All this kindling

You can never have too much kindling. Usually I hack up 2x4's I get from work (or outta the dumpster at work) for kindling but with some high winds in the area last month I started keeping all the sticks from around the yard and using them.

You're right about that white birch bark, but why is the smoke so black from it?

My sister gave me 3 or so nice sized logs that were used for decor in her unusable fireplace, and were actually there when she bought the house so they were likely several years old. Still made black smoke!

my theory on birch bark is that it has lots of natural oils in it thus the black smoke

Back in the Spring my wife and I were checking fence lines and noticed what was left of an old dead Pine tree just on the other side of the fence. I almost filled up the bed on the back of the golf cart with old Pine knots, Fatwood to some. I split some the other day and it's been a long time since I've used any, probably the last time was 45-50 years ago starting fires for Mom in the fireplace. Man does that stuff burn good but it too puts off a lot of black smoke. Only takes 3 small pieces to get a fire started. She and my son laughed at me for picking them up because I was grinning like a kid in candy store.

I have noticed i don't use very much kindling at all. Some in the early season here and there when im taking the chill out of the house but once i start burning 24/7 i dont use any at all. And i been noticing i can pull off scraps here and there on logs to meet my needs. Kind of surprised me, figured id go thru a lot more kindling than i do.

With my boiler, I need to relight it every night as with a bottom grate it does not keep coals. Luckily I do not need a lot of kindling but I do save any white birch bark I can and have a slowly dwindling stash of old red cedar siding. I set aside well dried straight grained preferably white ash splits when I am feeding the boiler and use a hand ax to split up kindling.

The kindling crackers that are sold at various places are pretty ingenious but wont fit my stove length. At some point I need to reside my house and when I do that I will have many years of red cedar siding.

I tend to use a lot of kindling . . . but I suspect it's because I start burning early in the shoulder season when I light a fire and let it die, only to light it again in the evening or the next day . . . and then in the winter I get impatient and instead of just putting some small splits on the coals in the morning after an overnight fire I toss on some kindling to get things going faster.

This year, due to the unusually long and warm fall, I've been using more kindling than normal.

This how I dried the branch wood, scraps and sticks I collected from cutting and yard waste. Dried well, great for low demand days and kindling. Down to my last 3 bags and I wish I had more.

ED 3000 said:

The Mrs. Jatoxico doesn't mind you using all the pillowcases?

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She's a good sport right?!

KindredSpiritzz said:

I have noticed i don't use very much kindling at all. Some in the early season here and there when im taking the chill out of the house but once i start burning 24/7 i dont use any at all. And i been noticing i can pull off scraps here and there on logs to meet my needs. Kind of surprised me, figured id go thru a lot more kindling than i do.

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Pretty much the same here. By this time of the year there's coals in the stove all the time, just and dry splits. I use the scraps off the ground around the splitter. Collect them in 5 gal pails. Use this to reload the kindling bucket next to the jotul. Works for me and Mrs. Manly.

We have lots of pine trees so I bust up dried up pine branches for kindling. They snap pretty easy once they've dried up for a year or so, especially in a pile off the ground.