Grew up with a fireplace most of my life,then my dad got a fireplace insert. We always used old pine stumps ,which consist of alot of oil in the wood. Thats what we used as the LIGHTER for our fires. Just curious what you good folk up north use.
Fat Lighter
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Usually I use a piece of Super Cedar under my kindling.
When that fails I'll use newspaper under my kindling.
Kindling can be any type of wood (including pine).
Matt
When that fails I'll use newspaper under my kindling.
Kindling can be any type of wood (including pine).
Matt
floridaboy said:
I'm up north and just built a fire using fat lighter. My buddy's from SC and he got me hooked on it. Works great
I scrounged about 1/2 a cord of pne that turns out to be basically fatwood earlier this year. I was hoping that w/ seasoning in the hot so. calif. sun, it wouldn't "smoke like a chimney" in my open FP, but that was a "pipe dream." So now I have a lifetime supply of fatwood for fire starting. Folks here have suggested selling it on Craigslist. Might try that, just have to process it so it's purty and price it lower than retail.
When I saw the post title of "Fat Lighter," however, I thougt of how, in my youth, folks used to save bacon grease for cooking. It was also handy for starting a fire. Pour some over some kindlin', let it soak in for a while, and it lights right up. Smells nice too - but don't prepare it too far ahead of time or your firestarter will go rancid!
Sometimes when my wife cooks bacon when its cold, we use the paper towels from wiping up the bacon grease to start fires with.
Peace,
- Sequoia
When I saw the post title of "Fat Lighter," however, I thougt of how, in my youth, folks used to save bacon grease for cooking. It was also handy for starting a fire. Pour some over some kindlin', let it soak in for a while, and it lights right up. Smells nice too - but don't prepare it too far ahead of time or your firestarter will go rancid!
Sometimes when my wife cooks bacon when its cold, we use the paper towels from wiping up the bacon grease to start fires with.
Peace,
- Sequoia
I'm just getting started with a wood stove again so I've been trying different stuff.
Rutland starter squares - I have no idea what they are but they work great. Semm to be saturated fiberboard of some sort. Light with a lighter in seconds and burn hot for a full 10 minutes. no kindelin needed.
Stater stiks wich claim to be "Fat Wood" sticks they work very well also, and they are suppose to be "all natural" I think the starter squares work better.
Paper and kindeling. Same way I have lit my camp fires for decades.
I'm nit sure what this top down fire I keep reading about here on the Hearth, I need to find out everyone who uses it seems to be very happy with it.
Rutland starter squares - I have no idea what they are but they work great. Semm to be saturated fiberboard of some sort. Light with a lighter in seconds and burn hot for a full 10 minutes. no kindelin needed.
Stater stiks wich claim to be "Fat Wood" sticks they work very well also, and they are suppose to be "all natural" I think the starter squares work better.
Paper and kindeling. Same way I have lit my camp fires for decades.
I'm nit sure what this top down fire I keep reading about here on the Hearth, I need to find out everyone who uses it seems to be very happy with it.
- Jan 30, 2009
- 456
How do you guys like that FAT LIGHTER? We Love it down south and its pretty plentiful and abundant. Its always what we have used for starting fires. Have 5 acres with scrub oaks and plenty lighter.
I've been making my own starters out of dryer lint and paper egg cartons. I also use sawdust in the egg carton. Melt a little candle wax on top. check out this video
(broken link removed)
(broken link removed)
golfandwoodnut said:
Looks great, but if my wife caught me doing that I think she'd have me committed!
I'm hooked on super cedars. I do top down fires - stick a piece (about 1/6 of a puck) of a SC on top of the pile of sticks and shut the door. Seems to work every time for me. When I have egg cartons to burn I use them - flatten them down and put them on top of the kindling and works just like the knotted newspapers, just takes far less time to prepare. I am generally starting my fires in the morning before the mad rush of getting kids ready for school so time is of the essence so any sort of wadding, rolling, knotting is out. So too is having to mess with the fire once lit. So I just put in 3-5 splits (depending on how cold it is to be), pile the kindling (sticks from the yard) on top of that to fill in spaces between splits and even it out on top, then put the SC bit on top. I find this works out well - after a bit I adjust air down, then 30-60 minutes later cat is engaged and I can forget about it until it gets cold (lately that meas forget about it for the day).
I use 2 fire starting squares by meeco mfg, stack 8 logs on top of them, light them, open up the air and come back in a half hour to turn the air down.
floridaboy said:
Up here in Maine I typically find an old cedar tree that is either standing dead or a leaner and buck it to stove length and then split 'er up for kindling . . . burns wicked nicely. However, this year I've also been using some old boards that I took out of a camp that I tore down this past summer since the boards are 40+ years old and burn well.
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