Perfect kindling/starter

[jmemmert]

Did quite a bit of cutting with the grain to get the big rounds small enough to load into the pickup. I hated to see all those noodles just going to waste, so I loaded them up too. I stuffed them in a 5 gal. bucket, poured about a 1/2 gal. of used motor oil on them, and let em set for a week. A handful of that stuff makes easy work of starting a fire. I love it. Give it a try.

 

[AOD]

I've done that too, they dry fast and burn great. I wanna try them for a top down fire sometime.

 

[Mike Van]

If you let 'em dry out for a few days in the sun, they'd do just fine without the messy, smelly, air polluting old motoroil.

 

[cityevader]

Ditto (except for the oil bit..maybe clean oil, but used oil has vastly more toxins) on the noodles and splitter leftovers.

I've tried starting fires with the hardwood bits, but too slow of a start. Last year I spent a weekend splitting just shy of a cord each of Fir to tiny 1-inch square strips for kindling, and another shy cord of Oak to same sixe for "secondary kindling" to get coals started...and I've got half of all that left for this year.

Currently I've got two 30 gallon garbage cans with lids filled with totally dry logsplitter "shrapnel": the little bits and chunks and strands etc. with a third can's worth drying in the sun. I also lay out the noodles for a couple days to perfectly dry out, and can easily fill another garbage can (if I can find a good spot to put it).

Fabulous for top-down firestarting.

Some TV shows that go through the processes of manufature(which fascinate me) got me wondering about how much is involved in my previously used "solid rocket fuel" trioxane bars for firestarting. When very very little chemical and physical exertion can create the exact same results.

 

[Nailsbeats]

I have never tried the noodles, but split up barrels full of 1" pine crate boards. My father in law gets them from work. I cut them about 8" long, split them with my Fiskars hatchet, and start them with my propane torch. Works great and fast to make.

I won't be burning oil in my woodstove anytime soon.

 

[alderman]

Oven dried chips

We get bags of oven dried chip samples from the paper factory. Works good when starting a fire.

 

[cityevader]

We get bags of oven dried chip samples from the paper factory. Works good when starting a fire.

Speaking of chips...anybody noticed how many BTU's are released from, say, a Tostidos brand chip meant for dipping into salsa? Wowsers!

 

[MATTYB11]

Speaking of chips...anybody noticed how many BTU's are released from, say, a Tostidos brand chip meant for dipping into salsa? Wowsers!

LOL. I threw a couple in the outdoor fire-pit a few weeks ago. I could not believe how much energy is in those things. I makes you realize just how many calories is in those chips.

 

[Basso]

Paper from a cross-shredder

Hello,
Put a few handfuls of paper product from an office cross-shredder under your kindling. Works pretty good !


Basso

 

[woodbooga]

Speaking of chips...anybody noticed how many BTU's are released from, say, a Tostidos brand chip meant for dipping into salsa? Wowsers!

That's about the most exotic thing I've burnt in my stove. Except it was South of the Border brand - about a qyarter bag that went real stale. Between the corn and all the fat content, there's a high btu per ounce relationship there.

 

[Wolfcsm]

We pick up old cedar fencing. Been up 5-10 years. Dry enough that you wave a match and it lights.

My wife really gets a kick out of using my chop saw to cut them to length.

Hal

 

[dsm382]

My wife really gets a kick out of using my chop saw to cut them to length.

same with my wife 'cept we have two trailer loads of this all oak.
does not light as quick as pine but with a propane torch, works wonders..
think i have enough for a while?
made a pile of noodles this weekend, will have to get the wife out and pick 'em up before the rains, she wastes NO spliter scrap or bark EVER...

 

[clawmute]

I know everybody doesn't have pine like here in the mid-south area, but I pull up old pine stumps with the tractor fel & crush (not really split) them with the hyd splitter into small pieces to put under the kindling. The stumps are very heavy since they are practically solid pine rosin. They WILL burn like nobody's business.

I need to get out and gather up some more.

 

[Wood Doctor]

If you let 'em dry out for a few days in the sun, they'd do just fine without the messy, smelly, air polluting old motoroil.

+2! And here's another possibility. I wrap the noodles mixed with sawdust from the workshop in a cardboard book box mailer and seal it up. I make dozens of these and they store nicely on the shelf or stacked high on the floor. Each mailer measures about 8" x 10" x 2", and I am fortunate to have a bundle of these stored flat.

Only takes one of these "cartridges" to light a beautiful fire. Paper lights the book box cardboard, the cardboard lights the noodles, the noodles light the kindling, and the kindling lights the logs. Chain reaction...

 

[RatchetJaw]

I cant be to only one

I use dryer lint and vegtable oil works like a candle to get the kindling going.

 

[Octane]

My parents will often use birchbark that has been peeled off the piece of wood by the splitter as kindling.
Personally, I prefer using Starterloggs. Break a block in half, stack smaller piece around it and light the block.
The blocks burn for at least 30 minutes, which is more than enough time to get a roaring fire going.

 

[Wood Doctor]

My parents will often use birchbark that has been peeled off the piece of wood by the splitter as kindling.
Personally, I prefer using Starterloggs. Break a block in half, stack smaller piece around it and light the block.
The blocks burn for at least 30 minutes, which is more than enough time to get a roaring fire going.

Looks like a good gift for an old friend. Thanks for the advice. It's on my list:
http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1337002

 

[woodguy105]

saw dust and a little melted candle wax ( cheap old candles bought at a yard sale)...you make a ton of individual fire sarters in a very small amoung of time. Mixing the meled wax and noodles ore saw dust in a pail when it's cool enough grab a small handful squeese it in the palm of your hand and lay em out to cool.

 

[bump_r]

They make similar things here for campfire starters. They mix up a concoction of melted parafin and wood chips. Pour this into cupcake papers adn insert a candle wick, and they are a one-match light away from a fire. Pretty slick.

(Just in case, there are several spellings of "parafin", this is a correct one)

 

[BriGuy89]

In addition to, like others, saving the log-splitting shreds, I also save the ends from any time I cut logs to size. Both of these go into old (lidded) garbage cans. Although larger wood chunks don't do much on their own, I place them on top of twigs and such, and together have a pretty good kindling combo.

And yes, except when snow covers the ground, I actually do go around the property, pick up branches and twigs, break them up to size and place them into large plastic tote containers so I always have a dry and good supply of kindling base material.