Best Firestarter?

[DUMF]

It's a year-round lifestyle getting the stuff to heat your places. You have to look at it in a Zen manner. The enlightenment that comes from the self sufficiency of using a clean, sustainable, renewable fuel to warm your a$$ especially up north.
Whew, all this OCD of cookie tins, moisture meters, how to light the beasts, how to cut correctly, and on and on makes me want a good, local hop-ridden microbrew. I am now posting and drinking.
Here's the drill: get the wood, season it and stack it, burn it, get warm. That's it folks. Go out, do it, burn.

Tip #123456789: Go to your local library for old newspapers to start a fire. The best way to recycle trees. The bill is coming.

 

[neverbilly]

Recently, my gf mentioned that while I was away for awhile, she was able to easily start a fire with a firestarter she bought in the grocery store. With no kindling. Over the past couple of years, I have tried to teach her how to build a campfire (outside) the boyscout way, which never fails me. She wasn't very good at it. It seems some people have a knack for building fires, some don't.

So, she tells me she just set the little brick in the plastic wrapper on a piece of firewood and stacked other firewood around and on top of it and it worked like a charm. I said I got to see this. She was right, it worked. I have not been able to find these online but I find them in grocery stores around here. I forget the name, firestarter or something like that. I just looked at one and there is no name on the plastic wrapper. It's a white brick with black specks in it, about 1" x 3/4" x 2.5" and it's covered in cellophane wrap. I don't know if it has kerosene in it or what but it works. I made her make me a fire with no kindling and she did!

They also sell some larger, triangular brown bricks around here that look kind of like this Super Cedar thing you guys are talking about. Maybe Super Cedar works great but this brown brick didn't work as well as the small, white brick in the cellophane wrap. The latter cost $0.59 if you buy them individually. Probably can buy in bulk for less. In fact, she did find a box of them and bought them but I don't know the price of the box.

I was impressed for ease of use. But I still like pine kindling, lol. Fat pine even better but just some easy-splitting pine kindling works fine and one round of pine cut into kindling will last a very long time!

 

[velvetfoot]

I've started stockpiling the newspapers

Just not next to the stove!

 

[FaithfulWoodsman]

Whew, all this OCD of cookie tins, moisture meters, how to light the beasts, how to cut correctly, and on and on

Lol. No OCD on this site my friend..........just a doctorate's wealth of info on how to do exactly what you describe in the most efficient and effective way. Those "cookies" are made from recycled egg cartons and sawdust. I use up all my spitting scraps quickly in the fall because I don't burn 24/7 until two months in......so they come in quite handy when kindling runs out. A few softwood splits and a "cookie" cuts my startup time in half. Something like working smarter.

 

[DUMF]

Lol. No OCD on this site my friend..........just a doctorate's wealth of info on how to do exactly what you describe in the most efficient and effective way. Those "cookies" are made from recycled egg cartons and sawdust. I use up all my spitting scraps quickly in the fall because I don't burn 24/7 until two months in......so they come in quite handy when kindling runs out. A few softwood splits and a "cookie" cuts my startup time in half. Something like working smarter.

Ain't no "smarter" to take time to do something that there's no need to do. Ain't no doctorate no how. KIndling never "runs out".
K.I.S.S. --- bend over for kindling ( "cookies", please, give me a break ! )
Do the wood thing all year as an Avocation. It's the method. Make it social.
Just say "no" to these moisture meters...no need, and not accurate for true levels of firewood moisture anyhow. The couple of mm penetration does ???
Learn how over time to judge when your splits are ready. Plenty of posts here on how.
Harvest, split , stack with enough time to season.
It is fun. Productive exercise-- no obese tree fellers we know. Zen of stacking. Romance of species perfume. And the joy of that lovely wood heat; what do most visitors to our place do when it is - 6 F out, with a brew in their hand, they go right to the stoves to warm butts.
If not your cup of tea, go back to other heating, or just use the wood stoves, masonry fireplaces, etc.. for ambiance. It's OK. We give you permission.

 

[Jamess67]

I save all the dryer lint through the the year. Add some sawdust if I have it and mix with soy wax chips. ($80 for a 50 lb box. Has lasted 3+ years) then use an old ice cream scoop to deposit a scoop the small Dixie cups or egg crates. Lights with a match and burn quite well.

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[blacktail]

Whew. If we had to do all that or the cookie tin route or waxed whatever just to heat the place, I'd quit wood forever.
Damn Woodpiles O.C.D. in extreme. Referrals available. I'll just skip the above.
Waxing = fossil.
What's wrong with the K.I.S.S. kindlings for free : 1000's of your scraps from splitting, those old NYTs and WSJs that need recycling in the stove ( (anyone read newspapers anymore ? ), papers from printer stuff and burnable mail ( no color) , cutoffs from your builder and carpenter friends that need burning so they don't have to pay for dumping at the "sanitary landfill", those standing dead softwoods that need felling for kindling ? Oh yes, when the weather is fine, bend over and pickup those pine twigs and branches and needles. Bend. Done.
Boy those "cookies" do look tasty Jake.

In 45 minutes I can make hundreds of firestarters. Candles are nearly free at yard sales. The sawdust is free. The egg cartons need to be burned or recycled anyway.

 

[iamlucky13]

Just not next to the stove!

Why? Is that a problem? I use my ash bucket to keep the stack weighted down.

Just kidding. I've got a box on a shelf in the garage I toss them in.

 

[mwhitnee]

The best firestarter to me is the easiest/simplest/cheapest one. I don't spend a day or afternoon or whatever making firestarters or have a recipe for one. Right now I have old pine strapping, newspaper, splitter scraps (excellent), Fatwood (figured I would try it, probably won't buy it again). I had a box of Rutland starters last year which lasted the entire year and worked well.

My mini butane torch is invaluable. I typically light whatever I have with it and walk away, never to go back again. If you don't have one...

 

[ohlongarm]

You folks have probably hit this subject before, but I've never seen it discussed here. How do you start a fire?

I use a blowtorch to light a pine cone or two under a stack of kindling. I've used sticks of a product called Fatwood derived from pine as well. I've heard pine kindling is excellent too.

What do you use?

Well if you really want to know here goes,military HQ fuel tabs,will start and burn at 1400 degrees for about 15 minutes.Beats anything I've ever seen,About $50 for 100 shipped,I won't use many but I tried one on some red oak today and it sure got it going. Not the easiest wood to start.Stumbled upon these at Sportsmans guide.

 

[ohlongarm]

Well if you really want to know here goes,military HQ fuel tabs,will start and burn at 1400 degrees for about 15 minutes.Beats anything I've ever seen,About $50 for 100 shipped,I won't use many but I tried one on some red oak today and it sure got it going. Not the easiest wood to start.Stumbled upon these at Sportsmans guide.

About 5 minutes after lighting a fresh load of red oak in 10 minutes it was blazing well.

 

[bboulier]

Supercedars and a top down fire. Always works. I usually put two short splits NS with a 1/4 supercedar between them. Put two splits EW over the top of the NS splits and put kindling on top of the EW splits.

 

[OscarsMom]

Butane torch on thin pine splits, chips from splitting, and/or dry twigs. Warms the flue and ignites the fire all at once. No more messing with DIY firestarters. I used to buy fatwood back in Wisconsin, but it's not available in Baja, and I don't want to risk it being confiscated as regular firewood if I bring a case of it from the US here.

I used to make a lot of creme brulee, and now that little Bonjour torch is coming in very handy.

 

[SaltyWoodsman]

I usually pick the thin cut pieces, and hack them down smaller, about 1/2 inch diameter. Newspapers twisted, not crumpled, and a match.

I'll flank the sides of the firebox with two splits roughly the same size NS. I'll lay down my newspaper bows NS as well. I'll make a log cabin, with progressively increasing sizes, spanning the splits. Ignite the paper and wait.

 

[David.Ervin]

I'll find some light and skinny splits, or make some out of a bigger piece of straight grained ash. Light a cardboard box (hey, they kids eat a ton of cereal) and lay the wood on top. When that catches, add normal firewood pieces until I've got as much fire as I want.

The chimney sweeps gave us a couple boxes of seymour fire blox, and I've tried those with about the same success as the cardboard box method. YMMV.

 

[Del Griffith]

New here - just wanted to say thanks for the Super Cedar recommendations. They work great. I'm also a fan of the small Duraflame fire starters. They burn hot and long, and you can cut them down to quarters as well. - DG