FireStarters

[egon]

Lordy:

Can't figure out all these compilcated pre prepared firestarters.

All you got to do is find a big evergreen with some dead branches and then find a few larger dead branches and away youse go. If there be a little dried grass you have hit heaven.

Got one of those all purpose survival knives with a complete survival kit in the handle. Looks good but never travels the woods with me.

My son gave me a fancy lighter that works in almost all kinda conditions. Its in the backpack in case the matches don't work.

All a hatchet is good for is for making an emergency situation possible as well as added weight for a little extra excersize.

Iffin a saw is really required an 18/24 inch swede saw does just perfect. Even better is a small prunning saw as it tkes up les room and less weight.

The wire saw type that requires you make a fram for is best left in the store.

And then ifn youse be above tree line it's a different situation altogether.


Everyone to their own!!

Egon

[SLOBuds]

You guys are working WAY too hard at this I think. Isn't there some place I could relinquish my Discovercard # to and get a little bundle of stuff that lights almost ANYTHING on fire???

Seriously. Thanks for the advice.

I am working off an old pile of wood which appears to be a combination of hard-wet, hard-dry, soft-wet, soft-dry, termite eaten, split, non-split, moss-covered, fungus covered, and all between logs.

We're trying to start this 'stuff' in the woodstove of a small cabin which has no other source of heat. So it would be nice to have a system that works fairly consistently. The best system to date is to pile a little bit of known-commodity wood (er, excuse the embarasment - I use cut 2x4 remnants) and then cover that with this 'mixed-wood-articles-stuff' and then start all of it using one of the commercial firestarters.

Sometimes works OK, sometimes doesn't. The commercial starters will even get the worse lumber going in some form or another. Maybe they are only in ambers without flame. Maybe the logs are in a very nice medium-flame state. (Really nice!)

I love this fire once it has a nice red bed of coals. It is REALLY fun to put virtually any type of wood in there and see it burn. I particularly enjoy throwing in a chunk of wood that was just pulled in from the rain. Poor thing doesn't have a chance with all of those red-hot coals! I am totally mystified how something that feels soaked in water gets converted into a flaming torch within 15-20 minutes. Great fun!

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the time when I have my woodpile in order and will bring nice dry hardwood logs that ignites quickly and keeps my cabin moderately warm all through the night.

That will take another year or so. Until then I'll just use put a couple of starters at the base.

Thanks again,
Martin

[egon]

With description of mixed wood those lumber remanants should work very well.

But it do sound like you need a supply of dry split kindling to get a base fire started.

Egon

[rockinmywaypa]

I sort of like using strips of cardboard obtained from the boxes that lettuce and such vegetables come in. They are already soaked in wax and get the wood going really well. Most of the time it's just newspaper and cedar like what's already been said.

[GaryM]

I was at my Ture Value hardware on Saturday and they had small boxes of "fatwood". Apparently the dried resin rich stump wood from southern pines. The pieces are about 7" long and 3/8" dia. Tried some yesterday in my new stove. They light easily with a match and burn pretty hot. I placed three or four on the bottom and some kindling about 2" on top. Lit off very nicely and worked well.

[SLOBuds]

I knew that Discovercard would come to my rescue. This weekend I ordered some Supercedar firestarters, delivered to my door!

Supercedar Web Site

They've got high-tech graphs and testamonials on their storefront about how their little mound of firestarters are better than all the others. [img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img]

Now I'm satisfied that all of my natural fire-starting shortcomings will be bolstered by 'systems' and supported by 'data'! But if Supercedar doesn't work ... my neighbor has a nice cutting torch I can borrow. I will weld that poor wet wood into a roaring fire. Or maybe my cabin too???

Home Power Magazine has a nice article about 'the right way' to burn wood in its current edition, by the way.

Thanks again,
Martin

[jsnitzer]

Not very pure, but I just save all those little odds and ends of waste from using the tablesaw and cut them up into small pieces about 5" long by 1" wide. To start a fire, I dip them into a little bucket of kerosene and light them. I usually build a little pile of burning pieces to get wet wood started, but I am always looking for a way to use up the waste pieces anyway.

[kensfarm]

I just use the fire starter bricks from Lowes.. they seem to be made from candle wax & sawdust.. I take the bricks and break them in halves.

A smoker can always get a fire started.. pouring rain or hurricane winds.. a smoker can always light that cig.

[Bird]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
I will weld that poor wet wood into a roaring fire

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This reminds me of one of our camping trips about 30 years ago. We were in a campground at a lake, but there was no "firewood" available. However, at the edge of lake, we found the remains of a tree that had obviously been in the water a long time, but at some point when the lake was up, it had floated to high ground and appeared to have been there a long time and was thoroughly dry. Couldn't tell what kind of tree; not a sign of any bark left on it. But one of the guys had brought a chain saw, so we cut it up and thought we had a good supply of dry firewood.

That night we got all the "trash" paper out of 3 RVs, thinking that would get it started. No luck, the wood didn't ignite. So we got all the magazines and newspapers out of the RVs, and 3 railroad flares one of the guys had in his pickup. Lit the flares, burned all the paper, and even tried pouring two quarts of new motor oil slowly on the burning flares (motor oil on a burning railroad flare makes some pretty colors), but we never succeeded in igniting that wood.

I might have been tempted to think it was a petrified log, but it sure cut normally with a chain saw and wasn't any heavier to carry around than normal. And I still have no idea why it would not ignite; just wish I had a house built out of it, whatever it was. [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[missourihick]

I keep a few of those man made saw dust and wax logs near the wood furnace.I break off a chunk and throw some wood on it and light it with a match and walk away. I take them camping also.