Favourite Wood for Kindling...

[Happy Stacker]

Just wondering what everyone likes to use. For me it's cedar all the way. Easy to split and burns hot and fast. I am lucky as a friend has a tree cutting biz so I always get a couple of 6-8 ft logs each season from him.

 

[olddawgsrule]

I just use my oak. Since I bought that Kindling Splitter it's so easy to make up my kindling now.

Every once in a while a really nice product comes out. Every once in a while I find it and buy it. LOL
Every once in a while... I do like those moments.

 

[RobbieB]

I just buy bundles of softwood splits at the grocery and make it smaller with a hatchet.

 

[RandyBoBandy]

Free kindling is my favorite. I’m not picky about the species. Friend of mine works in the cabinet making division for a university so he brings me a truck load of scraps once a year. I also use splitter scraps and branches from around the yard. I will also take short splits and rounds and turn them into kindling and 2” splits.

 

[rox3406]

Kindling?? What’s that? Dry wood + 1/8 super cedar = instant fire.

 

[begreen]

When burning 24/7 we don't go through much kindling, but we have boxes of shavings and scraps from splitting. Doug fir makes nice scraps. We also have a box of finishing trim scraps and a garbage can full of 2 x 4 and 2x 6 cutoffs.

 

[FPX Dude]

Pallets, keep an eye out around hardware stores, grocery stores etc., they typically are glad to have someone just take them.

 

[Woody Stover]

Right now I'm working on a big stack of Red Pine kindling, and a bit of Tulip Poplar. But really, anything you got will work, splitter scraps or whatever.
With a couple small Super Cedar chunks, kindling gets a new load rockin' in a hurry, and it works great for a top-down start as well.
Here's the proper tool for the job.

 

[Woodwringer]

Whatever is really dry, and shavings from wood turning.

 

[Woody Stover]

It's also nice to have a variety of faster- and slower-catching woods to build a load from, depending on how fast you want to ramp it up, and how long you want to stretch out the burn. Right now I have next to the stove, Black Cherry, Red Oak, White Oak and Black Locust.
I don't mean to give the raspberry to our northern or western brethren who may not have as much variety at hand..really I don't.
A case could be made that this thread now belongs in the Wood Shed forum but OTOH it's just another aspect of stove operation, right? The lines get blurry..

 

[Rickb]

I like to use 2x4 scraps from the builders in this area. I can fill up a truck with what they would normally throw away. Small 4-6 inch pieces split down very easy and are great to start fires.

 

[jetsam]

I probably used a big old dry pine split and 20 seconds of blowtorch to start that my last fire, but that was September maybe? Don't remember. Must've done something right though, she's still burning!

Having dry wood is so nice. My first year in the new house I started many many soggy hissy fires.

 

[Woody Stover]

Having dry wood is so nice. My first year in the new house I started many many soggy hissy fires.

New burners, hang in there. In a couple years you'll be lovin' it too!

 

[webby3650]

Kindling, wow! I haven’t really given it a thought for a few years. With the Blaze King I rarely ever do a cold start after the season kicks off. I used to keep lots of it on hand for easy and constant restarts...
cedar was my favorite.

 

[zig]

I use whatever is at hand. Splitter trash, pallet wood ect. Ceder is great kindling but there's very little left of mine since finding pre-cresolt phone poles is harder to do all the time. If you can get one, use it wisely.

 

[Woody Stover]

Kindling, wow! I haven’t really given it a thought for a few years. With the Blaze King I rarely ever do a cold start after the season kicks off. I used to keep lots of it on hand for easy and constant restarts...
cedar was my favorite.

I just let the stove go out for the last couple days. Sure, the temp in here dropped several degrees by the time I fired up again but OTOH, I got to enjoy the pleasure of doing a top-down start when I finally loaded up again. Sorry you are missing out on all the fun but maybe one day, as you've thought of doing, you'll get a Woodstock, come out of retirement, and re-join the ranks of the real wood burners again.

 

[webby3650]

I just let the stove go out for the last couple days. Sure, the temp in here dropped several degrees by the time I fired up again but OTOH, I got to enjoy the pleasure of doing a top-down start when I finally loaded up again. Sorry you are missing out on all the fun but maybe one day, as you've thought of doing, you'll get a Woodstock, come out of retirement, and re-join the ranks of the real wood burners again.
View attachment 223136

Real wood burners! ....?
I don’t miss starting fires at all! I would like to try a Woodstock. Not a soapstone model though, I’m not a fan of sending most the heat up the flue.

 

[Woody Stover]

Real wood burners! ....?
I don’t miss starting fires at all! I would like to try a Woodstock. Not a soapstone model though, I’m not a fan of sending most the heat up the flue.

That's right, manly burners, not kids with training-wheels thermostat stoves!
I don't see much difference between running a stone stove, or a stove with steel sheets inside the box, preventing the heat from getting out.
I don't think I'm sending all that much heat up the flue once the stone is warm. That load in the pic, that I'm burning now, has the air set at 1 on a scale of 4, and the flue meter is reading right at 300. That's a meter lying on top of the stainless tee snout, about 6" behind the rear flue exit. Gotta be hotter there than it would 18" up a vertical connector pipe, I think.
It would be interesting to see what a probe at 12-18" up the liner would read. I'd need a thermocouple for that. I may do that some day, and hook one up for the cat exhaust as well. The hole provided on the back of the stove requires an 8" probe, and that's too long to accurately transfer actual cat temps all the way to the dial. Or I could drill a hole in the top of the stove and drop in a shorter probe over the cat, as Todd did..

 

[sutphenj]

Wonder if the guys on the car forums tout say a prius like BK's are here. I can hear it now...."wow a gas station, i havent thought about them in years"

 

[Woody Stover]

Wonder if the guys on the car forums tout say a prius like BK's are here. I can hear it now...."wow a gas station, i havent thought about them in years"

Maybe. But a Prius is a Toyota. A BK is, well, a BK.

 

[iLoveWood]

Cedar! What few logs I bring home each year get split for kindling, no point in burning splits of it to me. I also have a bin I fill with all the chips and bits i end up with while splitting, nothing goes to waste.

 

[allan5oh]

For a stubbron stove hard to beat pallet material. I like to cut slots in the wood first then take the skilsaw and cut on each side of the 2x4s. You get a twice as many pieces and they work great building a box filled with newspaper then about 3 medium pieces on top.

 

[Simonkenton]

I remodeled the house last year and wound up with a massive stockpile of cedar shingles. These make great kindling and I have a 5 year stockpile.
Also use split white pine for kindling. Along with super cedar I can light the Oslo up easily, and so can the girlfriend.

Cedar does not grow around here so I am lucky to have such a big stockpile, that stuff is just great for kindling.

 

[webby3650]

Yep, manly burners, not kids with training-wheels thermostat stoves!
I don't see much difference between running a stone stove, or a stove with steel sheets inside the box, preventing the heat from getting out. I don't think I'm sending all that much heat up the flue once the stone is warm. That load in the pic, that I'm burning now, has the air set at 1 on a scale of 4, and the flue meter is reading right at 300. That's a meter lying on top of the stainless tee snout, about 6" behind the rear flue exit. Gotta be hotter there than it would 18" up a vertical connector pipe. It would be interesting to see what a probe at 12-18" up the liner would read. I'd need a thermocouple for that. I may do that some day, and hook one up for the cat exhaust as well. The hole provided on the back of the stove requires an 8" probe, and that's too long to accurately transfer actual cat temps all the way to the dial. Or I could drill a hole in the top of the stove and drop in a shorter probe, as Todd did..

Well, whatever all that means...

 

[Woody Stover]

Well, whatever all that means...

One of my goals in my posts is to befuddle, baffle and beflummox those unfortunate enough to stumble across them. Mission accomplished!