Kindling

It is essential to have small dry pieces of wood to start a fire. Keep a box or two under cover by the side of the oven so you can use it at a moment’s notice, together with old newspapers and a box or two of long matches.

Use either bundles of dry twigs or fir cones that you have collected from the garden or some of the logs used on the fire split down into small pieces lengthways. Your kindling shouldn’t be much thicker than a twig, so use your axe to split logs into kindling on your wooden block, 1cm/½in thick.