| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| gil |
what do you use as kindling ?Those of you with open fires or (wood-burning) stoves : what do you use as kindling ? By this, I mean the intermediate stage between scrunched-up newspaper and the fuel on which you would normally run the fire or stove.Round here, 'kindling' has a specific meaning : it refers to small pieces of wood either split from a larger piece with an axe, or offcuts from sawmill , fenceposts, etc. I use those, but also fallen, dead twigs / branches from most trees except elm. What do you use ? If you collect twigs, which woods do you prefer to use ? |
||||
| sean |
At the moment the remains of the frame of our old shed. It hadn't been pressure treated, before anyone panics, which is one of the reasons it needed replacing. Three or four sheets of newspaper rolled up and knotted on the bottom, then a couple of bits of four-by-two, once they're going a proper lump of wood goes on top. | ||||
| RichardW |
We burn off cuts from fence making so as part of my process sorting it ready to burn we get a thin sliver from one end. We also use twigs (any) If realy realy desperate I will split some of the wood with a small hand axe / mattock. As the wood is rough cut it has some built in slivers / shards so does not need much to get it going (unless cover comes off the wood pile & it gets wet).
Justme |
||||
| Cho-ku-ri |
I use kindlers too, but if I have any bale string, bale net, plastic lemonade bottles and yogurt pots, dried orange peel, I put them on before the logs. I was shown by an Aunt how to twist newspaper up into what she called paper logs. This takes time, but lets you light the fire without kindlers at all. | ||||
| hedgewitch |
Do you roll the newspaper diagnally, flatten it then kind of weave it up into a boxy, 3-dimensional plat? |
||||
| Cho-ku-ri |
Yes, folded, twisted. then plaited in threes then folded up into a tight log shape. I should really get the childeren to make them in front of the fire the evening before. 
|
||||
| pricey |
We have a ready supply of pallets, from a industrial estate in christchurch that has to pay to have them taken away. So out comes the circular saw with the old blade in and we are off.
For the paper side of things we use the shreddings from the office and we also have a little shredder of our own. Works a treat. |
||||
| hedgewitch |
Yes you should  I used to make loads of these when I was a kid. I've never known anyone else make them. When we have stayed anywhere with a coal or wood fire, I always make these. mr hedgewitch thought I was mad at first, until he saw them in action  
|
||||
| RichardW |
Dont fancey that much all those pcp's & stuff getting released & I think the heat made will affect the gridle / general fire parts & chimley. We were told not to burn plastic on our rayburn as the griddle burns through quickly. Also if you check warranties on new fires they all exclude petro chemical coals which have lots of the same stuff in them as plastics. justme |
||||
| Nanny |
we use what whatever we have most of i guess but never plastics or baler twine or anything like that
i have collected all kinds of twigs and stuff for kindling if there are a few branches down, ash was the last lot sometimes pallets if we have them splitting bits off the logs i want to burn later is a last resort really.... we have used bits of old fence panels and the lathe bits out of a lathe and plaster wall..........they burned really well |
||||
| Gervase |
I use a page from a broadsheet newspaper rolled and twisted into a quoit, with finger-thick bits of wood struck with a hatchet from any reasonably straight-grained stuff we have lying around (currently offcuts of floorboard and skirting board). | ||||
| Nanny |
i have never heard kindling described so artistically makes me want to go out there and make some myself |
||||
| Treacodactyl |
I use all sorts of things. If I'm burning wood and intend to keep the ask as a fertiliser then I ensure nothing dodgy goes on the fire like treated wood, plastic etc.
For kindling I pick up twigs from the garden and on walks, there's plenty about at this time of year. If I run out then I chops some logs. A decent added extra are cones which have dried off and opened up by the fire. |
||||
| Mrs Fiddlesticks |
the farm where we get the wood from supplies bags of kindling as well, thin bits of wood as Gil described. Paper shreddings seem to work well too. Like the idea of the kids making up paper plaits, might work on that idea. | ||||
| pookie |
could anyone that makes the 'plaited logs' post pics of the process please, this would be most helpful, I'm sure a lot of people could benefit ...thanks in anticipation 
|
||||
| nora |
I use off cuts of wood from a local furniture factory. Its £1 for a sheep nut bag full. | ||||
| wellington womble |
We use whatever himself has lying around on site (he's a builder, and self employed, so gets first dibs on skip diving!) Failing that, stuff that comes in bags from the garage. Not ideal, but I know the man who owns the woods we walk in, and it would feel like stealing. | ||||
| dpack |
dead standing birch twigs are ace .a feather stick or three works well .
rubber bands are great if one and tinder/kindling is wet the resin rich knots from rotten pines or pine cones are very good a non ds version is the wd40 flame thrower 
|
||||
| nora |
dpack, what's a feather stick? | ||||
| James |
pallet wood. (I dont bother with a saw- I just attack it with a axe) | ||||
| dpack |
a feather stick is a piece of ( preferably dry ) firewood as fat as a thumb where starting at the end one shaves the outside with a sharp blade leaving the shavings attached until one has a stick covered in shavings
the finer the shavings the better with fine shavings and a nice kindling wood such as dry spruce they will light with a good spark but a flame will make most woods burn well |
||||
| nora |
Thank you, I see what you mean. I'll have a go at doing some of those for next time I light my woodburner. | ||||
| Pea |
At the moment I have an endless supply of bits and pieces from a photgrapher that makes his own frames. It makes great kindling and it means that the photographer does not have to pay to get rid of it.
Other than that I just use sticks found laying around and also any building jobs that involve removing any type of timber is used for our fire. Other than that I will chop a nice straight grained lump of ash. Pea |
||||
| Treacodactyl |
The hard blackish fungi you find on ash trees called cramp balls or King Alfred's cakes, Daldinia concentrica, make good kindling if you can't find anything else dry. They take a spark well, seem to keep dry and certainly round these parts are very common. | ||||
| mrutty |
Nope but I can do paperlogs (Sean you missed the chance to pimp your stove article here) http://www.two3five.com/experiments.htm |
||||
| pookie |
thanks for that Mrutty, I am probably looking for a dry process if possible......Cho-ku-ri/Hedgewitch any chance of pics of the process? Pookie |
||||
| Just Jane |
I use sticks picked up when walking or trimmed from the garden, pine cones, small bits of last years christmas tree, any cardboard packaging, all the bits that fell off the logs when they were delivered and the half burnt bits left in the fire from the previous time or seived from the ash. If I'm lucky then the bits still in the fireplace are still warm or smouldering and the addition of some scrunched up paper and a few puffs of air will get the fire going again | ||||
| Northern_Lad |
My sister's bedroom floorboards chopped into 10"x1"x1" pieces.
What? She's got a new one in the mean time. |
||||
| judith |
We had a period when our kindling was the remnants of our friend's marital bed after his divorce. He found it very cleansing. |
||||
| thos |
I am using the remnants of pruned tree branches. I start off cutting the small pieces until the branches are too big, then I put the branches aside until another day when I saw them into logs.
I have a part of my cellar that is particularly well-ventilated at present. This now has a half-dozen barrowloads of twigs in it, which should last me a good while. I also found a section in the bottom garden where I chucked some odd plant stems that were too woody to compost. I don't know what they are, some flower thingies of Terri's. They make fantastic kindling. I can't keep chopping branches off my trees, though. At some point I will need to find a permanent solution to my deforestation. |
||||
| Tinks |
Our chimney, despite being "looked at" by professional fireplace people, just has to take one look at a match and ....FWOOM....whole basket of logs reduced to a puff of smoke in minutes | ||||
| sean |
You could set up a part-time tree pruning business. Then people would pay you to come and help yourself to kindling. |
||||
| dpack |
thos coppice is the way
back to the plot fine split ash (pencil size ) any waste rubber (it dont take much to light even wet wood ) charcoal from yesterday is ace (forced air helps ) reinous woods are good kindling needs to light easily and burn hot enough for long enough to light the fuel whatever is available work with it to get it to burn . |
||||
| suomi |
Oh lucky us we burn birch and boy does it burn well the bark works as an instant fire lighter,its to do with the amount of birch oil it contains. the guy who lives beside us makes things with birch bark eg/ baskets and he also gives us some of his left overs, brilliant.
|
||||
| Cho-ku-ri |
Sorry pookie, I had forgotten about this thread. I don't know how to post a drawing.
It is easy though to make the paper logs. I was shown to open up the newspaper page and lay it flat. start with the corner and fold it over about an inch and do it again and again until you have the whole page in a flattish strip. Do that three times and plait them together. Then roll the plaited length up length ways and tuck the end into the plait. It really does not matter how you do it, but as long as it tightly packed so that it burns easily but slowly. |
||||
| pookie |
thank you I will have a bash!
|