Any concern about using newspaper tinder? Firing Your Oven Discuss Any concern about using newspaper tinder? in the Oven Management forums; Has there been any mention of cause for concern using newpaper as tinder, given all the ink? I'm just about ...

[kebwi]

Has there been any mention of cause for concern using newpaper as tinder, given all the ink? I'm just about to start my first curing fires (SOOO excited), but all I have is the actual firewood, log splits and such. I'm undecided how to best get the thing going. I have no obvious tinder or kindling.

One thing I remember liking for camping is dryer lint. Goes up like a napalm. I think it's all toxic though, including natural stuff like cotton since textiles are general treated during manufacture.

I get a ton of newspaper in the mail (sigh, poor mother Earth), so I'm all for that if people really have no concerns about the ink.

Just shopping around for beginner wisdom.

Thanks.

[Les]

I never gave it any thought - but then again, maybe my Synapse's are soaked in ink.

[heliman]

I believe that there is some really good, detailed info on the fire making process in the FB WFO pizza making handbook downloadable from the FB store (FREE).

Good luck with the burn-in ... very exciting phase of the project!!!

Rossco

[Wiley]

I cannot imagine any serious problem using newspaper to start the fire.
It's what I do. I have often wondered what I'll use in a few years as newspapers seem to be heading toward extinction.
Fire On!
Wiley

[nissanneill]

Kebwi

I get a ton of newspaper in the mail (sigh, poor mother Earth), so I'm all for that if people really have no concerns about the ink.

Printing inks are many and varied. If the paper that you are referring to is newsprint, a cheap absorbent paper, then the inks are also cheap and absorb into the stock. many newspapers are now printed using the Lithographic printing process which use a variety of inks depending on the application. Much of the 'junk mail' that you get delivered in your mail box is 'heat set', ie , the printed web, (roll of paper printed rather than on sheets) passes through a heated chamber where the ink dries and the solvent fumes are extracted) whilst the old black and white print is just an oxidiation drying process as the ink is absorbed into the paper and then the surface dries.
Some of the really glossy printing uses the Ultra Violet ink technology where it passes under an extremely high (and very dangerous) ultra violet reactor (usually around 300 watts/lineal inch output). Paper printed with this technology cannot be recycled as the ink cannot be dissolved in solvents and hence be removed from the materials.
So, burning newspapers will not cause you any serious problems but you will need to burn alot but also need to separate the sheets otherwise it will then burn much slower.
I personally would not use much except initially to light the kindling wood or deal and then catch a good hardwood for that real and serious heat required.

Neill

[egalecki]

I always use some newspaper to get my fire started- I use the top-down method, detailed somewhere on the forum. It works very well when you get the hang of it. I twist the newspaper into log-like things and place them on top of my smallest kindling, and light them.

Once I get my paper started, I don't stand next to the oven anyway- I prefer not to stand next to the smoke no matter what's burning. Once it's going, I get almost no smoke to speak of.

[trockyh]

If you don't have a hatchet, get one and make your own kindling.

Tom

[skemcis]

If you have access to Birch bark, it works very well. Does not seem to matter if wet or dry, lights off immediately. Just peel off the paper, stuff under the kindling and you're off to the races.

[heliman]

Does paper not make a lot of ash? I only use odourless firelighters and they work just great...

[dmun]

Does paper not make a lot of ash?

By the time your fire is raging the little bit of ash from the paper is long gone. I try to keep solvents and cooking well separated: I haven't used charcoal starter for years.

I have no obvious tinder or kindling.

Your local woodworker or cabinetmaker will be happy to part with scraps, which otherwise they will have to pay to get rid of.