How do you start your indoor fire?

[Streblerm]

I use a few sticks of kindling and my propane torch. Mapp gas is a little quicker. I have been using the same bottle for 3 years. No paper or firestarters for me. I use a hatchet and pull some straight pieces out of the pile to make kindling out of. Now that the weather is cooling off I rarely have to start a fire from scratch.

there is a local "portable barn" builder who gives away construction scraps. Kiln dried lumber and a torch makes for an easy to start fire.

 

[Ironworker]

Seymour Fireblox and kindling I split from a couple of 6" rounds, with about 5 or 6 splits, I make a seasons worth of kindling in about 20 minutes with my splitter

 

[darkbyrd]

Rich pine (fatwood I guess) and a few pieces of well dried pine or poplar. And when the rich pine is gone, big splinters covered in pine sap collected during walks in the woods. Fire is roaring long before I'm bored watching it.

 

[Whitespider]

It's a quick start for sure but like any of the firestarters that burn pretty cool to start they make for lots of residue in the chimney.

Ridiculous… I seriously doubt a couple tablespoons of diesel/oil are gonna’ leave any residue in the chimney. And, by the way, motor oils and diesel fuel burn hot, damn hot… hotter than any wood.

 

[zogger]

Little sticks from branches in the yard, splitter trash and junk mail + bic lighter. I also scrounge produce in town at a friends market, then use the cardboard boxes. I leave them out until they get rained on, then rip them up fast when wet,(yes, I can macho them when dry, wet is loads easier and faster, so we'll call that brain-cho) then let them dry again. some junk mail, piece of cardboard on top, some little sticks and splitter trash on top of that, apply Bic, poof.

That's shoulder seasons, mid winter, fire never goes out. The cute one here makes sure of *that*

Then she asks me once in awhile why I want to cut and stack so much wood...go figger.....

 

[zogger]

Fatwood!

Rich pine (fatwood I guess) and a few pieces of well dried pine or poplar. And when the rich pine is gone, big splinters covered in pine sap collected during walks in the woods. Fire is roaring long before I'm bored watching it.

Heck ya that's some good stuff. Pulled out a three footer the other day. Don't have it busted up yet though, just broke one root off to bring inside, the main heartwood is waiting to get sliverized. To me that's just "fun" firestarter. Just a hoot. I fantasize of making saw fuel from it somehow.....

 

[Wood Doctor]

Ridiculous… I seriously doubt a couple tablespoons of diesel/oil are gonna’ leave any residue in the chimney. And, by the way, motor oils and diesel fuel burn hot, damn hot… hotter than any wood.

Be careful. Wood fires eventually burn almost as hot and will melt aluminum. Propane and natural gas are sitting on 2,500 F, and diesel fuel is a bit less than that. Under proper burning conditions and with the correct air/fuel ratio, wood and coal will get there also.

Other than that, I agree with your post.

 

[Patrick62]

flames.....

I use diesel in the cook stove, and used motor oil in the shop stove. anything that will burn enthusiastically has been used out here.
Paper
cardboard
old rags
gasoline
paint thinner
propane
actylene (with or without oxygen)

Interestingly I discovered that fanning a fire with compressed air works just as well as pure ox does.

 

[haveawoody]

Whitespider,

1 spoon of diesel isn't going to make much of a difference.
150 spoons of it though is a different story.
The % that burns at start up is going to become diesel soot in the chimney or worse the % that doesn't burn just diesel fuel in the chimney.

It's a similar problem with burning painted wood or glued particle wood in a wood stove for the same reason.
Any buildup of creosote and an easy light fuel source in the same chimney is a bad combination.

JMO though.

I personally just do the extra kindle work and extra beer drinking while doing it.
It's a rough job but someone has to drink those beers

 

[avalancher]

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.

Im with whitespider on this one. I am far to impatient to stand around with pine shavings and such rot. Me, I spray a healthy dose of diesel fuel on to a normal sized pieces of firewood, scratch a match, and heave the door shut the minute it catches. The crawl back into bed until the house warms up, generally 15 minutes does nicely if I had loaded the stove up with some nice dry pine splits.

 

[loadthestove]

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 )

:agree2:
I lucked up and bought two boxes on spring clearence for 1/2 price..

 

[Whitespider]

The % that burns at start up is going to become diesel soot in the chimney or worse the % that doesn't burn just diesel fuel in the chimney.

Not believin' a couple tablespoons at a time will do that, and even if it did to some tiny degree... so what!
Good lord man, a fuel oil furnace burns diesel fuel.

 

[Wood Doctor]

Well, let's get back to basics. No "Boy Scout" fluid or petroleum product is required to start a fire in a stove or fireplace. I haven't used one for years.

Top Down Fire: Two or three large logs on bottom, two or three newspaper sections wrapped around some corrugated cardboard above that, and kindling piled on top. Touch a match in a few places, and away she goes.

The idea is that that the logs underneath receive the hot residue from above and start burning. Once they are going, the hot coals do the rest. Corrugated cardboard is rather incredible at setting kindling on fire and I have more of that available than I know what to do with. Once that kindling is going, it will light the logs below.

Like I said above: Top Down Fire.

 

[Misfit138]

..Like I said above: Top Down Fire.

Like I always say..Top down.
:msp_thumbup:

 

[Whitespider]

Well, let's get back to basics. No "Boy Scout" fluid or petroleum product is required to start a fire in a stove or fireplace. I haven't used one for years.
...two or three newspaper sections wrapped around some corrugated cardboard...
Corrugated cardboard is rather incredible at setting kindling on fire

Now that there is funny!
So... Why do you think corrugated cardboard burns so hot? What do you suppose is used to stick the two flat outer sheets to the center corrugated section? But hey, if'n ya' wanna' believe ya' ain't using any petroleum products to start your fire... well, whatever ya' wanna' believe.

addendum: Let's go a bit further... Now just what do you suppose 75-80% of the newspaper inks are made from? How 'bout near all the ink on the junk mail someone else mentioned? The glossy stuff on magazine pages? Paraffin based fire-starters? Can anybody guess where paraffin (candle wax) comes from? What do you suppose keeps the ground-up fibers of an egg carton stuck together?

If it works better than tissue paper to lite your kindling... you can bet it contains some petroleum product. At least I ain't foolin' myself... I just squirt the stuff on and fire it up.

 

[haveawoody]

Whitespider,

I have an oil furnace in my house and when the head is getting sloppy it lets you know with a bang.
The chamber and burn chamber are a yearly job i don't look forward to, lots of poorly burned residue and orange soot to clean.

At least with fuel oil when you have your chimney cleaned it is probably going to be cleaned also.
But you are oh so right about wax products, a standard chimney clean won't remove them properly.

Lots of my fire start material comes from the splitter waste, all the tiny bits that bust of in normal splitting all get saved.
My personal favorite is noodle wood, hardwood noodle is real nice stuff to light a one match fire.

 

[ray benson]

We use splitter waste. Bag it up in paper grocery bags and stack in the shed. Start the fires with a wooden match, newspaper and the scrap. Sometimes a little oil and propane torch speed the process. Try the top down method each year as it's raved about. Not a fan, it's a sub-standard method IMO.

 

[Toxic2]

Junk mail and blow torch. I have a blowtorch with an automatic button start by each of my stoves in my shop and house. I use to be able to get away with the cheepie torch head but since i have quit smokeing that became a problem fast:msp_razz:

 

[cheeves]

That's why I like my Tempwood. Open the lid, throw in a couple of pieces of wood, and open the tubes. Whoosh, blow furnace. Best darn setup goin. Instant heat!!! Been using one since 1977! Ain't much to look at but works like a charm.

 

[Wood Doctor]

Air

Now that there is funny!
So... Why do you think corrugated cardboard burns so hot? ...

Very simple. It has lots of air already embedded inside it. Ever looked at the cross section? Obviously not.

Spider, be careful.