I’m acutely aware of the fact that we’re losing daylight fast, with every passing week. With burning season only a few weeks away, I figured now is a good time to get a head start on my kindling supply. A few weeks ago I busted apart some free pallets specifically for this reason. Tonight I sat down with a hatchet and got to work. It’s a nice dry mix of conifers and various hardwood species. I already had been saving my splitter trash since the spring, so that’ll get put to good use too. In the house I have a stash of cardboard as well, which I save year-round for getting the kindling going. I’m sure I’ll be making more at some point, but I’ll be good for a while with this.
Hey that looks good! Enough for the Fall @ 1 or 2 fires/day? I made firestarters in the spring, and a little kindling for backup. Im looking at 1 fire/day for maybe a month, then 2 (1 morning and 1 evening) for a few weeks.
A week ago I made 6 dozen fire starters from egg cartons, wax, and drier lint. Added to what I had left over from last year, I have 16 dozen starters and still collecting the lint.
I’m hoping it’ll carry me to Christmas at the very least. Last year I think my first fire wasn’t until the first week of November, and with that month and December both being mild, I had 1-2 fires a day (and went through a lot of kindling) I just can’t seem to put up an entire season’s worth of kindling in one shot, as I always go through more than I think I’ll need.
Always fun to make kindling. I usually save BL shards. Get plenty of other softwood scraps i can utilize for such. If you need more ive can save. Most splitter crumbs stay on the ground.
There ya go…if you lived near me id give you 55 gall drums filled with softwood scrap every day…we throw so much in the dumpster at work.. i started advertising it on facebook but noone gets it for burning all for arts and crafts or small projects
Thats what Im missing....splitter scraps! All done by hand this year, and not a scrap to be found. I cut up some pine logs for the noodles, the resulting kindling to a friend. Sca
Feed bags work great for saving them. Birdseed, cat/dog food etc. Paper yard waste work well too, but keep them dry.
I have an old folding stand with a beater chop saw attached that ill pull out now and then, set up a guage for length and go to town. The knot free stuff i split and make bundles that i sell.
I accumulate offcuts of lumber for a bit then turn the tv onto an old movie in the shop. Chuck a hatchet up in a vise on the bench sharp side up and work them into smaller pieces by hammer. A good John Wayne movie can get a bunch done when it’s nasty outside and the wood stove is doing it’s thing on a cold day. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Nice stashes of kindlin' y'all have. We have several trash cans of splitter trash, some short 2x4 pieces, 1x4 pallet frames that we break down, the like buZZsaw BRAD , set up table saw and chop saw. Cut them into strips, have a few trash cans of those too. Usually use shredded paper as our fire starter.
And since we started making fire starters, we have used almost zero kindling. Im not even sure we have much newsprint handy. It takes maybe 3 hours to make a year's worth of starters...egg cartons we just accumulate, shavings are easy to come by, and wax candles are cheapest at dollar type stores. 30 $1 candles makes 60 ish starters. Then there's the convenience..... no need to make kindling, store it, take up space with a bucket of it in the house, and refill it every few days. No need to stock newsprint. And a whole lot less time making a fire-lay. There is a knack to using the starters, but that is still faster than a fire lay. I'm even to the point where id give them away to some of our older friends, just for ease of fire starting.
I just pick up sticks and branches for kindling. I'll gather some up in a pile that's easily accessible, even with snow.
Yes. We used some, but the rest just sit there. Ill restock it at some point, and just let them sit there.
