- What You Need To Start A Fire
- How To Start A Fire In A Fireplace
- Direction for Starting a Fire with One Match
- Infographic
There is something special about starting a fire with a single match. Not only does it make life easy, but it also tends to invoke a certain sense of pride.
On the flip side, it's fairly infuriating when you go through dozens of matches or an entire supply of lighter fluid attempting to get a fire started. This process usually involves lots of smoke inhalation, frustration, and possibly a few four letter words (and unfortunately, we don't mean "fire").
But we're here to help! Cutting Edge Firewood has mastered the art of starting a fire with a single match. Watch this short video to see our process, or scroll down for some written directions.
What you need:
In order to start a fire with a single match, you'll need a few key supplies:
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Dry Firewood: This is the most important part of a single match fire. Wet wood simply does not want to ignite. You can force it to light withenough heat, blowing, smoke, and persistence, but certainly not with a single match. This is one of the many reasons firewood for sale is the best - we use the most rigorous drying process in the industry.
- Fire Starter/Tender: There are a lot of different fire starters on the market, but basically you want something that will light and then stay lit for several minutes. Naturally, we recommend our excelsior fire starters because they are scent and chemical free. This makes them safer for both indoor fires and cooking fires. And of course, they are very easy to light and will last a long time.
- Kindling: Smaller pieces of wood ignite more easily than larger pieces. You can gather lots of small twigs from your yard, cut off smaller pieces from a log, or you can use the kindling we supply at Cutting Edge. Each of our kindling pieces are made with the same quality as our firewood and is easy to light. If you use our kindling, two pieces will be plenty. If you use other kindling, you'll likely need many more pieces.
- Matches: If you want to start a single match fire, then you'll obviously need some matches!
Each of the items listed above are available from Cutting Edge Firewood. You can purchase them separately, or for extra convenience you can choose the complete fire starter package.
What you don't need:
Many people are under the impression that a single match fire requires the following, but we're here to tell you the truth. The following "fire starters" are not necessary and can negatively affect your fire starting experience.
- Lighter Fluid: We've known friends who seem to think a good fire is one where you spray lighter fluid at the fire whenever the fire gets too low. The problem is, they're burning fluid instead of wood. They've chosen to use wet wood and are trying to make up for it with lighter fluid. This adds unnecessary chemicals to your fire, does not smell good, requires more work, and creates additional danger.
- Newspaper: Most people have used newspaper to start a fire before. It certainly ignites easily, but it does have several disadvantages. First, it cannot stay lit for very long and often burns out before the kindling ignites. Second, it doesn't burn as hot as a good fire starter. Third, it creates lots of unnecessary ash that often floats up and out of the fire. Lastly, in today's digital age it's much harder to find newspaper! For a more reliable experience, choose an actual fire starter.
- Gasoline: This is an absolute NO. Using gasoline is extremely dangerous. The fumes spread immediately and lighting it is explosive. We know people who tried to use gasoline and they ended in the hospital. If that's not enough reason, gasoline isn't even an effective fire starter because it burns so quickly. So once again, never use gasoline to start a fire.
Step-By-Step Guide to Starting a Fire with one Match
If you watched the video, you saw how easy it is to start a fire the Cutting Edge way. Remember to always keep safety in mind when you start a fire and choose an appropriate place to start one.
Here are step-by-step instructions for lighting a fire with a single match:
- Place 2 excelsior fire starters (or the fire starter of your choice) at the center of the where you want the fire. If using a fireplace grate, then place this below the grate.
- Strike your single match and light the fire starter.
- Place a couple pieces of kindling directly above the fire starter in the shape of an X. Use additional kindling if required.
- As the kindling lights, place two large pieces of firewood alongside the kindling (or above the kindling if you are using a fireplace grate). When using a grate, place the larger log in front, so that as the wood breaks down it will fall backwards instead of forwards.
- Add additional logs on top as required. You want to have some logs go directly over the burning kindling. You can build this up as high as you want (as long as you keep it a safe height).
- Sit back, relax, and feel proud of the fact that you started a fire with a single match.
That's it! Starting a fire with a single match is quick and easy when you have the right ingredients. You can shop all of our fire starters or our firewood for sale today. We deliver and ship our products all over the United States.
