How do YOU light a fire...????

[keyman512us]

Hey all... (((***STARTING THE FIRE THREAD***)))

I was just checking out th threads...came across this one:

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/7667/

...It got me wondering??? "Might sound kinda dumb" but I was wondering how many "different ways" people light up their stoves...and which ways "are the best".???

"Might not be worth discussing" but then again...nobody really likes having to "light/start up" their stove....How many people religiously "stoke the fire" because they dread having to "re-start it"???

Let's hope "nobody chime's in with GASOLINE"...

For those of you that "know my set-up"...I've got a boiler...so the simplest, quickest, and least painfull way is a plus. (especially this time of year...only running it a few hours per night).
I think I've stumbled onto the "best way yet"....and I wonder if anyone else has tried/does this:

"Cross-cut Paper Shred" (the 'fluff stuff' from the office shredder)???

A few handfulls' sprinkled into the firebox, a "tee-pee" made of broken chunks of palletwood...a "quick shot" from the self-igniting propane torch...AND YOU'RE IN BUSINESS FOLKS ('quickest/hottest start yet!)

 

[wg_bent]

I crumple up newspaper... 3 or 4 balls, and pour about 1-2 oz of used motor oil on. Stack small dry splits crisscross on top and light. I tried sawdust and oil mix made into little balls, and that smokes too much. The oil and news paper works like a charm.

 

[Corie]

I crumble up newspaper, maybe 3-4 balls and then I crisscross thin pine kindling splits log-cabin style of top of the paper.


I wait for that to catch good and for the draft to start pulling hard and then I add "two-finger" thickness hardwood splits. Once those catch, I'll add a few small split rounds, maybe 3-4 inches in diameter and very very dry.


By the time that is happily chugging along, I drop a couple good sized splits on and let that burn hot, generally with the air control wide open. Once those have ignited and burned down to mostly large coals, the stove is at a very good operating temperature. Then I usually add from fresh big splits, leave the air control open until the catch and the secondary is rolling along well and then shut the air control for the amount of heat required.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I also like newspaper. For kindling, I make it while splitting wood. Here we use soft maple. It is very easy to split (and I simply use the log splitter), it dries nicely over the summer and lights very easily.

When making the kindling with the splitter, I take a good sized block, take small splits all around the log (removing the bark) and then I have a square. I then split that into 1" slices. Once that is done I take about 3 slices and split those into 1" pieces. That gives lots of 1" square sticks of maple which dries fast when split like that.

We have a couple spots where we keep the kindling but also use the ends of the wood piles. That is, we don't use posts but build our ends the old fashioned way just by using splits. I use two splits on each height and fill in between with kindling. Then it is easy to get at whenever needed. btw, we use some kindling in spring and fall but not a lot compared to most as our wood stove goes 24 hours per day pretty much from October 20 through to April 1. Before and after those dates we usually only have a fire going during the night.

 

[Corie]

Comparatively, we go through a great deal more kindling because of a lot of lighting and letting die cycles, AND starting a coal fire generally requires a lot more kindling to get a nice hot wood coal bed FAST.

 

[begreen]

Newspaper and cabinetry scraps. Unfinished flooring scraps also work great. Then there's always the SuperCedars for those that don't have kindling and want an easy way to start a fire.

 

[PA. Woodsman]

I roll black and white newspaper up longways and then tie it into a knot (about 3 or 4 sheets individually), then put twigs on top, and thinly split pieces of kindling (about 4) upright like a "tee-pee" and light up. Once this is going well, I add 2 "quarter-splits" of wood; once that is going well I add the larger fuelwood. Anyone here use the "top down" method where you put the larger pieces on the bottom and smaller on top and light the top? I tried that, but for some reason it didn't work for me; perhaps I don't have enough draft!

 

[Yooper Burning]

Found this site looking for how to build a Holz Hauzen/Hauffen. Great to see there are a bunch of other crazy, I mean dedicated, burners out there. This year I found the best way, for me, to start my fires quick and reliably. I bought a big stack of ultra-dry cedar slab wood from the mill here that supplies logs to a log home manufactuer. I got about a full cord for $20. All about 8"x16' and anywhere from 1/2" to 2" thick. After using a bunch of the thicker stuff to build a nice woodshed I cut the rest up into 12" pieces. Those pieces split with a hatchet easier than anything I've had before. Placed in the firebox they almost combust by themsleves when they see the lighter. I can stack the cedar over a few pieces of newspaper and get the fire going quickly, putting on splits as the fire really gets going with excellent draft. Pops and cracks like crazy, but burns like rocket fuel. I'm going to try lighting a small sliver of the cedar to use like a match and see if this will work without paper. I have enough cedar left for another heating season as kindling, and I think I'll buy another pile when I run out next year just because it's so easy to split and burn, and it smells great in the woodshed. I think the mill aught to give it to me for free since it was just taking up space in their yard with no use to them. But $20 is not bad at all.

On another note, anyone here use one of those firestarter contraptions which is someting like sandstone on a stick that you soak in lighter fluid. Seems like it would work well, but be stinky and messy.

-YB

 

[MrGriz]

I start with a few sheets of crumpled newspaper and a few pieces of cross stacked kindling. A buddy of mine found an awesome source of free hardwood cutoffs for kindling. They are strips approximately 1" across and vary from about 1/8" to 2" wide. We get them in bundles that are 8' - 10' long and 3' - 4' across and then cut them down to 16" lengths. Those things go up almost without the paper.

Once that gets going, I cross stack four to six small splits (depending on how much kindling and paper I started with). Once that is going well, I move up to the larger splits and then shut the air down when the secondary burn is going well.

 

[DiscoInferno]

Hey, another Yooper. Looks like we're (part-time) neighbors YB.

I start pretty much like Corie described, I use both hardwood splitting scraps and white pine/balsam fir kindling. I use a lot of paper just because I always seem to have some, but the pine and fir will pretty much light with a match. Once the heating season is under way, I almost never let the fire die anyway.

 

[elkimmeg]

I light my fire one match at a time. Plenty of kindling in my line of work I use n crumbled up news paper like others do Sometimes I use yart wind fall branches.
other times I use the hatchet and split up concruction lumber scraps. If all else fails the push button mapp torch seems to get it going in a hurry

 

[Highbeam]

I am a 4-6 sheets of newsprint balled up like a 6 pack in front of the air intake. Then two parralel pieces of thumb sized kindling one way and two the other to make an X over the 6-pack. Then N-S 4 larger (1.5") sticks of kindling and then E-W as much firewood as I can fit topped with possibly another skinny split. I do not want to mess around with adding more wood to a fire as it starts. I light the paper in the center of the six pack, leave the door cracked open, and the fire tunnels between the wads and starts the wood. When the kindling has momentum I shut the door tight and wait until there is enough momentum to close the damper. Then I close the primary air a smidgin and let the stove run up to 600 degrees before shutting the draft down even more. As the fire consumes the fuel I will finally add more and then burn as needed to heat the house.

One of the best reasons for a big firebox is being able to load it up for the start and for long burns.

 

[jpl1nh]

I use a method based on this article at (broken link removed to http://www.motherearthnews.com/DIY/1977-11-01/How-to-Use-Wood-Stove-and-Use-Them-Safely-by-Ole-Wik.aspx) This was the first thing that I ever read that clued me in that there was a lot more to know about burning wood than just shoving it in the stove and lighting it. In this EPA regulated day, you may cringe at some of his tecniques, but the man knew fire! I have his method down to a science, that in my old Jotul Combifire, allows me to light a full charge load. I take 2 sticks an inch or less in diam, lay them side by side about an inch apart with one end right by the air intake. I pour about a cup of bark, sawdust, whatever I've swept of from my wood mess, between them, again right in front of the air intake. I put a 2"x3" piece of birch bark on top of that and lay a 1" diam split of white pine across the bark and the 2 sticks,(all this right in front of the air intake), behind and on top of that, I load a couple of pieces of anything small and dry that will catch easy, then another layer of larger and so on till I have my stove filled with whatever I need for my first fire. This time of year, it may only be 7 or 8 1" to 2" diam sticks, but I could go up to a couple of 4-6" spilts on top too if I was looking to start a serious fire. One match to light the bark, leave the air wide open, and it never fails. Roaring fire within 5-10 mins. Course I have lots of birch bark available andall the pine I ever need, those two things on top of the 2 parallel sticks are the whole key. The birch bark is like lighting a friggin fuse! I'm not sure if you can click on the link I listed, but it's a great (fun) article from the old days of make your own woodstoves that helped me understand a lot more about how to burn wood. That was before I came across all the great info at this web site.

 

[NewtownPA]

I use a propane torch. No fuss with newspaper, no ashes, quick, easy, painless, cheap - oh and fun.

(broken link removed to http://www.bernzomatic.com/bernzomatic/consumer/jhtml/detail.jhtml?prodId=BernzoProd100016#)

-Nathan

 

[Corie]

Sometimes though, I do also use the top down approach.

 

[Bill]

I have been using the top down method and it works real good. I also use the propane instead of newspaper, it's cleaner.

I logged this year and have lots of small branches and there already piled up, so I am going to cut them up and store them in 55 gallon plastic barrels, to dry. Never tried this before, but it seems a shame to let them rot on the ground. I will drill holes in the barrel to let water out, if it doesn't work out I'll go back to slab wood.

I have used slab wood in the past and like other users it's cheap and works very well.

 

[titan]

I light 4-5 of those "NantucketNewspaper Knots"with an extended barbecue lighter.The "knots" burn top-down through varying sizes of dry kindling to small splits @ the base.Works well and I don't have to keep throwing in more kindling.

 

[begreen]

And then there is my old favorite - nut shells. Many have high oil content and burn for about 10 minutes so they make great starter. We'll often eat several handfuls of pistachios, walnuts, etc. in a day. I just put the shells in the stove, ready to start the next fire.

 

[johnsopi]

I get the waxed cardboard vegetable box from the local produce store. Cut that in to strips and put it under
what ever smaller piece I have. Works great.

 

[DriftWood]

I light my fire one long wood match.

 

[GVA]

How do you light a fire?

Start with a couple of candles.....
A nice expensive bottle of wine...
Maybe a little mood lighting and soft music....
Shut off the computer......

oooppppssss..

I'm sorry........ you meant the stove........... :red:

 

[PAJerry]

Since we burned the stove pretty much 24/7, we didn't have to restart too often but the Super Cedar Firestarters work great.

 

[keyman512us]

How do you light a fire?

Start with a couple of candles.....
A nice expensive bottle of wine...
Maybe a little mood lighting and soft music....
Shut off the computer......

oooppppssss..

I'm sorry........ you meant the stove........... :red:

NYUCK, NYUCK, NYUCK...You comedian GVA...lol

Seriously though...The shred works NIOCE! (for WOOD stoves anyway...don't think it would do much good for pellet apps).

The only reason "I brought it up"...is for "Startup" with my "stove"...I gotta get it hot quick...or the "B.I. Types" might "Take Notice".

"It ain't rocket science...Just 'Stoveology 101'..." lol

 

[Czech]

I fill the hopper and turn up the thermostat....

 

[Xena]

I fill the hopper and turn up the thermostat....

Ditto! This is one of many areas where
the pellet stove shines.