Who uses a LOT of kindling?

[USMC615]

Here are a couple of the old white pine snags that are in the woods by my hunting cabin. They logged here in 1912 and the snags that got burned when they burned brush were sealed with all of the pitch in them. You can split one of these up and they will light with a match. Also smell like a combination of pine sol and kerosine. I usually have lots of carpentry scraps but have used these a few times. There are still dozens of these in the woods 103 years later.

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I'd be all over cutting a few of those down...take 'em to the house, cut into about 8-10" little rounds, let the kids chop into fire starting material. I've still got two huge cardboard boxes of fat lighter in the shop the kids and I did the same to a few years ago.

 

[Idahonative]

Opening disclaimer: This is not meant to be a debate about stove types and burn times, so please...........

But I'm one of those guys who goes through a lot of kindling and I'm curious how other guys approach this. Reasons are varied; burn time, wood type, time away from house.

Don't always need to start from newspaper, but even with some coals still in the stove when I get home, I usually have to toss some kindling in to get 'er going again. During the week, only loading the stove with white oak or hickory will leave enough coals to restart with splits. Other oak and hard maple, enough coals for kindling. Ash, soft maple and such, I'm wadding up newspaper.

My kindling source has mostly been wood from the pallets and tractor crates. Gotta expect to hit at least one unseen nail when cutting them up. Then bust them up with a hatchet. So, a little bit of work involved. Other source is to just go out and pick up branches laying on the ground. Pretty much an endless supply, and easy to just brake them up by hand. Sometimes I wonder why I mess with the crate wood, although I think the crates give better kindling. Thinking I'll use my almost empty chunk box and load up on branch wood and see how that does. Box is 6x3x3 so it should be interesting to see how long that amount lasts.

So, what do you other "heavy users" do for kindling?

If you had a stove with a "auto damper", your kindling usage would go to ZERO. Come home, rake your coals to the front, throw in new load, and watch it take off.

 

[svk]

I'd be all over cutting a few of those down...take 'em to the house, cut into about 8-10" little rounds, let the kids chop into fire starting material. I've still got two huge cardboard boxes of fat lighter in the shop the kids and I did the same to a few years ago.

A few weeks ago my 8 yo and I did a half a pickup worth of cedar I scrounged last fall. But these are always in the woods if I need them.

 

[Greg Perryman]

A torch and splitter scraps or dead twigs from the tree out back after a breezy day.

 

[johnnylabguy]

Ash lights so easily I haven't been using as much as I normally do. I use a couple "hangnails" off an ash split usually. Although last year my wife got in the habit of filling empty toilet paper rolls with dryer lint while doing laundry. They work ok too

 

[Old Doug]

I leave the house and dont come back for 11 hours normaly unless its real cold then i will drive 5 miles around lunch time to put wood in the stove. What i do is fill a bucket half full on diesel and soak some small sticks or split lumber and light one with palet wood to get it going. My stove was a dual fuel it would burn wood and propane or stove oil. Poeple that had these stoves would fill them with wood and light it with the propane or oil burner.