Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

lmf

When the stack down the road went (2 days after put up in freshly constructed/alarmed fenced field) the firebrigade had 3 days sitting there in the sun until it was all out Reduced to 2 piles that were smaller than PTMW!

What a waste of resources and the arsonist(s) concerned should have to pay for the 24 hr watching that the brigade need to do - to$$er

ajm

A good dousing in white spirit (not meths!!!). Much less volatile than petrol, you can hold a match to it safely and it will burn long enough and hot enough to get the thing going.

Scooby96

Am now going to go and hire a wood chipper!

farmer1

Can you still not get it going ?

PG

wood chippers dont tend to burn too well either

Brendan Hughes

Sounds like you're trying to burn green wood. That's not easy.

Best way is to start a decent fire with something else that is totally dry and dead, wait till the fire has a good heart (three logs of 4-5in diameter burning well), THEN chuck on the green stuff. Waste of time putting them on before that. Nick a few bits out of someone's woodshed if need be. If you use offcuts of processed wood (4x2), don't expect them to last long.

Fruit tree branches are also twisty. Fires burn when wood touches or almost touches, if you have something that looks like a mutant cage, it just won't burn, too many air gaps. You need to cut it up into much smaller pieces so they fit closer together on the pile.

Finally, that tepee thing is crap. Get two logs of 2-4in dia, put them parallel up to 6in apart (or longer if you have longer twigs), stuff screwed up paper in the middle, balance ultra thin dry twigs across them, then thicker stuff, then thicker stuff up to an inch dia. All must be dry dead wood. Prepare bigger stuff to go on after 3-5mins. Light and retire.

I've lit more fires than I care to remember. The above is effective enough to start a forest fire and also set light to a chimney in a wooden house, both aforementioned forest and house belonging to my parents

Scooby96

cheers

Bubba po

Try burning wood, not concrete blocks.


Seriously, start with small stuff and build up to larger. For instance, you could toast a railway sleeper with a gas torch for half a day without getting much more than slight charring, but it will burn if you already have a nice carpet of hot embers.


Don't throw petrol on a bonfire that has the slightest likelihood of a naked flame. Seriously, you could get killed that way. I prefer paraffin, it's less dangerous and burns longer and hotter than petrol.

andypugh2000

Barbecue lighting fuel is always good on a fire and petrol is good on a barbeque, well thats what i always use, have to do a "flick trick" with the old swan vestas though!!