Building a Fire With Purchased Wood

There are several instructables on lighting a fire, and there are lots of good ideas in them. Mostly, however, they utilize the "tepee" method, and I've never been able to make that work out very well. My main problem is that it just isn't very stable -- it's difficult to build, difficult to light, and even more difficult to keep burning without it falling over into a random pile of sticks. It's also best suited to medium-sized sticks, not larger pieces of wood.

Also, I don't like gathering wood, I think it's hard on the forest, so I wind up buying one of the bundles of wood that are on sale at every campground, on the assumption that at least that wood is somewhat more ecologically harvested. Unfortunately the wood you get in these bundles is too short and stubby to make anything like a decent tepee. But I've come up with a technique that works very well with the typical cuts of wood you get in one of those bundles.

Step 1: Wood

This is the typical motley assortment you get when you buy one of those firewood bundles. A couple of fairly large pieces, several mid-size pieces, some plastic wrap to bundle it (I wish they'd use a couple of pieces of twine instead!), and in my area they usually put a paper label inside the plastic. There isn't much you can do with the plastic except recycle it, but the paper label makes a great starter and even the rope "handle" they staple onto one of the pieces is combustible.

Comments

[mainecoonmaniac]

For me, a safer alternative to using lighter fluid is Fat Wood.

[middlenamefrank]

Agreed...not only safer but much more eco-friendly.

However, I've been experimenting with making my own firestarters out of (free) dryer lint (which is mostly broken cotton fibers) and (very cheap, and renewable) soy wax, with terrific results. The soy wax has high energy content, so it burns for a long time, while the lint lights very quickly (especially if you keep some dry on top, with no wax) and essentially forms lots of tiny wicks for the wax to climb up and burn.

I'm feeling a new instructable comin on! Look for it.

[Reffner]

Not being very eco savvy (but working on getting better) I honestly want to know if it's better to use dead dried twigs leaves or a petroleum based lighter fluid to start a fire? Which one has less impact on our environment? Seems like a toxic lighter fluid (that smells horrible burning IMO) would have a much worse affect on the environment than a few missing dead leaves/twigs.

[middlenamefrank]

No question about it, natural firestarters are far more environmentally friendly. They're renewable, carbon neutral and already part of the carbon cycle.

If I've left the impression anywhere that I advocate the use of lighter fluid as an eco-friendly solution to starting a fire, I apologize. It isn't, and using it is just a bad habit of mine. As I said in the instructable, it's a cheat.

I'd encourage you to do what I intend to do, and experiment with some of the very good firestarter instructables. I'm sure we can both find something that's much more eco-friendly than the lighter fluid, cheaper, nearly as convenient (with some advance preparation) and works nearly as fast.

[punkhead58]

Those aren't store bought fire-starters, I hope? Because those are a tremendous waste of money, and are usually harder to light than the wood itself. There are dozens of free (recyclable) household and natural materials that work great as fire-starters, such as dry grass and leaves, small twigs (dead matter isn't hard on the forest), cardboard boxes, or good old fashion newspaper. And, personally, I like to use a little bit of dryer lint or a cotton ball as tinder, rather than lighter fluid; I've found that this makes the wood last longer, as lighter fluid is an accelerant.
Just my two cents...

[middlenamefrank]

You can use whatever firestarter you like, I'm using the term generically. Generally I use whatever small stuff is on hand, and a very short squirt of lighter fluid; you're welcome to use whatever you wish.

There are people who say that even removing dead matter from the forest weakens it, and I tend to agree. That dead matter decomposes back into nutrients which feed further growth. Removing one fire's worth of fuel isn't going to have a huge effect, but it adds up if everyone does it.

[punkhead58]

I have no doubt that it deprives the soil of some nutrients, but it's not going to destroy the ecosystem, no matter how many people do it. It's not as if you're uprooting plants and cutting down trees, you're just collecting what's already dead, and these organisms are constantly dying. And, although you are correct in that some dead matter is needed to fertilize the soil (after it has decomposed), when too much dead matter accumulates in an isolated area, it doesn't allow for new plants to grow. This is why the DNR occasionally does controlled burnings. Actually, for that matter, if you are truly concerned about the environment, you can scatter the COMPLETELY COOL ashes from your fire over the soil in the area that you collected the dead matter from. I'm sorry if I'm being a bit unconscionable about this subject, but it just strikes me as odd and ironic that you have such eco-friendly ideals, yet you support the large companies that manufacture lighter fluid and store-bought firestarters, who consume ungodly amounts of resources and energy to run their factories and produce their products.

[Bongmaster]

just screw up loads of old paper or newspaper into tight balls and lay them as the base, then put some kindling on top of that latticed over each other, then put the logs on top, set fire to the paper in a few places and let it go, perfect fire, no pointless firelighters or fluids.

[punkhead58]

I agree.

[mr.incredible]

Dood... you need a wood grate. You are smothering your fire. With a wood grate your wood isn't sitting in the ashes and coals. Fireplaces don't get enough oxygen from the environment, a campfire does. Campfires get oxygen from 360deg. so the wood can sit in the ashes. Indoors you need the wood up off the floor. clean out some of those ashes too. I realize you have the two base logs to get your main wood out of the ashes, but it doesn't have to be that hard. A couple loosely crumpled pieces of news paper underneath, one lit up inside the flu to get the air drafting, then light the paper underneath. Instant fire.

[middlenamefrank]

As I said in the instructable, I got rid of the grate in the fireplace to show how it's done on bare ground. But this method works so well that I don't use the grate any more.

Do me a favor and try it this way, just once, before deciding it's not going to work. Believe me, it breathes beautifully.