Les Stroud would be ashamed of me. I seem to be incapable of lighting my new chiminea. No matter how much paper I use I can’t get a single seasoned log to catch fire. Even the paper isn’t burning all the way. Or cardboard.
It’s a metal chiminea so I don’t need to season it.
Someone help me!! I want a fire outside!
Start at the beginning, and make sure there is no blockage in the stack, second would be make a stack of small sticks or put an old metal grate on the bottom, so there is airflow. Using paper and small sticks, dry grass, ect, start a fire and let it burn, while it is burning start feeding more sticks (adding vegtable oil to the paper will make the paper act as a wick, allowing it to burn longer) keep adding more and larger sticks until a nice hot fire is going, add your large logs and now you can relax. If you have no good starter twigs ect, use a little charcoal lighter fluid, but do take it easy on the paper. and remember to put your log on top of a grill or somthing in there to allow the air to circulate. Hope something in here helps.
Adding, do not be tempted to use any camp fuel or gasoline, very dangerous.
Good luck, and remember, building a fire properly Is a bit of work. But when done right is very satisfying.
I know this will sound odd—but I lately I have been using potato chips to start a fire. I found this out accidently a few years ago, when I was camping. Some chips fell on the ground and I threw them into the fire—amazing flames!
So the next morning I decided to use a few as a starter for the fire and have used them ever since. I put a few pieces of paper and kindling with some potato chips spread around on top. The paper catches fire and because of the oil in the chips it spread pretty quickly.
Another use for potato chips–who would have thunk?
Oil-soaked newspaper.
If paper and cardboard isn’t burning all the way, then you’re dealing with too little airflow. Not uncommon for chimneas, which are often sold because they look nice in the store and on your patio, not because they’re well designed for actual fires. A “log cabin” stack of sticks or an old metal grate at the bottom, like **Qwakkeddup **suggests, might be just the thing.
You can also steal this camper’s tip: an air mattress pump. Put it on “inflate” and point it at the base of your starter flames. It acts like those tubes or bellows that blacksmiths and glassblowers use to increase the oxygen (and therefore heat) in the fire.