How do you light your bonfires?

[Bill 55]

Last time I burned a brush pile the wood was a little damp from snow. I could not get it going so I went to the house and loaded up the generator, a little dry kindling, some charcoal, an extension cord and the leaf blower. Did not take long to have a darn good fire,
Bill

 

[calman93611]

You guys are funny, bon fire? Don't move to California. Our idea of a bon fire is those led's that simulate a flame. No outdoor burning, and fireplaces have to be EPA certified and can only be used on certain days.

 

[studor]

Lots of experiments over the years -- gas (not good) diesel, tires, homemade napalm (Styrofoam and gasoline), just about all the other unmentioned petroleum distillates, cardboard, tarped piles, snow covered piles, shingles, old oil, flares, soaked wood chips, dryer lint, paraffin soaked paper, wd40, straw, old hay, broken IKEA furniture, alcohol (seems a waste), and old paint (the canned kind not the dead horse).
Roofing torch on a twenty pound propane tank is now my weapon of choice -- even burns wood from beaver dams with a little patience!

 

[MoKelly]

There was no ad to skip when I watched it just now.

Seems the ads change depending upon the time of day. I guess I was lucky. Just re-watched and it was a Sprint phone ad. No where near as good as the Sports Illustrated Swinsuit ad.

MoKelly

 

[stingray1]

Diesel.

 

[Dr_Zinj]

Lighter, matches, big magnifying glass (6 in dia), flint and steel, bow and spindle. Haven't tried using a compression tube which looks kind of neat.

 

[MoKelly]

Lighter, matches, big magnifying glass (6 in dia), flint and steel, bow and spindle. Haven't tried using a compression tube which looks kind of neat.

Olympic torch?

MoKelly

 

[KiotiKowboy]

Hmmmm .. how about standing on top of the pile, drinking rum, wearing fuzzy slippers and holding a lightning rod?

 

[bx2230orange]

Soak a roll of toilet paper in diesel fuel. Works great even with wet wood.

 

[mjw]

Just saw the Styrofoam/gas mix mentioned.
It does work great, had a junk pile of waterlogged pressed board, 1/2" board soaked to over 1" thick, 30-50 sheets of it in a pile, falling apart so it could not even be moved easily, couldn't get it started with anything we tried until a neighbor mentioned the 'napalm' trick.
Melted all the styrofoam peanuts we could find in a metal coffee can with a little gas, poured it over the pile and lit it off.
Just be careful if you make a torch out of the stuff, because it will drop burning drips off of it.

A fun time was had by all.

I had forgotten all about that until I just saw it mentioned.

 

[NewfieDan]

Soak a roll of toilet paper in diesel fuel. Works great even with wet wood.

BIL used to do this inside an old metal tobacco tin whe he went ice fishing. It would burn for hours. Whe he was done fishing put the lid on and the flame went out, ready for the next time.

As for fire starting, I do a lot of wood working. I usually have some small hardwood strips that are dry and ready to light, even with a match. Also have lots of sawdust, so I plan on making a machine to make sawdust pucks using just pressure. If they are done right they will burn about 10-15min giving time for other wood to catch.

 

[tcartwri]

Soak a roll of toilet paper in diesel fuel. Works great even with wet wood.

That's a great idea.

 

[dragoneggs]

I use my used oil... put a quart or two on the pile size dependent and put some fresh newspaper, cardboard near the bottom and let it soak for a bit. I use a propane fueled weed burner to start. This nice weed burning tool, I pretty much only use for starting fires. It is a slow start because western Washington means moist burn piles pretty much year around. Burning weeds? Come on... around here the weeds grow faster than a fire spreads except for 3 months out of the year.

 

[cycle_gator]

I use a propane weed burner and three hour fire logs. Often burning in snow and wet and I need something to create heat. If I can get a good bed of coals going I can burn just about anything. I also recently found that decently dry particle board burns very hot, like presto logs. Had a bed of coals that lasted for two days.

Not sure who the poster was from Amber, WA I am a ways north but remember that news story about the guys with the tannerite target practice. Some people just have no common sense. Like many places in the country this past summer was a very difficult wildfire season in Eastern WA. Suffice it to say, my burning season is November to April.

 

[Brad_Blazer]

I thought my HF weed burner was the heat. Then I saw this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2iD9iNfh0U

 

[dragoneggs]

I thought my HF weed burner was the heat. Then I saw this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2iD9iNfh0U

Looks like this guy is looking for investors to go into production.