For the last couple of years I’ve been using Fatwood to start the woodstove. Fatwood is a natural product made from the stumps of certain pine trees found in Southern USA. The resin concentrates in this area of the tree and the resulting product is sticks of wood that burn for a long time.
The only drawback I’ve experienced is that they burn with dark and smokey. Fatwood produces a significant amount of dark, oily, and bad-smelling smoke because of its high resin (terpene) content. I can see the snoot it creates on the top of my wood stove as I’m starting up the fire. If you use a lot of fatwood, the heavy resin in fatwood can lead to excessive creosote buildup in chimneys and stovepipes over time, increasing the risk of a chimney fire if not regularly maintained.
They also take a while to light. They are difficult to light with just a match.
So I’m trying an alternative. A parafin (wax) based product.
These pine fiber and paraffin wax natural fire started light easily with a match, burn for about 10 minutes, are lightweight, waterproof, odorless and best of all, give off no smoke. https://amzn.to/3Jrp5nn