Come and talk to me about your WOOD BURNING STOVE... how do you light a lasting fire etc

[JamButties]

...mine arrives this week (am ridiculously excited!) So what do I need to get ready? I have a load of seasoned logs being delivered sometime next week. Do I need kindling, coal, poker, log basket this sort or this sort?
Oh and of course HOW do you light a good fire not one with paper that flares and then dies!

Is it wrong to be hoping for cold weather this week?

^^ but that is all they burn / no wood at all

Thanks for that onlywantsone - we're thinking of getting one of those mini greenhouses - like a set of shelves with clear plastic over the top - for drying them.

Will be ace if we can get into making them properly as we have endless supply of paper from work.

do it - my friend does this because her parents are retired and buy two newspapers per day and therefore they have completely free heating!!!

OH! Now I want one of those They look great! Is it more environmentally friendly than recycling though?

I'm no environmental expert, but if you're going to be burning wood anyway, I'd imagine that making paper bricks is greener than recycling as the scrap paper isn't being driven anywhere and going through a big industrial recycling process - you're just soaking it in water, squishing it into bricks, drying them and burning them.

I know nowt about the emissions side, though - burning wood versus paper.

I know it's quite dear, but my mum and dad have one of these, it's lasted them 20 years and lights their fires so quickly. I guess it's the lazy persons way of lighting a fire, but they have four that heat all their hot water and some radiators, so being able to light their fires quickly in winter is quite important for them.

We have a log basket, kindling bucket and pile of newspapers by the woodburner (actually by each woodburner, as we have two!). I try not to use firelighters, and don't use coal, so we can compost the wood ash. I just pick up kindling in the woods around here (or get the DDs to!), and store it in a big old metal dustbin in the shed.

I tend to light fires by laying 2 logs either side of the grate (perpendicular to the front air vents) and then filling the space in the middle with newspaper and kindling, then get that going really well before you lay a log across the top. A pair of bellows is helpful, as is a 6 year old to sit beside it and yell "mummy the fire's going out" if it starts to flag a bit! I love my woodburners .

Oh, and we also have one of these to carry the logs from the woodpile into the house.

DO you get loads of spiders indoors when you bring in logs? Just a casual observation! DH laughs at the idea of a woodpile here in the UK- you never have them close to your house in Oz as they're a snake habitat!

Yes, lots of spiders, earwigs, slaters and the odd moth.

Even more fun are the wood-wasps which sometimes hatch out from the logs when they get warm - they're totally harmless, and not wasps in the slightest, but they look like absolutely giant wasps with a huge stinger! It totally freaked me out the first time we had one of those in the house

I only recall wood louse from my parents logs- and the horror of watching those who didn't escape in time die in the flames!

The contents of your shredder are great for lighting fires; many garages sell small bags of kindling; I also use small fruit crates (the sort of thing you get Clementines in at Christmas). I twist newspapers up, then kindling, then bark off the logs, then smaller logs and light it. Have been known to use firelighters if in a rush.

IKEA bags (the blue ones) are great for hauling logs in.

We have a butterfly valve/flue damper which means we can control the burn rate on the stove and keep it in overnight if we want to.

Top tip for those of you with a wood/multi fuel burning stove.

To clean the glass doors - get a bit of newspaper wet it (damp only) dip it in the ashes of the previous fire, rub all over the glass, then clean off with dry newspaper.

It works a treat and no need for cleaning products....

YY Grass - guy who installed ours told us the same thing