Any wet firewood tricks?

Good grief, none of you were in the boy scouts????? I remember for the one level they gave me two matches and had to make a fire and cook .................. there was 15" of snow on the ground!
No problem other then finding dead wood, that done all that was needed was a knife and a hatchet. All the wood was frozen and wet! The key to making it very easy was finding some Birch bark (almost considered cheating). Birch bark burns very hot even wet.
Get a boy scout handbook an learn about camping!

I owned a 36 foot motorhome and it cramped my camping preference .
We camp 70% without hookups .
We have a circle of friends that prefer to dry camp , often " dispersed camping " on public lands in Oregon .
We do not stay in RV parks in a 40 foot motorhome as you do , anymore .
I did not need my fire building skills at Outdoor Resorts - Cathedral City for the multiple winter trips there .
I just returned from a February trip to the Oregon Coast and it was wet as usual .
But we had good campfire because the technique of laying a flat piece of OSB on top of the fire invigorated a smoky fire into a smokeless fire .
We used the common ( wet ) firewood available locally but I knew by taking a box of OSB scraps that we could enjoy our campfires .
As we often do , we were a party of six from around the state , meeting up at a different location .
The OSB on Top technique works every time without exception including boondock firemaking with just a circle of rocks around the fire .
Newbies are surprised every time how simple this is .
Please enjoy your Florida RVing in your motorhome .
We will attempt to enjoy our Oregon Camping amongst the giant Doug Firs and Ponderosa Pines without hookups .
We need a fire and you do not .
If you need any suggestions about camp spots in Oregon I am here to serve .
BTW the Tower of Terror rocks !

Ok lowsuv let me just set the record straight, I have camped for more than 40 years and built campfires in all kinds of conditions. If you feel that your relective technology eliminates the toxicity of burning adhesives then go right ahead, I pesonally don't believe it and still don't want to inhale fumes from OSB. Have a nice day:)

Dewey and Laman are in error on this particular issue because they have not witnessed it first hand .
The science that makes this work is the fact that the OSB square that is on top of the fire is parallel to the ground and reflects the heat back into the fire and gets the wet wood burning hot enough to eliminate the smoke .
A 2x12 would work as good but is not readily available anymore because those 2x12 joist sizes have been mostly replaced by I-Joists in actual construction .
Neither Dewey nor Laman has witnessed first hand the science that makes this Top Panel reflectivity that stops the smoky fire .
If they had they would not have taken their position .
If you want to have a non-smoky fire from now on , try the reflected OSB panel on top of a smoky fire once .
One piece proves the remedy suggested to be effective .
After that you can make your own determination .
As to toxic , these fellows do not understand that the higher heat of the fire works to lower the emissions not unlike the catalytic principle in autos .
This is a case where actual campers building actual fires with practical experience have better insight to the solution .

I'm not sure, but I don't think anyone has mentioned Fritos... ;)

DiskDoctr wrote:
Here is a method we've used successfully, even in last year's torrential downpour.

Wow! Thank you so much for this detail - I will definitely be trying this out!

Here is a method we've used successfully, even in last year's torrential downpour.

Split into pieces about 2"x2" and start building 3 or 4 layers of a log cabin style fire (square, alternately stacked courses).

Split a couple of pieces into light, flat slabs and cover the top of the center of the fire area. This keeps the rain off the fire and center of the wood.

Split into fine kindling pieces for the fire itself. I often make a teepee style inside this log cabin. The trick is to work between the open areas of the stacked courses.

Light the middle, dry kindling (from center of wood, as others have mentioned). You may have to make shavings or shaved ends of wood- very thin like paper on one side, thicker as a 'handle' on the other.

As the fire burns, keep feeding it this very fine wood and kindling until the inside of the stacked courses begin to burn. When they do, use progressively larger pieces (until a full 1/4 split piece) to push the burning pieces into the center of the stack, taking its place.

As you get larger pieces built into the base courses, you can go up higher. The wood dries nicely in the log cabin style without hurting the fire. The pieces on the top can be exposed to full downpours and it won't hurt. The fire breathes out the space between the courses.

Don't allow the center red coals to burn down, you want to build them up. Poke the ends of pieces burnt through the middle deeper into the fire.

Once the fire is burning for some time and the red coals are built up to a good level, you'll notice the waavy heat inside the stack. Now it is ready for mountain pies!

Here's a trick we use for pie irons.

Carefully grab the two ends of a course on the side where you want to put the iron. Spread them out a bit and pull one of the cross pieces towards you. This will open up a triangle through which you can insert your iron and the cross piece and side piece make a nice corner to hole the handle/rod portion.

Make sure your stack can handle this weight or stack a few pieces outside the cabin upon which to lay the handle/rod.

During this time, we also stand our split wood on end, drier/split side facing the fire on the inside of the fire ring to dry out.

If there is a LOT of water and it puddles or runs into your fire ring, I start with a few pieces of pieces split into halves and laid flat as a platform upon which to build the fire and optionally stand the drying pieces upon to keep the ends out of the water.

We burnt a fire last Summer in the state park. The only fire in the campground. About a dozen neighbors' kids came back with DD and (after parents' permission) we made a ton of pizza mountain pies! It was a ball!

We had a couple of 'visits' from the young rangers...well, more like driving past to check for flooding and pausing, looking, waving, and probably shaking their heads, "Rednecks" :B

We went to bed late, it poured all night, yet there were enough coals we could've stoked the fire up in the am!

The fire was just a bit beyond the end of the awning. We sat under it, plenty dry, even holding the ends of the pie irons in relative comfort.

Hope this helps you enjoy your next rainy camping day!

Dannyabear1 wrote:
OSB is neither composite (Plastics) or treated

Sorry but OSB is most definitely a composite or engineered wood product that is bonded together with very powerful adhesives. Composite does not mean plastic. I personally do not want to breathe fumes from OSB even though there are varying opinions on the internet.

Lowsuv wrote:
here is what really works , taught to me by my fireman camping buddy , lets call him John ( his real name ) .
I use OSB ( think chipboard ) squares placed on top of the smoking fire , horizontal to the ground .
The OSB ( plywood , particleboard ) square deflects the heat Down into the fire .
Within minutes the smoking fire takes off and the little remaining smoke goes straight up because the fire is now hot .
I get the scrap OSB from local new construction sites .
I ask the contractor if I can pick up any scraps from the scrap pile for fire wood use .
I pick up all sizes of scraps in my pickup .
I take those varying scraps home and cut them to size to fit into cardboard produce boxes I get when leaving our local costco.
I accumulate these hardpacked OSB scraps throughout the year .
We just returned from a camping trip to Bandon .
We used OSB scraps to augment the wet wood available near the mighty Pacific Ocean
I have been doing this for a very long time .
It is a good off-season activity to create my hard-packed boxes of anti-smoke wood .
I already own a 14 inch Dewalt miter saw so it is easy to do and fun .
The OSB scraps are NOT the fire .
The OSB scraps are the cure for the wet wood that the civilians insist on putting onto my very good fire .

I am surprised that a firefighter would make such a suggestion and not know better.
OSB is an engineered wood product, and not a natural (wood only) product. It is held together by adhesives and resins. These give off toxic gasses and leave toxic residues when burned. Even if you are not going to cook anything over your fire, the next person at your campsite may do so, and those toxins are still there in the ashes to be re-vaporized when they build a fire and cook their meal.
It is NEVER a good idea to burn any type of engineered wood product.
Just think about the reason they burn so hot and intensely. It isn't the wood component that makes them burn so intensely.

I used a duraflame log one time when it rained for a week straight. All of the campgrounds wood bundles were wet, and I could not get a fire going. I lit a duraflame log and piled the wet wood on it and it worked great. I have some in the camper all the time now. I buy them by the case when I find a good deal on them, usually they are on clearance at walmart in the spring. Enviro-log or pine mountain, any of these work great. They can also be used where wood from outside the local area is not allowed. They are clean and easy to transport. At the prices most campgrounds charge, they can be cheaper to burn too. The all natural ones are safe for cooking, too.