Cold nights trying to light a fire. Ring a bell? Starting a wood fire outdoors let alone in your own fireplace can be a chore. Because building a wood-burning fire in your firebox may not be as simple as it sounds, we put some tips together to get that flame going. Before we get into the tips, let’s look at how wood burns so you know why you’re doing what you’re doing:
How Wood Burns
Wood that is properly air-dried retains less than 20% water within the wood. Once the wood has been chemically altered (seasoned, has additives, etc.), it contains practically none. However, wood left outside during a thunderstorm or stored in a damp place can absorb water from the surrounding environment. When you apply heat to a piece of wet wood, the water boils off and consumes heat to do so, meaning the wetter the wood, the more heat energy is consumed. Those unsuccessful nights you spent trying to light up wet wood to no avail was by no means your fault. It’s just science after all. So if you’re wood just sizzles and no fire really takes, then it’s probably too wet.
When the wood is drier, it is able to heat easier since the water isn’t consuming the heat energy. As the temperature rises, the wood starts to smoke. When the smoke burns, you get flames. Smoke is composed of gas and tar droplets which burn if the temperature is high enough and combustion air is supplied.
Once the wood gets going and starts burning down, you’ll see embers of fire. These three stages happen almost simultaneously because the wood gases can be flaming and the edges of the pieces can be glowing red as charcoal burns, while water in the core of the piece is still evaporating.
How to Build a Wood-Burning Fire
To build a fire, you need a few necessary materials:
- Seasoned firewood split into a number of varied size pieces
- A newspaper (not colored or coated)
- Finely split, dry kindling in a variety of sizes
Here are three methods to building a conventional fire:
- Using Fire Starters – These are made from sawdust and paraffin wax. Buy them from the store or cut up a wax firelog to make your own starters. Place the starter on dry wood and you’re sure to have a reliable fire.
- Two Parallel Logs – Grab your newspaper, twist it and place it in the space between two split logs. Add some fine kindling, about the size of your thumb or less, on the newspaper and more across the two logs. Light these and the burn will usually be enough to ignite the two larger logs. Keep wood close by because once the kindling starts to burn out, more wood should be added to make and keep full flames.
- Top-down – Place three or four full-sized logs on the firebox floor and place about 10 medium-sized kindling across them. Take about four or five sheets of paper and knot them up so they don’t roll around as they burn. Place the knots on top of the fine kindling before placing heavy kindling into the bottom logs. Start the fire up top and watch it burn down.
Now you can light a fire with a single match and cozy up to a luxurious fireplace near a bright fire in no time. What tips do you have for building a wood-burning fire in your fire box? Have any variations on our methods?