Kindling? Kindling is for Cub Scouts… 
I use two methods for starting my fires.
The first is the one I’ve used for over thirty years to start the wood stove and the fire pit. I always have some kerosene, fuel oil or diesel fuel around and I always have used motor oil. I use a container with a lid, such as a coffee can, paint can or whatever. Fill the can with charcoal briquettes and cover with a 50/50 mix of diesel/used oil and keep it somewhere handy by the stove/pit. When it comes time to start the fire I just toss my wood in the stove, grab one of those briquettes (two or three if’n your in a big hurry) with an old pair of grilling tongs and shove it between a couple of bottom splits… light with a butane lighter and presto… we have fire. When the can starts getting low on briquettes, just add more. The briquettes don’t have to be covered with the oil; they’ll draw it up so you don’t have to add oil more than once or twice a year.
The second method uses the lint my wife pulls off the clothes dryer screen. I keep a squirt bottle (like lighter fluid bottle) of the same oil mix for starting the occasional brush, grass, leaf or whatever fire. I shove a tuft of dryer lint between a couple splits and squirt it with the oil mix… light with a butane lighter and presto… we have fire. The lint, just like the briquette, works like a wick, burns long and hot.
The lint method works fine with dry splits, even large splits, but not so well with rounds or damp wood. The charcoal briquette method works well with any because long after the oil is consumed the briquette(s) glow red hot keeping the flame going.
Now, y’all can talk about the cost of kerosene and charcoal briquettes… but, it cost me what? Maybe ten bucks a year? Maybe fifteen bucks if I get crazy with the number of briquettes I use? That’s the price of a case of beer… and I just pee that away.
I use two methods for starting my fires.
The first is the one I’ve used for over thirty years to start the wood stove and the fire pit. I always have some kerosene, fuel oil or diesel fuel around and I always have used motor oil. I use a container with a lid, such as a coffee can, paint can or whatever. Fill the can with charcoal briquettes and cover with a 50/50 mix of diesel/used oil and keep it somewhere handy by the stove/pit. When it comes time to start the fire I just toss my wood in the stove, grab one of those briquettes (two or three if’n your in a big hurry) with an old pair of grilling tongs and shove it between a couple of bottom splits… light with a butane lighter and presto… we have fire. When the can starts getting low on briquettes, just add more. The briquettes don’t have to be covered with the oil; they’ll draw it up so you don’t have to add oil more than once or twice a year.
The second method uses the lint my wife pulls off the clothes dryer screen. I keep a squirt bottle (like lighter fluid bottle) of the same oil mix for starting the occasional brush, grass, leaf or whatever fire. I shove a tuft of dryer lint between a couple splits and squirt it with the oil mix… light with a butane lighter and presto… we have fire. The lint, just like the briquette, works like a wick, burns long and hot.
The lint method works fine with dry splits, even large splits, but not so well with rounds or damp wood. The charcoal briquette method works well with any because long after the oil is consumed the briquette(s) glow red hot keeping the flame going.
Now, y’all can talk about the cost of kerosene and charcoal briquettes… but, it cost me what? Maybe ten bucks a year? Maybe fifteen bucks if I get crazy with the number of briquettes I use? That’s the price of a case of beer… and I just pee that away.
