# How much kindling?



## Adam_MA (Jul 14, 2009)

Just wondering how much kindling you folks store for the winter. I have been picking up the nice thin slices of wood, and little left over bits every time I had to move my splitter this year, and threw them all in a pile. They finally got all nice and dry, so I started throwing them into cheap 34 gallon storage containers I picked up at K-mart on sale. Well, I filled 2 of them right to the top, and still have a bit left over to pick up still. I figure once it is all picked up, I will have the equivalent of about an 80-90 gallon container full.

I'm going to pick it up either way, and it will all get burnt sometime, but it just got me wondering about how much everyone else stores for the winter.


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## stee6043 (Jul 14, 2009)

You've got a lot more than I will!  I am doing the same as you as far as picking up under the splitter.  I'll jam three or four 5 gallon buckets full and that'll be about it for me.  I doubt I'll make it the whole year but I'll be a lot better off than I was last year....


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## Adam_MA (Jul 14, 2009)

stee6043 said:
			
		

> I doubt I'll make it the whole year but I'll be a lot better off than I was last year....



That's the part that worried me. Last year was my first with my stove, and I bought my wood. I ended up spending a bunch of time in the basement with a hatchet getting the kindling I needed from day to day. I wanted to avoid having to play that game again.


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## stejus (Jul 14, 2009)

Kindling is used primarily when your starting a fire from nothing.  Once you start burning 24x7, there's no need for kindling IMO.  I guess that depends on your stove size too to have enough coals in the AM to start it up again.


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## Adam_MA (Jul 14, 2009)

That's true, but I find it much faster to throw a small handful of kindling on top of the coals and then some sticks on top of that to get the fire back alive more quickly.


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## trafick (Jul 14, 2009)

When I had an open fire place, I used ALOT of kindling.  Fires every weekend.  I would bring home pallets from work and cut/chop them up.  Since I put a gas stove in the fire place I barely burn any kindling at all.  Like stejus, I now only use it for start-up three or four times a year.


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## stee6043 (Jul 14, 2009)

stejus said:
			
		

> Kindling is used primarily when your starting a fire from nothing.  Once you start burning 24x7, there's no need for kindling IMO.  I guess that depends on your stove size too to have enough coals in the AM to start it up again.



For those of us running gassers with storage we have to start a new fire from scratch every day.  So I do go through a fair amount of kindling.....and newspaper!


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## BrotherBart (Jul 14, 2009)

Lots of start and burn down fires here with our climate. No matter how much kindling I store up I end up making more by the time I am mid-way through the season.

I would probably be better off just using starters like SuperCedars but have been in the kindling habit for ages.


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## quads (Jul 14, 2009)

You can never have too much kindling.  It's nice to be able to add a few pieces every time the fire burns down to coals, when reloading.  Helps to get it going quicker than full size splits alone.  You can always save any left over for the next season.

I used to collect all the little pieces and shavings from the splitting process, but I found it to be much more exercise and very rewarding to split all of my kindling.  Still, if I see a few nice pieces leftover from splitting the firewood, I'll usually throw them on the kindling pile.  I split kindling from my seasoned oak firewood, using a single bit 3.5# ax.  I choose the straightest splits from the woodpile, with the fewest knots, then place them on top of a stump and turn them into kindling.

Here's a picture of my kindling pile:








And here's a picture of my kindling workstation:


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## wendell (Jul 14, 2009)

Nice wagon! I have the same one but unfortunately bent the frame trying to move 3 150 lb rounds down a sloped hill. Now, it always wants to travel a little sideways.

I used to split up my splits to have enough kindling for the year. This year I found a hardwood lumbar yard that was giving away a pallet of pecan boards that were defective. I now have a face cord of kindling, which along with some SuperCedars should last me for many years.


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## billb3 (Jul 14, 2009)

I've never reallly kept track of how much kindling.

I'm surrounded by acres of white pine.
The bottom branches of which (are quite dead) and make for nice kindling.

Either by going out and cutting them off, or grabbing a few from piles of branches from cut down trees.


I have piles of branches all over.
Some years I chip them for mulch (easier when they are green), right now I need a new engine for my chipper , so I have lots of kindling.


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## gzecc (Jul 14, 2009)

Quads, What or where the heck is Mare Imbrium?  Am I showing my ignorance?


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## quads (Jul 14, 2009)

gzecc said:
			
		

> Quads, What or where the heck is Mare Imbrium?  Am I showing my ignorance?


On the Moon!  I haven't posted in a long time.  I moved back from there now (hee hee).  Guess maybe I'll have to update my profile.


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## quads (Jul 14, 2009)

wendell said:
			
		

> Nice wagon! I have the same one but unfortunately bent the frame trying to move 3 150 lb rounds down a sloped hill. Now, it always wants to travel a little sideways.


That wagon ranks as one of the worst purchases I ever made in my life.  The wheel bearings went bad (figure that, by just pulling it around the yard), part of the steering mechanism broke off and I had to weld it back together, etc..........all for an $80 purchase price.  Now it's used only for kindling and occasionally leaves.  For real firewood duty I use my wheelbarrow, little Harbor Freight trailer behind the ATV, or my pickup truck.


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## Swamp Yankee (Jul 14, 2009)

We use about a trashcan +/- full of broken sticks etc every month during the heating season. We start the woodstove every night and start the garn every other night. The woodstove uses more kindling than the garn. We gather the branches that fall off the oak/maples in our woods in the fall/winter storms and pile them on rocks, pallets, stumps etc in the woods to keep them off the ground. Every once in a while we'll head out there with some adult beverages, break up the sticks and fill up a trashcan. You'd be surprised at how much wood gets knocked down in a wind storm.


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## firefighterjake (Jul 14, 2009)

Last year I was paranoid about running out of kindling to get the fire going . . . and since I originally planned to mainly have just evening and weekend fires I wanted plenty of kindling on hand so I stockpiled a little less than half a cord of kindling . . . mostly cedar and spruce kindling that I cut and split from trees that were standing dead or were dead, but off the ground. 

Since I ended up being more of a 24/7 woodburner I only used a small fraction of that amount -- maybe 1/3 of the amount. 

Besides stockpiling the cedar and spruce kindling that I specifically split up for kindling I also had quite the collection of pallets split up into kindling, scrap wood from various wood working/renovation projects, some splitter "trash" and even several bags of large pine cones that dropped in the Fall for use as kindling.


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## Shipper50 (Jul 14, 2009)

I posted this in another post of mine and figured I have about 2.5 times this much in bags. Its all Ash with a moisture of around 18-20%. I can always cut it smaller, but if I keep my fire hot at all I can throw a few pieces on and be ready to go.

Shipper


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## mayhem (Jul 14, 2009)

I've been cutting up all the brush that came down in the Dec ice storm to kindling.  Just a bunch of sticks and such and it'll help me keep more of my nice split wood.  As said above, save as much as you can.  You'll use a big pile in the fall and another big pile in the spring when you're lighting the stive every morning or every other morning, you'll use almost none in winter.


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## boostnut (Jul 14, 2009)

Looks like Shipper50 uses a similar source for his kindling. Aside from the little bits and pieces I get from running the splitter I have a neighbor in the custom cabinet building business. They generate a huge amount of scrap which makes perfect kindling. If you've got a cabinet shop in the area I suggest stopping buy and getting a load of their cutoffs and scrap. Most of the shops in this area pay to put their scraps in a dumpster or pile it up and burn it in the back lot on occasion. I go thru about a 55 gallon drum of splitter droppings and another 55 gallon drum of cabinet shop cutoffs per year.


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## SolarAndWood (Jul 14, 2009)

A box of split 2 by cutoffs makes the wife happy when she gets home first and we are 9 or 10 hours into a burn.  I make sure the box is never empty.


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## LLigetfa (Jul 14, 2009)

I split one or two 5 gallon pails of kin'lin at a time.  I use 4 or 6 pieces to start a fire and how long a pail lasts depends on how often I start a fire.


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## Backwoods Savage (Jul 14, 2009)

While doing the yearly splitting, I also make some kindling. I use soft maple for the kindling because it lights very easy and burns hot. We don't require a lot of kindling simply because it is only for a short time in fall and spring when it is needed. Other times the stove is kept going 24 hours per day.

The kindling we use is about the same size as LLigetfa's. I usually just stack it in the ends of the rows of firewood that is stacked. Sometimes I will mix some right in the regular stack if the ends won't hold it all. Sometimes my wife will also pick up the chips and little pieces after the splitting is done. I usually end up throwing that in the stove when we just need a little bit of heat because I don't like it for kindling. But whatever works. 

As to how much kindling, I really don't have a handle on that. I just make some every year. If it looks like we are running low I'll make more or if we have lots I'll make less. It is extremely easy to make nice kindling with a hydraulic splitter. I think sometime I shall take some pictures to show how I do it.


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## WES999 (Jul 14, 2009)

There is a place around the corner form me that gives away lots of skids, they are all hardwood ( oak I think).
I have been cutting them up and storing them in the basement. They work great for starting fires.
I am going to stock up as much as I can.


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## Spikem (Jul 15, 2009)

WES999 said:
			
		

> There is a place around the corner form me that gives away lots of skids, they are all hardwood ( oak I think).
> I have been cutting them up and storing them in the basement. They work great for starting fires.
> I am going to stock up as much as I can.



No worries about nails?  I would think you would NOT want them in the stove.


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## BrotherBart (Jul 15, 2009)

Spikem said:
			
		

> No worries about nails?  I would think you would NOT want them in the stove.



Nails in  the stove don't hurt a thing. Just scoop them out with the ashes.


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## LLigetfa (Jul 15, 2009)

BrotherBart said:
			
		

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Unless you have a stove with a shaker grate.  The damn nails would get stuck in the grate of my mom's cook stove and I'd get in trouble because it was my job to remove the nails from the wood.  All the ashes ended up in the garden and dad didn't want the nails going in the tractor tires.


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## firefighterjake (Jul 15, 2009)

BrotherBart said:
			
		

> Spikem said:
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Agreed . . . unless you miss one or two when scattering the ashes on your ice covered driveway . . . or in your garden.   

Some folks in the past have expressed some concern with nails with stoves with cats or the gassifiers . . . I cannot remember if the majority of these particular folks felt the concerns were truly valid or a moot point though.


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## Adam_MA (Jul 15, 2009)

WOW Some of you have some real nice looking kindling. I'll see about getting a pic of the scrap that I have saved up. It all burns though!


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## Stevebass4 (Jul 16, 2009)

just split a little over 1/2 cord of pine -  cut and split very small figure this and 1/4 super cedars i should be fine 

 my insert is very small (qf2100i) so most times i re-light every night - weekends = 24/7


for the neighbor lady - i left my ryobi splitter at her house. i fill one of those large rubbermaid bins for kindling for her every other week


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## daveswoodhauler (Jul 16, 2009)

You can never have too much kindling. If you have a small firebox and don't burn 24/7, you are going to go through quite a bit....had 2 large trash barrels full, and I ran out in Feb, as I don't get overnight burns. Big fireboox/overnight burns, you won't need nearly as much.


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## Hurricane (Jul 16, 2009)

My dad uses his ash in the garden and he has a large magnet near the stove that he uses to get the nails out. He has an old smoke dragon and I have not been able to convince him to upgrade yet. He has been doing this for 40 years without any problems.


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## Shipper50 (Jul 16, 2009)

I agree you can never have enough kindling. As long as you have somewhere to store it. My buddy had his property logged and he gave me 3 bags or more of cutoff poplar ends. They were great for getting my basement furnace restarted after overnight. Sometimes it would burn down so far and there wasnt much left, and throw in a few piceses of poplar and back in bussisness

Shipper


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## madrone (Jul 16, 2009)

My experience is that it's not that you can never have too much, but that you will never have quite enough.


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## LLigetfa (Jul 16, 2009)

Shipper50 said:
			
		

> I agree you can never have enough kindling. As long as you have somewhere to store it.


True.  I have only so many 5 gallon pails and they take up too much space on the floor.

I've been thinking of using a pail to make a round bundle that I would bind with giant rubber bands made from inner tubes.  That way I could just pull them from the pail and put them on top of my regular stacks in the woodshed.

I've also thought of making single portion bundles of 6 pieces wrapped up in the quantity of newsprint I use to start the fire.


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## LLigetfa (Jul 16, 2009)

madrone said:
			
		

> My experience is that it's not that you can never have too much, but that you will never have quite enough.


Invariably, I often procrastinate making more and usually run out on a cold miserable windy day.  I don't have anywhere indoors that I can make kin'lin but have thought about making a mini-splitter that I could use right at the hearth.


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## Adam_MA (Jul 16, 2009)

LLigetfa said:
			
		

> have thought about making a mini-splitter that I could use right at the hearth.



One of theses guys would work for that http://www.improvementscatalog.com/product/id/115614.do#


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## Stevebass4 (Jul 16, 2009)

LLigetfa said:
			
		

> have thought about making a mini-splitter that I could use right at the hearth.



as mentioned my Ryobi 4 ton splitter has been reassigned to neighbor lady’s hearth – works great for making kindling


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## LLigetfa (Jul 16, 2009)

Stevebass4 said:
			
		

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Nice, but I doubt the wife would let me park it on the hearth.


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## SolarAndWood (Jul 17, 2009)

maybe in glossy black with aluminum wheels


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## wldm09 (Jul 17, 2009)

Backwoods Savage said:
			
		

> While doing the yearly splitting, I also make some kindling. I use soft maple for the kindling because it lights very easy and burns hot. We don't require a lot of kindling simply because it is only for a short time in fall and spring when it is needed. Other times the stove is kept going 24 hours per day.
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> The kindling we use is about the same size as LLigetfa's. I usually just stack it in the ends of the rows of firewood that is stacked. Sometimes I will mix some right in the regular stack if the ends won't hold it all. Sometimes my wife will also pick up the chips and little pieces after the splitting is done. I usually end up throwing that in the stove when we just need a little bit of heat because I don't like it for kindling. But whatever works.
> 
> As to how much kindling, I really don't have a handle on that. I just make some every year. If it looks like we are running low I'll make more or if we have lots I'll make less. It is extremely easy to make nice kindling with a hydraulic splitter. I think sometime I shall take some pictures to show how I do it.



Hey Backwoods - I now have a splitter so I would love to see how you make kindling...  would you mind putting together a "how-to"?  Thanks!


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## Backwoods Savage (Jul 17, 2009)

Woodsman_WI said:
			
		

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Okay Woodsman. I'll see if I can do that tomorrow....or very soon if possible.


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## Dune (Jul 17, 2009)

LLigetfa said:
			
		

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My son tried that, and I don't know if he wrapped the paper too tight or what, but it didn't work well.


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## LLigetfa (Jul 17, 2009)

Dunebilly said:
			
		

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They would only be wrapped up for storage.  I would unwrap and crumple up the paper to light the fire.


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## chad3 (Jul 18, 2009)

I have a 35 gallon can full, and from there put the small stuff in the wood pile to take as I get to it.  Wife and daughter pick it up and seem to hoard it at certain parts of the pile for kindling.  It has worked in the past.  Just use the crap that comes off the end of the splitter.
Chad


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## johnsopi (Jul 19, 2009)

I use the Ryobi 4 ton splitter for kinlin in the basement But that were my furance is.
That setup works great for me,


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## WOODBUTCHER (Jul 20, 2009)

My chunk wood and kindling pile. I can easily split all my kindling for the year in about an hour with the splitter.

WoodButcher


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## LLigetfa (Jul 20, 2009)

I guess different folk have different ideas of what size wood is considered kin'lin.  I split mine down to less than an inch.  Can't see myself using a 20 ton splitter with blunt wedge to do that.


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## quads (Jul 20, 2009)

LLigetfa said:
			
		

> I guess different folk have different ideas of what size wood is considered kin'lin.  I split mine down to less than an inch.  Can't see myself using a 20 ton splitter with blunt wedge to do that.


I'm with you.  I use a 3.5# single bit ax (with most of the handle tucked under my arm and my hand near the head) and sometimes a hatchet.  My actual "splitter" weighs much less than 20 tons, it's only 6 pounds and I wouldn't even think of using that for kindling.  I'm not sure I could swing one that weighed 20 tons!   ;-) 

1/2 to 1 inch size works nice.  I make it out of my seasoned oak.  I used to use pine for kindling but I like the fact that the oak kindling makes better coals.  Pine kindling doesn't make as many coals.  With the oak, by the time the kindling is done burning it's already beginning to make a little bed of coals.  Pine goes POOF.


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## madrone (Jul 20, 2009)

I box up the small scraps from splitting, along with the dead branches that fall from the giant oak tree next to the house. When that gets low, I use oak pallets, which are by far the best way to heat up a cold stove.


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## caber (Jul 20, 2009)

I just collect fallen branches.  Anything from 1/4 inch to 2 inches as long as it is really dry.  I snap the smaller pieces and cut the larger with a handsaw.  I usually try to keep a rubermaid tub full of it.  When I start running low, it's back into the woods to find more branches on the ground.  Works wellenough if I plan ahead.  I occasionally get caught running out during an extended rain or snow period and then I have to let it sit for a day to dry.


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## John_M (Jul 22, 2009)

I have the equivelent of four 50 gallon drums of kindling, chunks and cookies gathered from fallen branches and a recently downed ash. This does not include all the ends of 2x4's, 2x6's, 2x8's, 2x10's and  2x12's left over from building my house. I have been splitting these leftovers by hand using the best kindling splitter hatchet ever made. My neighbors really appreciate a surprise box of kindling during the burning season. This year I may split some of these for myself but I will not use my trusty Plumb splitting hatchet because my arthritic right wrist does not take kindly to the pounding.

This year I will use my new 26 ton H/V wood splitter in the horizontal position. Using this to split kindling is like using a 200 hp outboard to scramble eggs. But it will save my wrist and I just enjoy using the splitter.

So, even with donating some to neighbors, I will probably have enough kindling for about two years. As others have said, one cannot have too much kindling, especially when you are only a nights and weekend burner. 

John_M


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## Backwoods Savage (Jul 23, 2009)

LLigetfa said:
			
		

> I guess different folk have different ideas of what size wood is considered kin'lin.  I split mine down to less than an inch.  Can't see myself using a 20 ton splitter with blunt wedge to do that.



Keep watching. As soon as my body quits acting up (just not able to do much of anything right now), I'll get some pictures on how to do that splitting extremely easy and fast using a 20 ton splitter....vertically.


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## donmattingly (Jul 26, 2009)

I have two sources for kindling. One comes from the wood splitting area, depending on how much splitting is done, I will usually get 5-6 five gallon buckets or kitty litter containers full of kindling. Also, we have 3 large silver maples in the yard. My wife claims they are healthy and would give me holy hell if I took them down. Well, for healthy trees, they sure drop a lot of branches! They are all picked up and put into the kindling pile. Rarely to I have to buy that ridiculous $6 bag of dry kindling wood at the hardware store.


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## TreePapa (Jul 27, 2009)

LLigetfa said:
			
		

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That's why old dairy crates work so well. You can jam the wood into the crates and stack the crates. Of course, only legally obtained dairy crates would ever be used by anyone on this forum, right?

Peace,
- Sequoia


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