Starting a fire can be intimidating, but by keeping in mind the three foundational elements of a strong one (fuel, heat, and oxygen) and adjusting your process to nurture those three, your fire-starting skills will become fail-proof.
Step One: Gather the Tools
- Dry wood. This might sound obvious, but it’s important that your wood is as dry as possible (otherwise it will just smoke up your home, and you’ll send everyone running out into the cold just to escape it). Manthorpe Firewood Co. logs are seasoned and barn dried, but If you store your wood outside, be sure it’s protected from the rain and snow.
- Kindling. Kindling is really any small scraps of dry wood that will be great fire starters. Foraged twigs and sticks from the garden will work (again, once you’ve dried them out), or you can DIY your own kindling by splitting logs into many small pieces. If you don’t want to risk losing fingers with a kindling axe then Manthorpe Firewood Co. can supply you with perfect kindling.
- Clean fireplace. If you make a ton of fires, your fireplace is probably full of ash. And while this looks super impressive for you, it doesn’t help you get a fire started. Before building your fire, shovel out the ashes into a metal bucket. It is imperative that you keep ash in a metal container, and outside and away from anything that can burn easily, because even if a fire has stopped burning for weeks, the ash might still be flammable and can catch back on fire if given any fuel.
- Paper / Firelighters. Newspaper without color or gloss is the best, i.e., magazine pages are no good for this as they give off toxic smoke. ready made firelighters are also great.
- Matches.
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