How do you plan/calculate your kindling needs for a season?

[Backwoods Savage]

I forgot to add. You had asked how I plan. It is difficult for me to plan so I just make lots. We use a fair amount ourselves, I supply kindling for the guys who are in the caboose of the old steam engine train that runs in our area and I also usually supply a goodly amount each time I sell wood.

A funny thing happened yesterday. Two days ago I had dropped off some kindling to a fellow. Earlier I had hired a man to take a large load of wood to him but no kindling so I naturally dropped off plenty of it. So he called yesterday and asked if I could bring him even more wood! I think he has spread the word and I have a new customer or two.

 

[woodchip]

I supply kindling for the guys who are in the caboose of the old steam engine train that runs in our area.

We use chopped up pallets down on our steam railway at Swanage.

For my own kindling, I just chop a few small bits up as and when needed, with a bucket of small joinery offcuts in the shed as a small reserve.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

I don't. If I have birch bark on hand I use that. If not, I tear off any splintery pieces from splits and use that. I re-light from hot coals without any kindling.

With truly dry wood- it goes right up. Without it- I may supplement from cold with a couple splits of pine to get it rocking.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

What this kindling is for is the coal stove in the caboose. I'm told they start the kindling I give them and then add coal and it works the best they've ever had it work for them. That's okay with me. However, one time someone else tried to help them get the stove started and I guess they about froze on their first run. lol

 

[woodchip]

I don't remember the last time we used our little coal stove in the caboose (guards van we call it here).
When our guard gets freezing cold, he gets up on the cab of the steam engine and thaws out rather quickly.

Best bacon and eggs I ever had was on the shovel of one of our steam engines, just clean the shovel a bit first..........

 

[mayhem]

Too much thought and effort to try and plan out how much kindling you may or ma not need in a given burning season. Split all your rounds into regular firewood, you'll have a pile of bits and pieces leftover that can be used as kindling. If you run into a situation where you need more, take a split off the stack and turn it into kindling, or do what I do and pick up a box or two of fire starters...I usually use about a box and a half and use them half at a time to start pretty much any wood, no kindling required.

 

[burntime]

I bought 50 bucks in super cedars begining of the season. I think it was 12 boxs. I have gone thru maybe a tad over 2, figure 3 for the whole season. I also get some cut offs from a company that makes things out of aluminum. They are kinda like pallet boards but not treated. In fact I got enough that I have been burning them for a month or so to conserve wood for next year. I picked up 5 ranger loads and have about 2 left. I just throw a few pieces of oak in at night. At the begining of the season I usually split some like Dennis does but since the super cedars it has not been a priority. Btw, I burn a quarter of a super cedar to start a fire. They Rock!

 

[jharkin]

I've never figured how much I use but I get more than enough from the yearly deadfall from the trees on my property. I break up all the down branches and anything 1/2in or bigger gets cut into foot lengths and stacked in the shed. Even on my small lot (1/2 acre of which less than 1/8 acre is trees) I have more branches than I can ever use as kindling.

 

[firefighterjake]

Never bothered to figure how much kindling I have or use . . . but I know I tend to use a lot with what seems like a long shoulder season in the Fall and Spring . . . and truthfully when reloading in the Winter after an overnight fire I am much, much more impatient compared to my wife who will stick some small splits on the coals and wait for the flames to appear in a few minutes whereas I want the quick and instant gratification of throwing on some kindling, piling on some splits and having the whole thing roaring in 10 or 15 minutes.

I've also had this kindling fetish right from the get go . . . wanted to make sure I always had enough kindling to easily start a fire since I figured it would be a bugger to run out of kindling and have a hard time getting a fire going quickly so I've got quite the stockpile . . . honestly . . . I've got the whole back wall of my Summer Shed filled with cedar and softwood kindling stacked about 6 feet high . . . even though in the past two years I've barely used any of this kindling as most of my kindling came from splitter scraps, scrap wood and softwood slabs that I've either split and put into my regular stacks or I've placed the slabs in the stacks and split them when I needed more kindling.

 

[ruserious2008]

Well thanks all for the short and for the detailed replies. All appreciated. I'm new at this this year and heat my primary living space with my stove but since that's really two rooms (we winterized the rest of the place and retreated to these rooms for the winter) our stove more than does the job so I can't keep it going all the time like some here do otherwise we'd be cook ourselves so I let it burn and then cool down so I'm lighting 2 to 4 fires a day that I need the kindling for. I got this place insulated well and tight so I can ramp it up to 76 or so and it will stay warm for many hours and when it gets back into the low 60's I fire up again.
I figure I use 3-4 "sticks" of my split pallet wood per fire and guess I will just do the math on that and make myself a nice big pile this summer to cover my next winter needs. As always thanks everyone

 

[mayhem]

Why not make life easier and reopen one of the shut down rooms, then you can use the stove 24x7 and not get overheated. Might save alot of hassle and it would be nice to have more elbow room.

 

[ruserious2008]

Not a bad idea Mayhem but the way this place is laid out won't work without installing some ducting. The woodstove in on the outside room of an "L" addition, which connects to another room and then thru a bathroom to the main house. Even with fans it doesn't really move enough heat out there. I've got a project planned this summer with tearing up a bathroom and also adding a closet which would give me a spot to run some ducting with a fan in it to move heat out to the other rooms somewhat. We've been fortunate in always having a big honker house space wise so even now with just me an my wife we're quite comfortable in these two rooms (of course understanding that one room unheated we use as a "mud room" and the others have more of our stuff......Couldn't possible fit all our "stuff" in these two rooms
But yes next winter I'll hopefully have the ducting in and can possibly burn 24x7 and not have to deal with so much kindling. Thanks again

 

[JeffT]

Not many restarts during season,but i have a trash can full of sundried noodles that work like a champ.The wife loves them.