You know all that bark and bark dust which collects at the bottom of your
wood pile?...

Well take a used paper plate, use it to scoop up a plateful of bark and bark
dust, fold it in half like a taco, then stick it in your woodstove. Instant
extra heat!

To expound on that, you can make your own firelogs (like the storebought
ones) with sawdust and leftover candle wax saved from burned down candles.

I usually make this stuff in the kitchen with an old large pot, but you may
want to make it oustide on a turkey fryer burner or something for safety
reasons.

Melt the wax down slowly but MAKE SURE TO KEEP IT BELOW THE SMOKING POINT.
If it starts smoking turn off the heat as it's plenty hot and is in risk of
catching fire.

Pour in sawdust/woodchips/paperscrap, etc. You want it to be sortof a
doughlike consistency. Add the sawdust slowly so as not to get too much
sawdust to where the mixture won't stay caked together. You want just enough
candle wax to keep it caked together.

Stir with a branch or something you don't care about.

Use an old scoop/trowel/etc to scoop it out on a flat piece of metal. You
can form it into nice log shapes or just leave it in lumps. Allow it to cool
until hard.

Burn just about anywhere you'd burn a regular log.

-Tom


"Bill" wrote in message
...
You know all that bark and bark dust which collects at the bottom of your
wood pile?...

Well take a used paper plate, use it to scoop up a plateful of bark and
bark
dust, fold it in half like a taco, then stick it in your woodstove.
Instant
extra heat!

Bill wrote:

You know all that bark and bark dust which collects at the bottom of your
wood pile?...

Well take a used paper plate, use it to scoop up a plateful of bark and bark
dust, fold it in half like a taco, then stick it in your woodstove. Instant
extra heat!

for starting a fire in a wood stove get one bag of cedar
pet bedding. just one. use a small handful underneath
your seasoned red oak. light cedar with stick match.
never seen it fail. one bag will last all season and
don't use more than a handful cause cedar burns like
it's been soaked in kerosene.

TT wrote:

To expound on that, you can make your own firelogs (like the storebought
ones) with sawdust and leftover candle wax saved from burned down candles.

I usually make this stuff in the kitchen with an old large pot, but you may
want to make it oustide on a turkey fryer burner or something for safety
reasons.

Melt the wax down slowly but MAKE SURE TO KEEP IT BELOW THE SMOKING POINT.
If it starts smoking turn off the heat as it's plenty hot and is in risk of
catching fire.

Pour in sawdust/woodchips/paperscrap, etc. You want it to be sortof a
doughlike consistency. Add the sawdust slowly so as not to get too much
sawdust to where the mixture won't stay caked together. You want just enough
candle wax to keep it caked together.

Stir with a branch or something you don't care about.

Use an old scoop/trowel/etc to scoop it out on a flat piece of metal. You
can form it into nice log shapes or just leave it in lumps. Allow it to cool
until hard.

Burn just about anywhere you'd burn a regular log.

All the smaller stuff, 1", I piled up into an enormous
brush pile. The pile is around 9' tall, 7' wide and 10-12'
long. I have been wondering if there was some way to chip
it up into uniform bits and bind the bits together into
"logs" that would be uniform in size and combustion
characteristics. Unfortunately I don't have candles, so
whatever binding agent I use would need to be purchased.

JazzMan

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JazzMan wrote:


All the smaller stuff, 1", I piled up into an enormous
brush pile. The pile is around 9' tall, 7' wide and 10-12'
long. I have been wondering if there was some way to chip
it up into uniform bits and bind the bits together into
"logs" that would be uniform in size and combustion
characteristics. Unfortunately I don't have candles, so
whatever binding agent I use would need to be purchased.

JazzMan


candles are really cheap at the dollar store, offhand I don't know of
anything that would work cheaper.

for starting a fire in a wood stove get one bag of cedar
pet bedding. just one. use a small handful underneath
your seasoned red oak. light cedar with stick match.
never seen it fail. one bag will last all season and
don't use more than a handful cause cedar burns like
it's been soaked in kerosene.

Doesn't cedar put off dangerous smoke? i.e. bad for the chimney and/or
health of those around?

I could be wrong. Maybe I am confusing it's not-use with my food smoking
hobby facts... I KNOW you shouldn't use cedar to cook with...
--


Joe in Northern, NJ - V#8013-R

Currently Riding The "Mother Ship"

Ride a motorcycle in or near NJ?
http://tinyurl.com/4zkw8
http://www.youthelate.com

On Mon, 05 Dec 2005 04:54:28 GMT, in misc.consumers.frugal-living "Joe"
wrote:

I could be wrong. Maybe I am confusing it's not-use with my food smoking
hobby facts... I KNOW you shouldn't use cedar to cook with...


Cooking On Western Red Cedar

This centuries old tradition of the Pacific Northwest imparts a natural, sweet
smoky flavor to meats, poultry, vegetables and particularly seafood. Seafood on
the grill always creates a meal - and a presentation to remember.

I could be wrong. Maybe I am confusing it's not-use with my food smoking
hobby facts... I KNOW you shouldn't use cedar to cook with...


Cooking On Western Red Cedar

This centuries old tradition of the Pacific Northwest imparts a natural,
sweet
smoky flavor to meats, poultry, vegetables and particularly seafood.
Seafood on
the grill always creates a meal - and a presentation to remember.

Open fire or smoker? I use a smoker... Might be a difference... Or I may
just be an idiot.
--


Joe in Northern, NJ - V#8013-R

Currently Riding The "Mother Ship"

Ride a motorcycle in or near NJ?
http://tinyurl.com/4zkw8
http://www.youthelate.com

Joe wrote:

for starting a fire in a wood stove get one bag of cedar
pet bedding. just one. use a small handful underneath
your seasoned red oak. light cedar with stick match.
never seen it fail. one bag will last all season and
don't use more than a handful cause cedar burns like
it's been soaked in kerosene.

Doesn't cedar put off dangerous smoke? i.e. bad for the chimney and/or
health of those around?

that's why I suggested people only use a little bit.


I could be wrong. Maybe I am confusing it's not-use with my food smoking
hobby facts... I KNOW you shouldn't use cedar to cook with...

makes food taste like kerosene. I ain't met anyone
yet who likes their food tasting like that.

TT wrote:
To expound on that, you can make your own firelogs (like the storebought
ones) with sawdust and leftover candle wax saved from burned down candles.

I would think it would take a lot of leftover candles to make a sawdust log!

Joe wrote:
for starting a fire in a wood stove get one bag of cedar
pet bedding. just one. use a small handful underneath
your seasoned red oak. light cedar with stick match.
never seen it fail. one bag will last all season and
don't use more than a handful cause cedar burns like
it's been soaked in kerosene.


Doesn't cedar put off dangerous smoke? i.e. bad for the chimney and/or
health of those around?

I could be wrong. Maybe I am confusing it's not-use with my food smoking
hobby facts... I KNOW you shouldn't use cedar to cook with...

Unless you're making cedar-planked salmon.

But maybe you're right. Maybe that will kill you. At least it would be a
happy, happy death.

TT wrote:

To expound on that, you can make your own firelogs
(like the storebought ones) with sawdust and leftover candle wax saved from burned down candles.

I sometimes buy fire logs at Coastal Farm Supply. Their logs contain
no binders. They are extruded sawdust, compressed so tightly that the
sawdust holds together all by itself. You can use them in a wood
stove, which you can't do with the wax kind.

"Larry Caldwell" wrote in message
ups.com...
TT wrote:

To expound on that, you can make your own firelogs
(like the storebought ones) with sawdust and leftover candle wax saved
from burned down candles.

I sometimes buy fire logs at Coastal Farm Supply. Their logs contain
no binders. They are extruded sawdust, compressed so tightly that the
sawdust holds together all by itself. You can use them in a wood
stove, which you can't do with the wax kind.

I visited northern Europe last year, and those generic firelogs are very
popular there. Come shrink-wrapped in bundles of 20 or so for about 5 bucks.
Lots of people use wood heat, especially in the boonies with no or
unreliable gas service, and nice wood is too scare and valuable to burn.
People get brush trim and deadfall wood from friends and relatives with land
or connections, but only rich people get firewood delivered.

aem sends...

"DrLith" wrote in message
...
TT wrote:
To expound on that, you can make your own firelogs (like the storebought
ones) with sawdust and leftover candle wax saved from burned down
candles.

I would think it would take a lot of leftover candles to make a sawdust
log!

Not really.

Most cheap pillar candles are extremely inefficient and end up blowing out
(melting a hole in the side thus ruining the candle and whatever surface
they are on). I ask friends to save dead candles for me so I get a fair
amount of wax on a regular basis.

One day I'm going to buy or build some sort of hydraulic press to compress
the wax/sawdust mixture into a much more compact log than I can with just
putting it into a 2x4 wood frame and mashing it down with a trowel. Being
able to compress it tighter cuts down on the amount of wax needed.

Has anyone seen this rolling machine that turns old newspaper into rolled
paper logs? I saw it in Skymall magazine last time I flew back east.

-Tom

On Mon, 5 Dec 2005 23:04:57 -0700, someone wrote:

One day I'm going to buy or build some sort of hydraulic press to compress
the wax/sawdust mixture into a much more compact log than I can with just
putting it into a 2x4 wood frame and mashing it down with a trowel. Being
able to compress it tighter cuts down on the amount of wax needed.

And you're doing all this WHY?

Well seeing that this is posted to a "frugal" group as well as where I
saw it, that explains your obsession - but I still think it's WAY more
trouble than its worth. Collecting old candles from people, building
a press, what a lot of work to make one log.


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