What does "kindling" mean to you?

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Kenster

Kenster

Minister of Fire
Jan 10, 2010
1,705
Texas- West of Houston
I just read a post by member "Todd" which shows pictures of him starting a fire in his stove. In the first picture he writes that he adds some small kindling to the box.
That "kindling" is what I would call 'small splits.' My idea of kindling is small, pencil size sticks, chips, nuggets, etc. Todd's 'kindling' would be my second layer of small splits, over larger splits, in a top down burn.

Just curious what your thoughts and definitions are.
 
small wood used to get a fire going. ranges from twigs to extra small splits
 
Smaller than normal pieces of wood. Something around 2x4 size or maybe a little smaller. Not something I use often.
 
Smaller than normal pieces of wood. Something around 2x4 size or maybe a little smaller. Not something I use normally in a wood stove.
 
Kindling for me is 1"x1", 1"x2" or smaller.
 
We usually use about 1" x 1" but sometimes smaller and a few larger ones. The big thing is to get something that lights easy and burns fast.
 
Ok, I guess I should of said large kindling. :lol: 1-2" diameter works just fine for me with a little chunk of fire starter in the middle. I use to use smaller stuff along with newspaper but I think you can get away with larger stuff with a good fire starter.
 
[quote author="Kenster" date="1290830209"]

Kenster the first picture 100_2075 is our basswood kindling, 100_2076 is the smaller splits that go on once the kindling gets going and the last is our normal size splits.


zap
 

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Any piece of wood that can sustain its own flame without being in proximity to other wood is kindling. That would be thumb size down to match size. In general, pieces larger than 3/4" will go out unless they are touching other flame-involved wood.
 
Battenkiller said:
Any piece of wood that can sustain its own flame without being in proximity to other wood is kindling. That would be thumb size down to match size. In general, pieces larger than 3/4" will go out unless they are touching other flame-involved wood.
Click to expand...

Actually that is "tinder".
 
BrotherBart said:
Battenkiller said:
Any piece of wood that can sustain its own flame without being in proximity to other wood is kindling. That would be thumb size down to match size. In general, pieces larger than 3/4" will go out unless they are touching other flame-involved wood.
Click to expand...

Actually that is "tinder".
Click to expand...

Tinder, schminder. I'm an old Boy Scout. Tinder was the stuff we used to get the kindling going. At least that's what we called it back then.

Tinder is easily combustible material used to ignite fires by rudimentary methods. A small fire consisting of tinder is then used to ignite kindling. Anything that can be ignited by a match can be considered tinder; or by more rigorous definition, anything that begins to glow under a shower of sparks. The more restrictive definition is important in the study of survival skills, which redefines kindling as material requiring a match to ignite it.[1][2] Materials commonly used as tinder:

* Dry pine needles, leaves or grass
* Birch bark
* Dead, standing (usually one season old) goldenrod
* Cloth, lint, or frayed rope (if made from plant fibers and not treated with fire retardant)
* Char cloth
* Cotton swabs, tampons
* Paper, paper towels, toilet paper, etc.
* Punk wood (in the process of rotting) or charred wood
* Some types of fungus (best known is the amadou or horse's hoof fungus)
* Bird down
* Small twigs (poor tinder but commonly available)
* Fine-grade soap-coated steel wool
* Shaved magnesium or other alkaline earth metals
Click to expand...
 
I knew that would get the Professor going. :coolgrin:
 
Uh, yup. My "kindling" is my old cedar shake roof. Worked great last year, great this year. My house is canabalizing itself to keep warm.
 
At my house, kindling is something about 1ish inch diameter.
 
zapny, what you have in your post as normal splits is what I use for starting a fire haha! I normally don't split logs in 1/4s unless it's a big log.
 
Beetle-Kill said:
Uh, yup. My "kindling" is my old cedar shake roof. Worked great last year, great this year. My house is canabalizing itself to keep warm.
Click to expand...

:lol:

I'm sorta doing the same thing, but it's the T&G pine roof from my old shed. That stuff is at least 40 years old, maybe older. I grab a section, kneel in front of the stove and split off pieces with my trusty meat cleaver (best damn kindling splitter in the world). The stuff is so old and dry it goes up like flash paper. Then I feed in some 2"x2" hemlock splits from the same shed, same age wood. God, I'm gonna hate when that wood is all gone. Turns out "Shed" is my new favorite firestarting wood.
 
NATE379 said:
zapny, what you have in your post as normal splits is what I use for starting a fire haha! I normally don't split logs in 1/4s unless it's a big log.
Click to expand...


Then we have some sugar maple that you would love, been seasoning for three years and just waiting for the colder weather.




zap
 
I use all the sticks that fall down throughout the year from trees in the yard to start the fire(I guess that is the tinder) and than small splits like 1x1 and work up from there.
 
Kin'lin, for me is small purpose split pieces of wood about as round as my thumb. I usually go about splitting a one year supply as in the following pic, but since I started using Super Cedars, it will last more than a year.

100_0392.jpg
 
Kindling for me is usually the pieces I am able to pick up that are left over when using the log splitter (shavings and such). Also and "smaller splits like less than 1 inch by 1 inch. Twigs and such from around the yard.
 
Kindlin' for me is anything I can break in my hand, over my knee or stomp on to break into usable sized pieces.

The kindlin I use now all literally grows on the pine trees behind the house.

It's easier to collect dead lower branches now that the trees are all big than when they were 6 feet tall and I had to split pine into small pieces.

Bigger pieces often work fairly well with softwood that is nice and dry.
With branches you get a nice mix.

Old (unpainted / treated) shingles and the shingles rejected and cut-offs from new construction work well, too.
 
I knocked out a wall and replaced a lot of floorboards this year. Those 100+ yr. old studs and floorboards burn like a match.
 
Kindling to me means warm happy memories sitting by a roaring fire surrounded by loved ones while gazing out the window at the beauty and spender of the snowy winter land with,,,,,,,, What? ,,,,,,,,that's not what you meant!,,,,,,, uh, ok,,,,,,,,,,,,,, kindling to me means small sticks.
 
[quote author="LLigetfa" date="1290886620"]Kin'lin, for me is small purpose split pieces of wood about as round as my thumb. I usually go about splitting a one year supply as in the following pic, but since I started using Super Cedars, it will last more than a year.

LLigetfa some nice looking kindling, nice job.


zap
 
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