How to Start a Wood Fire in a Fire Pit

Are you thinking of creating a wood fire in a fire pit during your next camping trip? When done rightly, you can produce the warm environment that you desire with a wood fire pit. There are some materials you will need to ensure their readiness before you start a fire in a fire pit.

If you are concerned with how to start a fire in a fire pit, this will be a great piece for you.

Steps to Start a Wood Fire in a Fire Pit

Starting a fire in a wood fire pit can come with so much ease when you prepare well. You will need some materials to make the whole process convenient and easy for you. Majorly, you will need the following for the fire pit wood igniting process:

You can proceed with the fire-making process when you’ve got the necessary materials for starting the fire. The following steps will guide you to start a fire using a fire pit wood during camping trips or other periods.

• Step #1: Gather your tinder
• Step #2: Gather your kindling
• Step #3: Gather your fuel wood logs
• Step #4: Ignite to make a fire

The following brief explanation of each step will guide you on how to start a fire. You can make use of this process on camping trips and at home.

Step #1: Gather your tinder

This is the beginning of the fire-making process, and this process determines the whole fire-making process. You will need small, dry materials for fast ignition, tinder. Tinder can be any light material in your environment, capable of lighting other wood. This can be paper, dry grass, wood shavings, or dry leaves. During summer camping, getting dry grass or leaves is quite easy, and you don’t have to use extra energy getting tinder.

However, ensure to construct your tinder very well to form the base to ignite other wood in your wood fire pit.

Step #2: Gather your kindling

You will need kindling to help the burning process. Igniting wood logs can take a long time, which will be impossible for tinder to do since it burns out very fast. So, the only way to build a sustainable fire is to use kindling during the process. The free kindling you can get around you is small sticks and twigs. Gather your kindling over your piled tinder before igniting your fire pit wood.

You can place the kindling over the tinder in the cross, teepee, or log-cabin fire structure. However, create a little space for airflow for complete combustion during the fire-making process. Are you considering making a wood fire on your next camping trip? You might need to take a little ax to cut the kindling easily. No matter the fire structure, use the smallest kindling first and proceed to bigger ones.

Step #3: Gather your fuel wood logs

After building your tinder and kindling pile, you can now pile up the wood logs in the structure of the kindling. Use the same fire structure for the kindling and wood log piling process. Create the same space as that of your kindling for easy airflow. The fuel wood logs will make the fire last long while releasing a large amount of heat to the environment. Hence, you are now set to kindle and enjoy your fire.

Step #4: Ignite to make a fire

The next thing to do at this point is to ignite the tinder to start the fire. You can make use of a lighter or matches to start the fire. Once you light, your tinder will easily catch fire and burn enough to light the tiny kindling. Once the tiny kindling is burning, it will also be easy to ignite the wood logs. However, your fire structure will determine if this process will work or not. A fire structure without a good pattern or space for airflow will not yield what you want.

Likewise, not piling the kindling and wood logs properly can make them fall while trying to make the fire. Fire structures like teepees will eventually fall; however, this should happen later when the wood logs are already burning.

You are sure to enjoy your burning process with this method.

NOTE: Avoid wet tinder, kindling, and wood logs for the fire-making process in a wood fire pit.

What Type of Wood is Best for a Wood Fire in a Fire Pit?

To get the best experience while creating a wood fire in a fire pit, you must understand how wood works. Notably, we have hardwoods and softwoods. Softwoods, including cedar, fir, and pine, burn faster and are smokier than hardwoods, though they are good fire fuel. They are best used to start a fire but are not good for sustaining it. Hardwoods, including maple, ash, hickory, and oak, are the best wood for the wood fire in a fire pit. However, Hardwoods take a long to ignite.

Likewise, some of the important things you must take note of about your wood are:

A wood burning too fast will not give you the cozy experience you need if you use it during camp trips. You will need wood that burns for a long period if you are trying to keep yourself warm. Likewise, building up a fire that produces heat like tinder can’t help your experience during a camp trip. Camp trips are to be enjoyed, so we don’t joke about the lovely moments we create around a campfire. Also, for a camper, smoky wood will be a bad choice since smoke leaves the body with a smell.

NOTE: Your wood choice also impacts the experience of using a fire pit. Avoid any problem relating to wood by using kiln-dried wood, which has been specifically designed for wood fire in a fire pit.

How Long does Wood Fire Burn in Fire Pits?

Your wood fire burning can only be determined by the wood you use. As mentioned earlier, your wood burns faster when using softwoods and burns longer when using hardwoods. So, calculating the time burning time of your wood might not be easy. Likewise, your fire might last long when you start the process with softwoods and sustain it with hardwoods.

Some other factors that determine how long your wood fire burns are:

NOTE: Any alteration in the above factors will affect how long your wood fire will burn.

Enhance Your Camping Experience

You can upgrade your camping experience with a camp lantern and solar panel from Acevolt Campower. You can get a solar generator to help your sleeping experience after burning fire in a pit fire. Our solar generator can light your tent so that you will know what is happening in your environment during the campfire. Likewise, your environment will be free of smoke from fuel, and you won’t have any course to disturb the peace of other campers with our solar generator.

Check Acevolt Campower for a better camping experience.