, less time, than what I do. I've got to check that out.

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http://www.supercedar.com/

Send them an e-mail, and they'll give you a couple of free samples to try out. I use 'em and I love 'em. Rick

me and my neighbor went in on a truckload of reject cedar fence boards. 4' long by 6" wide by 3/4" thick. warped and cracked, but only 8$ to fill a fullsize truck. we used my chop saw to cut them to length, then i used my band saw to cut them with the grain into strips. we both spent a saturday making kindling, but i have enough to last 10 years!

fattyfat1 said:

we used my chop saw to cut them to length, then i used my band saw to cut them with the grain into strips.

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Damn, that's just plain outright cheating.

I select straight grain knot-free pieces of Black Ash and split it into ever smaller "halves" sometimes along the rings, sometimes perpendicular to them. I use a 2 1/2 pound axe. Once the pieces are too small to stand on their own, rather than swing the axe to the wood, I choke the axe handle at the head and holding the wood to the edge, I tap it against the chopping block. The inertia of the axe head does the work. If the split starts going to one side, I flip the piece over and try from the other end. I average pieces 1/2 to 3/4 inches thick.

When working out in the bush and I need kindling, I just find some standing dead wood and cut a piece lengthwise with the chainsaw. It makes long curly straw-like material that will ignite from the heat of the exhaust.

LLigetfa said:

fattyfat1 said:

we used my chop saw to cut them to length, then i used my band saw to cut them with the grain into strips.

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Damn, that's just plain outright cheating.

I select straight grain knot-free pieces of Black Ash and split it into ever smaller "halves" sometimes along the rings, sometimes perpendicular to them. I use a 2 1/2 pound axe. Once the pieces are too small to stand on their own, rather than swing the axe to the wood, I choke the axe handle at the head and holding the wood to the edge, I tap it against the chopping block. The inertia of the axe head does the work. If the split starts going to one side, I flip the piece over and try from the other end. I average pieces 1/2 to 3/4 inches thick.

When working out in the bush and I need kindling, I just find some standing dead wood and cut a piece lengthwise with the chainsaw. It makes long curly straw-like material that will ignite from the heat of the exhaust.

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I was on MTF tonight and thought of you because of your avatar and sig. "I wonder if he knows about Hearth.com" .apparently you do! I'm starting to run into tractor forum people all over the internet. It's warm here, Ilike it...................

I was on MTF tonight and thought of you because of your avatar and sig. "I wonder if he knows about Hearth.com" .apparently you do! I'm starting to run into tractor forum people all over the internet...

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LOL Small World.
Someone over at MTF thought I was BrotherBart of this place. I had to come over here to see.

Now, I've been known to take lumber scraps and buck them to length on my chop saw but I resort to using the axe to split them down to kin'lin size. Of course I'll also have machine cut strips but those are just trimmings from other woodworking projects.

Show me the Tank!

I go through a pile of kindling as well, usually have to light in the morning then again when I get home from work. Up until now I have been holding the split with one hand and wielding the axe with the other. Reading this post and seeing the different ideas people have got me to thinking, I wonder how one of those filter wrench type tools would work to hold the split, the ones with the adjustable rubber strap. You could adjust the rubber to tighten snugly around just about any sized split keeping your hand clear of the axe blade. Think I will try it this afternoon.

I really don't see much risk to the hands with the way I split kin'lin. First off, I don't use a super sharp axe. Choke the axe at the head with one hand. Hold the small split to the cutting edge of the axe with the other hand. Move axe, wood and hand in unison toward the chopping block, tapping the wood gently on the block. Since your hand and the axe are both travelling in the same direction, Newton's third law has no bearing. Newton's first law will ensure the inertia of the axe head causes the cutting edge to penetrate the wood slightly at which point it is no longer necessary to hold the wood. Follow through with progressively harder blows and you've got your kin'lin.

I select straight grained healthy wood, no knots, and start by splitting it into quarters as you would any wood. I then split each piece in half again until they are too small to stand on their own. Then I revert to using Newton but continue splitting each piece in half again until they are the size I want. If you try to split thin "shakes" off of a larger piece, they tend to produce tapered wedges and you have to keep flipping the wood over to even them out.

When selecting a chopping block, it should have a surface that is not quite level. This way if the piece you're splitting is not cut perfectly square, you can rotate it until it stands on its own.

since i got a new splitter i now use this to make kinding - works just fine

The neatest and easy way to make kindling is with a log splitter!

I burn a fair amount of soft maple, so as I am splitting, when I come across a nice looking piece, I simply split it into about 1" square pieces with the splitter. It is amazingly fast doing it this way and the only thing you have to be careful about is, depending upon the wood you are splitting, some could snap off and want to go flying. I've had that happen a few times but only a little sting.

My method is to sit while splitting wood (a necessary thing with my body). Using an old milk crate with a hot seat on top, I just put my left hand on the log and right hand on the lever. It takes very little movement of the wedge to make the split. Raise the wedge to just over the log and bring it back down again.

Then as I am stacking wood I will put kindling in the ends of the stack. We also go around after all the splitting and rake up the wood chips and those also can be used.

Backwoods Savage said:

We also go around after all the splitting and rake up the wood chips and those also can be used.

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I couldn't be bothered myself, but I've seen those small paper bags from the wine store used to hold the wood bits. Just toss one in and light the paper.

The wedge on my splitter is too blunt to split kin'lin and it would bother my frugal mind to run the splitter for such trivial work. My splitter uses so much gas that I'm tempted to reserve it only for the tough stuff.

...Maybe not.

How bout one of these welding clamps for holding onto a split. Should keep your hand far enough away so you don't lose a digit.

http://images.toolspot.co.uk/Welding/Claw Welding Clamp_t.jpg

ilikewood said:

Anyone have a good "gadget" idea for holding small kindling in place when splitting?
Basically, was wondering if anyone had made a "holder" type "thingy"...excuse the verbiage....basically, something that will hold a small log in place, and one can just shear off small bits for kindling....was thinking a holder of some sort...perhaps a hollowed out log, and place the log in the middle so when you start to split it, it will stay in place?

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Don't hold the piece you are trying to split enar the top. Hold it 1/3 up from the bottom.

Your fingers will thank you.