Lazy firestarter

hollydays

How do you start a fire going in a woodburning stove?
Do you have to have firelighters,or kindling?

Fruball

The crispy dried plant material in your summer hanging baskets work a treat for lighting fires, also, collect fir cones and dry them in the shed

Also, you can pick up lots of dryish kindling if you go for a nice winter walk in the woods

Pretani

I use anything from egg cartons, cardboard and twigs under the logs along with a squirt of parafin oil

Butterfly_Brain

Pine cones are a great way to start it off

Blairweech

We use those newspaper nuggets (piece of newspaper rolled up then tied into a knot), with kindling on top, then a few logs.

hollydays

Frugal wrote: »

The crispy dried plant material in your summer hanging baskets work a treat for lighting fires, also, collect fir cones and dry them in the shed

Also, you can pick up lots of dryish kindling if you go for a nice winter walk in the woods

wow -coincidence. I was clearing out the shed yesterday and was considering throwing out a bag of sphagnum moss,but kept it. Also i have woods on the road where I live and go every day.How long would you have to let twigs dry out before you used them?

hollydays

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

Pine cones are a great way to start it off

Thanks-the woods nearby have pine cones too.(Only just got the fire fixed again-don't know why I didn't think of this before -duh!

hollydays

Blairweech wrote: »

We use those newspaper nuggets (piece of newspaper rolled up then tied into a knot), with kindling on top, then a few logs.

I tried to remember how my mum taught me to light a fire-i rollled up then twisted pieces of newspaper. On its own it didn't work (what did mum do??)but i had no kindling and had to resort to barbecue starting firelighters which i think aren't cheap.

hollydays

Anything else you can throw on to burn burn that smells nice? I am already loving the woody smell,I had a few logs I bought from a garden centre about 18 months ago so they are well seasoned.

paddy's_mum

Whatever you do, don't put logs or kindling beneath or next to a stove that is alight. You see it pictured all the time in the wood stove catalogues but it is a very dangerous practice, although I grant that it looks good and very countrified! Most stoves are putting out enough heat to cause nearby logs or kindling to start smouldering and eventually burst into flames.

hollydays

Thanks Paddys mum,i should have known that really,but I didn't.

One other question.
Now I have had the make of stove identified,it turns out its a multi fuel,and i have got the multifuel burning grate in,not the woodburning grate.This probably accounts for why the window has got so sooted up.Presumably,once i get the proper grate,it will burn better and not soot up so much?
How do you clean the soot off the door in the meantime.Its a chelsea by Villager.it has been swept.