Heating with wood, 40 + years now. This is how I deal with it.

[rox]

We have quite an interesting fire starter. When making our olive oil the last thing we do is filter it. We use about 2ft squares of pure cotton pressed into sheets, about the thickness of the cover of a spiral notebook. We use 44 of these sheets (at 1 Euros a sheet) put them into our filter machine, which is kind of like a frame that holds these filter sheets, then we pump the olive oil through the cotton filter sheets.

The sheets catch the small debris, little tiny pieces of the olive pit or little tiny pieces of the stem, and the oil comes out clear on the other end. We can filter about 700 to 1,000 liters, depending on how dirty the oil is, before we have to change the cotton filter sheets. When we change out the sheets we put them in a 10 gallon bucket because of course they are loaded with olive oil, and that is what we use to start our fires with.

Most of the time we don't even use a full sheet, we just place it on the smaller branches, not really thin kindling, but smaller branches, put the bigger logs on top, light the match and the fire starts every time. You won't believe how good that works. One guy who has around 800 olive trees, we mill his olives and he asks us to filter it. He pays for the filters but we don't charge him to do it, he brings his bucket every year to take his oil laden filter sheets home with him for his fireplace.

 

[turnkey4099]

Odd, I thouht I had been at it longer. comes out to exactly 40 years. Comin up on 81 in Jan. Burn around 6 cord a year, sell around 6. Cut all summer hauling the rounds and manually split all winter - gotta have something to do to pass time. I have a hydraulic splitter but it only sees the knots/crotches. Split with Fiskars X27 - that thing is amazing!, Wedge/sledge to bust the bigger ones in half for the X27, Maul only used to tap the X27 when it didn't quite firnish a split or to chop apart a stubborn piece.

I have some 60-70 cord of Black Locust in the stock piles, burn about 3 a year. I lucked into that due to an infestation of the Locust Borer. I about denuded the area for 30 miles around for every stick of it I couild get my hands on.

I am now clear cutting willow groves for farmers at no charge just to keep my physical condition from deteriorating to a 300 lb couch potato. I mix 50/50 willow/ locust for the fire and sell willow at $120/cord. Got surprised with a 6 cord order last week that wipes out my dry willow stock. I'll have to cut/split 15 cord by spring to cover my use next year plus orders and a start on rebuilding a year's reserve. Already have about 9 cord inr rounds so my cutting season has to be extended this year.

Off to Mr. Farmer in the morning to lay down another big willow that should produce over a cord.

Started way back then with used, cheap saws. Have improved the herd now to all Stihl, 192T (limbin), MS310 (getting old and tired), MS361, MS441 with a selection of bars from 16" to 32". Carry 2-3 loops of sharpened chains for each bar size. No filign in the field for me.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

We have quite an interesting fire starter. When making our olive oil the last thing we do is filter it. We use about 2ft squares of pure cotton pressed into sheets, about the thickness of the cover of a spiral notebook. We use 44 of these sheets (at 1 Euros a sheet) put them into our filter machine, which is kind of like a frame that holds these filter sheets, then we pump the olive oil through the cotton filter sheets.

The sheets catch the small debris, little tiny pieces of the olive pit or little tiny pieces of the stem, and the oil comes out clear on the other end. We can filter about 700 to 1,000 liters, depending on how dirty the oil is, before we have to change the cotton filter sheets. When we change out the sheets we put them in a 10 gallon bucket because of course they are loaded with olive oil, and that is what we use to start our fires with.

Most of the time we don't even use a full sheet, we just place it on the smaller branches, not really thin kindling, but smaller branches, put the bigger logs on top, light the match and the fire starts every time. You won't believe how good that works. One guy who has around 800 olive trees, we mill his olives and he asks us to filter it. He pays for the filters but we don't charge him to do it, he brings his bucket every year to take his oil laden filter sheets home with him for his fireplace.

We use an antique Cape Cod Lighter. It's a ball of porous rock (sandstone?) on a brass rod. It soaks up oil, lights with a match, then burns for about 20 minutes, long enough to get wood started. I'm sure it used whale oil originally, but we just use paraffin lamp oil.

 

[rox]

We use an antique Cape Cod Lighter. It's a ball of porous rock (sandstone?) on a brass rod. It soaks up oil, lights with a match, then burns for about 20 minutes, long enough to get wood started. I'm sure it used whale oil originally, but we just use paraffin lamp oil.

View attachment 483983View attachment 483984

That is a pretty nice setup, I've never seen anything like that. The little pot with the brass cover is nice. It is quite sturdy looking.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

That is a pretty nice setup, I've never seen anything like that. The little pot with the brass cover is nice. It is quite sturdy looking.

It looks like there are 4 or 5 for sale on eBay for $20 to $165. Mostly they seem to be all brass.

 

[tcreeley]

Boy you must have some good insulation in that house if you live in Maine and heat with firewood. How do you know when it is time to replace the fire bricks? Do they kind of disintegrate?

The bricks start cracking and breaking into smaller pieces. I measured them and ordered new ones on Amazon. You can cut them to size with a cold chisel , scoring them and tapping with a hammer little by little.

You can see the back middle fire brick is not as wide as the others. Took an inch off. It is not that hard to do. I didn't use any cement. A vacuum is great to get all of the ashes and give you clean surfaces. I had to remove some screws for retaining bars, but they all went back together ok.

Amazon.com: Rutland Products Fire Brick: Home & Kitchen

 

[tcreeley]

We have quite an interesting fire starter. When making our olive oil the last thing we do is filter it. We use about 2ft squares of pure cotton pressed into sheets, about the thickness of the cover of a spiral notebook. We use 44 of these sheets (at 1 Euros a sheet) put them into our filter machine, which is kind of like a frame that holds these filter sheets, then we pump the olive oil through the cotton filter sheets.

The sheets catch the small debris, little tiny pieces of the olive pit or little tiny pieces of the stem, and the oil comes out clear on the other end. We can filter about 700 to 1,000 liters, depending on how dirty the oil is, before we have to change the cotton filter sheets. When we change out the sheets we put them in a 10 gallon bucket because of course they are loaded with olive oil, and that is what we use to start our fires with.

Most of the time we don't even use a full sheet, we just place it on the smaller branches, not really thin kindling, but smaller branches, put the bigger logs on top, light the match and the fire starts every time. You won't believe how good that works. One guy who has around 800 olive trees, we mill his olives and he asks us to filter it. He pays for the filters but we don't charge him to do it, he brings his bucket every year to take his oil laden filter sheets home with him for his fireplace.

I have to admit that there have been times when I dump cooking oil- whatever is around on the logs and scraps that I split off edges. I've used olive oil too and with a little paper it holds the fire long enough to get the wood lit. I was using lamp oil- but the cooking oil is safer and easier. Even used bacon grease.

 

[tcreeley]

We use an antique Cape Cod Lighter. It's a ball of porous rock (sandstone?) on a brass rod. It soaks up oil, lights with a match, then burns for about 20 minutes, long enough to get wood started. I'm sure it used whale oil originally, but we just use paraffin lamp oil.

View attachment 483983View attachment 483984

I've seen these and wondered what they are! I like them. How would it work with drain oil? I have a ton of that around!---

Just watched this - I can see myself tipping things over and regretting it later!
Fireplace Starter or Cape Codder Wood Fire Lighter - YouTube

 

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

We have quite an interesting fire starter. When making our olive oil the last thing we do is filter it. We use about 2ft squares of pure cotton pressed into sheets, about the thickness of the cover of a spiral notebook. We use 44 of these sheets (at 1 Euros a sheet) put them into our filter machine, which is kind of like a frame that holds these filter sheets, then we pump the olive oil through the cotton filter sheets.

The sheets catch the small debris, little tiny pieces of the olive pit or little tiny pieces of the stem, and the oil comes out clear on the other end. We can filter about 700 to 1,000 liters, depending on how dirty the oil is, before we have to change the cotton filter sheets. When we change out the sheets we put them in a 10 gallon bucket because ... of course they are loaded with olive oil, and that is what we use to start our fires with.
... You won't believe how good that works.

I believe it!

When I first started burning, I used cooking oil as a starter. Works great. Now that I know what I'm doing, I have dry wood (most people don't know what really dry wood is) and I have plenty of kindling from the splitting process. That and a half of an egg carton and my fires start with one match.

Of course, once cold weather sets in well, we aren't starting fires any more. It's one long fire from December to February, usually.

 

[Snobdds]

I start my fires with wood shavings and kerosene. I take a tin can full of shavings and pour some kerosene on them and dump it in a line in the fire box. Put some smaller pieces of wood on and light it. It heats the flu fast and gets a good draw going. Not a lot of fuss.