Wood For a Campfire
![Picture](/uploads/4/5/3/8/4538685/1504808.jpg)
THERE'S not a better feeling in the outdoors than to have camp made and be sitting in front of your fire, ready to cook an evening meal while the red sky in the West gives way to a myriad of windows from heaven.
And indoors there's no feeling of wellbeing like a brisk blaze in your fireplace at home during the first chill evenings of fall. I even enjoy a good fire on summer evenings in my cabin in the Smokies.
Wood is our universal fuel for fireplaces, stoves, and campfires. It is readily available in most parts of the world, it is clean and easy to handle, and it is relatively inexpensive. A little knowledge about the best kinds of wood to use, how to lay and start a fire, how to make the fire last for a long time, and how to handle it safely will help you enjoy your outing or get the most out of your fireplace back home.
The conifers—pines, cedar, spruce, fir, hemlock, and other trees with needlelike leaves—contain a pitch or resins. These trees have wood which burns vigorously when dry, but the resins or pitch give off a dense smoke. They are good for starting fires and some give off much heat, but they will black up cooking pans, soot chimneys, and clog stovepipes. Nevertheless, these are widely used and are just about the only type which is available in some parts of the country.
The broadleaf trees commonly called hardwoods—the oaks, the maple, birch, beech, hickory, gum, poplar, cottonwood, and many others—do not contain resin and do not give off as much smoke. However, they include very light woods like cottonwood and buckeye and very heavy woods like oak and hickory, and there is a great difference in the way that they burn, the heat they give off, and the amount of ash that they leave. They have other characteristics, too, which make them desirable or undesirable, such as quick burning, a tendency to throw sparks, or difficulty in igniting them.
Generally speaking, a ton of coal gives you around as much heat as 1 cord of heavy wood, 1 1/2 cords of mediumweight wood, or 2 cords of lightweight wood.
Let's attempt to give you a little table (end of the page) that may help in selecting your firewood from the more common species. My ratings may differ from yours because I don't care too much for fires that pop sparks or blacken pans.
Starting a Fire
Now that we have a picture of many different woods available to us, let's look at the task of laying and starting the fire, whether it be indoors or outdoors. A good fire builder recognizes that he must have tinder, kindling, and fuel, and then fire building becomes easy.
Tinder can be paper if you're home, but in the outdoors one looks for the dry, dead twigs on the lower part of the trees, dry cedar bark, birchbark even when it's damp, or if none of these are available, shavings from the inside of a dry split log. Dead pine needles, leaves, and dry grass can be used for tinder if it hasn't rained recently. Rule 1—be sure and have a good hatful of tinder.
Kindling is pencil-sized dead twigs broken from standing trees (usually you will find lower limbs are dead or have dead twigs), dry bark from logs on the ground, pine cones, and the other woody material that breaks rather than bends. The Boy Scout rule is "if you can't snap it, scrap it." Rule 2—you should have a good sized hatful of kindling.
Fuelwood will range in size from as big as your finger to a log 8 to 10 inches in diameter. Seldom will you use logs larger than this except in a very large fireplace or where you have set up camp for several days and want to keep a fire continuously. Be sure your fuelwood includes plenty of small pieces and plenty of dry material or you may find the fire is hard to maintain for cooking or for warmth. Rule 3—if you think you need three armfuls of wood for the night, get six or prepare to stumble around in the dark looking for some more.
When your material is assembled, lay your fire by piling your tinder in a close pile about the size of your hat. Then crisscross your smallest and driest kindling over the tinder. Then, with your back to the wind, light the tinder, and the wind will quickly spread the flames throughout the pile. If there is no wind, fan the fire with your hat. Add the rest of the kindling, and when the fire is roaring, add fuelwood to it as needed.
If you plan to use the fire for cooking, there are a number of styles that you can copy from the woodsman. I like the trapper's fire in which two fairly large logs about 4 feet long are laid on each side of the fire, 8 to 12 inches apart toward the wind and 4 to 6 inches apart at the throat. It helps if you will flatten the top of the logs with your ax. Then your pans and pots can rest on the logs, and you have a long narrow controlled fire that is easy to fuel and easy to cook on.
DON'T BEND THE ANDIRONS
One word of caution about the fireplace. Many beautiful andirons have been burned up because red hot coals have accumulated up and around the andirons. This permits them to get hot as in a blacksmith's furnace, and the weight of the firewood then bends them out of shape.
Always keep enough coals cleared out under the andirons so that a continuous flow of air feeds the fire and keeps the heat going up the chimney.
Some like the lazyman or star fire where longer logs come into the fire like spokes from a wheel. The logs are pushed in as they burn. This means less ax work, but a larger clearing for safety.
Some prefer the picturesque hunter's fire with forked sticks supporting a cross pole over the fire from which pothooks can hold the utensils any desired height above the fire. A single stick stuck into the ground at an angle to hold one pot over the fire is called a dingle stick.
There are many other choices including pit or trench fires to save fuel, rock fireplaces, platform fireplaces, or the reflector fires that you build in front of a tent.
If you are using your fire to cook with, remember the old woodsman's adage that flames are best for boiling, but coals are best for broiling. You can get flames by adding a pine knot, split kindling, or dry twigs. To get coals you must wait for the wood to burn down to coals, or you might add charred brands or charcoal from an old fire if available. Allow yourself a full hour from the time you start the fire until you start cooking.
If you want the fire to last a long time in a campfire or in the home fireplace, you can accomplish this by packing round logs rather tightly over the fire and covering partly with ashes from the fire.
Don't burn your house down or mar your vacation with carelessness. Fire is a wonderful ally, but a dangerous enemy. Your campfire should not be built until you have cleared a 10-foot circle down to mineral soil or rock. Your roaring blaze in the home fireplace should not be left alone without a good strong fire screen to prevent sparks or brands from popping or rolling into the room.
If you desire a little novelty in your fire, at home or in the woods, you can get it by using certain chemicals to give a variety of colors. Make up water solutions and soak pine cones, split sticks, or blocks of wood in the solutions, then let them dry out for a day or so. Throw one or two on the fire when you want a color display. You can get red by using strontium nitrate, purple by using lithium chloride, blue by using copper sulfate or cobalt, orange by using salt or calcium, green by using barium, and you can color it yellow by using sodium.
RATINGS FOR FIREWOOD
Name of trees Relative amount of heat Easy to burn Easy to split Heavy smoke? Throw sparks? Rating and remarks Ash, red oak, white oak, beech, birch, hickory, hard maple, pecan, dogwood. High Yes Yes No No Excellent. Soft maple, cherry, walnut. Medium Yes Yes No No Good. Elm, sycamore, gum. Medium Medium No Medium No Fair—contains too much water when green. Aspen, basswood, cottonwood. Low Yes Yes Medium No Fair—but good forkindling. Chestnut, yellow-poplar. Low Yes Yes Medium Yes Poor. Southern yellow pine, Douglas-fir. High Yes Yes Yes No Good but smoky. Cypress, redwood. Medium Medium Yes Medium No Fair. White-cedar, western redcedar, eastern redcedar. Medium Yes Yes Medium Yes Good—excellent for kindling. Eastern white pine, western white pine, sugar pine, ponderosa pine, true firs. Low Medium Yes Medium No Fair—good kindling. Tamarack, larch. Medium Yes Yes Medium Yes Fair. Spruce. Low Yes Yes Medium Yes Poor.
And indoors there's no feeling of wellbeing like a brisk blaze in your fireplace at home during the first chill evenings of fall. I even enjoy a good fire on summer evenings in my cabin in the Smokies.
Wood is our universal fuel for fireplaces, stoves, and campfires. It is readily available in most parts of the world, it is clean and easy to handle, and it is relatively inexpensive. A little knowledge about the best kinds of wood to use, how to lay and start a fire, how to make the fire last for a long time, and how to handle it safely will help you enjoy your outing or get the most out of your fireplace back home.
The conifers—pines, cedar, spruce, fir, hemlock, and other trees with needlelike leaves—contain a pitch or resins. These trees have wood which burns vigorously when dry, but the resins or pitch give off a dense smoke. They are good for starting fires and some give off much heat, but they will black up cooking pans, soot chimneys, and clog stovepipes. Nevertheless, these are widely used and are just about the only type which is available in some parts of the country.
The broadleaf trees commonly called hardwoods—the oaks, the maple, birch, beech, hickory, gum, poplar, cottonwood, and many others—do not contain resin and do not give off as much smoke. However, they include very light woods like cottonwood and buckeye and very heavy woods like oak and hickory, and there is a great difference in the way that they burn, the heat they give off, and the amount of ash that they leave. They have other characteristics, too, which make them desirable or undesirable, such as quick burning, a tendency to throw sparks, or difficulty in igniting them.
Generally speaking, a ton of coal gives you around as much heat as 1 cord of heavy wood, 1 1/2 cords of mediumweight wood, or 2 cords of lightweight wood.
Let's attempt to give you a little table (end of the page) that may help in selecting your firewood from the more common species. My ratings may differ from yours because I don't care too much for fires that pop sparks or blacken pans.
Starting a Fire
Now that we have a picture of many different woods available to us, let's look at the task of laying and starting the fire, whether it be indoors or outdoors. A good fire builder recognizes that he must have tinder, kindling, and fuel, and then fire building becomes easy.
Tinder can be paper if you're home, but in the outdoors one looks for the dry, dead twigs on the lower part of the trees, dry cedar bark, birchbark even when it's damp, or if none of these are available, shavings from the inside of a dry split log. Dead pine needles, leaves, and dry grass can be used for tinder if it hasn't rained recently. Rule 1—be sure and have a good hatful of tinder.
Kindling is pencil-sized dead twigs broken from standing trees (usually you will find lower limbs are dead or have dead twigs), dry bark from logs on the ground, pine cones, and the other woody material that breaks rather than bends. The Boy Scout rule is "if you can't snap it, scrap it." Rule 2—you should have a good sized hatful of kindling.
Fuelwood will range in size from as big as your finger to a log 8 to 10 inches in diameter. Seldom will you use logs larger than this except in a very large fireplace or where you have set up camp for several days and want to keep a fire continuously. Be sure your fuelwood includes plenty of small pieces and plenty of dry material or you may find the fire is hard to maintain for cooking or for warmth. Rule 3—if you think you need three armfuls of wood for the night, get six or prepare to stumble around in the dark looking for some more.
When your material is assembled, lay your fire by piling your tinder in a close pile about the size of your hat. Then crisscross your smallest and driest kindling over the tinder. Then, with your back to the wind, light the tinder, and the wind will quickly spread the flames throughout the pile. If there is no wind, fan the fire with your hat. Add the rest of the kindling, and when the fire is roaring, add fuelwood to it as needed.
If you plan to use the fire for cooking, there are a number of styles that you can copy from the woodsman. I like the trapper's fire in which two fairly large logs about 4 feet long are laid on each side of the fire, 8 to 12 inches apart toward the wind and 4 to 6 inches apart at the throat. It helps if you will flatten the top of the logs with your ax. Then your pans and pots can rest on the logs, and you have a long narrow controlled fire that is easy to fuel and easy to cook on.
DON'T BEND THE ANDIRONS
One word of caution about the fireplace. Many beautiful andirons have been burned up because red hot coals have accumulated up and around the andirons. This permits them to get hot as in a blacksmith's furnace, and the weight of the firewood then bends them out of shape.
Always keep enough coals cleared out under the andirons so that a continuous flow of air feeds the fire and keeps the heat going up the chimney.
Some like the lazyman or star fire where longer logs come into the fire like spokes from a wheel. The logs are pushed in as they burn. This means less ax work, but a larger clearing for safety.
Some prefer the picturesque hunter's fire with forked sticks supporting a cross pole over the fire from which pothooks can hold the utensils any desired height above the fire. A single stick stuck into the ground at an angle to hold one pot over the fire is called a dingle stick.
There are many other choices including pit or trench fires to save fuel, rock fireplaces, platform fireplaces, or the reflector fires that you build in front of a tent.
If you are using your fire to cook with, remember the old woodsman's adage that flames are best for boiling, but coals are best for broiling. You can get flames by adding a pine knot, split kindling, or dry twigs. To get coals you must wait for the wood to burn down to coals, or you might add charred brands or charcoal from an old fire if available. Allow yourself a full hour from the time you start the fire until you start cooking.
If you want the fire to last a long time in a campfire or in the home fireplace, you can accomplish this by packing round logs rather tightly over the fire and covering partly with ashes from the fire.
Don't burn your house down or mar your vacation with carelessness. Fire is a wonderful ally, but a dangerous enemy. Your campfire should not be built until you have cleared a 10-foot circle down to mineral soil or rock. Your roaring blaze in the home fireplace should not be left alone without a good strong fire screen to prevent sparks or brands from popping or rolling into the room.
If you desire a little novelty in your fire, at home or in the woods, you can get it by using certain chemicals to give a variety of colors. Make up water solutions and soak pine cones, split sticks, or blocks of wood in the solutions, then let them dry out for a day or so. Throw one or two on the fire when you want a color display. You can get red by using strontium nitrate, purple by using lithium chloride, blue by using copper sulfate or cobalt, orange by using salt or calcium, green by using barium, and you can color it yellow by using sodium.
RATINGS FOR FIREWOOD
Name of trees Relative amount of heat Easy to burn Easy to split Heavy smoke? Throw sparks? Rating and remarks Ash, red oak, white oak, beech, birch, hickory, hard maple, pecan, dogwood. High Yes Yes No No Excellent. Soft maple, cherry, walnut. Medium Yes Yes No No Good. Elm, sycamore, gum. Medium Medium No Medium No Fair—contains too much water when green. Aspen, basswood, cottonwood. Low Yes Yes Medium No Fair—but good forkindling. Chestnut, yellow-poplar. Low Yes Yes Medium Yes Poor. Southern yellow pine, Douglas-fir. High Yes Yes Yes No Good but smoky. Cypress, redwood. Medium Medium Yes Medium No Fair. White-cedar, western redcedar, eastern redcedar. Medium Yes Yes Medium Yes Good—excellent for kindling. Eastern white pine, western white pine, sugar pine, ponderosa pine, true firs. Low Medium Yes Medium No Fair—good kindling. Tamarack, larch. Medium Yes Yes Medium Yes Fair. Spruce. Low Yes Yes Medium Yes Poor.