Kindling Solution This Year

[Longknife]

While I don't use a "lot" of kindling, as with steady cold I pretty much have enough coals to keep rolling for weeks/months at a time, I do use enough, especially in shoulder season. Plus, with my new (bigger) stove and some of the temperature fluctuations in the last year, I seem to let the fire go out more often than in the past.

As I have a near limitless supply of white cedar that I don't really use for anything else, I've always just split a bunch by hand and filled a small tote as needed. Because I like it fairly small though, and knotty cedar can be a bit of a pain to get clean, small splits, it can take a bit of time. I've considered a kindling lever splitter, however, noticing the amount of small pieces that come off my firewood during the normal splitting process, I figured I'd start collecting that, rather than dump it in the bush with all my other splitting debris.

I just keep some milk crates beside the splitter and toss them in as they happen, or collect them after splitting. While they don't light up quite as well as cedar, with their "featherly" nature, them seem to do just fine. I thinking the biggest bonus is that it satisfies my OCD nature of not wanting to waste anything. I filled 6 milk crates this spring while splitting, which stack nicely and seem to allow for good drying.

 

[stoveliker]

I do the same. Maybe it's just my poor splitting skills, but I end up more kindling than I need. And I do have the stove go out here every now and then (coastal NY, and a minisplit+solar panels for heating when it's warm enough to be efficient).

 

[ericm979]

I do the same. As I am splitting I toss kindling into a plastic trash bin next to the splitter, which goes under cover in the barn to dry. I have a number of them in there. The amount of kindling generated varies greatly depending on the wood species I'm splitting.

 

[xman23]

Just today I came up with a new kindling process. Many years ago I got piles of house framing scraps. 2X6, 8, 10's rafter ends. All S dry pine. I use a hatchet to wack off about 2" pieces. Can be a bit dangerous, holding the piece. Today I had the spliter out, and gave it a try. So easy to snap off 1/2" pieces. Most splits only needs the wedge to go in 1". 2-3 times as many splits from the same wood.

If you come across a house being framed check out the dumpster. They throw out all this scrap wood.

 

[peakbagger]

My neighbor several years ago removed his stained red cedar siding. I got a truck load and keep that for a few splits for each fire mixed in with other kindling. One side of my house is red cedar clapboards and is probably going to get redone in the next year or two. It completely untreated and I expect once I do that project I have enough for decades.

 

[Zzyk]

I planted a long row of some sort of willow along the road for screening. They grow 6-8+ feet per year. Every winter I cut them back and make garden stakes out of them. Then next fall they are all kindling. And then I do it all again...

 

[clancey]

That's a good idea and wonder if one could do that with bamboo--that's suppose to be fast growing..clancey

 

[Gearhead660]

I do the same. As I am splitting I toss kindling into a plastic trash bin next to the splitter, which goes under cover in the barn to dry. I have a number of them in there. The amount of kindling generated varies greatly depending on the wood species I'm splitting.

Same here. Rubbermaid trash can for all the kindling made during splitting process.

 

[Longknife]

Just today I came up with a new kindling process. Many years ago I got piles of house framing scraps. 2X6, 8, 10's rafter ends. All S dry pine. I use a hatchet to wack off about 2" pieces. Can be a bit dangerous, holding the piece. Today I had the spliter out, and gave it a try. So easy to snap off 1/2" pieces. Most splits only needs the wedge to go in 1". 2-3 times as many splits from the same wood.

If you come across a house being framed check out the dumpster. They throw out all this scrap wood.

All of my framing scraps end up in the wood stove. While it does split fairly easily, I usually just leave them in full pieces and burn them during shoulder season.

Having done a fair bit of pine board and batten siding on my wood shed and another outbuilding in the last few years, they ended up as kindling, or otherwise, and into the stove as well.

 

[firefighterjake]

I'm presently burning up my garage . . . cedar shakes that were stripped a few years back and replaced with vinyl siding.

 

[creek chub]

I block up dead standing pine in about 8” lengths. Then I use the hydraulic splitter to get them into smaller pieces. I then use the kindling cracker and get them into the desired size. I’ll usually let them air dry in a pile for an additional 6+ months and then I stack them neatly in those large plastic storage totes and stack them on top of each other in my garage. Works great

 

[FTG-05]

I collect splitter slash as I split. I use 55 gallon barrels and a50 gallon trash barrel. That four year old Red Oak splitter slash starts a raging fire in just a couple minutes!

 

[fbelec]

i use building scraps also. 2x4 are cut to 6 to 8 inch the hatchet it down to 3 pieces or 2x6 to the same length and get 5 or 6 pieces and this year from wind a load of branches broke from trees on the property or when i take a tree down and use those. i usually criss cross 3 to 4 layers and light. i think i'll save some of the splitter trash that sounds like a great idea.

 

[weatherguy]

I always stop at new construction sites when I see a dumpster and load up on scraps. The builders don't mind, if they're there I ask them and no one's ever said no.

 

[hickoryhoarder]

My favorite is to take red oak splits, and split them four more times into kindling with a maul. It needs a year to season, but catches easy and has a lot of heat.

 

[Cluttermagnet]

Once having tinder and kindling started to matter to me (2007) it was easy to find
a variety of sources all around me. This includes the splitter trash that so many
save. My trees constantly rain down dead branches. Some of these get broken up
or sawed on a spare chop saw and saved. I even save chopsticks (grin). One thing
I learned in these forums is to save pine cones. They can be soaked in old kerosene
and that makes them dandy fire starters. Kero is great because it is low volatility
and slow flame spread (needless to say, never ever use gasoline and such!) Also I
do save lots of construction cutoffs if they are not pressure treated. These split
easily and are near ideal kindling. I routinely place one pine cone and a few
small wads of paper, then tinder and kindling over them. Pretty darned reliable
starting method.

 

[Longknife]

Going on a few years now, and splitter slash is my main kindling. I still use a fair bit of construction and woodworking scraps (because what else would you do with them).

As it's been a fairly steadily cold winter this year, I haven't used much kindling, but I did crack open one of my 30gal bins to top up from the other day.

 

[vatmark]

Here's my kindling. Some is from splitting. The rest I used the kindling cracker on small pieces of lumber we had taking up space in the garage.

 

[ScottLewis]

We mostly have white pine around here, but occasionally I will see a downed yellow pine. People will just cut one up and leave it by the roadside, as it is not very good firewood, compared to all the locust and white oak available here. I will stop and cut up ten inch long pieces, of 12 inch diameter yellow pine. I split it up and throw it in the woodshed, it has lots of pine sap and is great kindling.

 

[Max W]

It may sound crazy but I really enjoy getting out the miter saw and making kindling from leftover and scrap lumber, cedar saw mill edgings or whatever I can come up with. With our cookstove I don’t burn 24/7 so it is nice to start the season with bins of dry kindling in the greenhouse just through a kitchen door.

 

[GG Woody]

Going on a few years now, and splitter slash is my main kindling. I still use a fair bit of construction and woodworking scraps (because what else would you do with them).

As it's been a fairly steadily cold winter this year, I haven't used much kindling, but I did crack open one of my 30gal bins to top up from the other day.View attachment 337398

View attachment 337399

My puppy would love that setup!
Our kindling now doesn't get split till it's needed, if it's accessible it's gone!

 

[sixer]

Splitting scraps and birch bark...

 

[yyz0yyz0]

I've been burning dead ash mostly, I discovered that the bark makes great kindling. Although it is really really messy when breaking it up into smaller pieces, so I always break it over the storage bucket or inside the wood stove. My shed has an 8ft ceiling, so I fill 5gal pails with bark when processing and hang it from the ceiling for storage. I still have maybe 10 buckets from last summer still hanging out there.

 

[Wood1Dennis]

I take the other approach.
I split my firewood out by my wood piles and don't bother with the splitting scraps. I make white cedar kindling because it starts fast and works so well, it makes the best kindling. I always have downed cedars in my woods. Each fall I cut short rounds from nice straight pieces because they split nicely. I split those small on the hydraulic splitter. Most of the time i have dead, partially dry cedars to use, but even if wet when split small, about 1 - 2 inch pieces, it drys in a couple of weeks. I put a fan on it. Then as I need it I split it even smaller with a boys axe. Pic is part. of what is left of my kindling stack in the basement by my furnace.

 

[snowaggie]

I just periodically raid my dry stack and find a couple pieces of straight-grain ash. Camp stool, hatchet, mini-sledgehammer and heavy lopper tool. Split a log into skinny enough pieces that the lopper can easily get through. Doesn't take long to get a hundred pieces of kindling. Plus, you can control the length for your circumstances.