We don't need no stinkin' matches

Am I the only one who would rather nurse a marginal coal back to life than use a match?

This time of year I don't need to burn around the clock. Until this year, I'd have been using a match as often as not to get my one fire a day going. But this year, I've been putting a chunk of elm in the back corner and covering it with ash before I start my fire for the evening. It's my ace in the hole. It has been working very reliably for me. I had a pine fire last night, last added wood 26 hours ago. Stove was pretty much cold. But I dug out my elm chunk and sure enough, a really nice coal.

I don't know why, but I take disproportionate pleasure from not needing a light.

 

Me too.

 

Appears we have the same disease. No matches/lighter, it's the same fire.

 

Me three.

 

Same here will dig for that last hot coal and crack the door and wait for it to take off

 

Yup... I do it all the time. The 4 years burning coal at the farm made it an obsession. With wood, it's usually easy. With coal, not so much... I lost count how many times a small bed of red coals fooled me into loading "just a little" new coal on top... which never worked. Put it out in seconds. Drove me nuts... ... now, I stand in front of my wood stove, in amazement... every time I get a tiny hot chunk, to light some slivers... ... ...

 

Yeah that’s definitely part of my OCD. The Fireview seems to like the game as well

 

If theres no useful coals, I will rake all the coal to the front and wave the propane torch over them for about 20 seconds, then I close the door, and open the ash door. By the time I come back in with the firewood, it's ready to rip. No need for kindling, and it starts faster.

 

With the basement stove, I only have a fire every few days and rarely re-kindle overnight fires.

But Yeah, I use the coals if they're present. Gotta save on those match purchases, no?

 

Same.

Rake up ashes into a pile. Lttle glowing coals reveal themselves. A bit of paper, kindling, leave the ash clean out door open. It usually catches and is ready for splits.

 

yup.

 

Sorry, sounds fun but i just dont have time for that. I just press a button on the torch and its back in seconds. However when im messing with bow drills and hand drill challenging myself its a whole other story.

 

I'm glad to see crazy likes company.

Staying sharp at being able to get a fire going from an ember has always been part of it for me. Wilderness camping/hiking in winter kills people who can't get a fire going in adverse conditions. It was a good way of training my son when he was young too. He's an outstanding outdoorsman now.

I read an interesting story a long time ago. Wish I could remember where. I'll recount as best I can.

In Ireland the primary heating and cooking fuel was not wood but Peat. It was harvested from peat bogs by cutting it into "logs" and stacking it to dry. A fire could be kept smoldering in it for a long time and given the climate and other considerations, it was considered important not to let the fire go out. If visitor came, you must have a warm hearth waiting, kind of thing.
Many people would recount that they had never known a time when there wasn't a fire burning in the hearth, one lit from the next, it was considered the same fire that was burning when that was their parents or even grandparents home. To let it go was to let go of a piece of them, so fires became generational. Supposedly, when the famine came to Ireland and there was an exodus of entire families emigrating to America, the thought of allowing the family fire to go out was too much to bare and people would take a part of a burning peat log from their hearth and bring it to a relative or neighbor to add it to their fire, so it would continue on.

My home has been heated almost entirely with wood all winter long since before my son was born. When he was young he always wanted to be part of making the fire and I've tried to raise him with the traditions that go along with it. It's been a game we've played to keep the same fire burning as long as possible every year.

 

Usually like the stove sometime in October, and keep it going till about April. It really helps at the stove the whole coals for a good 48 hours

 

Sounds a little obsessive but that's what we love around here. But it does make me glad I have an owb and only light one fire a year anyway.

 

I've never been accused of having OCD... orrr CDO if you put everything in alphabetical order, as it should be..

 

Obsessive
Wood
Burner?

 

Used to get a kick out of it but the thrill is gone.
I don’t use kindling either. If the coal bed is iffy I’ll toss three fatwood sticks in a crevice and hit it with the mapp gas.

 

I too hate to have to re-light. Fatwood used to be my preferred re-start fuel. Now I'm using thin Ponderosa bark. It contains just enough pitch to make it burn enthusiastically. A few puffs from the bellows and we're back in business.

edit: And I don't need no steenkin' matches either. I use a torch.