On Oct 22, 9:04*pm, "RAM³" wrote:
...
A good layer of kindling between 2 logs can also help IF you light them
from underneath the grate. They'll provide the coals to keep the logs
burning.

I have a stove rather than a fireplace, but they light about the same
way.

If there is a layer of charcoal from the last fire underneath I rarely
need kindling.

I found a wire screen hemisphere (picnic bug cover) that fits into the
top of my enameled ash can (chipped spaghetti pot).
I shovel the ashes into the screen, shake them out over the lawn or
compost bin and dump the charcoal back into the stove.
The new fire is made from 3-4" logs on either side and a few 1" - 2"
sticks in the middle, with a rolled, spindled and mutilated junkmail
page underneath. You are prequalified to BURN!

My trick fire booster is a rubber hose with a brass nozzle (fired
shell casing found in the woods) that I use to blow a narrow stream of
air into the fire.

All I have to do is light the paper and then blow enough air on it to
spread the fire to the charcoal. Once that's all glowing its radiant
heat keeps the logs burning.

If last night's fire is still warm I don't need the paper. I hoe
everything to the back and then rake the charcoal forward, load in new
logs, blow the charcoal into a fire and it's done.

For my stove at least there has to be a hollow tube of burning logs
and charcoal centered on the air intake, each side radiating its heat
onto the other. IIRC fireplace fires need glowing charcoal on an
insulating ash layer fairly close under the wood to keep them going.
Flames by themselves apparently don't radiate enough heat to decompose
the next layer of wood fast enough. When you pull a burning stick out
of a bonfire it soon goes out.

Jim Wilkins