Yeah, just reached too far for a white oak split that when flying down hill. Wasn’t even all that heavy, but it’s flaring up on me.
I put aside a ridiculous amount of kindling. I use 2 pieces a morning to start the fire and another 8-12 are used when I am at work. I do encourage to not stress out struggling to keep it going just throw a few sticks in to get it going again. The kids and I play pickup sticks a few times and they enjoy it.
I cut up and split pallets as kindling. As a kid, my Dad called the dry pine branches on the trees Squaw wood. He'd send us out to gather it. To this day I don't think there are any tree branches in their woods below 6 feet.
I use scraps from splitting and bark that falls off on its own. I have some old trash bins that I fill with kindling during the summer. 4 bins will last me for the winter. I spend about an hour gathering kindling and that’s it for the year.
I stopped using kindling when I started burning dry wood. I just a very small piece of fire starter and full size wood. Kindling would make the process faster.
Nice ax! Gotta get me a nice one some day. I have been cutting this 2x4 all day, and it's still too short!
Here's my kindling "cache" - Just some twigs, sticks, and bark. We don't use much, but I have a pile of downed branches that I replenish from, if needed. I was refilling my deck rack this morning and remembered there was a kindling thread You can see a doormat. That's the door to the living room, and 6 steps to wood stove. My stove has an ash tray. It gets emptied into that metal can, under the kindling bucket.
I got away from kindling last year. We burn a lot of pine so splits will go when started with a torch. Got back on making kindling this year. Gets things going faster. Besides stacking probably my least favorite thing to do. I don’t know why. Anyways I use a minors hatchet for kindling. About the perfect tool for the job. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
And plenty more not cut up yet. Most of these scraps have come from cedar siding or fencing that had been trimmed. Cut long the grain so the splitting is pop pop pop off 1 inch by inch sticks. Almost Zero effort in terms of filling a supply box up. Really do like my hatchet too, old looking thing but I’ve got some heads that need hafts. One is a Boy Scout and the other is a Norlund. Doing a hatchet handle would need some cues from the crowd....which to do.
Moved some maple splits today. Bark was falling off nicely on some. Ill use these for start up on top of kindling and/or Summer fire pit.
I could see where you’re at, that’s either a burden to have as to where you put your splits or just burn your bark whenever you get the chance throwing logs in. At least that’ll free up some room but don’t keep tossing it all in. Never know right? Bark will burn like the wood it came from or at least to some extent. I found that peeling off black locust bark to burn like doug fir or pine but once it was going, hot hot hot. Others don’t quite work as well but they sure do soak up moisture so when I see it burn poorly, I blame water.
I have a tire mounted to a big pine round and i fill it with straight grain seasoned pine usually or maple. I stuff a bunch of rounds in the tire and beat it with a maul, i can fill a garbage pail in minutes. I store pales, tubs, bags etc on the screen porch during burning season. I like those big tubs with the rope handles on them, we use em for everything from matchbox cars/toys/laundry/ pool toys and kindling
I cut cedar for the deer to eat in the winter. Next summer it gets css into kindling. Way more work than needed really but the deer like it, and Mrs likes a box of cedar splits in the house for smell and easy fire lighting. I used to use my splitting leftovers and those work great, but they are more valuable to me for composting.
I do a lot of building and woodwork, and so always have yellow pine or oak scraps around. Yellow pine really burns hot.
I use pine for kindling. I split it fairly small and use that to get things going in a cold stove. When it's nice and dry, it takes off fairly quickly with a piece of fatwood I light with a propane torch. I usually build a fire with two splits as the base, then put kindling on top of that leaving space for air. Once that's really taken off and starts to crumble, more splits on top and it's off to the races. I also use it over overnight reloads. Even with a good bed of coals, I'll put a piece of kindling up front by the air supply and load on top of that. I find that helps get things going quicker, so I can go back to sleeping.
I have to ask... "superstitious about burning bark"? Is there some old superstition connected to this I didn't know about?
