My father taught me a lot of things growing up. Things like always turn your outside water off before the first freeze. When you're cutting something, let the saw do the work. And always eat *around* the hair on a ham hock. I must admit, some things I use in my every day life more than others.
But one of the most useful things my father taught me was how to build a fire. My father was an arsonist. No he wasn't. He did eat hairy ham hocks though. And many other disgusting things.
We had a wood burning fireplace installed in our home when I was about 9 or 10 and that fireplace had a profound effect on me. I became an arsonist. No I didn't. I did however, develop an obsession with wood burning fireplaces. If someone were to do a study comparing the effects of 3 months on Prozac to one night in front of a wood burning fireplace, the drug companies would go out of business.
Many years ago when I was looking for a house the only thing it required was a wood burning fireplace. Not a kitchen, not a bathroom ... a fireplace. I'd pee in a bucket before I went without a fire. Hell, sometimes I pee in a bucket just for fun.
So when a reader sent me an email asking me if I knew how to build a fire I responded with a great big YES and told her I'd do a post on it immediately. That was a year ago. Good thing she wasn't asking me what to do in case of a gas leak.
You need just a few things to build a fire, but they are very important. You need newspaper (or cardboard carrying trays from Tim Hortons work GREAT), kindling and smallish pieces of wood.
Roll your newspaper up medium tight. If it's too loose it'll burn too quickly and go out before the kindling can catch on fire. If you roll it too tight there won't be enough oxygen inside it to keep it burning and it'll go out before the kindling can catch on fire. 1 full sheet of regular sized newspaper per roll. Double up if you're using smaller newspaper like that from a flyer. The paper rolling is the most important part of the whole process. If you get it wrong, you're doomed. It might take a few tries to get the feel of how the paper should be rolled.
Lay a row of 4 or 5 piecees of long kindling across the paper. Keep the pieces of kindling close enough to each other that when they start to burn the flames will touch the adjacent piece of kindling. Don't put the kindling so close that it's touching the other piece of kindling. Again, the wood needs oxygen around it to burn and if it doesn't have that it won't ignite.
Lay another row of shorter kindling across the longer kindling. The only reason some kindling is longer and some is shorter is because fireplaces are normally much wider than they are deep.
Lay two long pieces of wood (not HUGE pieces) across the kindling.
Lay 2 or 3 shorter pieces of wood on top.
Top your fire with 1 or 2 larger pieces of wood.
Light a roll of paper ...
And quickly shove it under the grate. The lit roll will ignite the other paper rolls.
30 seconds later ...
3 minutes later ...
And no ... I don't normally leave the fireplace roaring without a screen in front of it. I was just doing so for artistic and instructional purposes. Normally the big ole screen is shoved in front of the fire.
A couple other tips about fireplaces I have for you are ...
1. Make sure you get your chimney swept once a year. Creosote and buildup can lead to chimney fires which can lead to house fires which can lead to homelessness which can lead to peeing in a bucket.
2. Use a small hatchet to chop your own kindling from your bigger pieces of wood. Cut a large piece of wood in half with a regular axe and then use the hatchet to cut your kindling.
3. When you clean out your fire place don't clean out all of the ashes. Leave a pile of ashes under your grate. It's helps make lighting your next fire easier, because the ashes act as a bed for the coals that fall down, keeping them up higher, and closer to the fire.
4. Wood is sold in cords, but there are different types of cords. The two most popular terms are bush cords and face cords. A bush cord is a stacked pile of wood that measures 4' high, by 4' deep by 8' long. What that amounts to is 3 rows of wood that are 4' high by 8' long. Each piece of wood should be 16" long. Each single row, is called a Face cord. Most places I've encountered, sell by the face cord. We bought 6 face cords this year for our winter fires, which is the equivalent of 2 bush cords. In technical terms, that's a crap load of wood.
5. When buying wood, look for hardwood. It burns longer, hotter and cleaner.
6. And finally, always eat around the hair on a ham hock.
Thanks for the lesson :) It is interesting to see how different people do things. My grandfather was a true homesteader. He only allowed us 1 piece of newspaper and 3 sticks of kindling. Two matches if he was feeling generous. To this day, I can't use more without feeling like he's chuckling over my shoulder and telling me that I'll have to go split more kindling to make up for that!
Karen...thank you soooo much for answering my question!!!!! When we first moved in, we thought a gas insert would be the first thing we did, but we LOVE the fireplace and will look for one in future homes. Your grate is GORGEOUS!!! Is it antique?
Lynn - LOL! You're welcome! Yeah ... so ... I finally answered your question. :) I don't know if I'd call it antique, but it's definitely old. The problem is, I burn my fires so hot (to keep down on creosote build up in the chimney) that we go through a grate a year. So ... this is this year's grate. I got it at a flea market for around $45. It's pretty solid so if I'm lucky it might last 2 or 3 years. ~ karen!
ooops, didn't link you up! There are quite a few tutorials. This one seemed as good any. Don't worry about saturating too much with wax. I sure didn't.
http://lusaorganics.typepad.com/clean/2010/01/homemade-fire-starter-tutorial.html
Well these aren't very pretty but they sure work well! I read about making them in one of those homesteading magazines. And you can even put that dryer lint to good use with these! So you fill each little hole with either dryer lint, sawdust or wood shavings. I used chainsaw shavings. Then melt some wax from old candles or get some from the dollar store! Pour the melted wax over the shavings/lint. Let cool. And then seperate them. Thats all there is to it! They'll light up really quick with just one match, stay lit for 5-10 minutes and get seriously hot. You just need one to start a fire in a woodstove but you might like to use 2 for your fireplace. I trolled around a diner and was able to score a few of those 30 egg flats for free. Oh and make sure they are the paper cartons not the styro ones. (sorry, i know you're not that dumb) I see that people even sell them on Etsy. I hope you'll try them!
Jennifer - I *will* try them! I don't have a ton of sawdust around but plenty of dryer lint and wood chips. ~ karen
hey karen! i just made a bunch of those egg carton-sawdust-wax firestarters! they are fabulous! have you heard of those?
What?! No. Uh, uh. No! I've heard of the pinecone/wax firestarters which are really pretty but not the egg carton sawdust wax firestarters, LOL. Mind you ... now that I have chickens I absolutely never have egg cartons! Link up to it if you can. Thx.! ~ karen
I needed this post and didn't even know it. BTW you are funny!!
Thanks Ana ... yup. I aim to entertain. And set things on fire. ~ karen
I want a fireplace! that's all I'm saying. I. WANT. A. FIREPLACE.
Excellent! How would you modify these instructions for a campfire, where you don't have a nice grate like yours for suspending the papers up where they can get some oxygen?
hmmm....I love woodburning fireplaces too! We had one in our old house and I miss it here, however, we do have numerous fires in the yard (country). A little tip for you I learned this year is...those Tim Horton cupholder squares....can be lit and blown out to slow burn on a stick in the ground outside and it becomes a mosquito repellant...apparently it only works with Tim Horton's squares...not Donut Diner or A&W or Wendy's....only Tim Hortons! Got this tip from someone who was camping in Northern Ontario during the height of mosquito season and swears by it! xo
Wendy - Wow! That's bizarre! Thanks for the tip, LOL. ~ karen!
Ok Karen, you are almost (almost) being out shined by your fans-loved Janelle's comment about throwing "wood & testosterone" on the fire and My honest answer's ability to heave a log onto the fire from the couch. Made me choke on my ham hair....
Cheri - Hmm. What if I started to tell dirty jokes? ~ karen
Did I ever tell you I was a cub mistress? Chil the Kite - or as one little boy said, Chil the Kike, I didn't disabuse him.
So I LOVE lighting fires and you have raised my game a notch: now please let us know how you trained the cat.
Tricia - The cat and the fire? It's Pavlovian. ~ karen
Karen
I love the look of a shhepskin rug on a chair. Where did you purchase yours and do they shed.
Thank you.
Carole
Carole - I got my Mongolian lamb from Homesense a couple of years ago. (on sale) It's actually a blanket/throw. Nope. It doesn't shed. The odd hair, but not the way you'd think it might. ~ karen
The house that we rented before we bought this one had a wood stove in the living room..so I do now how to build fires..I also remember how the cats loved that heat..the oldest one..who has since passed away..would lay so close to it and get so hot..I kept telling her she was going to spontaneously combust!!!
We heat with 2 wood stoves - our only source of heat. To Karen's excellent suggestions I would add:
* for real warmth use fir or birch.
* if you are ordering wood from a supplier measure the opening of your stove or fireplace so that it can accommodate your cut wood easily; suppliers need to be told how long your wood is to be cut.
* If you order truck loads of logs and end up having to "chop" your wood use a splitting maul not an axe. Spitting mauls are purposely dull as compared to axes or hatchets which should be very sharp to cut up the smaller kindling
* wood splitters (while expensive) in the long run will save muscles - they are truly magical.
* you can clean your own chimney. You will be sold about 4-5 telescoping metal pieces with the last piece you add having a circular brush on the end. You clean from top down not bottom up which requires a ladder and nerves. Place a green garbage bag at the bottom to catch the soot. Tie yourself up on the roof somewhere so if you slip you won't come all the way down.
* do not start your fires with left over coloured paper from presents, foodstuffs etc. Only use newspaper
* never throw sawdust on a burning fire as it explodes
* carry your ashes out of the house in a metal pail. You may think the ashes are all out but they may not be. Set the pail outside - if they are still smouldering think carbon monoxide.
* clean the glass on your stove or fireplace if you have this type of screening with some of ash that you can pick up with a piece of damp paper towel- much better than glass cleaner
* burn your fire with the damper wide open for 8-10 minutes to really heat up the chimney, then close half way or less
* you can purchase a convection fan if you have a wood burning stove. You place it on the top and it will blow the heat widely. They are expensive but they operate completely from the heat beneath...we have one on the top of each stove.
* purchase a fire extinguisher. You will probably never need it but it is an important addition if you are burning wood.
I have what may be a stupid question - how does all the wood you pile on top of the newspaper not flatten and crush your pretty, perfectly rolled, oxygen friendly newspaper?
lindyb - Yup. The newspaper squashes a bit. That's O.K. If you roll it right it'll be dense enough to not squash entirely. ~ karen!
Your cat looks like a perfectly toasted marshmallow. :)
Great tutorial! My Grampa is always going on about how "Kids these days don't know how to start fires!"
We have a fireplace in our apartment, and it has a flume, grate and vent, but we aren't sure it's a working fireplace, how do we check? We've done the burn newspaper with the vent open to see if smoke goes up, other than that, how do we know if it's safe to use? Thanks!
HI AmieM - You won't be able to judge if the fireplace is safe for yourself. Your best bet is to hire a chimney sweep or other fireplace expert to assess your firebox, flue, chimney, etc. It'll cost between $100 to $150 to have the fireplace checked and the chimney swept. ~ karen!
Perfect! We have a wood burning fireplace which I totally love but I suck at starting. The idea of wrapping newspaper around the kindling was brilliant. Most of the time I'm just throwing newspaper in the box cause, truth be told, I simply don't know what I'm doing. If the weather ever gets cold again here in Ontario I'll be sure to give it a shot.
This winter we've been using our woodstove as a supplemental heater - we keep our thermostat at 58 and I make a fire each morning, or if I'm going to be out for the day, in the evening. So this technique is pretty much exactly what I do in the woodstove, but everything is maybe 2/3 the size.
I was always kind of horrified that my boyfriend had a woodstove installed in the fireplace (before we met!), but it still is quite pretty when the door is open, and the heating aspect is great.
Love the cat's "playkitten" pose in front of the fire.