How to Make Fire Starters

Some of us cheat and have gas pipes in the fireplaces which helps to start a fire easily but for those who don’t–I thought fire starters might be a topic of interest and a good project for a cold day.

There are as many fire starters around as the imagination can come up with. In most cases they will burn a few minutes which is long enough for you to get the fireplace or wood stove going.

Of course, you can always buy firestarter squares or fire starter blocks.

Popular craft projects use paraffin wax, dryer link, wood chips or shavings, wood or paper litter, pine cones, Dixie Cups or cup cake cups, and paper egg cartons.

Paper egg cartons supply twelve perfect compartments.  Dryer lint burns easily and for long durations when packed tightly inside.

To make these work well just add petroleum jelly, old crayons, or other wax.

Above: Egg carton fire starters filled with wood chips and wax or petroleum jelly.

Petroleum Jelly Fire Starters can be made by filling the egg carton compartments halfway full of dryer lint topped with about a teaspoon of petroleum jelly (such as Vaseline) and then cover with more dyer link.

When done just cut the individual cups away from the carton and store in a dry place. The rest of the carton can be used to fill other cups or cartons if shredded.

A variation of this uses small paper cups–such as Dixie Cups. Fill will lint or wood chips and follow the same procedure.

Pine Cone Fire Starters are made of pine cones and melted wax in paper cupcake liners or something similar.  You can also roll them in wood chips and then drip with wax.

Melted Crayon Fire Starters are perfect for those of you with kids and lots of broken bits of crayons. Melt the crayons in a can placed in a pan of simmering water or a double boiler.

Once the wax melts, wait for the can to cool before touching.

You can then pour the melted wax onto the lint or woodchips but be sure to let it soak in.

Check out Adrien’s cool fire starter tutorial if you are so inclined.

Do you have a favorite technique for starting your fires? Leave a comment.



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This entry was posted on Friday, January 2nd, 2009 and is filed under Activities, Mountain Lake Resort, Small Town Living.

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