A Caveman Can Do It, Why Can't I?

[tryin.not.to.burn.the.house.down]

I am so frustrated. All I seem to be doing is burning paper.......we let the woodstove burn out because the weather has been warm. Getting a little cold in here. Wanted hubbie to come home to a warm fire. For the past hour I have been just burning paper!! 2 inches of ash in the bottom at least. Damper open, air vent open. 3 big dry logs, little pieces stuck in, newspaers all around....it just won't catch. I am about ready to burn the owner's manuel. Any quick tips to get the home fire buning? Strickly wood stove speaking please you dirty minds

 

[begreen]

What stove is this in? You'll have much better success if you start the fire with small, dry kindling sticks 1 inch or smaller in diameter. Once they get burning, add slightly larger pieces, criss-crossing them, teepee style, so that air has a chance to get to the fire.

Don't try to set fire to large logs unless you do it via the top down method in this video:

http://www.ec.gc.ca/cleanair-airpur/default.asp?lang=En&n=8011CD70-1

 

[fossil]

Paper (tinder), kindling (a generous helping of really small wood), a couple of small splits (maybe a couple inches across), primary air open wide, bypass damper (if installed) open wide, light the fire, leave the door cracked open on the latch until the fire's going well, then begin adding larger splits. No "big" wood until a really nice bed of red-hot coals is firmly established in the stove. You'll figger it out, I'm sure. Patience and experimentation. Start small, work toward big. Good luck! Rick

 

[cannonballcobb]

Crisscross your three big logs, at the intersection build a tepee of really thin slivers of kindling (about x2 the thickness of wooden kitchen matches) Light and leave the door just cracked a bit.

 

[tryin.not.to.burn.the.house.down]

Lopi Liberty. I will take out the big logs. Thank you.

 

[BrotherBart]

Crumple up three or four pieces of newspaper into tight balls. Cut a trench though that mess of ash in the stove and lay the paper together on the bottom center of the firebox. Take small pieces of sticks and wood and make a teepee over the paper. Light the paper and leave the door of the stove cracked open a half inch or so. When the teepee is burning good put a few slightly larger pieces on top of the burning wood and coals. When that is burning good add some larger pieces of wood. After that is burning good close and latch the door.

Pour him a drink and welcome him home with an adult beverage and a nice fire.

Edit: Whoops. Me and fossil were typing at the same time.

 

[begreen]

Good suggestion about keeping the door slightly ajar until the fire is going well. Another trick you might like is to buy some fire starters. My wife likes SuperCedars. Light one of these and it will keep burning for about 15 minutes. You can get a free sample sent to you:

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/23052/

 

[fossil]

Bypass damper...handle up on the right side of the stove...pull that all the way out until you've established a really nicely burning fire (this could be 20-30 minutes), then shut the bypass damper. Door cracked open for the first 15 minutes or so, then latched shut. Primary air control (handle sticking straight out the front below the loading door) pushed all the way in (wide open) until after the door's shut and the bypass is shut, then regulate the burn with the primary. Rick

 

[pen]

A picture is worth 1,000 words, so I will include a few of each.

Disclaimer: If there are 10,000 people on this website there are probably just about as many methods for starting their fire!

However, here is what I have always done. With seasoned wood, I have NEVER had this not ignite and burn quickly.

I hope you have the same success.

Adapt my methods to your stove application.

1. Always leave some coals at the bottom of your stove. The hardest time to start your stove is if it is clean as a whistle. The coals will help you!

I place 2 small pieces front to back, this works as my base and allows air to circulate under my small splits to allow them to burn once I place a match to them.

Next, use (non-glossy) newspaper to fill the void inbetween. Usually a few sheets, but overkill isn't going to hurt. Then place some small splits (kindling) across your original pieces.

Next, stack your regular pieces close enough together so that they can share heat as they begin to burn but far enough apart so that air can circulate completely around them. (Do not stack them perfectly like bricks)

The only picture I am not including is the match igniting the paper. We are in a very unseasonably warm weather snap right now, and the fire isn't going to get lit until later this evening.

Good luck!

pen

 

[BrotherBart]

Pen that method works fine. But it isn't for the first time burner looking to have a little fire burning for the spouse when they get home. A full firebox of wood could get out of hand for them really fast.

 

[pen]

Pen that method works fine. But it isn't for the first time burner looking to have a little fire burning for the spouse when they get home. A full firebox of wood could get out of hand for them really fast.

Again, adapt as appropriate for each person's stove!

I burn 4 different wood stoves on a regular basis. This is just what works best for this stove.

For this stove, full firebox or not, it can be turned down nicely and will mellow for hours once the stack temp looks like this.

(As you can see I am going to be taking off the sweatshirt! What I lack in self control I make up for in seasoned wood ;-) )

 

[pen]

Pen that method works fine. But it isn't for the first time burner looking to have a little fire burning for the spouse when they get home. A full firebox of wood could get out of hand for them really fast.

+ dont look like EPA stove which aint supposed to be loaded more than 1/3 firebox volume at a time, i think.

You are correct. This is not an epa stove (however my chimney put out much less visible smoke than my neighbors with an EPA device)

Remember, the wood is sitting on the small splits.

In about 4 mins, this is the result (there is the 1/3 full)

I should have known that I wouldn't be able to assemble a fire without igniting!

Original Poster! Please let us know how you made out. It is always nice to see follow up's.

pen

 

[tryin.not.to.burn.the.house.down]

Well.....I give up. I am all black. The house smells of smoke......I ran out of newspaper and had to use a new coloring book....poor Clifford. That is now gone. I always laugh at the people on Survivor. I have been beat and now dummer than a caveman. Thanks to you all. I appreciate the photos. Lopi liberty scores "1" , me...."0"

 

[pen]

Well.....I give up. I am all black. The house smells of smoke......I ran out of newspaper and had to use a new coloring book....poor Clifford. That is now gone. I always laugh at the people on Survivor. I have been beat and now dummer than a caveman. Thanks to you all. I appreciate the photos. Lopi liberty scores "1" , me...."0"

I am so sorry.

Perhaps you have a strong down draft this evening. Another night will prove more successfull! I promise!

I am convinced that every stove is like a significant other. We didn't meet them knowing exactly what turned them on either !

Let us know once the score is 1-1 !

pen

 

[BJ64]

I agree with Pen. Perhaps next time will have better results.

Hopefully you will have some better material to start with next time. I do believe that was the problem.

 

[daveswoodhauler]

I am so frustrated. All I seem to be doing is burning paper.......we let the woodstove burn out because the weather has been warm. Getting a little cold in here. Wanted hubbie to come home to a warm fire. For the past hour I have been just burning paper!! 2 inches of ash in the bottom at least. Damper open, air vent open. 3 big dry logs, little pieces stuck in, newspaers all around....it just won't catch. I am about ready to burn the owner's manuel. Any quick tips to get the home fire buning? Strickly wood stove speaking please you dirty minds

You can take the night off and try again another night....its quite warm up here in the North East tonight, so that doesn't help you out with draft.
I may catch some flack from some of the pro's for suggesting this, but here goes anyway.
Buy yourself a case of the small fire starter logs....not the large ones that look like actual logs, but these are small..perhaps about 2"X5" and you can get a case for about $10 or so at Walmart/other home stores.
Anyway, you don't need to use a whole one...I usually use about a third of one....and I find it much better than newspaper for a few reasons.
First, we dont get the paper, and when I do have/use newspaper the newspaper burns to quick with smoke, and the flame is out within a minute or so.
Take the 1/3rd of the fire starter log/brick, and place a few small pieces of kindling over it. The starter log wil burn for about 10-15 minutes, and usually this is good enough to get your small splits going. I think the other posters were right that you need much smaller splits...and I can attest that my wife ran into the same situation you did..but I still love her dearly for trying to get the house warm and toasty for when I came home from work. (I also smoked up the house when first burning, so its just a learning curve for us all..you will get it and be a pro in no time)

Also, I am not sure if you have access to kindlin at al, but I found a great tip in my own yard. I have a ton of pine trees, and my house borders a forest. All those little dead limbs on the lower section of the pine trees snap right off and make great kindlng. Once you have the kidling going you can put on your larger logs.

Good luck, and let us know how you make out.

 

[kenny chaos]

Hi Hottie- It's me, your new best friend in CNY (w LOPI). I reread your post and saw you had three big pieces on top of the paper. That's the problem. The paper burns up before the big pieces have a chance to catch well. Don't get too ambitious till you figure it out. For now, wad your paper up and cover it with small twigs from the yard. On top of that you can add the smallest pieces of firewood you have. The paper gets the twigs going and the twigs get the small pieces of firewood going. Got it? Leave plenty of air as the others said and once you have a bed of coals going, your draft has been established which means that an air flow of hot air is now rising up the chimney and drawing in more air at the stove for combustion. It'll be easier at this stage but now you gotta start worrying about temps.
Keep asking and we'll do what we can.
Yours-
Kenny

 

[Dill]

Its too warm in NH to burn tonight, near 60 and over cast.
But the last poster is right. Sometimes it hard to get a long enough burn with newspaper. Egg cartons or wine mailing cartons work well, they burn a little longer, same with most any cardboard container.

 

[branchburner]

It is too warm to burn in NH, but the house was cold (and I wanted to grill!) so I fired up the stove. Know what? It didn't want to light! And I realized, it's warmer outside than in, she won't draft. This thing always takes off like gangbusters, but it was so warm and humid out I had to re-add paper and crack a few different doors to get satisfaction (which I did - grilled asparagus and chicken).

So maybe you had a draw with the Lopi and Mother Nature beat you both.

 

[Dix]

Walmart. 5 pound box of Fatwood, costs like ten dollars.

Not the best fatwood, but it'll git 'er dun.

And a BBQ clicker thingy.

For emergency purposes only... start stocking up on dead fall in the yard (unless ya live in a condo ;-) )

Is the wood dry? (or am I having a senior moment,and you've posted the wood status before?)

And, I agree...warm in the Northeast tonight, my insert hasn't run in 2 weeks.

 

[Hogwildz]

Well.....I give up. I am all black. The house smells of smoke......I ran out of newspaper and had to use a new coloring book....poor Clifford. That is now gone. I always laugh at the people on Survivor. I have been beat and now dummer than a caveman. Thanks to you all. I appreciate the photos. Lopi liberty scores "1" , me...."0"

Hey now, no need for derogatory remarks

 

[Andre B.]

Been a while since I have posted here.

Here is a little photo essay I did a while back on starting a fire in my setup.
New fire
<http://s73.photobucket.com/albums/i208/andre_b/Firewood Stuff/New Fire/>
cut and paste the above text between the

Note the sound on the videos was just what was playing on the radio at the time but especially on the last two vids the station picked some music that fit just right.

Edit: Had to fix up the link. ;(
Edit: Edit: One more time.
Edit: Yet again, there are spaces in the URL and aparently the forum software is having a problem with them.

 

[begreen]

Hey Andre, welcome back. Give this URL a try:
http://tinyurl.com/5en3g6

 

[edthedawg]

one other thought is if the setup does NOT use an outside air feed, (and maybe even if it does, too) then something innocuous like a laundry dryer, kitchen stove vent hood, or bathroom fan could be compounding the negative pressure within the house. in order to have a draft, that air needs to come from somewhere. if you're sending air out thru another vent hole, THAT air also needs to come in from somewhere (it's called Control Volume Theory in fluid dynamics; mass in must equal mass out). With your doors and windows all closed up, the air will filter in thru tiny cracks, gaps, etc. But if the 6" dia tunnel (read: your flue) is open to draw in air, you can bet those devices will easily overpower it. And yeah - this unusually warm New England weather sure isn't doing any favors - it was a royal pain to light off our Heritage last night, and I didn't even bother today with it at all. Must be hell unfreezing for the first time since the 2004 election... :cheese:

 

[CowboyAndy]

This is my first year burning, and just 1 short month ago I had NO IDEA what I was doing. I spent a few hours trying to get it going with no success. Went through 3 or 4 newspapers.

My advice is to learn the top down method.

Some of the best kindling is 110 year old lathe (from a plaster and lathe wall). I have probably enough to last me this year. They are AWESOME!

I have a furnace, so probably a bigger firebox, but the concept is the same.

I start with 3 large rounds or splits on the bottom. If I am getting it going and know I wont get back to it for a while I do 2 rows of large.

Then a row of 4 smaller usually 3" pieces. On top of that I put 3 pieces of lathe, on a diagonal. 2 2" branches, 3 more lathe on diagonal, 2 more 2" pieces. I use the little brick firestarters, one right on top of the first layer of lathe. Usually within 2-3 min the lathe and 2" pieces are roaring. The fire will spread downward.