tryin.not.to.burn.the.house.down said:I am so frustrated. All I seem to be doing is burning paper.......we let the woodstove burn out because the weather has been warm. Getting a little cold in here. Wanted hubbie to come home to a warm fire. For the past hour I have been just burning paper!! 2 inches of ash in the bottom at least. Damper open, air vent open. 3 big dry logs, little pieces stuck in, newspaers all around....it just won't catch. I am about ready to burn the owner's manuel. Any quick tips to get the home fire buning? Strickly wood stove speaking please you dirty minds
TNTBTHD, everyone here has their own secret (or not so secret) "Never-Fails-To-Light-With-The-First-Match" method . . . you may have to experiment on your own and see what works for you and what doesn't.
As others have mentioned some of the possible problems you may have had the other night could have been the draft and firewood that is too big.
In time you will "get it" . . . trust me . . . we all started somewhere . . . and in time you too will be ready for Survivor.
In the meantime here's what I do . . . as I said . . . try folks' suggestions and see what works best for you.
1) Assuming my stove is cool and no fire has been running (and therefore there are no hot ashes -- or at least the chances of hot ashes are lessened) I will open my front door and clean off the front glass, clean up the hearth a bit, clean out the ash pan and then afterwards (or sometimes before I clean out the ash pan) I move the ash away from the air inlet to give my starter fire as much air as it needs without any blockage.
2) Now take some newspaper and crumple them up into balls and place them in the bottom of the firebox. Don't be stingy . . . use up an entire section (4-5 large sheets).
3) And now for my "secret firestarting method" . . . and no, I do not and would not advocate any flammable liquids . . . instead I use what I have always used to get even stubborn fires to burn . . . and that secret starter is . . . cardboard . . . yup, just plain, ol' brown cardboard that you find in a cardboard box. I strip off any plastic tape and cut my cardboard into 8 x 8 (or so) chunks and place these on top of the paper . . . typically crunching up the cardboard to give it a few ridges (to help with the airflow).
4) On top of this cardboard/paper mix I place a rather small (3-5 inch) split or round . . . I particularly like to use a well-seasoned (sometimes from a standing dead tree) piece of softwood -- cedar, spruce, pine, etc. I place this single piece in the back of the fire.
5) Some folks have had great luck with SuperCedars or by breaking off chunks of the sawdust/wax logs you can get at a local department store . . . as for me I use dead pine branches sometimes . . . but more often I use some split cedar kindling (ranging in size from 1/2 inch to 2 inches). If you do not have access to kindling you can sometimes use the bits and pieces of wood and bark that invariably fall off while splitting or handling the firewood . . . or you can cut up some pallets and split these into smaller pieces of kindling with a hatchet . . . or you can go the wicked easy route and pick up some cedar shingles at your local hardware store for use as kindling (which one of my co-workers does.) Place 4-8 pieces of this kindling on top of the crumpled cardboard and paper. I usually make a little house of mine . . . laying two one way and two the other way (probably goes back to my love affair with Lincoln Logs.)
6) On top of this I either place a couple of small softwood slabs or a couple of boards that I have cut off from a pallet. If you want to get things going in real good shape feel free to add another pallet board . . . or two . . . but not too many.
7) With my air draft fully open I now light the newspaper on fire . . . and I will leave my side door (my stove has a front and side door) to my stove slightly ajar . . . usually with it resting against the woodstove frame . . . sometimes a bit more . . . but the one thing I will not do is leave the area.
8) Let the fire build . . . it will typically catch the newspaper and then the cardboard and then the smaller kindling on fire. Resist the urge to just shut and latch the door completely at this point . . . in my case the fire typically dies out if I do this. Instead I wait until the small kindling has really caught on fire and the flames are starting to really fill up the firebox. At this point shut and latch the door . . . give it a few seconds . . . the fire may die down and then start right back up . . . but if the fire dies and doesn't come back to "life" in a few seconds I may open the door just a bit again and then repeat until the wood really catches.
As I said . . . what works for me, may not work for you so well . . . so try this idea or one of the other suggestions . . . eventually you'll find something that works out well and in no time you'll be lighting fires as if it was second nature.
