This fire-starting method will work for all wood burners
using a woodstove, fireplace, outdoor firepit or campfire. Where ever you enjoy
the flames, get them up and running without a hassle.
But why start the fire so quickly? What are the benefits? Is it safe?
What sensible reason could any person have for starting their fire in 3 minutes or less?
In all my years of burning wood for heat, food and fun, I’ve
created a lot of fires. In that time, I discovered a technique that enabled me
to get a fire going as quickly as possible, hot with flames, indoors or out.
And my reason? I wanted HEAT or FOOD, or I was simply impatient for FUN while
waiting for a fire to take hold.
CONSIDER THIS…
You get home from work, you’re tired and the house is chilly. You need a fire started in your woodstove…like NOW.
You are on a camping trip and your family is hungry and cold and they need a fire to sit around…they want it…NOW
ALSO, DON’T
FORGET ABOUT THIS… Survival!
FIRE-starting is an essential survival technique for
which EVERYONE should have some knowledge. Fire can purify water, cook food,
provide warmth, light and more. If you are ever in time of need, knowing how to
start a fire can be a matter of life and death.
Ok, I get it. If you’re starting a fire for the only reason
of having ‘fun’, like in your backyard firepit or Chiminea, well then, have at
it. Enjoy. There’s obviously no pressure to get that fire blazing as quick as
possible, after all, half the fun of a fire is watching how its various stages
evolve. But if you’ve got other stuff to tend too, fussing with a
fire is just wasting your precious time… You’ve got better things to do.
KNOW THIS…
The first few minutes of starting any woodfire are the most
crucial and potentially the most frustrating. It’s a process that must be
respected and should never be rushed, as a wood fire needs time to take hold
and grow in stages.
But there IS a way to get your fire heated up in a rather
quick manner, and without the constant tending and feeding that seems to be the
norm for firing up a wood pile.
SO HERE IT IS
…my ‘go to’ method for starting a fire that not only burns efficiently, on its own, but also eliminates the frustration that often accompanies the chore of starting fires.
FIRST – THE ESSENTIAL MATERIALS (You’ve got to have these on hand)
1. Your actual fire starter…a match, a lighter, a flame!
2. Tinder…newspaper
3. Kindling…various sizes/diameters
4. Small pieces of split firewood
5. Larger pieces of firewood
Does this sound like a lot? It isn’t! It’s what you normally
would use to get a wood fire going anyway, right? Just make sure all the
materials are dry, dry, dry! No moisture allowed. This is important.
SO HERE’S THE TRICK…
It’s all in how you ‘arrange’ the materials that will make or break whether your fire evolves into wondrous, glorious flames…or not
Below is my time-tested method for building a fire that
starts every time, with little to no maintenance.
Here’s how I build ‘the house’
Once you’ve got the everything in its place, put a spark to that bad boy! I light the paper in a few different spots but definitely light the top and bottom rolls first. This way it will burn from both areas and surprisingly, this method seems to create less smoke too.
Of course, no one situation is exactly the same as another,
so you may have to adjust for some of the materials and/or the way you stack
them. But the basic method is there to work from.
Here are some benefits…
Once you get the hang of this method, you will be using fewer materials to start your fires, less smoke will be present, and it if you are doing things right, you won’t be fussin’ around as much every time you start your fires. Plus, because using this ‘boxed’ foundation method, the fire has less chance of falling apart while making it easier to ‘stack on’ bigger logs as the fire gets hotter.
REMEMBER, WITH NO FIRE
…there’s no heat for warming our bodies – no cooked food for
hungry appetites – no camaraderie around a campfire. So get that darn fire
started as quick and safely as you can – the kids want to roast marshmallows!
Burn safe!
BZ
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