Unpopular opinion: I think learning to build a fire from scratch first makes you a better sweep than jumping straight to power tools

Met an old timer named Frank up in Bangor last fall. He showed up to a job I was on, saw me setting up the rotary brush, and just shook his head. Said 'son, do you even know how to light a fire in that thing without a starter log?' I laughed it off at first, but he spent 20 minutes showing me how he reads the draft and the soot patterns before he even pulls out a tool. Got me thinking I rely too much on the machine. Anyone else learn the hard way that the basics come first?

2 comments

2 Comments

faith_carter12d ago

Jumping in here to say Frank's right but also wrong about the starter log part. You actually don't want to use one in a wood stove or fireplace, the chemicals can mess with the creosote and make it more nasty than regular wood. But his point about reading the draft and soot patterns before grabbing any tool is solid, that's something most newer guys skip and it shows in the final result.

the_alice12d ago

Isn't that kind of the thing with most skills though? I mean, I learned to cook by using all these fancy gadgets and pre-made mixes, and then my grandma showed me how to make a roux from scratch and it was like a lightbulb went off. You start to actually understand why stuff works instead of just following steps. Same with how some people want to jump into photo editing apps before they even learn basic composition with their phone camera. It's like we all want the shortcut but the shortcut only teaches you the shortcut, not the whole picture.