I AM the King of Kindling

Reader Contribution by Cam Mather

I find a lot of stupid ways to waste my time, and kindling is one of them. Kindling is small scrap wood that you use to start a fire. If you were to just crumple up newspaper and toss a big round log in to your woodstove, you’d be really disappointed. You’ll have much better luck starting your fire if you build a layer of kindling on top of your newspaper, and then start with small pieces of split wood that have lots of edges that will catch fire nicely.

Our neighbors Don and Debbie Garrett operate a mill where they produce hardwood flooring, trim, and all sorts of other wood products. I put together their catalog and their website for them at http://ddgarrettmillwork.com/. For all your millwork needs, call Don & Deb. How’s that for a non-subliminal endorsement? Needless to say, they end up with a lot of scrap that they pile up in their yard until it looks like this:

I started grabbing scrap wood from them many years ago. Some if it is great stuff and I’ve built lots of neat things with it like shelves, chicken coops … you name it. Some of it is too small to build anything with but it’s great for kindling.

Originally I just used to cut it by hand, with a handsaw. This was stupid, but it’s what a “cidiot” like me does before I figured out that there had to be a better way. A few times I tried cutting it with the chainsaw while it was hanging off the back of the pickup truck, but loose wood like this jumps all over the place and it made it really dangerous to cut that way.

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