How do you start your indoor fire?

[genesis5521]

I heat entirely with wood. My LP furnace is set at 45 degrees and never kicks in. I have a decorative wood burner in my living room. It heats my whole 1200 sq ft manufactured home nicely. I use to make kindling sticks, but not anymore. I use to use fuel oil, but not anymore. I have a little Ryobi planner. A couple of years ago, I put a whole bunch of soft pine through it and saved the shavings in horse feed bags. I put full size hardwood splits in the stove, and a pile of these shavings in the middle, and more splits on top. I light it with a propane torch. Starts immediately, and gets hot real fast. No muss, no fuss, and no fuel oil smell.

Don <><

 

[shelbythedog]

I use kindling made from free pallets and newspaper. Usually 2 sticks of wood and a few sheets of paper gets the draft goin' and easily lights off the splits.

 

[Misfit138]

My acetylene torch ran out, so I am back to my little MAP/PRO.
I use a few long pieces and split 'em real thin, arranging them over the top of the rest of the wood. I use a north-south orientation and light from the top with the torch.

 

[branchbuzzer]

I use StarterLogg

One $10 box lasts pretty much all year, and I also don't have to come up with ultra-creative methods to use twigs, etc. ( That's too much for my feeble mind to handle )

 

[greengiant]

I save every piece of wood scrap from hand splitting. I also save noodles. I get empty banana boxes from the grocery store, fill with either, store in shed (just set mouse traps and keep out the red squirrels), and dry them for 12 months(5 boxes of each almost does a winter, and by winter, I mean fall and spring when most of it is used for fires from scratch). The combo of a handful of noodles, couple splinters, and a match gets it going. I've also recently started adding 14 month dried scotch pine cones into the mix. If I didn't use all that stuff, I would have to get rid of it anyways.

 

[dingeryote]

Newspaper. Dead Sassafrass twigs and branches. Matches.
But then we rarely let the fire go out once lit in late fall.

Stay safe!
Dingeryote

 

[Nuzzy]

This year, I was finally going to make my starters: noodles and chips soaked in diesel and covered in paraffin wax. That project kept getting put on hold. As it is, I'm just lazily dumping noodles and diesel in the furnace and lighting it.

 

[unclemoustache]

Got lots of cedar siding left over from remodel jobs. Split that into kindling, also use newspaper and light with torch. I have a few pieces of bigger stuff above and beneath - not really a top down but more of a sandwhich light.

 

[100 Watt]

Yeah, mine needs relit once or twice a week. I rake the coals to the middle, place a split log down each side and a flat split over the two logs. I throw 3 wood shims (find tons of them on the job) on the coals and open the ash door. Takes a minute for the shims to catch and I'm done.

 

[haveawoody]

The runners from pallets for me.

I cut them off the pallet with a skill saw, get a stack about 8 high and run them through the splitter until they are small.
Usually just a match to start a small pile of the tiny chips and it rips into a quick fire.

Maybe 4 pallets for the entire season provides more than enough kindling.
The bottom parts of the pallets become a nice fall bonfire outdoors, or are used to repair other pallets for wood stacking.

 

[Fifelaker]

I've used every thing from paper to napalm (just melt styrofoam with gas)but the propain (sp) gets used the most.

 

[woodguy105]

The runners from pallets for me.

I cut them off the pallet with a skill saw, get a stack about 8 high and run them through the splitter until they are small.
Usually just a match to start a small pile of the tiny chips and it rips into a quick fire.

Maybe 4 pallets for the entire season provides more than enough kindling.
The bottom parts of the pallets become a nice fall bonfire outdoors, or are used to repair other pallets for wood stacking.

hmmm, I use pallets for kindling as well but have been using a hatchet to split.. may have to try this & see how i like it.
:msp_thumbup:

 

[haveawoody]

woodguy105,

It's nice to spend 1hr or so making a years worth of kindling on the splitter with no sore arm afterward.
Dito for me i used to hatchet split the runners but had a sore arm one day and gave the splitter a try, was so easy i wondered why i used the hatchet all those years.
Nothing more fun that turning a useless pallet into something usefull.

 

[Whitespider]

I’ve said this before… Real men use an accelerant and a Bic lighter.
Leaves, twigs, dead grass, newspaper, kindling and matches are for Cub Scouts… Good Lord, why not use a Flint-&-Steel… or better yet, rub two sticks together. Are you aware that we live in the 21[sup]st[/sup] century?
Starter logs, cakes, noodles, candle wax, home-made starters and whatnot are for those with either a lot more money than me, a lot more time than me, or just flat bored-out-of-their-wits… I’m thinkin’, “Wow, get-a-life-man!” Jigsaw puzzles more would be more entertaining than making candles from wax and noodles. (But hey, who am I to judge? Whatever floats-your-boat.)

My favorite accelerant is used motor oil thinned with a bit of diesel fuel or kerosene in a squirt bottle (such as an empty dish soap bottle). I fill the firebox with full-sized splits, grab a little tuft of lint from the clothes dryer (wife shoves it in an empty coffee can every time she cleans the lint screen) and poke it between a couple splits, quick squirt of accelerant on the lint and a flick-of-my-Bic… Presto, I have fire.

As far as splitter trash… I do pick up some of the larger slivers of wood (no bark) and keep in a bucket by the furnace. I don’t use these slivers to “start” fires, but they are handy to toss one or two on top of some hot coals (sometimes with a bit of accelerant squirted on them) before filling the firebox with splits. Usually the wood slivers will catch-fire before I get the firebox full of splits. Again… Presto, I have fire.

 

[jhoff310]

I have come up with a very unique process of bottling my farts and using the methane gas as a fire starter :hmm3grin2orange:


I just use kindling, anything from twigs, cedar shingles, pallet wood etc.. newspaper or the cardboard inserts under pizza, the one that absorbs all the grease, microwave popcorn bags work GREAT.

I dont do top down I build a "counselors fire" stack wood in a square with my kindling in the middle

Jeff

 

[apattie]

News paper and kindling, but really only start it once a year. I just keep it burning. I only let it go out when I want to clean the chimney.

 

[Whitespider]

...microwave popcorn bags work GREAT...

I'll bet they do... pre-soaked with accelerate, NICE! Now that there is one I will try.

 

[JRepairsK70e]

I have come up with a very unique process of bottling my farts and using the methane gas as a fire starter :hmm3grin2orange:


I just use kindling, anything from twigs, cedar shingles, pallet wood etc.. newspaper or the cardboard inserts under pizza, the one that absorbs all the grease, microwave popcorn bags work GREAT.

I dont do top down I build a "counselors fire" stack wood in a square with my kindling in the middle

Jeff

be careful with the methane [its volitility is based on your diet ] and quality can vary quit abit ,we dont want you to blow yer arse off !!!

 

[blacklocst]

If you have access to white birch bark peel layers of it ( not off a live tree or it will leave scares) and save it to use to light what ever kindling you have, goes up like a tinder box and smells nice too.

 

[haveawoody]

You guys have heard of creosote right

Old school i think is going to keep you chimney much cleaner that any fuel based starter or treated paper.
We spend countless hours cutting, moving, chopping, splitting and curing our firewood so why not put a few hours into nice kindle?

Then again a nice blue fart is a pretty warm thing, blue fire is the hottest isn't it?