little bit of noodles on top of previous burns cold coals and hit the fan button and fill her up! my video recording skills need improvement, i know...
My newspaper and kindling method failed for me yesterday - didn't choose good splits to use for the bottom, so my "v" was a little "smooshed". So I finally opened the box of "Strike a Fire" doohickeys that have been sitting on my mantle since last Christmas. They work great! Broke off 1/3 of one, tossed it in, and off she went. Looks like those are probably the cheapest of all wax/sawdust biscuits discussed here. $8.96 at WallyWorld for a 48ct box, good for 144 fires if you break them into thirds.
cheapest- old candles and sawdust/noodles from processing your firewood in the first place. could use margarine i suppose not much good for anything else.
Can't imagine you'd end up with anything besides a pile of soggy noodles if you used margarine. You could keep them refrigerated or frozen I suppose, but that's certainly not "cheaper", when you consider the electricity consumption! I have a lot of sawdust from my workshop. I use some of it for compost, but I've thought about using some for wax firestarters. Not sure if I could find wax any cheaper than just buying a box of the Strike a Fires though. Maybe yard sales or something, but I'd rather spend my time scrounging wood instead.
The only way our fire starting has changed for a long time is the use of super cedars. Thomas sent me 2 free samples and we were sold right away. I also still like to use some kindling but sometimes we just use splits. My wife can run the stove good but her weak point was in starting the fires. Once we got the super cedars, she can now start a fire pretty darned good. Method: We lay 2 splits in the bottom of the stove forming a slight V. Lay about 1/4 or sometimes less of a super cedar and light that immediately. Then put a little kindling on top of the fire and 1 or 2 splits on top of that. It works every time. Kindling: Yes, we like it but don't have to use it. I usually have some fun every spring making kindling with hydraulics and we use soft maple for this. The reason for soft maple is that it dries really fast and lights really fast too. Lights fast and burns hot which allows the rest of the wood to get going. I read from time to time about folks leaving the draft wide open for 15-20 minutes or even longer. We can not do that or we'd burn the house down for sure. Usually after about 10 minutes we close the draft to about 50%. What this does is keep the heat in the stove rather than sending it up the chimney. So, the stove warms up quicker and no waste of heat. Sometimes we do have to cut the draft to 25% if the fire gets going a bit too much and we even had one a few days ago when I had to set the draft below 25%.
I use pine fat lighter / fatwood and split it fine and some thicker pieces and then split oak and pine up to kindeling size. I light it with a match and goes up easily with the dry wood I use. I lay some splits on the floor and then build on top of that. Sometimes I will use paper but I built a fire last night but did not have any so I just lite the lighter wood with a few matches and built a teepee fire on the larger splits. In I think 30-40 minutes I had my catalysts engaged. And starting to burn the first wood down.
Hi Backwoods, and thank you Still relatively warm, but getting cold enough to need to light the woodburner of an evening (not that I need an excuse or anything )
Sounds good. Seems that you had a bit of a cold winter last year too if my memory is any good (but it has been failing me as of late).
That was the year before. Last year was so mild we didnt even have snow (Im in the NW of England). Now Im worrying that we are due a really cold few months and we wont have enough wood. We have plenty and more free pallets coming every week, but it never seems enough once I actually start burning it and see the stores reduce in size
Welcome Paula and hope you can scrounge more wood before alot of cold weather moves in...Gotta love that wood heat...
I sweep the furnace room floor . Bark ,sawdust ,and coal that gets spilled. Into 5 gallon buckets . Dump some veggie oil, diesel, or used motor oil in with floor sweeps. Place a few splits on bottom . Tripple layer of newspaper and wad up an ash pan scoop of the oiled up sweepings . Place on splits, lite and add a couple pieces of kindling and more splits. Let'er rip. Easiest never fail way to light a fire ever and I get rid of the settling tank crud from making biodiesel and the floor sweepings in one shot.
I was at Lowe's the other day and found a box of Rutland Squares for $13 so I decided to give them a try. I haven't started a fire with them yet, but I did light one in my driveway as I was working in the garage. It burned for 15 minutes before I put it out because I was going in to eat, and there was still a lot of the square left. I'm sold, these should cut out a lot if time I spend splitting tinder and kindling!
Ummmm, I dont burn diesel fuel or used motor oil in my home stove! When starting g a fire there is potential for smoke to creep back into the house before the draft starts pulling well!!
Neither do I . I just use it to get it started. I also don't have a slammer install that doesn't draft cold. A large percentage of the population burns Dino juice and Dino farts in furnaces of lesser construction than mine and I don't have a problem with that .
Old pine cones at my previous residence lit quickly, though I always had dry firewood too. Also used a chunk of coal some nights, still hot enough the next morning to light more logs.
