Best Woodstove Fire-Starters?

[Slickcraft]

Just a few sticks of kindling and then use a torch as Dan suggested.

If you have seasoned firewood, a short time with your ax at the chopping block will produce a lot of kindling. You can easily split ether some knot free pieces of firewood or some short pieces of scrap building lumber.

I just can't conceive of buying some sort of starter wood.

[Meredith AK]

I use about a 1/4 of this brick and it works well. 24 Brick box from Hannaford's, cost around $13, so about $.15/fire started. They also sell them in 2 or 4 packs for a few dollars. Stays lit for about 20 minutes and starts whatever dry wood you put on top of it in about 5 minutes or less.

[Jeanzb1]

Now that we're living year-round in NH, we are using the fireplace (wood) day in and day out. I bought the same fire starter online that I had years ago, and it is THE BEST! It's made of iron or steel and is about the size of a brick and has holes in the center into which you pour about 1/2 cup of charcoal fluid. I build the fire starting with small pieces of kindling and a little bit of newspaper and larger logs on top, light a match to start the charcoal fluid, and within two or three minutes we have a blazing fire! It's awesome!

[upthesaukee]

Originally Posted by Slickcraft

Just a few sticks of kindling and then use a torch as Dan suggested.

If you have seasoned firewood, a short time with your ax at the chopping block will produce a lot of kindling. You can easily split ether some knot free pieces of firewood or some short pieces of scrap building lumber.

I just can't conceive of buying some sort of starter wood.

With very few exceptions (days), we burn wood from October to April, approximately 170-180 days. Some days restarting a fire that has died down after burning for several hours, others starting a new fire (like after cleaning out the ashes, done about every 3rd day). My one year + supply of fatwood stores in box that is about 2 cu. ft in size. Storing that amount of kindling takes far more space, and with no cellar, must be outside.

With 11 5 ft X 4 ft sliding glass windows across the front and side of the main living area of our house, when the fire burns down and temps outside are down, getting the fire burning again is pretty important, especially if I want to keep the wife happy, and we all know that a happy wife is a very happy life. And, seriously, my wife is often the one who is around when the fire needs to be restarted, and she likes the fatwood.

We all buy or use things that cost us a lot money that we don't necessarily have to buy (I would not have a gas grill on my boat, I prefer the picnic aspect of eating on the boat), but we do it because we prefer it or it is the easiest way for us to do it.

On last thought... Burning wood for heat provides heat three different times: 1. When you cut the wood. 2. When you stack the wood. 3. And when you burn the wood. (I know, carrying it in from the wood shed can be another one. )

[Lakegeezer]

We have been using Fireblox by Seymour, for a about 20 years. Each blox is about 1.5" square and one starts the woodstove fire about 95% of the time. If you order in bulk, you can get the cost to about 9 cents (including shipping) per blox.

[Gearhead]

I've heard these are great fire starters. 4-5 minutes in a toaster and you can't put them out.

[fatlazyless]

.....me....i use the Hannaford brand small pack becuz its the cheapest.....seems like the key to good wood stove fires is using dry wood....it needs to be dry....so's having a covered wood storage so's the wood will get all dried out and be dry is a big help...