Any wet firewood tricks?

lizzie wrote:
Fat "lightered" kindling. Found deep within pine stumps in the deep south. We split them into skinny pieces and keep a supply in a Ziploc bag. Then start the fire with tiny twigs, deer moss, or palmetto fiber. This takes time but will eventually ignite anything. lizzie

We generally carry a couple small logs of it. It dries out the wet wood pretty well. I had a few sticks of it laying in a moist area on our property for about 5 years. No bugs in it and it still worked just fine.

Veebyes wrote:
Spent my day dealing with a stubborn fire today. Started out at about 15' in diameter & 7' at its crown. The pile was mostly palm leaves, hibiscus cuttings & a type of pepper tree. We had a couple inches of rain over the weekend. It was wet but the wind was blowing in a fevourable direction so today was the day.

Nothing like a little starter fluid which comprised of 3 gallons of a combination used motor oil, laquer thinners, paint thinners & stale gas. Yummmm. Dump most near base of windward side of pile, wait for it to soak on down then light. Don't forget to notify FD that you are going to burn otherwise somebody, usually far away, sees the smoke & reports a house fire.

Lit it 1:00 today. 7:00, still going.

Um,, is it legal there to burn used oil, lacquer thinners, paint thinners, and stale gas? I think around here if you get caught doing that your going to get a fine.

I know my buddies idea of getting rid of his old carpet by adding it slowly to his back yard fire pit cost him a 160 dollar fine. (He had one small piece left and had been doing it for a month when he got caught. Been cheaper to take it to the dump) Another man I know was burning down a old chicken house and got a fine because the shingles were still on it.

OSB is neither composite (Plastics) or treated

I use OSB ( think chipboard ) squares placed on top of the smoking fire ,

Here in NY its a $500 fine to burn composite or treated wood.

For the general situation, I agree with the split & burn crew. I'll usually split one piece into quarters, the shave large splinters off the inside (dry) corners for kindling. It's a matter of pride to be able to start a fire with a minimal number of matches & no other aids. Finding some dry leaves under the wet ones helps, too. Lighting them may be enough to dry out some wet twigs, then you feed in progressively larger pieces of damp wood.

But I also carry a small bag of short votive candles for situations where speed is more important than pride... ;)

Jim, "How come one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box of matches to get any action out of my hibachi?"

Spent my day dealing with a stubborn fire today. Started out at about 15' in diameter & 7' at its crown. The pile was mostly palm leaves, hibiscus cuttings & a type of pepper tree. We had a couple inches of rain over the weekend. It was wet but the wind was blowing in a fevourable direction so today was the day.

Nothing like a little starter fluid which comprised of 3 gallons of a combination used motor oil, laquer thinners, paint thinners & stale gas. Yummmm. Dump most near base of windward side of pile, wait for it to soak on down then light. Don't forget to notify FD that you are going to burn otherwise somebody, usually far away, sees the smoke & reports a house fire.

Lit it 1:00 today. 7:00, still going.

oilslick wrote:
Google upside down fire.

Thanks for that. I will HAVE to try that next time!

Use a good hair dryer.

I stood way back when I first saw this: Redneck friend put gasoline in a small can half full with a a small stick in it. Piled wet wood Tepee style almost all the way around it. Reached in the hole in the circle and lit the stick with a match. There was no explosion, not even a puff and the gasoline burned for over 3 minutes. I've since used Coleman fuel if gasoline was not handy.
For big brush piles, diesel and a leaf blower works really well if started on the up wind edge of the pile.

Wax paper, cooking oil, and charcoal can help with a stubborn campfire.