Fire Starters

[Sandhill Crane]

Have not used kindling in three years! Margaret, my wife, got this from her sister who got it from who knows where....

Things you need:
1. old candles(garage sales, neighbors, friends, everyone has a drawer of holiday candles somewhere)
2. cardboard egg cartons
3. lint (yep...drier lint)

Melt candled in double boiler or however you wish.
Stuff lint in egg carton partitions.
Pour melted wax into egg cartons, let harden, break into individual parts.
Place two logs in wood stove. Set fire starters on top and light. Add more wood on top of fire starters.

We keep a small basket of them by the stove. Especially great in the Fall when lighting an occassional fire. And, they make great 'tokens of appreciation' for friends.

I had surgery last Winter and a good friend came over and brought wood from the shed up to the house with the quad and trailer. Margaret slipped a plastic grocery bag of fire starters into his car. He had kind of pooh poohed fire starters in general, thinking of store bought ones. He called two days later saying they were the next best thing to maple syrup!

Having trouble formating the image size to load photos.

 

[Marc]

I don't think I've ever tried starting a fire with maple syrup...

 

[alanarbor]

Saw chips are also good in lieu of dryer lint.

 

[beerman6]

I don't think I've ever tried starting a fire with maple syrup...

I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue...

 

[cnice_37]

Interesting....

so how full of each item in the partition?

to re-size files just use web host program, like photobucket, and there is some option there to re-size for web page - don't recall the exact wording.

 

[Pulp Friction]

I use a case of fire starters from Walmart for $10. Just break off the smallest piece from each brick that you can get by with. I usually end up with a piece about 1 cubic inch. A case lasts all year that way instead of using one of the full-size bricks in the case, and I worry less about gumming up my stack with parafin or whatever they make them out of.

 

[cnice_37]

A case lasts all year that way

Starting a fire daily?

This post has me intrigued as I start my fires the old fashioned way, and it sucks going out in the dead of winter to find snow covered kindling.

 

[TreePointer]

We've been using a case of Jarden StarterLogg (yes, it's spelled with two g's). They're not actually log size, but look more like short bricks. Break off a cubic inch and that's all you need.

We've managed to get them in packages/cases of 4, 24, and 40 bricks (whichever one is on special/seasonal clearance).

 

[Sandhill Crane]

Opps! Should have said best thing since maple syrup.
I'll have to try some of the other thinks mentioned for comparision. Thanks, and Ill try another go at the pictures.

 

[audible fart]

I'm a phone book, junk mail, and 30pack cardboard box man, myself. I'd feel kind of strange buying firestarters from a store.

 

[Marc]

Opps! Should have said best thing since maple syrup.
I'll have to try some of the other thinks mentioned for comparision. Thanks, and Ill try another go at the pictures.

Just being a wise arse. Crappy day at work. Looking forward to my six pack of Dogfish Head.

 

[Winn R]

We have something called fat pine, or lighter.

It's the sap filled pine that's almost like amber. Lite a chunk with a match, it'll burn even wet. Pick it up in the woods.

Or one of the fancy Maine stores sells it for $25 a bundle!

 

[Pulp Friction]

Starting a fire daily?......

Yes, pretty much daily. Actually I should have said "all season" instead of all year. The only time I use the starter-brick chunks is when I work overtime and get home from work too late for the embers to have lasted. When the embers do last, I throw on a couple of oak pallet strips a few inches long. Just add air aimed just right from a cracked open woodstove door and it is like solid rocket fuel. Otherwise, the chunk of starter brick gets used almost once daily. Just one match and walk away. I've done it all sorts of other ways and this is by far the easiest way for me so far.

 

[Ambull]

I'm a phone book, junk mail, and 30pack cardboard box man, myself. I'd feel kind of strange buying firestarters from a store.

Me too - I'm way too cheap to buy fire starters. I just save the wood chips from my splitting in a cardboard box. That combined with newspaper works great.

 

[gtsawyer]

We started using the lint/wax/cardboard egg carton fire starters maybe 3 years ago. I couldn't bring my man-self to even try them for awhile (I don't need no stinkin' fire starter crap) but after using them I realized they work really, really well. However, thinking of what's in the lint is kinda gross.

We collect bits and pieces of candles and wax over the course of the year and make the starters in the fall. We had a few left over from last year, seen in the photo.

I think next time I'll make them out of wood chips instead of lint to avoid the yuck-factor.

 

[woodbooga]

Neat reading about these tricks folks use.

Around here, no one even wants to touch the white pine that's abundant - except for campfires.

I've about sold all the camp wood I'm gonna. So I'll be getting busy soon in whacking up a supply, taking the camp splits and whittling them down to small pieces that I'll pile in the barn.

The knotty pieces are great for firestarting because of the resin. But I sure do like splitting those straight-grained pieces. The way they go 'plink-plink-plink' as you split them down.

Our old cookstove won't hold an overnight fire, so we go through a LOT of kinlen!

 

[TreePointer]

I'm an old Boy Scout at heart, so I prefer to start fires with just a wooden match and a little tinder. Heck, I often challenge my nieces and nephews to light the outdoor firepit with a magnifying glass or a friction fire. They get a kick out of it and learn things they wouldn't possibly learn in their formal schooling.

However, when I need a fire for quick heat, or friends are visiting and I don't want to waste time, it's hard to beat getting things going with something like a StarterLogg piece.

 

[buildmyown]

I pass by a cabinet shop one my way to work and about once a month he has 3 trash barrels full of hard wood scraps. I just dump them in my trunk and then fill 3 trash barrels in my basement those usally last all season and light right up using a propane plumbers torch. Then again the torch will usally light up nice dry wood anyways.

 

[DSS]

Nice dry softwood noodles are the best thing i've tried.

But i'm gonna try the dryerlintintheeggcup thing, just because. Cool idea.

 

[Turkeyslayer]

I have used pine cones dipped in wax and put in paper lunch bags with good results. But I like the egg carton lint idea also, and may try it this winter.