Can you share a picture of the kindling you use to start a fire?

BrotherBart said:

After twenty years of messing with kindling, my only kindling looks exactly like one quarter to one half of a Super Cedar sitting under three splits.

Click to expand...

+1

Newspaper's for reading, and doing the crosswords, sudoku and jumble...then it goes in the recycle bin. Super Cedars are for getting fires going. 1/4 of a SC, some small splits of Larch, then wood. Rick

Just a handful or two of these:

I, unlike alot of people here, still like to start fires the "old fashioned" way, with paper & kindling.

I usually put some old phone book pages crumpled up between 2 decent sized spits, & then stack kindling in a criss-cross fashion ontop, & sometimes, space allowing place a small split or two ontop of the kindling.

No kindling. Just a load from the wood pile with a little space to place an empty toilet paper role lightly filled with drier lint in the middle of the stoves firebox.

And Mt Ski Bum......... could you be more specific. :lol:
Nice illustration on your part.

north of 60 said:

Nice illustration on your part.

Click to expand...

it was left over from one of the other kindling threads from a couple weeks ago... figured why not post it again here ;-)

Mt Ski Bum said:

north of 60 said:

Nice illustration on your part.

Click to expand...

it was left over from one of the other kindling threads from a couple weeks ago... figured why not post it again here ;-)

Click to expand...

Mrs Woodchip just glanced over at the screen, and though it was a new way of cooking an egg.
Not really sure if she always takes my woodburning enthusiasm seriously.........
Second thoughts, that really should have gone on the spousal quips thread ;-)

Mt Ski Bum said:

I, unlike alot of people here, still like to start fires the "old fashioned" way, with paper & kindling.

I usually put some old phone book pages crumpled up between 2 decent sized spits, & then stack kindling in a criss-cross fashion ontop, & sometimes, space allowing place a small split or two ontop of the kindling.

Click to expand...

That's what I do. Pretty cool.

+ 2 but i use news paper not a phonebook

Have never used paper of any type. I have a few garbage cans full of the scraps/splinters remaining on the ground after splitting 3.5 cord of wood. These dry on the picnic table then get stored w/out a lid. A couple handfuls of those per light up and about 10 seconds with a small propane torch, presto much hotter & longer lasting heat source than paper for getting the the big chunks of fuel going.

Small propane torch vs newspaper, I will take the newspaper all the time.
Ski Bum thats the way I do it (after learning it on this site) and I love it.

I use pallet wood, 2 or 3 1" X 2" pieces on the bottom, maybe some news paper, then some 3" X 1/2" pieces on top criss crossed in an X. One or two 1" square pieces of fire starter in the middle of the pile, light it with a propane torch.

Stove top will be 400 °F in 15 or 20 min.

Just get super cedars and you will never look back.
I might try that dryer sheet in the tp roller idea though.
My stove once fired up never goes out unless we are away for a few days.
But I had let it go out a week or so ago and since have started 3 or 4 fires and I'm out of the starters that came with my stove...don't think they were SC's but same idea...they work!

We still use kindling even with super cedars. I like to use kindling made with soft maple because it lights off quick and burns hot. This just helps get the rest of the wood going quicker. We don't use as much kindling as we used to since using the super cedars but we still like to use some. Most times the kindling is about 1" x 1" in lengths from 12" to 16" and we'll use maybe 6-8 pieces.

How we start fires is to place 2 splits on the bottom, then a super cedar in the center. Light the super cedar and then place the kindling. On top of that we place 2 more small splits or maybe 3 more. Close the door and relax because that will make a good fire that will last a long time. The only thing we have to do is to watch the draft.

Here are a few pictures taken while I was making some kindling. These were made a bit larger than normal because the wood was old and too soft in spots to split into 1". It was actually some soft maple that I had left in the woods too long.

After the index pages are used up, I move the Sears catalog from the outhouse to the stove area. Lot of fire starts in one of those catalog.

Bio Brick teepee and a quarter Supercedar. What's kindling?

I make my own Cedar sticks for kindling. Works as well as "Fatwood." About every other year I spend about $10.00 and buy one three rail cedar fence post. I cut into (approximately) ten inch sections. I then split each of these sections into about 80 1/4 inch to 1/2 pencil size sticks. Just a tap with a hammer on a splitting wedge easily splits the cedar. I get about 500 of these sticks out of one fence post. I keep them in a basket by the stove.
Heck of a lot cheaper than buying "Fatwood" or super cedars. One post lasts me a couple of years. When I previously mentioned this in another thread, some of the members questioned the cost effectiveness because of the time involved in producing the sticks. I can do a year's worth in about 15-20 minutes so the cost of my time is not a factor.

I build "top down" fires. I'll put two or three large splits East/West on the bottom. A few smaller splits on top of them, North/South if they're short enough, other wise sort of angled on top of the bottom layer. I stuff in several knots of newspaper among the second layer of splits then lay five or six of the cedar sticks on top of all of that.

That hot fire from the cedar sticks starts an instant draft that catches the newspaper right away and soon the smaller splits are ablaze. Usually within eight to ten minutes I have a stove top surface temp of around 600 degrees. I'll probably let it get to about 700 to 750 before closing the front doors and putting the Vigilant in horizontal burn mode.

Here's a link to a thread, with pics, that I posted a few months ago on how I make my kindling:

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/66143/


Works every time.

IMHO, the traditional "fire down below" startup generates way too much poo in the exhaust. So, since about '75, I've been using the inverted startup.
From the bottom:
a few smaller splits N-S
a few small pieces of kindling (max section size ~1") diagonally (say NW-SE)
a few more small pieces of kindling diagonally NE-SW.
a handful or less of very dry scraps from splitting, or re-split kindling.
paper/cardboard on top and alongside.

This first batch serves primarily to get the the stove and flue up to temp, and establish a layer of coals; THEN the serious stoking begins, once it's all coals. (I've learned that there's a "zen" to this, and it's best to be patient and just enjoy the show.)

Kindling is primarily red/white pine from the odd storm blow-down. (Buy kindling? You're kidding!)
In mid-winter, cold-starts don't happen for months, so most of my pine is shoulder-season fuel, and kindling shortages do not occur.
After splitting a batch, I comb the area for wood fragments, so there's nothing to buy.
If there's a need to resplit splits for kindling purposes, even a maul is overkill; axe works great.

And ... you will almost never see any particulate poo emerge from the pipe. EPA test protocols allow particulates here. I don't.

joefrompa said:

600 within 10 minutes? Mother of pearl.... my best has been loads of pine in there stuffed to the gills, and that still probably took 20-30 minutes.

What is it about cedar that works so well starting fires? I've got loads of pine, so I'm wondering what (if anything) I should do here...

Click to expand...

Joe, if you're talking about me, I said I could do a years worth in 15 to 20 minutes. That would be about 120 sticks. From two ten inch sections of the fence post.

My experience (cedar vs pine) is that cedar burns super hot. I would never put a large split of cedar in the stove but smaller pieces of kindling are great for starters. I think it just burns hotter than pine.

What the hell is a phone book?


Didn't they go out in the 90's?


KC

iskiatomic said:

What the hell is a phone book?


Didn't they go out in the 90's?


KC

Click to expand...

Hahaha.....Yeah it would probably be pretty hard to get my computer to light off on www.whitepages.com......