We’re approaching that blessed time of year when the woodstove becomes just another thing I need to dust.
And it occurred to me while I was cleaning up yesterday that I had a whole great box-full of paper and cardboard for tinder, elaborately prepared and unused since sometime around the holidays.
It’s shameful for a guy who makes a game of how many fires he can get from a single match to admit, but I’ve gone all suburban-y. I spent 24 whole bucks on commercial fire-starters this winter. That’s more than enough to fill a propane bottle.
I bowed to nobody in the ritual-like intricacy of my fire-laying technique. Paper in rolled cardboard under juniper bark under slivered wood under split kindling, carefully tended with incantations for warming the iron and getting the logwood crackling: It actually worked first try about 80% of the time. Of course sometimes it just went up in a whoosh like unto a conflagration and freaked me right the hell out, because regular TUAK readers know Uncle Joel is paranoid about chimney fires.
One day while in the big town about fifty miles away for one of those eye appointments, I was in the hardware section of Wal-Mart and saw these pressed-sawdust fire-starters. And I stood there shamefully staring at those things like a kid in the porno aisle of a video store, because the ones I’d settled on cost more than eight bux a box and who would do that, right? That’s more than two gallons of gasoline, almost three gallons of propane, or almost four pounds of stewmeat. 32 gallons of drinking water. Eight bucks is a lot of money to spend on a luxury like fire-starters, especially when I spent all frickin’ summer gathering tinder. It’s just stupid. Pass it by.
And I looked to my left, and I looked to my right, and I brought a box of the stupid things to the register. I was a little ashamed for D&L to see me with them, even though I happen to know they use’em. Free thinkers, are D&L. Ain’t nobody’s business, and all that.
And then when that box was almost gone I bought two more, because two is one and one is a cliché, and I’ve still got that second one in the powershed.
Makes for a much neater kindling box, I do confess.
You DUST your wood stove? 🙂
Contrary to popular belief, I do occasionally clean stuff. And yeah, this is a very dusty place.
Yep, AZ is a very dusty place. When I lived there I decided it was the most dusty spot on the planet. Now I live the second most dusty place and I have to dust my wood stove too Joel 😉
If one were looking for a fire starter that was less expensive than your average commercial one, but still a bit more effective than strips of bark, I always had good luck with chunks of candle wrapped in wax paper (like a candy). Light one side and it burns long enough to catch the smaller pieces of wood.
I’m definitely in the camp of using and appreciating conveniences as long as they’re available, affordable and I know how to do without them. For several years, while we were building our house I did laundry in a manner similar to what Joel described a while ago. I know how, but we have a washer and dryer and I will, by golly, use them decadently as long as possible. I know how to bake bread, but will continue to buy store bought on my weekly town trip as long as I can.
So I say, go for it and enjoy. You know how to live the hard way so what’s wrong with living the easy way while there is an easy way to be had.
PS; If I didn’t dust our woodstove once in a while I’m sure that one day the built up dust would spontaneously combust and burn the house down.
Sometimes you just don’t want to do it the hard way. I keep a highway flare in my pack for those times.
A self lighting propane torch is pretty handy for getting the draft going and lighting the kindling without much effort.
Don’t get the “starter sticks”. Get the whole Fire Logs. They are cheaper, particularly if you wait until about May and catch Walmart clearancing their winter stuff. I’ve got about 3 cases of the flipping things here that I got for $5/case.
You cut or break off about 1″ to 2″ section of the log and use that part. The rest stays in the wrapper and keeps quite nicely for several years if you don’t use it. It works in the Fireplace, and it works great when I’m starting fires in brushpiles and suchlike, too.
As R noted previously, a propane torch works just fine for me also, but when I found those Fire Logs for cheap, I couldn’t pass them up, and they do also work just fine.
Jefferson101 beat me to it. This method works very well and is cheap.
Rough up the edges and they catch quite well.
That’s a very interesting idea. I wonder why I didn’t think of it.
Up here in the G.W.N. we start the things mid October and they go out about now,. Well maybe next week. The propane torch does work and if the fire is right out, try a squirt of diesel fuel. Not volatile like gas and sticks to the wood real well. A gallon should last all year.
My dad used chain saw cuttings and diesel fuel for years as fire starter, stored in a lidded coffee can. worked great, and was cheap. The fire marshal would probably faint if he saw it today…