How do you start your fires???

Gunpowder and gasoline! (but only if I'm in a real big hurry!) :lol:

BrotherBart said:

Fod01 said:

BrotherBart said:

Two splits N/S with a quarter of a Super Cedar between them and one on top of them angled a little. Light the SC and close the door and go get a beer. And another. And another and three or four hours later reload on the coals.

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For a cold stove, is that really enough? Wood I mean (sounds like you've got the beer covered). What about 'warming up the flue quickly...' and all that? My setup is an uninsulated liner in an external chimney. It drafts pretty well, but I think I would want more fuel lighting off quickly, rather than waiting for the splits to take off.

That would be a great method btw, as I'm always scrambling for kindling later in the season, and I just happen to have a box of SC in the garage ;-)

Gabe

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Works a treat. If the flue is really cold use half of a SC. It will heat that flue right up while it is igniting the splits.

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Me three. Any two splits will work. Keep them something like an inch apart, or less, with the split on top directly above the SC. Works every time with zero fuss.

I almost hate to admit this 'cause I am an old boy scout, eagle scout actually, and I know my old scouting spirits are turning over in their graves, but......I have tried the top down method and to my complete and total surprise......it works. EUREKA!

When out in the bush, at moose camp, peel off some birch bark, get a couple handfuls of "squaw wood",
Some Squaw wood on the bottom, the birch bark strips next, another handful of squaw wood.
"T-Pee" some medium dry stuff over that, light the birch bark, start adding bigger stuff.

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I like to use Super Cedars because they are so handy and this way we also support a wonderful sponsor of hearth.com.

Two splits on the bottom formed with a slight Vee. Put 1/4 Super Cedar in center and light it. Then place 4-6 pieces of small kindling. On top place 1 or 2 splits. Close the door and let it burn.

Top down, since boy-scout days. (Yes, that far back.)
Greatly reduces schmutz in the exhaust, which nobody should breathe.
Pretty much load up the little firebox, top-down, with last-in being either tiny wooden debris, oily chainsaw-cleaning waste, wax & sawdust bar, or chunk of Super Cedar. (Really dry, small, half-length kindling is THE WAY; some of it was "cooked" in the attic over-summer..)
Light the top, leave door cracked until single-wall stack temp hits 250 F, close down draft gradually to suit.

1/4 super cedar, two N/S splits with a couple pieces of kindling in between. One match. Never used paper.

one or two homemade paper eggcarton starters (filled with dryer lint with wax dribbled over it) lit placed in stove with four or five 2" to 4" logs on top. So far it works every time. My fire box is 23" long and 12" wide so the wood goes long ways front to back. I start the fire at the very front only.

I use six or so pages of my wife's 401k prospectus (think phone book) rumpled up. Then I throw a handfull or two of wood chips and/or sawdust (from splitting). Then some small rounds, twigs, branches, or scrap lumber (i.e., 2x8 split into small parts). Then a few splits on top of that.

I've tried several times to take the exact same ingredient mix and turn it over for a top down fire and it's never worked for me.

From the standpoint of physics, bottom up seems to easily win the efficiency contest -- as the paper burns, it starts to heat the splits, but with top down the splits won't begin to warm until the fire burns down to them. My conclusion (based on the combination of experience and logic) is that top down necessarily involves a lot more kindling.

Since top down is going to use more kindling, I doubt that it's really all that much cleaner overall -- more kindling = more smoke.

Here's an experiment to demonstrate what I'm thinking:

Get a box of matches and a piece of paper. Light matches one by one, and hold them 1/2 inch under the paper. Count how many you need to light before the paper catches. Now repeat the experiment with the matches 1/2 inch above the paper. I'm guessing you use one with the first method and a whole box with the second. Bottom up makes use of convection, while top down "wastes" all the convection heat and uses primarily radiant heat.

2 large splits e/w, wax starter between them, and about 4 or 5 very small splits on top placed diagonally. Nothing to it.

3-4 Newpaper knots with 1"-2" kindling cross-crossed in three layers.

Light the paper on both sides of the firebox, close the door and forget it until the fan comes on...

Shut off fan, reload with medium-large splits on the hot coals, afer 60 seconds close the damper 1/2 way, turn fan back on, fall asleep on floor with good book in hand (screw the dog I'm taking up the nappy spot in front of the insert!! :cheese

Aaron Pasteris said:

screw the dog

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Umm?

Pack the stove with some freshly split oak from the day before. I like to pack it as full as I possibly can, stuff newspaper or dryer lint in between the pieces of wood, throw about 1/4 to 1/2 cup gas on the mix and let sit for 30 seconds or so. Light a small ball of paper and toss toward the wood.....you will know when its lit.

Disclaimer: Do NOT try this at home!

Seriously I just put a few splits in with a piece of fatwood and it gets going pretty easy.

Just to poke fun.....I push a button. Then the stove is lit in 30 seconds and once a day I dump a 40# bag of fuel in. I used to be a log burner now I've been converted.

Indy

bikerz said:

I use pine cones. Put about 4 or 5 together in a pile and some small splits with larger on top of them and light.

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Yep, I use pine cones, usually White Pine- but just one of them. Remove from soaking in a large coffee can full of kerosene and shake off excess.

Lay between two smallish N/S splits. Then a layer of splitter trash E/W. Then more small stuff N/S followed by some kindling. Finally, a teepee of smaller, shorter stuff around 2-3 in dia +/_.

Once this gets going, I begin adding small splits, gradually work up to medium size splits, and finally some bigger stuff. I'm already developing a pretty good coal bed at 10 minutes or so. Labor intensive-yes- but this has been a 100.0 percent reliable method that just 'wants to work'. It helps that everything I burn, from smallest to largest, is generally pretty well seasoned. I've checked, and my method seems to best minimize the inevitable smoke from a fire starting up. I'm trying to keep a low profile in the 'hood. ;-)

bikerz said:

I use pine cones. Put about 4 or 5 together in a pile and some small splits with larger on top of them and light.

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I gathered some pine cones after reading about them in another post. They burn better than paper. I get srap wood from our school shop. Wax from old candles was a great help on warmer days when the flue was cold. Today was the first day cold enough to put a full load of wood in the stove. I keep the door open a crack. This really helps to push the fire to the back of the stove.

Here's my method. Put some small diameter wood inside the stove, light a match to a firestarter ( I prefer fatwood), then leave door cracked until it catches, then add larger pieces. WARNING: This is an advanced technique, proceed with caution.

Same way I start my briquette BBQ - carefully!

Top-down always. A handful of these (pic), on five 1-inchers north-south, on 4 one-inchers east-west. On 3 full splits east-west. It starts with one (a single!) sheet of newspaper rolled corner-to-corner, knotted (on top). A few splitter droppings sprinkled about. It starts every single time and nothing to buy, no chemicals.

My Daughter bought me a box of fire starter for fire place (not for use in a closed wood stove) when you break the brick apart you get several 8 or 9 inch long pieces 1x1/2 inch thick I break these into 2 inch lengths. Place 3 splits in bottom of fire box throw 3 pages of news paper balled up to rear of fire box to get a up draft , lite the small piece of fire starter place it in the middle of fire box,lite the 3 balled up news print with a long piece of news paper, slowly add kindling small to large mixed with twisted news paper sheets till I have a good fire to add a small log or 2.The small piece of fire starter keeps the fire alive so I don't have to keep lighting the paper.

You know... I heat with wood because we like the feel of it. I don't do it for some form of esoteric proof of my manhood by being able to "make fire".

and yes, I HAVE made fire by rubbing two sticks together. And with a bow drill. and with a fire piston. and flint and steel. etc. But those where all for fun or merit badges.

If I am starting a cold stove, I load the thing up with regular splits, with 1/2 a SC down in the middle, light it, close the door, come back in 15 minutes or so and start adjusting the air.

I don't use beer as a timer. I am from Kentucky, so I use Bourbon.

;-)

For all you kind gentlemen out there that mention Super Cedar, what exactly are you talking about? Are you talking about pieces of Cedar Wood to start your fires with?

Thanks

Fredo