Building a fire in wood burning stove?
Hi~
We just moved into a house with a wood buring stove. I need help on starting and keeping a fire lite in it! The wood we have is Oak! But it is very hard to light and keep burning! Any ideas on how to keep the fire going and how to start it easly?? Thanks!
Jennifer
Nokia 5800
Tags: Building A Fire, Fire Wood, Nokia, Nokia 5800, Wood Burning Stove, Wood Stove
you need some kindling, small thin pieces that can catch easily. It will take a long time to get a fire hot enough to get a piece of oak burning. start with tiny pieces and gradually move up to bigger stuff until there is some coals in the bottom then gradually get the oak in there, might take a half hour to an hour or longer.
Oak is great but you may need to get some other wood in small peices to get the fire started and hot so that the oak will burn. I also burn oak and must open the ash door at the bottom to really get the fire hot and burning well. After it gets going I can shut it, close my damper and have a fire last all day
Must get a good fire going with small pieces of wood first, then add the bigger stuff. Once you got that, there should be a damper along the bottom, and one up on top. Make sure they are open, to get a good flow of air moving through it, then adjust them down, so you just keep a good steady fire going. At night, let the fire get down low, but not out. Turn down the dampers a little, and toss in another large piece of wood. It should just smolder until the next day, then open up the dampers again.
You want some kindling, like elm, or use a small amount of pine (pine can build up creosote in your chimney pipe, so only small amts), that you keep very dry for the purpose. Then wad up a sheet of newspaper under the kindling, with the oak on top. Light the newspaper to ignite the kindling, which will light the oak.
Have all of the vents/dampers fully open when lighting the fire, and after you light the newspaper, leave the door open a little bit. The idea is to get as much air as possible to the fire while it is lighting. Close the door and adjust the dampers after the fire is burning well so that the wood will last longer.
My mother used to buy fire starter sticks in the grocery store, when she got too old to deal with the kindling. The look like sticks of compressed sawdust, with a little charcoal lighter fluid in them. They worked very well.