Where do you buy kindling?

You can do a few things. Split some of the wood that you bought. Pick up Branch's and break them up. Or see if anyone is getting rid of skids (Industrial area or Home Depot type places).

Start burning 24/7

Those guys selling the cords might be willing to sell you some of the scraps left over from splitting.
I take the square splits from the larger rounds and hatchet them down to 2" thick or so slices and use the smaller scraps as the firestarter.

Buy kindling? Never. I have 2 1/2 Ac of wooded land, pick up plenty of downed branches. Also I whack up the pine for kindling and/or whack up some of the smaller splits from the wood supply.

I have a few acres of 30 and 40 year old pines with thousands of dead extremely dry bottom branches.
In less than a half hour I can have two wheel barrows full, and that's cutting the branches off at the trunk properly.

My fire has not went out sense Nov.

hareball said:

Start burning 24/7

Those guys selling the cords might be willing to sell you some of the scraps left over from splitting.
I take the square splits from the larger rounds and hatchet them down to 2" thick or so slices and use the smaller scraps as the firestarter.

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+1 Go to your favorite supply store and get a hatchet. After some experimenting you'll quickly learn which wood is good for making kindling. I use red oak pieces that come from the middle of larger logs and are square. They usually split easily but almost always come apart on an angle - must be something to do with the grain. Still, they split easily and make great kindling.

About once a year I buy one cedar fence post at the local lumber/hardware store. About five feet long. Costs about $5. I cut it into foot long lengths then split it down to kindling sticks varying from 1/2 inch to an inch thick. A couple of foot long sections will fill my kindling basket that I keep by the stove and will last many weeks. Cedar easily splits straight up and down. I used a hammer and an inch wide wedge/chisel. The posts are about four inch square. I place the chisel in the middle of one side about half inch from the edge and whack it. This makes a nice half inch x 4 inch "shingle" which I then split further into half inch thick sticks. It goes very quickly. A hatchet will also do the job but I find the hammer/chisel combo gives me nice accurate cuts.
The fence posts are very dry and cedar burns extremely hot. They get a good fire going from a cold stove quickly. I also can stick a couple into the hot ashes in the morning to get the fire roaring again quickly.
I also sometimes take a double handful, tie them up in a nice ribbon, and take them as a "host" gift when attending a party or having dinner with friends.

Well my fire does not go out much, we snowshoe and ski until the first or second week in May. Seeing as we are snowed in I have all our wood for the main house in the basement what I do is cut a good tree [one that has very few branches for the first 100' or so] and cut short 12" pieces. I will use those to make kindling in the winter. I like to go down in the basement and split. I make kindling and shavings to start the fire. Never could get much paper out here so make my own. I usually will start using the kindling in march as the snow is still coming but the days are warming. It takes along time for 40' plus to melt.

As a professional cabinetmaker, I always had a good supply of kindling. However, I'm now mostly retired and have to rely on other sources besides my own shop. My favorite source is a buddy who has a small saw mill. He rips his 2x4s and 2x6s (spruce and fir) to final size. What's left over are 2"x 1/4"x 8 foot long pieces which he just gives away. I'll then cut those pieces to length on my chop saw........absolutely perfect kindling. You might want to check out lumber yards in your area especially those with a mill shop. They frequently sell kindling although I have no idea regarding the price.
ChipTam

As you use wood you'll notice it sheds...just keep collecting it a paper bag or box.

How much do you think kindling is worth?

Cause if you and a few of your yuppy burning buddies need some great oak kindling, I will gladdly convert a cord of oak into whatever size kindling you need.

Many of the guys I buy from use wood processors with multi-wedge splitters. This leaves quite a mess, which they throw in the truck along with the load. After I stack, there is usually a few wheelbarrows full of small, thin splits that dry to potato chips in a couple of days inside. I still have a bunch of this left. It burns so fast and hot that you don't need much. When it's gone, I'll just take several of my straightest looking cherry splits, split thin slabs off of them with an axe and go at the slabs with a meat cleaver. That'll give me what I need for the rest of the season. Cherry is my favorite kindling by far. It burns very hot like pine but without all the sparks, and gets the bigger pieces going fast.

I like kindling that will sustain an active flame without being in proximity to other wood. The limit of that is about 3/4"-1". Anything bigger isn't really kindling IMO.

I split my own kin'lin.

!BUUUUUUUY KINDLING! :bug:
Bust up some pallets if you don't want to split some of your good wood.

You could watch for roofers tearing off or putting on a cedar shake roof, I once got a load for free on a tear off. just watch and ask. it makes great kindlin'.

I've never ever ever bought kindling. My choices:
1. Cut my own cedar and split it.
2. Split some of my hardwood - picking pieces with little or no knots.
3. Split up some dimensional lumber: 1x6 or 2x4 from projects.
4. Went by a few homes under construction and got permission to "clean up" their waste lumber after hours. Win/win.
Happy burning.

+1 about the branches which keep falling. Just collect them in a garbage can and even tell your neighbors that you'll take their downed branches.

Also, I've built several houses with habitat for humanity, and I've always taken 2x4 or 2x10 offcuts home. We call them habiscraps. These are kiln dried, and split nicely down to 1/2" by 1/2" sticks. They'll light with a match, and burn long enough to get the whole fire going. Any construction site/homebuilder will give you some scraps -- free if you pick it up, because he doesn't have to pay for the dumpster charge if you take it away.

Close to M. I see a builder with his extras pile and ask if I can grab some of the 2x4 scraps he has sitting there. Split those into 1/2 inch pieces and call it good. Haven't used many of them lately, but may have to tomorrow as I built the overnight a bit sooner that I usually do.
Chad

WoodBurner24 said:

Where do you buy kindling?

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Buy kindling? Is this a trick question?

Look for a piece of your cordwood that seems to have straight grain, no obvious knots, etc. Then take an axe or maul and whack it on the end. if it splits nicely, keep going until you have kindling. If not, find another piece and try. Store the kindling inside and it will be very dry in no time. Another way to approach it is go to Home Depot, lowes, a lumber yard, etc. and look for their reject boards, which HD here sells for 51 cents. cut to about 8 or 12 inch length (HD will even do it for you, I think), and split it. It should split very nicely with only a touch of the maul, and it should be very dry. An eight foot 2x6 board cut into 8 1 ft sections, split small should yield (time for an equation): 8 sections x 8 or 10 splits = lots of kindling. Another option: I have been replacing doors in the house (I don't recommind this as a hobby) and using lots of cedar shims. If you could buy these cheaply enough they'd make great kindling.

I grew up working at my grandfathers saw mill. We heat almost everything with wood and have several wood stoves and boilers. For as long as I have lived we always started fires with a mix of saw dust and diesel fuel. Basically, we fill a 5 gallon bucket with saw dust and add some diesel. When you go to light a fire we scoop about (2) cups worth and light it with a match. It starts fast and hot.

I have seen it for sale but never have purchased any. I just collect down sticks and branches from the yard saves the blades on the mower and I collect quite a load when I get about a cords worth built up I throw the rest on the burn pile. My other sources are my FIL and BIL they both build alot of I don't know what but they throw all the scraps in boxes for me to use. I trick we use for starting bon fires with damp wood is a handfull of match lite charcoal just throw it in light it up and watch it go.

From a cold start- I load the stove, open the air, add some birch bark to the front of the stove and focus my hatred on it until it ignites itself.

seriously- I just strip off some birch bark and that's all I need.