Kindly is a natural and important part to starting a fire, whether you are using a woodburner, your traditional fireplace, or a fire pit. Kindly is important in helping you get your fire burning quickly, reducing the risk of odour problems caused by the fire dying time and time again. You may have already noticed that it’s not easy starting a wood fire without kindling.

What is Kindling?

Kindling is wood that is considerably smaller than your logs. Kindling are small pieces that catch fire quickly. You usually place the kindling below the logs when you start your fire. Kindling is an excellent choice that lies between the fire starter, such as newspaper and the main firewood.

Kindling does not need to be used to start a fire, though it is common, as it is highly successful in getting your fire lit and warming the home.

Do I Need Kindling?

There is no hard rule to stay you must use kindling when starting a fire, but it is an excellent medium to get your firewood burning quickly. Kindling provides:

  • A faster way to get your fire started
  • Lights quickly, transferring the fire onto your firewood, speeding up your fire lighting experience and warming your home quickly

Using a flame, you will find your heat logs are much harder to light. Placing kindling at the base of your fire and lighting it from there is more effective, helping your logs catch fire. The size of your woodburner or fireplace also plays a role. If you need to cover a large space with firewood or heat logs, you will find that the low temperature flames generated by newspaper, will not be enough. You will need kindling to ensure your fire ignites quickly.

Kindling Process

In order to light a fire using kindling, you will want to:

  • Screw some newspaper into balls to use as your fire starter
  • The flames from the fire starter is easily transferred to the kindling, thanks to the small size of the kindling
  • Kindling produces high flames, helping the fire transfer to the larger logs

What is the Best Kindling Wood?

The best kindling is small pieces of dry softwood. Pine is one of the preferred options because it is fast burning and very hot. Other common kindling woods include fir and cedar. Any softwood works well as kindling.

Can I Just Use Kindling on My Fire?

Kindly is made from softwood, such as pine or cedar. It is quick to light and fast burning. While producing a high flame, it does not provide much heat. On the other hand, hardwoods are used as firewood, such as birch, ash or oak Hardwoods tend to take longer to light, but once lit they are slow burning, offering excellent heat, helping to heat your home.

While it is not impossible to only use kindling on your fire, you must realise you will go through a of kindling in one night to create heat. Because of the high flame it produces, do not put too much on your fire, reducing the risk of your chimney catching fire. Even with a high flame, kindling doesn’t provide adequate heat to warm your home.

Use kindling as a medium between the starter newspaper and the heat logs you intend burning to keep your home warm.

In Summary

While you could potentially burn only kindly wood in your fire, you will find it offers a high flame, but not as much heat as heat logs or seasoned firewood. Kindling is best used to start fires, with its high flame, it enables the fire to jump over to the heat logs to provide you with excellent heat output and efficiency.