good kindling wood

[deerefan]

question....I've been buying starter logs for my fireplace at about a box per week. I get tired of going to the store, fighting the crowds and what-not for starter logs. i live on 42 acres full of pine, oak, gum, a couple cedar trees and so on. Is there any good wood that is easy to lite that I could use for kindling to get my fire going?

 

[swiftboot]

Deere, down here in fl we use the heart of long dead pines. Its called 'fat lightered' Usually found in pines that lightning has struck or that have been dead for several years. Many folks just pile and burn but i cut them up after removing the rotten wood around the outside. Cut into the length you want and then splinter them up to size you want. It burns easily and just takes a few to get oak or other wood burning. It has a distinct smell, you can't miss it. Reminds me of hog killins as a kid. You may have seen years back freight cars hauling these huge stumps, roots and all on the railroad. Those were pine stumps and were processed for various things flamable. chuck

 

[deerefan]

we have a lot of pine here in La., it smells a little like starter fluid doesn't it?

 

[rdln]

save your newspapers and gather up any dead dry branches (should have a lot on 42 acres) less 2" dia.

or keep an eye out for free pallets and saw away the parts with nails or staples.

 

[RavensRoost]

Cedar makes very good kindling, but it would be a shame to cut a healthy tree unless you have a lot of them.

RavensRoost

 

[N80]

Fat lighter is fanatstic. You can literally light it with a match. You find it in old pine woods and a lot of it can be below ground in the root structure. As mentioned, it is best when it is from a tree that died while standing as all the sap runs down into the stump/root. When it is truly 'fat' it should smell strongly like turpentine. Some times you have to look hard because it is primarily the heart wood and and old stump may have little more than a thin pencil of heartwood sticking above ground, but there maybe a gold mine in the tap root if you can get it out. Stumps from pines that have been logged will sometimes be a little bit fat, but when you light a good piece of fat lighter the burning sap literally drips out of it.

Places like Orvis and Plow&Hearth actually sell it in bundles. I have a good bit on my place and I often dig it up, split it into strips and give bundles as Christmas presents. It is generally well appreciated.

I recently found a a stump nearly 3 feet high and 2 feet around of solid fat lighter in my creek bottom. The tap root is probably another 3 feet long. It is going to be tough to get my tractor in there but this summer I'm going to get it out come heck or highwater.

 

[BillyP]

Pine kindling from the heart of a stump is hard to beat. You can tell good pine kindling by the smell. It smells like turpentine, which basically it is.

 

[RonMar]

Cedar... Lights pretty good even when green/wet. Look around yours for a dying tree or a thick close spacing. Removing a tree from a close grooping will help the others to grow better. Or perhaps do some pruning of the lower branches or the creeper roots that are making their way outward to start new trees. Even a small tree cut up, but only used as kindling, will last a good long time. I have an old supply of cedar shingles that I keep around for kindling. When my old pole barn comes down(cedar shake roof), that is where those shingles will go as well.

 

[ToadHill]

Best fire starters I've ever seen I learned in the Boy Scouts. Take a pine cone, tie a cotton string around it and dip it in melted wax. Let them dry and when you need a fire put a couple in the firebox and put 2 or 3 splits over them. Light the string and you have a fire in no time.

 

[tallyho8]

Don't forget about old cedar fence boards.