Do You Use Kindling to Start Your Fire(s)

[BigV]

This years burn season is rapidly approaching. In the past I used old pallets as kindling during the early season when 24/7 burn was not necessary. I used a worm drive circular saw to cut the pallets into manageable pieces and stored these pieces in large totes close to the stove.

During the last 2 years I have begun to use fire starters instead of kindling. There are many different types of fire starters available, but my favorite is Starterlogg. They light easily and ½ a log gets my well seasoned oak roaring hot in a short time. Using fire starters has saved me a lot of time and energy by not using kindling.
Starterlogg can be purchased for around $20 for a 16 pound box that contains 40 logs. That's 80 fires (as I only use ½ a log to start my fires) or $.25 a fire.

So what do you use to start your fires? Kindling or fire starters??

 

[Duetech]

I like to use home made kindling. I take a big round and cut it in two with the chainsaw going with the grain/cutting length wise. The round needs to be on a stump because the shavings are long and pile up fast. Since the big rounds are difficult to get on a splitter I get two birds with one stone. Light a crumpled piece of paper and sprinkle the shavings on. Ignition is fast and then I just put small pieces from my splitting clean up on the fire and then the firewood itself. It's a good fire fast.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Soft maple split into 1" x 1" or similar size.


Hey Cave2k, those big rounds are not so difficult to get onto the splitter and splitting them with the splitter is a whole lot faster; so faster and easier it is! It makes no difference to the splitter how big the split is. Also, after splitting by hand for many, many moons, I also learned that I would much rather split a big round than the small ones. They really do split easy. It just takes hitting the log in different spots; not just at one spot. If you can't tell, I hate to see guys cutting a log because they think they can't split it. Tough job with a saw too unless you have the right chain.

 

[quads]

So what do you use to start your fires? Kindling or fire starters??

Kindling! Quietly splitting kindling is one of my favorite things and I'd really miss it:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/41171/

 

[Pagey]

I use kindling and newspaper most of the time, though on occasion I use some sort of "fire starter". We process most of our wood in an old hay barn on my paternal grandmother's cattle farm. All the "waste" that falls off as we split dries quickly and becomes excellent kindling. We processed just over a cord of pine earlier this year, and let me tell you that the pine "drippings" are bomb.com kindling!

 

[billb3]

white pine branches , several years dead.
they grow on trees around here

 

[jzr1]

oak and cherry scrap from the furniture shops in my area all stored in banana boxes in my garage.

 

[WoodPorn]

Fatwood and a bit of pallet material works great, I'm not too crazy about using the wax products in my stove.

 

[donmattingly]

There is always prime kindling around the wood splitting area and I am cheap enough to pick up all the hand sized pieces and use them for kindling in the winter.
We also have two big silver maples in the back yard that are dying. (My wife calls them perfectly healthy and won't let me bring them down). Well over the course of a year, I will pick up all the branches and twigs from those trees and all that will usually take me through the winter.

 

[fossil]

A few sticks of kindling/splitter trash and 1/4 of a Super Cedar. Rick

 

[WOODBUTCHER]

I just packed my shed with my kindling and shoulder wood. Takes me an hour with the splitter to make the kindling you see.
I wont use all of it, but it's there if need be.

A mix of Red Maple, Cherry, Birch and Ash......the stuff on top is Hemlock

WoodButcher

 

[LLigetfa]

That looks like what's mixed in with my regular wood. I've posted a pic of my hand split kin'lin often enough which is a bunch of 20" long, 3/4" square sticks in a 5 gal pail.

 

[WOODBUTCHER]

That looks like what's mixed in with my regular wood. I've posted a pic of my hand split kin'lin often enough which is a bunch of 20" long, 3/4" square sticks in a 5 gal pail.

I remember seeing the pic and a few others.......

WB

 

[LLigetfa]

That reminds me... I need to make some kin'lin. I usually make about two 5 gal pails at a time and only make more when I run out. I keep saying I should make enough for the whole year while the weather is still warm rather than when it's sub-zero but I'm too much of a procrastinator.

 

[ikessky]

I use old scrap stuff like 2x4, 2x6, 1x4, 1x6, etc. Having family members who are general contractors has it's benefits. They have no use for the stuff, so they haul it to a pile and I pick through it.

 

[Elderthewelder]

A few sticks of kindling/splitter trash and 1/4 of a Super Cedar. Rick

Ditto

 

[ROBERT F]

Small paper sandwich bags, partially full of noodles, shavings and little pieces left from the splittings. Make em' up before hand, and store em' in a milk crate. Sometimes include a handfull of cross-cut paper from the paper shreder. Then just plop em' in on top for a top down start. Works really good for the pine I burn.

 

[drdoct]

I use about 1/4 of one of those firestarters at the top picture plus pallet wood. I prefer those wax starters to newspaper. I abhor burning newspaper. Probably because when I was young I used to have to chase the burning newspaper that blew out of the burn barrel and stomp it. I'd rather not have them fly up the chimney or out on to the carpet. Pallet wood is ripped to length and then split into 1" wide pieces. Then use just pallet wood when restarting the fire in the morning off the coals. I work with pallets all day so can be picky and also lots of boards that come off them while moving gets thrown into a box for further processing then I just use a ryobi miter saw to chop it to length.

 

[myzamboni]

This years burn season is rapidly approaching. In the past I used old pallets as kindling during the early season when 24/7 burn was not necessary. I used a worm drive circular saw to cut the pallets into manageable pieces and stored these pieces in large totes close to the stove.

During the last 2 years I have begun to use fire starters instead of kindling. There are many different types of fire starters available, but my favorite is Starterlogg. They light easily and ½ a log gets my well seasoned oak roaring hot in a short time. Using fire starters has saved me a lot of time and energy by not using kindling.
Starterlogg can be purchased for around $20 for a 16 pound box that contains 40 logs. That's 80 fires (as I only use ½ a log to start my fires) or $.25 a fire.

So what do you use to start your fires? Kindling or fire starters??

I use these same things, but get 6 pcs from each stick (~$.08 a fire).

 

[firefighterjake]

Kindling mostly . . . pallets, slabwood cut down to kindling sized pieces, old lumber cut down to kindling or the occasional cedar or softwood tree (pine, spruce, hemlock, etc.) again cut down to kindling sized pieces -- I've got quite a bit left over from last year . . . but figure it's always better to have too much than not enough.

Occasionally I'll use one of those starter logs if I'm feeling particularly lazy or if I want to experiment . . . I cut up a few that my sister gave me a few years back . . . made starter log "cookies" out of them.

 

[Hurricane]

I use half of a starter log for starting fires, and use kindling to get the fire restarted. In the morning I usually stir up the coals toss in some kindling and a few splits and it is done. I do not usually make kindling because I have acres of woods and get enough downed branches. Also when I finish splitting I take all of the small trash pieces and put them in a pile until fall, when they become kindling. Occasionally I will take a split and just split off a few small pieces before throwing it in the fire.