Fire lighting

Since I did my Forest Schools course in October I’ve been developing confidence with making fire. 

Rather than doing this as a public  nuisance, I’ve been practicing with our wood burning stove. 

The stove is a French model that we bought from a renovator a few years back.  It’s very compact because the living space is quite small but it’s a great way to boost the heating in the house. 

Tinder

I wanted to find a good way to start a fire With a spark. The fluff and lint from tumble dryers is a great way to do this rather than using cotton wool. As we don’t have a tumble dryer for environmental reasons I decided to see if anyone I knew had the fluff for me. I’m a recycling nut so it’s a good thing. 

The contributions are rolling in so far. 

Orange Peel

Another useful fire starter is dried orange peel. It’s prolifically available at school lunchtime and the oil in it is a good excellerant. 

Kindling 

Pine Cones

These great seed holders are a fabulous source of kindling. The local pine trees were very obliging. 

It’s been really enlightening finding natural and recycled resources. I’ve also been developing skills. My mum taught me how to make newspaper firelighters when I was a child. 

It’s a simple process of folding 2 sheets of newspaper into 2 narrow strips. These are then concertina-ed into a compact corkscrew by folding them across each other. 

Paper pulp Briquettes

We also use paper briquettes to fuel the fire. We make them with a press and recycle our household paper. 

Fire Structure

In the wood stove I create a waffle fire formation. I do this by placing two slim pieces of wood along the sides of the fire. 

These run alongside some crumpled paper and a newspaper firefighter. I top them with some pices of kindling wood across the two supporting pieces. 

These support a larger piece of firewood. 

I light the newspaper at the bottom. This creates enough flame to trigger the kindling. This in turn creates enough heat and fire for the larger wood to catch. Et voila! 

Do you have any unusual ways of lighting or sustaining fires?