coal

I pick up small, dried limbs and twigs from the yard in the days leading up to winter and throw them in my insert. I have it pretty well packed when things turn cold and light the pile with a couple of pieces of paper. It's a pretty easy start from there and most fires start with a single match.

I may only have to "hard start" a fire a couple of times a season. I manage the fire according to the temperature needed and could go a couple of days between fires using the coals under the ashes to restart the next fire.

I'll have to show DH that video. He's the one who usually gets the fire going and most of the time it is a cold start. He uses a few crumpled newspapers, adds 2 or 3 small pieces of Firestarters, places well seasoned kindling and then small logs on top.

Is there a problem with newspapers?

Is there a problem with newspapers?

I hope not, Maire_Cate. I've been using them for over 40 years. lol

I'm not sure what my son's objection was based on. He uses a match to light the fatwood, which must take some patience. But he doesn't have to do it often. His stove rarely goes cold as he keeps it going all the time.

It has been a long time since I made a fire but when I did I used old envelopes and junk mail. Not certain I would use the junk mail now but that is just me. Ask your son what the objection to newspaper is. While you can recycle it in this area gone are the dedicated scout and charity dumpsters for their paper drives as it is no longer cost effective in this area to recycle paper. I wonder if your son would object to using brown paper bags that some of the grocery's will provide if asked.

We use crumpled newspaper and discarded mail. Then add two layers shaped like waffles of very dry split cedar. Nothing beats cedar to get a fire started. It burns very fast and very hot. There are a few split logs on top of the cedar but not enough to weigh the pile down and deprive the bottom of air. Round logs are added later. I like birch best. Maple is good also.

We had wood stoves in the last three houses, but not in this one. I liked to keep paper and cardboard boxes and small dry wood on hand for kindling. I loosely stack some smaller branches or pieces of wood that have some split tendrils/slats of wood in them on top of paper and loosely rolled strips of cardboard. Make sure there is room for air flow between each piece. I would light the paper and it would start the cardboard which would (hopefully) sustain the fire long enough to get the wood starte going. When that started going, I'd start adding a piece or two of wood and then slip a bigger, heavier piece of wood in. We usually had enough coals the next morning to stoke the fire up again. If we didn't, no big deal as long as I had my cardboard and dry wood on hand.

Paper egg cartons at the bottom light well and support some weight. A twist of newspaper snapped inside the carton makes kind of a wick.

I'd use a fire starter, it's much easier.

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/rutland-safe-lite-fire-starter-squares-24-squares?cid=Shopping-Google-Product-3178145&gclid=Cj0KCQiA2-2eBhClARIsAGLQ2RmH9tpWG9S3DwUAF2YzDglALhH3oDFJHUsdu2eXJo98Rddh1ulzyEoaAhSHEALw_wcB

I like to start by making a pile of a piece of crumpled newspaper topped with splinters of delaminated plywood or paneling, strips of cardboard or a few split pieces of lumber (3/4-1" in width), smaller limbs and then add bigger chunks of wood.

We haven't had a wood stove or fireplace in a long time, but once used it to supplement electric heat. DH had a wood stove with fan installed inside the living room fireplace. I would begin with crumpled newspaper, then cedar kindling, split wood a little larger and moving up in size. I didn't have a cold start all that often. When approaching bedtime, I could add some wood, make sure it was burning well, and damper the stove down pretty tightly. When I'd get up 8 or so hours later, all I had to do was push the damper back wide open and it would quickly take off and begin to burn in earnest.

That probably wasn't a great idea. I'd come home from being gone most of the day, DH still not there, and opened the damper on that stove from cooled down but not out. Within a few short minutes I was hearing a noise like a freight train passing and the neighbors were running over from all directions. I had a heck of a chimney fire going, and probably caused by a buildup of creosote from my dampering down overnight habit. Much embarrassment, fire department, no damage.

But we took out the wood stove, temp sealed the chimney, and put in a heat pump. I had the hearth tiled inside and out in the same color as the new carpet in that room - we'd done some remodeling ;)

A few years later, a tree landed on that house in a storm and took out the chimney. I had it rebuilt for resale value even though we weren't using it - my insurance paid something like $7,000 for that chimney. I don't know of the current owners are using it or not.

We have a gas fireplace here. Manual light and I don't use it often. Once in a while in a storm for the ambiance, of if we're expecting guests and I want the living room to look its most appealing. It only produces the minimum of heat.

Top down is dumb. Sorry to have to say that.

Cold start means cold chimney. A warm chimney means it will draw well because warm smoke will rise and rise means draft. Part of starting a fire in a stove is warming the chimney.

The dynamics of fire is reflected heat so the worst is cribbing-what you video guy is doing.

If your stove is long you can make a long V or if it is shallow and wide you use a back piece. The idea is to build your fire in such a way that the heat from one burning section reflects its heat on another so a V shape is perfect. Put your crumpled paper-and with dry wood it wont take much, and then put your small split wood on top and a couple of medium pieces. Do not waste wood by putting it all in at once. Lite and wait for it to catch well and then put some keeper pieces on top-larger wood that will last.

Wide and shallow you put in your split backer piece and make a short V in the center with smaller pieces and go from there with the paper, small wood and a little medium wood. You are trying to build a fire that will reflect heat back on the other pieces. The crib he uses doesnt do that. It wastes wood. Draft from a wood stove enters from the front and you want air to flow into your V and keep the fire going while it catches. I built out door campfires with wet wood no less (park ranger) and heated exclusively with wood for twelve years. I read books on it.

Do not ever burn uncured or damp wood in a wood stove. It will cause creosote which is highly flammable that will deposit in your chimney. Very bad thing.

We do a daily cold start in our Jotul. Larger log front and back. Stuff in between with crumpled newspaper. Top the newspaper with bark chips, kindling. Top the two logs with either crossed or parallel logs...preferably smaller logs or those with sharp edges. Place them with some space in between to force the flame up between the logs. It should go just fine.

Thanks for all the comments. Temp is 10 above as I write this at 9 a.m., with a wind chill of nearly 20 below. Supposed to get much colder and even windier tonight. A good day to discuss warm things!

Summersrhythm, I think that fire starter must be what my son uses. I assumed he said "fatwood" because that's what I use. But I remember giving him some of the fire starter squares some time ago. They'd be a lot easier to start with a match then the sticks of fatwood.

Yes indeed. :-) We used to have a wood fireplace insert at previous home, that’s what we used.

When we had a wood heater I used to put a medium to large log on either side then fill the space between with a few Nantucket knots (I never knew they were called that 🙂). I didn’t find the knots hard to make- roll a 1“ - 1 1/2” tube diagonally across a sheet of newspaper and loosely tie a single knot. Then kindling across the top of the knots, with either end resting on one of the larger logs at the bottom. Then larger and larger pieces of wood crosshatching in layers across the top of the kindling. Light a couple of the open ends of the newspaper knots, close the door and you’re good to go.

I take paper egg cartons, place charcoal brickettes in each cell and pour melted paraffin over the charcoal til the cells are full. Then breaking the (cooled) cells into singles I have starters that I use for the fireplace, grill and bonfires. No paper or, for the grill, starter fluid required.

I also use egg cartons, just a part of one for each fire. If I have any old candles I add some wax to one of the egg chambers.

Some of the best fire starters I've ever had were waxed produce boxes from the grocery store. One of my friends used to collect them, then use a knife to cut them into strips about an inch or two wide and 4"-6" long. Just a couple of those on top of a tiny bit of paper under the logs would have them roaring in no time.

-29 Up in the Ottawa area, going into basement to start the fire in Jotul wood stove. I will use dryer lint, crumbled paper, ripped up boxes, paper bag. Then, paint stir sticks ’Thanks Home Depot’ Small logs followed by bigger ones.

It's cold today, and fortunately the cold snap is very short-lived. But I'm just glad I'm not on top of Mt Washington in NH which apparently has a wind chill factor of -107!!! Now that's cold!!

Good ideas about the egg cartons, but we hoard them since my daughter-in-law has chickens. I wonder if supermarkets still get waxed boxes for produce. That would be fun to try.

I feel as though I accomplished very little over the past two days other than loading wood into the stove. Last night the wind sounded like a freight train. When I got up this morning the temp was -6 and still windy. I don't know what the wind chill was. Temps are supposed to take a giant leap up tomorrow.

Jupidupi, I've seen what those firewood bundles cost at supermarkets here in PA--definitely not a bargain!--and you probably have to pay twice as much. Good for you for knowing how to build a fire! I didn't learn until several years after we left NYC and moved to the country. What kind of cat is Frances? She and your fireplace and your rug are all beautiful.