I hate making fuzz sticks !

pitdog

pitdog

Joined
Apr 13, 2007
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That is I don't mind making one or two but when making a batch for my woodstove the novelty quickly wears off !

To make it a little less tedious I decided to use two of my favourite fuzz makers, my ML Kephart and my Dave Farmer Camp knife~

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Same thing with making kindling, swinging an axe is fun for a while but when it has to be done daily it soon starts to suck !

Anyone else feel the same ?
 
There is a satisfaction to doing either of those tasks. I guess though there comes a balance point where the pleasure of the activity hands over to it being work. I've never spent more than two days splitting wood and I was still enjoying it at that point.

I will say after a week in the office I do enjoy repetitive manual activities to just let my mind unwind. Guess that's why I go to the gym and lift heavy things. Can we claim this sort of stuff as man therapy?
 
I've never used fuzz sticks to light a woodstove or fireplace before. I just use finer split kindling or newspapers as mentioned above. Never seen others use them before either for their homes/cabins.
 
CWL said:
I've never used fuzz sticks to light a woodstove or fireplace before. I just use finer split kindling or newspapers as mentioned above. Never seen others use them before either for their homes/cabins.
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I used the technique last weekend for the first time and liked it. I found it to be soothing. I can see Pit's dilemma though. Doing it a lot would just be work.
 
Thats some serious fuzz there. How would I go using the saw on my Leatherman to make some sawdust? (Asking as a real experienced bushman, not!)
 
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CWL said:
I've never used fuzz sticks to light a woodstove or fireplace before. I just use finer split kindling or newspapers as mentioned above. Never seen others use them before either for their homes/cabins.
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Me too buddy but Mrs Pit swears by them and it will be her making the fire this week as I'll be working !
 
I make up a good amount for our stove when my wife has to start the fires also. she just doesn't get the concept of smaller pieces of wood lol. don't throw the biggest hunk of locust you can find in there and expect it to light off a couple pieces of news paper lol
 
Maybe I'm the Bizaro Pitdog, but when I run out of firewood to split, I'm actually a little sad.
 
pitdog said:
Me too buddy but Mrs Pit swears by them and it will be her making the fire this week as I'll be working !
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Making fuzz sticks for me is fun, if they ever become a chore, then I don't think I'd make them ever again!

Compliments on those fine lengths of "fuzz" you are making there!
 
We have alot of white birch here in the Boreal forest, and nothing beats birch bark in getting a fire going quickly, without effort and it will work even when wet.
 
Bufford said:
We have alot of white birch here in the Boreal forest, and nothing beats birch bark in getting a fire going quickly, without effort and it will work even when wet.
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Yeah Silver birch bark is great stuff, we don't have em round here though.
 
I used to clean up the floor in the basement(planing) and outside(chainsaw pile) for the stove- had to be done anyway. A drawknife might be a nice change of pace... I wrapped handfuls of chainsaw chips in newspaper- look at it glow! LOL!

I just built a porch for a lady from 2X10 treated on edge on old sidewalk. Used my sharp hatchet to plane of areas to maintain contact/support with the uneven sidewalk. Nice fuzzies that had to be tossed.
Bill
 
I've been doing a bunch of these bushcraft challenges as part of the BushClass USA and the Hardwoodsman Series. Anyhow many of them involve variations of 3 x the prep, or start 5 splitwood fires ect. It requires you produce shavings up the ying yang. I like make shavings and doing fuzz sticks, but it does get to be work when constantly doing them to support multiple fires etc. Not as pad as the left hand, one hand thing though. Ugh, that was a nightmare.

Surprised I didn't see a mora or that scandi-edged Koster of yours Pitdog.
 
You love it, really :)

Nice knives those - nice fuzzies too

Like that ML particularly. I got this heavy kep-a-like a little while ago - 4 1/2" blade in 5mm D2 and cocobolo :) Good fuzzer too :)

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pitdog said:
That is I don't mind making one or two but when making a batch for my woodstove the novelty quickly wears off !

Same thing with making kindling, swinging an axe is fun for a while but when it has to be done daily it soon starts to suck !

Anyone else feel the same ?
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Been a while since it was an issue, but I still don't yet mind making a pile of fuzz sticks to start a fire, though I don't do it daily, for me that usually means it is no longer a 114F heat index I'm dealing with and I am happy to be starting a fire :)

As for the kindling, splitting the firewood and kindling were my job in my youth, up till 15. Splitting the kindling was usually a weekly or sometimes semi weekly chore. Sometimes when I was in the right mood I'd split enough for a few weeks...it was good stress relief.
 
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