Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: cav58d on October 12, 2007, 08:21:29 PM
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arghhhh...So last week I went and and bought a chord (sp) of wood...I inspected it first and it's definately dry...I am a good friend of the person who I bought it from, and I know for certain the wood has aged and dried for at least 24 months....
So tonight I go to have my first fire in the fire place and I just cant get it going....I set it up as I always do with a lot of dry kindling in the center, a couple rolled up newspapers, and a lot of room to breathe....I get it going, but it seems like the only thing going is the kindling and the newspapers...The wood looks like it catches, but looking closer, its only charing the wood...
Any idea why the would would only be charing and not catching?
Furthermore, does anyone have any good tips to start fires in fire places?
Finally, this is the first time using the fire place since moving into my new house, and its different than others that I have seen...It has a pit or a drop under the rack, and i'm worried this might just be a chitty fire place and the drop disrupts air circulation, and doesn't allow the hot embers to stay close to the wood (because they drop), to keep it hot enough?
HELP!
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If you see those fake wood logs, try them out. They make starting the fire incredibly more easy, not to mention making it burn hotter. I only ever use them to start a fire, never to keep it going.
But other than that, my go to move is to have the logs crossing, so that one log is in the air. Put kindling AND rolled newspaper throughout. Kindling is thin strips of wood. Don't roll the newspaper too tight.
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Cav,
Do you have glass doors? If so, once you get the paper lit, shut the doors. Open the vent below the glass to force the air under the wood pile, through the kindling.
When that fails, go buy the parafin soaked wood....FireStarter. It's a kindling that lights easy (no paper needed) and burns hot for the little bit you use. Guaranteed to light your fire, baby.
-Jim Morrison
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The trick is to get the heat to build up in the center.
Make a 'hole' in the middle of the pit surrounded by coals. Put the stick on top and the fast consumable wood strips/newspaper in the middle.
Light up the middle portion, throw one coal on top of it and slowly..SLOWLY, use a hand fan to keep the airflow.
In short order the sticks light up and then the coals get red.
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http://www.duraflame.com/
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Talon- Closing the glass doors is "working"...I'm gonna try to keep building it up...I just dont wanna open the doors pre-maturely and lose it..
and yea yea, i know about duraflame and firestarting wood...Used it many a times....im cheap this year though =)
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THREE CHEERS FOR TALON! HIP HIP HOORAY! x 3
thanks bud
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I'm comming in little late on this but I always started my fires with a coke can cut in half half filled with kerosene placed directly under the wood. I always stacked my wood on a grate and stacked them all running side to side, parallel to each other.
By the time the kerosene burned out the fire was going good whether it was dry wood or green. (used seasoned dry wood mostly). As soon as it ran out just pull the half coke can out from under the logs and keep it for the next time.
Mark
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find a boy scout, if no scout available try some gasoline.
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Originally posted by john9001
find a boy scout, if no scout available try some gasoline.
Or, do what my Muslim neighbor did (Hey, he's an immigrant, what can he say?) He has a big fire pit, threw some cedar fence sections in the firepit to burn them (windstorm debris)....got a can of white gas (I could tell by the red/silver half gallon can) and dosed it good. I stood at the window grinning from ear to ear....he lit the match.....didn't even get it at a 1/2 throw from him.....WOOOOOOOOOPHFFFH!
I brought him out a beer and we discussed how soon his eyebrows were going to grow back.
He's a great man. Learning the hard way, like we all have. ;)
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Originally posted by Ripsnort
Or, do what my Muslim neighbor did ...
I brought him out a beer and we discussed how soon his eyebrows were going to grow back.
He's a great man. Learning the hard way, like we all have. ;)
He may be a great man but I didn't think Muslims drank alcolhol.
Mark
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Originally posted by Mark Luper
He may be a great man but I didn't think Muslims drank alcolhol.
Mark
He's been here 12 years. He's becoming a redneck living next to me. I am a bad influence on him. (He claims he's muslim, but doesn't claim that he's a practicing muslim...kinda like 1/2 the catholics in our country do...)
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A ten mile Muslim? :rofl
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Where I live ya throw an old tractor tire filled with gasoline in the middle..now if it's INside... I have fire EVERY day in winter, use Fire Starters and take ONE log, make kindling of it
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I use a mapp torch, works just fine
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Stand clear, Country Boy comin' thru...
Ya gotta start small and work your way up. Don't try to start a pile of split logs. You probably need to split some 1/4 logs 2-3 times to get a proper pile of kindling. Get a kindling fire burning and slowly add progressively bigger wood.
Don't get in a hurry and you'll be nice and toasty.
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I always used lighter knot to start a fire in the fireplace. Lighter knot is small pieces of the heartwood stump area of pine trees, and you can find them in the woods. Sometimes they're big stumps but you can also find smaller pieces laying on the ground. Way to tell is they're heavy wood from being loaded with rosin and they're a deep red color inside, and smell like turpentine when you break part of the wood to smell it. A regular log sized piece of lighter knot should be good for at least three fires. Just use a hand axe to cut small pieces if it's real good knot. A little lighter knot and a few pine cones, then some pine logs and then the oak is how I would do it.
Some places sell novelty bags of lighter knot but it's very expensive and you only get a little bag. Pine cones on top of wadded up newspaper works pretty good without lighter knot. Pine logs are necessary for a fast startup and they catch easily. They help the smaller pieces of oak catch. A bed of coals will build up quickly once the small oak burns, then put the larger pieces of oak on.
Before using the fireplace, it might be worth it to have a fireplace man come out to see if that drop under the rack is supposed to be there or if something is missing that should be there, like maybe a steel grating or something. Almost sounds like there could have been a gas line going in there at one time.
Les
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My Brother-In-Law is from South Carolina. They call that "fat lighter". Not much of that around here.
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Originally posted by TalonX
Do you have glass doors? If so, once you get the paper lit, shut the doors. Open the vent below the glass to force the air under the wood pile, through the kindling.
Yep! An old fireplace i had didn't have doors, but it was possible to stretch some newspaper across the top three fourths of the opening to force the fire to draw air through the bottom. When the fire WAS working well, which wasn't often, it drew in so much air that all the heat was sucked out of the room and replaced with cold air from outside!
That compressed wood shavings stuff burns well in most situations and produces a great deal of heat. But it expands a lot when hot so don't overfill the grate else it all falls out LOL
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I have watched one of the guys around here try to burn a cottonwood stump...........all week. Hilarious.
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Originally posted by Ripsnort
Or, do what my Muslim neighbor did (Hey, he's an immigrant, what can he say?) He has a big fire pit, threw some cedar fence sections in the firepit to burn them (windstorm debris)....got a can of white gas (I could tell by the red/silver half gallon can) and dosed it good. I stood at the window grinning from ear to ear....he lit the match.....didn't even get it at a 1/2 throw from him.....WOOOOOOOOOPHFFFH!
I brought him out a beer and we discussed how soon his eyebrows were going to grow back.
He's a great man. Learning the hard way, like we all have. ;)
I thought Muslims werent allowed to drink beer?
::Edit::: Nevermind.
I should have read a couple of posts farther
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Originally posted by Ripsnort
(He claims he's muslim, but doesn't claim that he's a practicing muslim...kinda like 1/2 the catholics in our country do...)
LOL I'd put that ratio at closer to 85% and include all "Christians" in the mix
Sept on sundays...sometimes
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Edited for proper translation :D
Originally posted by rpm
Stand clear, I say stand clear, Country Boy comin' thru...
(That boy's so dumb, he thinks a Mexican border pays rent!)
Ya gotta I say you gotta start small and work your way up boy. Don't try to start a pile of split logs boy.
Pay attention to me boy - I'm not just talkin' to hear my head roar
You probably need to split some 1/4 logs 2-3 times to get a proper pile of kindling. Get a kindling I say a kindling fire burning and slowly add progressively bigger wood.
Look at me when Ima talkin to ya boy Are ya lisnin boy I say Are you Listenin? (Boy is about as sharp as a cue ball)
Don't get I say dont get in a hurry and you'll be nice and toasty.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a0/Foghorn_Leghorn.png/200px-Foghorn_Leghorn.png)
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Should'a joined the Boy Scouts when you had the chance. All self-respecting Boy Scouts of my day referred to any form of liquid propellant as Girl Scout Water.
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Originally posted by Irwink!
Should'a joined the Boy Scouts when you had the chance. All self-respecting Boy Scouts of my day referred to any form of liquid propellant as Girl Scout Water.
Yup. Back in my day the object was.
No fluid, no paper, no leaves. and only 1 match....in the rain
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If you use the compressed sawdust logs, they really mean it when they say only burn one at a time. Many of them burn really hot so if you use more than one, you might damage your fireplace or be at a huge risk of a chimney fire. A guy here in town who installs fireplaces told me that about half of his business is replacing fireplaces and chimneys that were damaged/destroyed by people who either didn't read the warnings on the manufactured logs, or who figured they didn't apply to them. 5 duraflame logs going up at once (typical pyramid of those things) is pretty much guaranteed to destroy any household fireplace and might even burn through into the walls and attic, according to this guy.
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Originally posted by DREDIOCK
Yup. Back in my day the object was.
No fluid, no paper, no leaves. and only 1 match....in the rain
to build a fire , alone....in the rain.
:D
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I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Logs on fire off the beach of the pacific. I watched fireflies glitter in the dark near the backyard gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Almost time to roast marshmellows.
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I'm not sure why I've been reading this thread as y'all type it in. Fire is man stuff. My only concern with fire is "can't have a stack of logs out back. Must be on a rack, organized & out of the way."
TxDad is so thrilled that the year is ending though ~ fireplace time soon.
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I am now allowed to STOP spending weekends mowing lawn, and START spending weekends sawing, splitting, and stacking 4-5 cords of wood....yay.
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Have the man come convert the fireplace to gas... lights every time! :aok :rofl
With a remote control :D
Wood is dirty and has bugs in it. And, its heavy.
TxMom, admit it... you like to see what they talk about. ;)
TIGERESS
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but TIGERESS a wood fire is romantical, and we men get to showoff our primitive fire making skills.
:D
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I have a ton of kindling now..But..before that
I get the large size Duraflames..Slice them into 1 inch bread slices...I use 2-3 of those bred slices to light large logs..works well and inexpensive
1) easier then cutting kindling and rolling paper up
2) fast and easy...so you can get back to drinking Hot buttered Rum
1) 2 cups vanilla Ice Cream
2) 1/2 cup butter
3) 1 cup Brown sugar
4) Splashes of Vanilla Extract
5) White Rum
then a grinding of fresh Nutmeg on top
Oha yaa some boiling watter too
Just spoon 2 Tablespoons of batter ..shot+ of rum and boiling water in coffee mug
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As a former boy scout, I can say without a doubt that the teepee method is the best fire building method. We've built fires in 0 degree weather, drizzling rain, and gusty winds.
First, get your tender. Dried moss, pine needles, tiny sticks and dry leaves work. Form that into a ball about the size of your fist. Then get some larger sticks and create the framework of a teepee around the tender. Make sure this kindling is small enough (and dry enough) to ignite quickly. When you ignite the tender, the heat rises, and exposes a large portion of the kindling to the heat. Put increasingly large kindling and wood into the teepee framework as the fire grows.
(http://www.therangerdigest.com/Tips___Tricks/Fire/fire-7.jpg)
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(Topper comes out to poke at shrimp...)
As a former boy scout and USAF survival instructor, I say without a doubt that the best method is soaking something in gasoline or another flammable liquid, putting whatever it is you want to burn on top of that, and touch it off. We used that method to light on fire 2 downed trees in the middle of a heavy snowstorm in 2 ft of snow out in the middle of the Rockies. I think we used military issue insect repellant on moss to catch a slightly shredded stick, which dried and lit a water soaked pine branch, and then the 2 trees went up quite spectacularly despite the 2 inches of snow that had accumulated on the trees while we put this together. I'm not sure if the extra insect repellant we sprayed on the fire was necessary but it was a fun way to spend time waiting for our clothes to dry off. You're just a retard if you use too much gasoline, *duh*. But just because it's possible to make a fire by rubbing two sticks together (and I've done it) doesn't mean you *should* use that method. Whatever works best using materials at hand is what you should use.
:)
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It turns out that my problem had nothing to do with the wood, but the design and drafting of my fireplace...I went through the papers for the house and actually found a manual for the fireplace...The fire place is glass door, and has an upper and lower ventilation system...When starting the fires, the lower vent needs to be completely closed, and upper vent open to your discretion to allow updraft circulation...As Talon said, onces the kindling gets going, shut the glass doors, and open the bottom vent for more air, and presto...You have a raging fire in 3-4 minutes...
Never thought a damn fireplace could be so difficult...
By the way, the drop that I mentioned, that someone said could have possibly been for an old gas fire place, turns out to be a cleaning drop. It gets filtered into the furnace:huh , and is designed for the individual to not have to clean the base as much.....I just hope my furnace doesn't explode lol.
thanks everyone
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I've had logs that absolutely would not burn, even when we dumped kerosene on them. They were from a big tree that we had just cut down.
The only stick method I've seen that works was the firebow. Where you devise a mechanism to make a stick drill into a log, and at the point of friction you get some embers (if you are lucky).
Also, there is a neat trick you can use to build a fire. You need a metal can with a screw top and some type of gas. Fill the can about 1/5th of the way with gas, and (with the cap/lid off), light the top. If will act as a candle, and it wont explode.
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Originally posted by Tigeress
TxMom, admit it... you like to see what they talk about. ;)
TIGERESS
I do
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Originally posted by john9001
but TIGERESS a wood fire is romantical, and we men get to showoff our primitive fire making skills.
:D
You do make a good point, John.
And, TxMom? I do too.
TIGERESS