Dried citrus peel (dried on the top of the woodstove til slightly blackened) works fantastically.

One gotcha with this approach is critters coming out when you peel the bark off. It really depends on your wood. In my area, pull that bark up and you'll often see about 20 red oak borer larvae crawling around. Best to peel the bark off ahead of time and outside away from the house.

Wood stoves are wonderful things. I love cutting and splitting firewood. There's nothing like reading a book in front of the fire with a glass of red wine. Appreciating the simple blessings is the way to go. Thanks for the video 👍

This year we didn't have to buy any wood...a guy in our area had a lot of trees cut down on his property and wanted them removed, so my husband and my son were happy to take them off his hands ...it was a lot of work and time, but we got about 2 years worth of hardwood and my son got a lot for milling boards...everyone was happy

Before getting a wood stove, I never thought there was a science to starting a fire. I’ve learned so much since having to use one about the best way to start one in the most efficient manner!

this make's me feel better that I am not the only one that has such an intimate obsesion with being warm. haven't bought oil in years. It's worth it to be concious

I've been heating with wood for past 6 years. This for those mornings I sleep longer than my night burn is a game changer. Much thanks.

Use the ash and water and it cleans off easy. That’s all I use to clean the glass on my wood stove

I was new to burning wood so had a learning curve. Top down was first revelation. I installed a Blaze King catalytic stove so getting the firebox up to temp quickly is critical for maximum efficiency. It troubled me to have 20 minutes or more of wasted smoke up the chimney. I have ditched the full firebox top down method for a what I have found to be much more efficient. For a new fire, or to bring up to temp in the morning before reloading (rake coals to front), I now use the 3 stick method. Two 1" bone dry sticks front to back over a third laid over coals or new kindling at front of firebox. Firebox being empty allows heat to radiate to surrounding brick/firebox. 10 minutes and hot firebox mass, minimal resources/smoke up the chimney. Sometimes I add a the first piece or two of wood to the back of stove half way through to "heat" that mass.

I heated my house for years with a Ashley thermostat controlled stove due to high utilities. It was very efficient on wood usage. My home had central heat and air so all I had to do was turn on the fan on the central unit and it would put heat through out the house it worked great. Always enjoyed wood heat since that was all my grandparents had for heat when I was a small child with feather beds and quilts to stay warm with at night. FOND MEMORIES. Nice VIDEO. Thanks!!!

That Birch bark is like gold. I hate to be critical but I’m north of the 46th parallel and heat with a 105 year old wood cook stove as only heat source. That Birch bark, peal off the layer under the white paper and cut it up with garden scissors to about 1 1/2”” squares. Let them dry. Since I have a oven that’s always hot, I stick metal baskets full of that in the oven for a while. But it would dry without. I have boxes of this cut and dried. I grab a small hand full, put some good starting wood on top, and light it off. The Birch bark smokes bad, so be ready to shut the door. Job’s done! Fastest fire you can get! Easiest too!

Thanks for the help. I learned a lot from you. I just bought a new 2020 wood stove like yours. I have had 7 fires in it so far and thought i needed tools for making kindling so i went to you tube for information. First thing i saw was your video. I learned more than just about kindling. Now I know how to control the process and all the factors involved.

Hello yes I use a wet cloth and dip it into the ashes in the grate - Thats the way I clean my class every time - Hoep that helps and thanks for your informative video Best Leo

Excellent tip! I had seen the top down version where one builds from large to small, but this looks SO much easier! Thank you!

You're doing that thing again, where I'm wonderinfg vaguely about a topic and then you post the EXACT information I'm looking for. Thank you so much! Now that I have the firewood nicely stacked, learning how to build fires effectively has been a whole other interesting thing! Off to practice forthwith!

I agree that it’s not necessary to split kindling. I use the bark and slivers of wood that break off of the wood during the process of splitting large wood rounds. Great instruction on starting a fire in a wood stove.

Very neat. Sacrilege- all those hours splitting kindling and balling up newspapers, lol. We had a wood stove in rural Victoria State, Australia. Loved that heating. We had no softwoods aside from the plantation pinus radiata which burnt like siaked in kerosene. Best wasv"red gum" a real prick to split as its a burl grain, but dense and full of oil.

We heat our home with a woodstove 100% of the time as we don't work in the winter, so we're always manning the stove. I never considered stripping off some bark for kindling, so I will try it. But what we use that gets red hot and a great starter is twisted, knotted doughnut shaped newspaper. Two sheets of standard size newspaper, and from the upper left corner to the lower right corner, on that diagonal line, scrunch it up into a long rope, and keep twisting it like a candy cane keeping it long and twisted. From the center, make a small loop, and create a knot, or a doughnut keeping a hole in the center. Tuck the tails of the newspaper inside. A couple of those ignited, they burn hot for a good length of time.

Thank you Greg you will help me to keep all my fingers from not splitting kindling. I was one that asked and I received quicker than I anticipated.

I use windex & paper towel cleans real well! If a bad smudge on window use ashes from fireplace to clean window also I have used steel wool does not hurt window!!! Thanks great video!!!dennis