Wood scraps for kindling and logs.

[Robbie]

Does anyone else save wood scraps left over from your wood proccessing (splitting etc.) to use for kindling ?

I think there is quite a bit of wasted wood here if it's not picked up and used for fire starting.

I am experimenting with cotton string and pieces of scrap to make a sort of fire starting logs, all made from scraps found on the ground, just take a few seconds to stack scraps and bundle tightly, tie with cotton string.

I think these are going to help me a lot when I want to get a hot fire fast.

In other words, there is a lot of fuel on the ground.

All you need is a rake and a container to hold all your scraps.

Opinions ?

Robbie

 

[elkimmeg]

Sounds good to me I also pickup the small splits for kindling

 

[jabush]

I actually spend some time making my kindling, but I do pick up the scraps (from splitting) and set them aside. Anything I don't burn in the stove gets raked up and goes in the burn barrel.

 

[suematteva]

Does anyone else save wood scraps left over from your wood proccessing (splitting etc.) to use for kindling ?

I think there is quite a bit of wasted wood here if it's not picked up and used for fire starting.

I am experimenting with cotton string and pieces of scrap to make a sort of fire starting logs, all made from scraps found on the ground, just take a few seconds to stack scraps and bundle tightly, tie with cotton string.

I think these are going to help me a lot when I want to get a hot fire fast.

In other words, there is a lot of fuel on the ground.

All you need is a rake and a container to hold all your scraps.

Opinions ?

Robbie

I use the dog food bags to through the stuff in.

 

[wg_bent]

Sometimes I have the kids pick them up for kindling. Works great, but most times I just get sticks from the monster pile of branches I have in the back yard. When I moved into this house, I cut down about 15 large (1' diameter) trees and maybe 30 saplings. I have a brush pile you could hide a car under.

Slowly I'm working on burning it...VERY slowly!!

 

[BrotherBart]

Splitting scraps are 90% of my kindling. A few years ago I was dropping off some trash at the landfill and somebody had dropped off a brand new looking clamshell cargo carrier. One of those you strap to the top of a car. I brought it home and put it on the deck just outside the back door.

Best kindling box I have ever had. That thing hold a winter's worth of kindling scraps.

 

[Eric Johnson]

Me staying away from the dump is probably one reason I'm still married.

I don't need much kindling since we basically fire the boiler up in the fall and let it die out the following spring.

However, I do have a couple of fireplaces and I've noticed that the best kindling, bar none, is dried bark. I just collect, dry and save the sheets of bark (maple and yellow birch, mostly) that come off the wood when I bring it inside or re-stack it. Splitting scraps go on top.

 

[Todd]

I have an extra garbage can I fill up with splitting scraps. Also use alot of bark that falls off after the wood dries. Like your idea of making firestarters, I might have to try.

 

[begreen]

I collect the bigger pieces for kindling and put them in banana boxes. Smaller stuff gets rakes up and into the burn pile. I have a section of the woodshed just for stacking up these banana boxes. There are also boxes of cabinet maker scraps in there.

 

[Roospike]

I used to pick up smaller branches and such to save for kindling . The last 4 years I use OAK blocks and OAK scrap . We have a company here local that builds new Church pews out of oak and that always have a monster dumpster full of leftovers . I'll go down there late summer and fall and fill up the back of my F150 with oak , bring it home and fill four 55 gallon barrels of it. I dont need it so much for the house as i do for the shop as I'm always starting a new fire out there. Sence i can get some much oak scrap i throw a good half a gallon to a gallon of the oak blocks to start a fire . Coal bed real hot , real quick .

 

[Corie]

Yeah, the oak scraps are awesome for lighting a coal fire too, because I feel like they give you a hotter and longer burning coal bed, as opposed to just using pine scraps from my work shop.

 

[wg_bent]

Yeah, the oak scraps are awesome for lighting a coal fire too, because I feel like they give you a hotter and longer burning coal bed, as opposed to just using pine scraps from my work shop.

For some reason I thought you were switching to wood this year. What stoves are you burning this coming year Corie?

 

[Corie]

I am switching closer to a 50-50 mix this year. Last year, it was wood for about two weeks, get fed up with the way the old Federal Airtight burns wood and switch to coal.

This year, we'll have the new stove with a better design, longer burn times and a bigger firebox.

Although right now, all that exists of the new stove is a seriously large ash pan and some pieces of steel.

 

[Robbie]

Eric, using bark sounds great, I have burned it on logs of course but never actually collected it for fire starting. I have a lot of shagbark hickory bark I may save and try (that stuff is hard !).

The kindling logs I have made were not very big, just 2 or 3 inches in diameter and a string on each end to hold together and packed with a nice assortment of scraps. I plan on using these small kindling logs on top of a small pile of loose, then add solid stuff later.

It does not take long to make a bunch of these, and it keeps all your kindling together in bundles.

What the tied together logs should do is makes it a little quicker and easier to load firebox with kindling instead of having all the loose stuff to mess with. The logs should just fall apart within seconds anyway after strings burn hopefully making a pretty good hot fire quickly.


Robbie.