Any wet firewood tricks?

I've used a magnesium fire starter kit I got at a craft show and I've seen them at hunting/camping sections in big box retailers. I take a pocket knife or hatchet and cut out a small pocket into the dry area and place my magnesium shavings and add a spark.

Ka Ron wrote:

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 .

Chip board is held together by glue and when it burns the smoke is Toxic. Are you sure you want to be releasing toxins into the air that you are breathing

This technique stops the smoking fire issue from wet wood .
The fire burns hotter because the plywood square reflects the heat back into the fire .
The plume is no longer a visible smoking plume and the heat is visible going straight up .
This is much better than the wafting , wandering smoke that annoys everybody around a campfire .
The hot plume is no more toxic than the wandering smoke and it goes straight up instead of bothering the campers .
This is a much better cure than diesel fuel or other fuels .

A leaf blower also helps getting a fire started.

A friend told me to buy a presto log, cut it into burger patties and individually wrap in newspaper. It will start a fire without kindling. It has never failed me.

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 .

Chip board is held together by glue and when it burns the smoke is Toxic. Are you sure you want to be releasing toxins into the air that you are breathing

fla-gypsy wrote:
Let them air dry a day or two or split and burn. A hot enough fire will burn it.

Agree! A friend and I were starting a camp fire with wet wood. I gave up, but he said a hot fire will burn anything. I could not believe it, but he was right. He had a lot more experience wi8th wet wood and campfires than I did!

Split each piece to give you a dry surface - then start the fire with a small pile of BBQ briquettes. May take a little while to get going - but in the end works every time.


Jay

kelly94942 wrote:

Redsky wrote:
Best trick I ever saw was while on a diving trip in British Columbia. The crew had us gather all the very wet wood on the beach and stack it into a pyre. Then one of them poured diesel fuel over the wood and took one of the scuba tanks and cranked it open to provide a solid jet of air and lit the pyre. Instant blazing fire.

The scuba tank was what made the difference with its constant stream of air coming from the tank at 2800 PSI.

Haha... I guess I should have said "without the use of lighter fluid"... or diesel fuel, as the case may be! ;)

Ah..the use of Boy Scout water (lighter fluid) works every time:B

After you split the wet wood, take cardboard toilet paper or paper towel tubes, fill them with dryer lint, cotton balls smeared with vaseline, wads of steel wool. Even some duct tape swabbed with some hand sanitizer will do the trick. It isn't a small explosion like some of the earlier posts, but a small starter fire that will burn for sometime, enabling your tinder to catch and slowly build.

I always buy (or gather if legal)wood at our destinations. I store it under the MH and grandson and I drag out what we need for the fire. No worries mate.