Camping can be fun and adventurous, but you cannot make the most out of it without adequate preparation. You will have to ensure that you have all the materials to build a fire and stay safe in the wild.
Many campers cannot correctly use the tinder and kindling since they find both the same. However, there will be a few differences, and you will have to be aware of them to make your camping safe and hassle-free.
Overall, to start your campfire, you will need three different types of wood:
- Tinder
- Kindling
- Firewood
Tinder is easy to light and creates a short fire, enabling you to start your fire quickly. It is normally thin pieces of wood in a dry condition that facilitates easy combustion.
Kindling is a similar material with a few differences, being slightly bigger. It can also help to start a fire, but its flames will last longer than tinder.
Firewood is normally used to keep your fire going for hours and allow cooking your meals – We will cover these materials in the following paragraphs and know the usage of each.
What is tinder wood?
Among all the burning materials, tinder is the smallest. It can set a fire fast, and many campers prefer this material due to its easy-to-usage benefit.
The thinner is always better, and you will have to use pieces that are thinner than your little finger.
However, thin material cannot hold fire for long, and to keep the flames burning, you will need kindling and firewood. It uses small pieces of long sticks that you will find similar to the size from your wrist to the elbow.
What can be used as a tinder?
You can use any combustible material as the tinder wood, and you will have to focus on the size and length to avoid any confusion.
Overall, we recommend it being thinner than the little finger of users, and the length needs to be a few inches. Another consideration is easy to light, and you will have to ensure that the material can start the fire directly, but you might not expect this benefit from kindling.
You will experience difficulties while starting a fire if the material is moist due to water concentration. You can experience the same problem when the tinder wood is not thin.
Here are some materials you can use as the tinder wood during your camping. Moreover, they might be accessible near your camping ground, and you can collect and use them to start your fire.
- Twigs
- Tree barks
- Grass and dead leaves
- Moss & straw
- Wood shavings
- Pine needles
There are also multiple industrialized options sold on Amazon these days, such as:
If you cannot access all these natural materials, you can consider using other materials, including twine, wax, cloth, cotton, paper, fluff, and lint. These materials are highly combustible and can enable you to start your fire quickly.
Recommended Article: How hot is a campfire?
What is kindling wood?
Kindling will also help to start fire and sustain the flame (as tinder will not last long), being slightly bigger than tinder.
You can use this material to make your fire last slightly longer than flames from tinder, but not sufficient to last for hours. Both tinder and kindling will have many similarities with a few differences.
Whilst tinder is the smallest of all and firewood is the largest piece, kindling comes in the middle ground and can burn well and longer than tinder, holding the flame for longer.
One of its main roles is to enable time enough time to get the firewood burning.
What wood is used for kindling?
You can use any material as kindling if it is combustible and dry.
First, you will have to use tinder wood to light a fire, and then kindling will hold the flame and give time to the firewood to catch fire.
Kindling can be narrow and long of two feet, and you can use it as thin as the thumb. You can break a dry and long twig into small pieces and use them as kindling.
The dry branches are the best since they can catch fire fast. When it comes to the material, you can consider the following:
- Cardboard
- Dry branches and twigs
- Dry and softwood
What is firewood?
Firewood is the largest wood piece that will keep your flames going longer. The wood logs can measure up to 16 inches, and they will be responsible for maintaining the fire going for hours.
To be considered a good fuel source, your wood will have to:
- Be as thick as your wrist (around 15cm)
- As long as an arm (around 30cm)
- Around knee-high when stacked (about 50cm)
What is the best firewood for a campfire?
We have prepared a detailed article discussing this topic – read it here.
To summarise, we recommend using hardwood varieties, such as ash, red oak and white oak, beech, birch, hickory, hard maple, pecan, and dogwood.
All of them have high density, with significant heating output capacity.
Small pieces of softwood will be suitable for kindling, give its ease of combustion and high flames.
What is difference between Tinder and Kindling, then?
When it comes to differences, you will find differences in the level of combustion and size.
Overall, tinder has easier combustion and is smaller, whereas kindling will take longer to burn and is slightly bigger.
Wood shavings and thinner twigs are tinder wood, and thick and long twigs are kindling. Besides, tinder material is fast and easy to light compared to kindling. Therefore, use them to start your fire quickly.
Kindling material will take more time to burn, but it will hold the flame longer. Even if the kindling is slightly damp, the material can catch fire when you have more tinder material.
They will work as a “transition” between tinder and firewood, which will let your campfire be lit for a long period.
How to start a fire with tinder and kindling?
The first step will be starting your fire with tinder in a dry condition – make sure that fragments are small so that they can ignite fast.
Keep adding more tinder to the flame and blow fresh against it (oxygen is essential for combustion).
When you start to see some consistency across the flames (they are continuously burning), it is time to start putting the kindling. Put it gently and in very small quantities since they will take longer to burn.
You can extinguish your campfire if you throw too much kindling at once. When you notice that the new pieces of wood are burning consistently and fire is building up, it is time to add the dry firewood.
Similarly to the previous step, add in gently and in a “phased approach” (wood log by wood log). If you want to keep you fire going for hours, pay attention to the following tips:
- Use dry firewood (with moisture levels less than 20% – use a wood moisture meter to check it)
- Use hardwood instead of firewood.
- Use a few rocks in your campfire – rocks are excellent heat conductors and will make your campfire last longer.
- Keep ventilation going (oxygen is essential for wood combustion)
- Build a top-down campfire, with larger logs on the bottom base and smaller pieces on top.
FAQ
What makes good tinder for a fire?
Even though there are multiple tinder options to start your fire, you must ensure that the chosen material is dry and highly combustible.
It should be thin and small to allow fast-burning and flame spread. If you are already out on your camping trip, you can use these alternatives:
- Dry leaves or grass (dead)
- Pine needles or cones
- Wood shavings
- Twigs
If you have a budget and want to make your life easier, you can use some industrialized options (they cost less than $20):
What is the best kindling to start a campfire?
Since you want high flames with relative ease of combustion, the ideal kindling will be softwood that is cut into small and dry sticks to allow for easy and fast combustion.
Some softwood options are:
- Cedar.
- Douglas fir.
- Pine.
- Hemlock.
Softwood has a lower density, which produces less heating output with higher flames, and will burn shorter, being, therefore, ideal for kindling but not suitable for firewood.
What size should a kindling wood be?
There is no rule here, but we highly recommend small logs with no more than 20cm in length and less than 5cm in diameter.
Ideally, you would have a mix of bigger and smaller pieces of kindling to facilitate ignition and burning.
Other articles that might interest you:
How do you keep a hot tent stove burning all night? (3 easy steps!) (thecampingairconditioner.com)
Portable wood stove for tents – What are the best options? (thecampingairconditioner.com)
Tents with stove jack: what are the best options? (thecampingairconditioner.com)
Conclusion
As detailed in this article, to make your life easier to start and keep a campfire going for long hours, you will need the following:
- Tinder wood
- Kindling
- Firewood
Tinder will help you ignite the campfire and should be dry and cut into tiny pieces to facilitate combustion.
Kindling is slightly bigger and will help to spread the fire and keep the flame going so that you can throw big logs of firewood into your campfire. For kindling, we recommend you use softwood.
Firewood is the most significant wood log that will allow for a slow burn and longer duration. If you plan to cook while camping, you should consider hardwood varieties, such as ash and oak, that can keep flames burning low and slow.
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