Best Fire Starter Ever

[DCMAC214]

No preparation mess or fuss, no toxic chemical spills in the campsite, no singed eyebrows, no newspaper ink on your hands and clothes, no arguments with the wife over saving dryer lint and TP tubes or the mess you make in the kitchen with her prized-and-very-expensive cookware.

A handful in the fire pit, twigs and kindling on top, touch it with a strike-anywhere kitchen match (HA! Where can you find them nowadays?), and away it blazes.

What is this miracle stuff? No miracle at all. Nothing but uber-dry stringy wood chips. The wood itself don't matter much. All you need is a chain saw (the more aggressive the teeth the better) and a log. Make your chips cutting lengthwise, not cross-cut. The right chain will give you 2-3 inch long stringy chips that take to a match like they were made for each other.

[DR60]

Originally Posted by DCMAC214

No preparation mess or fuss, no toxic chemical spills in the campsite, no singed eyebrows, no newspaper ink on your hands and clothes, no arguments with the wife over saving dryer lint and TP tubes or the mess you make in the kitchen with her prized-and-very-expensive cookware.

A handful in the fire pit, twigs and kindling on top, touch it with a strike-anywhere kitchen match (HA! Where can you find them nowadays?), and away it blazes.

What is this miracle stuff? No miracle at all. Nothing but uber-dry stringy wood chips. The wood itself don't matter much. All you need is a chain saw (the more aggressive the teeth the better) and a log. Make your chips cutting lengthwise, not cross-cut. The right chain will give you 2-3 inch long stringy chips that take to a match like they were made for each other.

Thanks, this works very well. I cut slabs and mill logs lengthwise, those long wood strings make the best kindling ever. Well worth saving a few boxes for winter. DR

[twogypsies]

We used to make fire starters by adding sawdust into melted paraffin wax & pouring into egg cartons. Easy to pop out to use.

[Mighty_J]

I melt down Vaseline and then soak it up with cotton balls. Before lighting I pull it apart a bit to expose the fibres. One cotton ball will burn for about 10 minutes, rain or shine.

[Argosy]

I've got a CNC router and use the chips from that, they can be thousands of an inch thick and make great fire starter.

[Triangle Drifter]

The are many methods of getting a fire going. The most entertaining is one of the more common methods, used by people who don't know how to start a fire, is the use a whole can of charcoal lighter to get it going.


One thing that is in very short supply when it comes to fire lighting is patience. No matter what your favorite method is for the initial starter at the bottom of the pile, let it sit & do it's thing feeding on itself.

[Marine359]

I have no patience when I’m ready to start smoking wings on my griddle. I just stuff one of those smoker cylinders with chips, and hit it with a torch attached to a 1lb propane bottle. Whammo Ready to cook in less than a minute. Same with campfire; a little kindling, and whammo.

[NLOVNIT]

From day 1 of RV-ing over 23 years ago, I've carried small, fireplace bellows. Never, have I ever not been able to get a campfire going.

[US1]

Cordless leaf blowers. More than just a leaf blower

[Ray,IN]

The best fire I ever made was many years a go at Indiana Dunes SP. We had just got setup and a campfire started, when a woman and 2 boys parked their trailer next to us.


After the woman got her camper setup, she came over and asked how I got such a beautiful fire going. I told her I'd show her but it was an old Indian secret.
I used her wood and built a tepee out of it, and stuffed newspaper inside. Then I dowsed the wood with charcoal lighter fluid.
I told her when she though her husband would be arriving from his job in Chicago to light the paper with a match.
She lit her fire about 10 minutes before he arrived. Then he marveled at how well she had done. I overheard him ask how she did it, and she said "I can't tell you, it's an old Indian secret".


That was the best fire I ever built.

[boiledowl]

I wish I could find those strike anywhere stick matches. I think they quit making them for safety reasons. Fun pass time as a kid.

[twogypsies]

Originally Posted by US1

Cordless leaf blowers. More than just a leaf blower

Eeew..... don't need the noise of a leaf blower!

[Doss]

Harbor Freight heat gun works well to get the fire going.
I have heard pouring crisco on a paper towel works well but I haven't tried it...yet.

[TandW]

Pine straw.