Anyone use leaves with twigs, etc to start a fire?

[evilgriff]

Tried this method last night for a shoulder burn. Plenty of dry leaves around, lit extremely quickly and gave a real hot start that warmed the flue fast. It's not that I think this is a great all year round method but it seemed to work well for me at least at this time of year.

 

[zzr7ky]

I often pick up twigs and sticks from my driveway and use them for tinder. Leaves: No.

 

[Huntindog1]

There is one guy on here that collects all the sticks that blows out of his trees and uses it for kindling.

He says it works good but never heard of leaves, but if they are really dry, why not?

 

[corey21]

Never used leaves before sounds like a good idea though.

 

[billb3]

I've even used pine needles.
Sticks and twigs from the lawn are white and red oak and usually too punky / wet.

I have so many youngish pines with dead dry bottom branches behind my house that I never have a shortage of starter material.
The smaller bits can be lit in lieu of paper/whatever.
I have bags of carpentry cut-offs, too.

 

[PapaDave]

When the dogs come in, they sometimes have leaves attached. They go in the stove. The leaves, not the dogs.
Plenty of DRY, dead branches in the woods/yard to pick up every time I take a walk.
I could fill the shed. I don't want to, though.

 

[rideau]

Dry twigs :yes. Leaves: No.

Don't want all that stuff flying around in my stove, plugging the really fine mesh of the inconal screen. Plus, leaves are usually pretty moist for quite a while. Just not my idea of fun. The leaves go in the garden as compost, or are raked where I want the soil to build.

 

[PapaDave]

Envision 3 leaves being put in the stove @ 500 surface temp. Wet or dry, they won't last long enough to fly anywhere.
On the other hand, I wouldn't put a shovel full of the things in the stove.

 

[dougand3]

Crepe Myrtle dead sticks/twigs make fine starters. I put fallen oak, hickory, maple sticks/twigs in 5 gal buckets and let dry for some time.

 

[rideau]

Envision 3 leaves being put in the stove @ 500 surface temp. Wet or dry, they won't last long enough to fly anywhere.
On the other hand, I wouldn't put a shovel full of the things in the stove.

However, those twigs with leaves are not dry, so why bother. A few the dog brings in, if its easiest, OK.

 

[rideau]

Crepe Myrtle dead sticks/twigs make fine starters. I put fallen oak, hickory, maple sticks/twigs in 5 gal buckets and let dry for some time.

Yes....and Ironwood....

 

[PapaDave]

Dry twigs :yes. Leaves: No.

Don't want all that stuff flying around in my stove, plugging the really fine mesh of the inconal screen. Plus, leaves are usually pretty moist for quite a while. Just not my idea of fun. The leaves go in the garden as compost, or are raked where I want the soil to build.

There's the issue for folks with an inconal. I would imagine I'd be very careful about what got put in the stove.

 

[maverick06]

If a stick/branch falls on my lawn and its bigger than i want to run over with the lawnmower it gets burnt. Great kindling. I have a japanese maple immediatly outside my front door, when it drops small sticks I will burn them too, they work really well.

Nothing unheard of, a bit more work than a firestarter. For me its a matter of just using what i have available coupled with what would otherwise be cumbersome to dispose of.

 

[jharkin]

There is one guy on here that collects all the sticks that blows out of his trees and uses it for kindling.

He says it works good but never heard of leaves, but if they are really dry, why not?

That could be me. I pile up all the fallen branches & in the fall I break up everything bigger than thumb size into ~ foot lengths and pile it into a bin I build into the corner of my small woodshed. From a half acre lot I get more kindling than I can use up each year. The rest will get burned in a brush pile sooner or later.


Leaves I wouldn't use.. smoky.

 

[Monosperma]

I use fallen twigs as kindling, and they work great for me. Leaves, no. Too much potential for moisture and/or smoke. And mold brought into the house. Kind of a pain in the butt, too, compared to newspaper. JMHO; I am not declaring you bad and wrong if you ue leaves.

 

[clemsonfor]

i use twigs plenty. Dont go looking for them but will pick them up onthe way to the shed to start a fire. Leaves,, NO??? There is not much heat in leaves, they also give off lots of smoke and fly ash. As a forester who has prescribed burned plenty, you have to really work at getting hardwood leaves to take off and on fire. A pile of bone dry leaves yes burns but not as hot as a pile of bone dry twigs. There not worth the effort in my opinion, but if they work for you and you think its worth it go ahead do what you witish and what works for you. I personally will just use twings small splits or hunks of wood and a peice of lighter pine to start my fires.

 

[DickRussell]

I usually have quite a collection of birch bark pieces, much of it multi-years old, that I store in the woodpile, under cover. Also, a few times a year I collect a few large boxes of dry and very dead stuff, from fairly small stuff up to inch diameter things that I sometimes have to break against a rock or tree. I use peeled strips of birch bark on the bottom, with one or more sticking out for a fuse of sorts. Then I pile on the small twigs and work up to some of the bigger stuff, and finally add a couple of small splits of regular firewood, avoiding larger splits until things get up to temperature. All it takes is one match, and that birch bark goes up hot but fast, everything takes off from there. I don't really like twists of newspaper. It just doesn't seem to burn that hot. Yeah, I know, it's just there to get the smaller wood going well to kick off the rest of the stuff, but there's just something more satisfying to watch the small pile of birch bark strips nearly explode into flame.

 

[rideau]

Exactly what I do. Have a good number of dead birch, and collect the bark. Great firestarter. And have way too many twigs and small sticks to use...my Wheaten collects them for me on our walks. He's amazing: will carry up to 8 foot long 3 inch diameter branches a distance back to the house. If he ever sees me pick up a stick, first reaction is to play, jump up and get it; second, to frantically search til he gets his own. He has collected a lot of firewood over the years....and enjoyed a lot of fires.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Leave the leaves to Adam and Eve.

 

[teutonicking]

Tried this method last night for a shoulder burn. Plenty of dry leaves around, lit extremely quickly and gave a real hot start that warmed the flue fast. It's not that I think this is a great all year round method but it seemed to work well for me at least at this time of year.

I use twigs and sticks for kindling. It really helps get it going. I keep one rubber trash can full of them.

 

[barn burner]

I get ideas from this site everyday it seems. I've got a bunch of tops left over from last year's woodcutting up in the wood lot. Just might take my ATV and the garden cart up there tomorrow and break me up a bunch of kindling.

 

[bostock]

my mom in NC uses pine cones. I never did it though, always had plenty of kindling.

 

[David Tackett]

I use limbs I find laying around the yard, but no leaves.

 

[clemsonfor]

pine cones work great if you have them, there like tiny superceders if i had to compare(although i have not lit my SC yet?). But they just dont last long. They get suyper hot though.

 

[bag of hammers]

We could fill a warehouse with maple leaves right now - but I generally leave them alone, except clearing off the deck, etc. All it takes is a windy day, followed an hour walking around the property, and I have enough dry maple branches and twigs gathered up to last a season. Every piece of every tree (felled, windblown, etc.) gets used up here (except the leaves) as kindling, splits, or outside fire. No waste is a very satisfying outcome. Also +1 on the birch bark starter - awesome way to help get an outside fire rolling on those misty / damp chilly days, after a rain, etc.