How do you light your bonfires?

NewfieDan · Mar 19, 2015

bx2230orange said:
Soak a roll of toilet paper in diesel fuel. Works great even with wet wood.

BIL used to do this inside an old metal tobacco tin whe he went ice fishing. It would burn for hours. Whe he was done fishing put the lid on and the flame went out, ready for the next time.

As for fire starting, I do a lot of wood working. I usually have some small hardwood strips that are dry and ready to light, even with a match. Also have lots of sawdust, so I plan on making a machine to make sawdust pucks using just pressure. If they are done right they will burn about 10-15min giving time for other wood to catch.

tcartwri · Mar 19, 2015

bx2230orange said:
Soak a roll of toilet paper in diesel fuel. Works great even with wet wood.

That's a great idea.

dragoneggs · Mar 19, 2015

I use my used oil... put a quart or two on the pile size dependent and put some fresh newspaper, cardboard near the bottom and let it soak for a bit. I use a propane fueled weed burner to start. This nice weed burning tool, I pretty much only use for starting fires. It is a slow start because western Washington means moist burn piles pretty much year around. Burning weeds? Come on... around here the weeds grow faster than a fire spreads except for 3 months out of the year.

cycle_gator · Mar 19, 2015

I use a propane weed burner and three hour fire logs. Often burning in snow and wet and I need something to create heat. If I can get a good bed of coals going I can burn just about anything. I also recently found that decently dry particle board burns very hot, like presto logs. Had a bed of coals that lasted for two days.

Not sure who the poster was from Amber, WA I am a ways north but remember that news story about the guys with the tannerite target practice. Some people just have no common sense. Like many places in the country this past summer was a very difficult wildfire season in Eastern WA. Suffice it to say, my burning season is November to April.