By Carolyn Owen
You don’t need to be an Eagle Scout to start and sustain a smokeless fire. With the right tools, anyone can light the perfect fire and keep it lit as long as you’d like. All you need is firewood and a firestarter or two. Follow along step by step to learn the easiest method for lighting a fire using Solo Stove essentials.
Step 1: Lay The Foundation
Create some kindling out of your firewood by trimming it down with an axe or hatchet. Our favorite is Solo Stove Juniper Aromatic Firewood. Juniper is a type of softwood, making it easy to trim down in just a few minutes. If you don’t have an axe on hand, or if the idea of creating your own kindling doesn’t appeal to you, try using chunk wood instead! Lay some pieces down in a square shape on the base plate of your fire pit.
See how we cut our kindling, and follow us on TikTok while you’re at it!
Step 2: Add Your Starters
You can make your own firestarters out of newspaper, dryer lint, and even Vaseline. We prefer our own Starters or Starter Packs — they’re guaranteed to light every time.
Step 3: Light Your Starters
Add a few more pieces of kindling that sit over the top of your firestarters, then light them. Hold the flame to the starter until it has caught on fire.
If your lighter is all out of juice, feel free to use matches or even a propane torch if you’re feeling a little extreme.
Step 4: Build A House
Once your fire starts spreading from the starters to the surrounding pieces of kindling, add more pieces in a cone, or “house”, shape.
“Oh no, I’m all out of kindling!” — Don’t worry. Chunk wood is a great substitute. Go ahead and swap it out for any step in this process where kindling is a must-have!
Step 5: Add Firewood & Enjoy
As soon as your kindling is fully caught, add firelogs and let your fire burn big and bright! Rest your logs under the secondary burn holes so that you can make sure your fire is smokeless. If you’re noticing smoke after your fire has fully caught, check out our blog “Quick Fixes For A Smoky Fire” for tips on how to fix it.
Solo Stove Firewood is custom-cut to fit inside of all of our fire pits. Whether you choose aromatic Juniper, long-burning Oak, or eco-friendly Recycled Firewood, you can’t go wrong!
