Lighting a Wood Burning / Multi Fuel stove

[Mortblanc]

It may sound a bit funny but there have always been folk that could not light a fire. If you read enough history you will find constant comments about folk running to fetch a neighbor to start their dead fires. Boys often earned extra pennies by going about and kindling fires for the housewives of the neighborhood.

My father grew up around wood and coal burners but could not start a fire in a gunpowder plant.

My Grandmother cooked on a wood burner and kept a bucket of corncobs soaking in paraffin for a quick start up in the morning. She would light a corncob and toss wood in on it and had a fire going in short order. They heated with coal in open fireplace grates.