Wood Fire Techniques

• Properly made wood fires start easily and burn hot. Monkey Business Images Ltd/Valueline/Getty Images

  Whether camping in the deep wilderness, brush burning on your property or warming your home with your wood stove, knowing how to start a wood fire is essential. Several techniques can be used to start a wood fire. As long as you have a source of flame, fuel to burn and oxygen, any one of these techniques will work.

Basic Supplies

• To build any type of wood fire you need several basic supplies. You will need tinder, such as small pieces of bark, pine needles or moss if you are building a fire outdoors. Crumpled newspapers can serve as tinder for fires in wood burning stoves. Next, you need kindling. These are small twigs and branches that are no bigger in diameter than your thumb. You will also need larger pieces of wood. Finally, a source of flame. Matches or lighters are ideal.

Outdoor Fires

• Several techniques exist to start a wood fire outdoors. Try a triangle base fire. This technique requires three larger pieces of wood arranged on the ground in a triangle. In the middle of the triangle, place your tinder followed by your kindling. Light the tinder and when the kindling is burning, you can place larger logs on top of it. You eventually will move the triangle base into the fire itself. You can also build your fire in the shape of a teepee or a log cabin. To build a teepee fire, start with the triangle base, tinder and kindling and then lean several pieces of wood against one another in the shape of a teepee. Light the tinder, and the fire will climb the wood. A log cabin fire takes a bit more time to build, but is effective. Stack logs on top of one another in a square pattern. Place the tinder and kindling in the middle of the square and light.

Wood Stoves

• To light a fire in a wood stove, you need to gather some of the same resources as you would for an outdoor fire. For tinder, use crumbled newspaper. Kindling should be cut from larger pieces of wood, scrap wood, or branches gathered from outside. Larger pieces of wood should be cut to fit the fireplace and dry for easier burning. In the fireplace, place five to six pieces of newspaper. Stack several pieces of kindling on top of the newspaper, ensuring that you space the kindling evenly. Place one to two pieces of dry wood on top of the kindling and then light the newspaper. Remember to open your stove vent fully so oxygen can get to the fire.