DIY Fire Starter’s

[m7040]

We use news paper to start. Take 3 sheets and roll them and twist and make a loop.

 

[Doofy]

3 Fatwood sticks on crumpled newspaper with 2 or 3 small logs on top of that. Starts every time.

 

[Buggeroff]

We were wondering, what are some of the ways that you guys are making your own fire starter’s. I tried small dried fir cones dipped in wax not good. Now using shredded paper stuffed into an ice tray with melted wax works good! Any other ideas? Thanks in advance for any ideas.

Hi Alan, I cut small blocks of softwood, usually off a length of 3 x 11/2 and fill an old ammo box with them. I then fill the box with some kerosine and let it sit for a few days. Pour off any remaking liquid (back into the bottle) and use 1 or 2 to light the fire. I've been using these for years and I supply some of the neighbors around here with blocks as well. They add their own kerosine. Works a treat.

 

[Markioti]

I use newspaper knots. Open an old newspaper. Take about 3 pages and roll them into a tube then tie it in a knot. Make 3 of these and arrange them on a couple of pages of crumpled paper. Then arrange your smallest wood on the pile. This almost always works for me. Good luck!

 

[naturaledge]

I used to make fire starters using soy wax and animal bedding Pine shavings which are pretty big chunks not like sawdust and a friolator I put a spigot on it's just a pot electric Heats wax in a few minutes and silicone molds work like a charm I think the silicone molds made 24 at a time then you just pop them out work great. But now I use the same setup and I use pine shavings and I run the hot wax over the pine shavings that I shake them up coat the shavings don't have to go too crazy they work great sprinkle on as little or as much as you need. reposenow.com

 

[bgtexas]

We use to take old egg cartons and put dryer lint in each egg position. Then pore melted wax on each lint ball. After the wax dries we would cut the sections apart and store them in a container. Just takes one section to start up the wood stove.

 

[hunt4570]

WHAT is FATWOOD?

Fatwood is a pine that dies and remains standing, all the sap runs down into the stump. Its natural where I live , like someone said split it into pencil size pieces 6-8" long, starts with a match and will start almost anything. I have 5 gallon buckets of it already split and ready to go.

 

[newbury]

Egg cartons? Ours are plastic foam.
Amazon & Walmart are often using thin brown paper, about 6" wide, for packaging inside boxes.
Wife used to drive me nuts flattening that out so it took up less space.
Now I just save that up unflattened.
Maybe add a few drops of diesel.

 

[Ed ke6bnl]

I have a bag of wood pellets from last year that turned powdery from humidity, I will put them in a paper cupcake container and poor melted wax over it and let it solidify. best I have found so far. I just melt old candles. Burn for about ten minutes.

 

[renoel]

Been using a woodstove for ~40 years, 2 - 5 cords depending on how ambitious I am with putting up wood the previous year and how consistent I am starting morning fires ... While I used newspaper crumpled into tight balls along with some kindling in the early years, the last 10 - 15 years I've been using firestarter sticks (e.g. Duraflame), most of which are "Made with wax and a blend of recycled and renewable biomass fibers." However, to get the most bang for my buck, I use a cleaver to lop off a piece and then I cut that in half. For kindling, normally I use the hardwood pieces that fall to the ground during the process of splitting logs and that I store in a trash can. The kindling you see in the photo is the result of recently cleaning up my workshop and finally letting go of scrap pine boards that I was certain I'd someday use for small projects but never did.

 

[John_Mc]

The single easiest way to start a fire: make sure you are using properly dried/seasoned wood. It catches so much more easily than would that is only "almost dry enough" that you don't need anything fancy to get it started.

I use a single sheet of newspaper crumpled up with some well-dried pine kindling. If I have scraps of dimensional lumber from various projects, I'll split that up. Otherwise, I'll usually salvage a couple of rounds of White Pine from something that blew down on our property, split it small, then let it season properly. In a wood stove, I'll place a few well-dried medium sized firewood pieces in he back, then put 2 or three small sticks of kindling and crumpled up newspaper in front. Light the paper, leave the door open a crack, and it fires right up. Once the flame has spread well into the kindling, I shut the door, but leave the stove air supply wide open until the logs are burning well.

For camp fires at a camp ground, where I'm using the campground's firewood, their would is usually very poorly seasoned and harder to start. I'll use firestarters made by my daughter's Girl Scout troop: they save cardboard egg cartons and cut them into individual cups or the tiny "shot glass" sized paper cups, fill them with dryer lint or chainsaw wood chips and pour wax over them. They work rather well.

Another trick: if you are using a chainsaw on any pine or other softwood, make a few "noodling" cuts and save the noodles. They dry quickly if you get them up off the ground (even a week or so in good sun and wind if it's spread out and not just heaped in a big pile) and light easily. A fist full of noodles can make a great fire-starter.

If you are not familiar with "noodling": lay your chainsaw against the side of a log parallel to the grain and cut. You'll get long thin noodles, rather than chips. (On some saws, the noodles might eventually fill up the area around the drive sprocket. You can help clear this by occasionally lift i the saw slightly out of the cut as it runs to clear things. You can also control the length of the noodles by lifting up on the saw handle a bit, but keeping the end down in the log, so you are no longer completely parallel to the side of the log. The larger the angle, the shorter the chips.)

 

[EABill]

We were wondering, what are some of the ways that you guys are making your own fire starter’s. I tried small dried fir cones dipped in wax not good. Now using shredded paper stuffed into an ice tray with melted wax works good! Any other ideas? Thanks in advance for any ideas.

We just use small pine branches if available. Less work. Out in the mountains in the Thorofare I used all small pine branches to start our fires. Just keep building with larger sticks. Simple.

 

[Treedoc]

Start with a large 1 gallon plastic container with a wide mouth. Fill 3/4 full with animal bed shavings. Add 1 cup of diesel. Shake it up real good to disperse the diesel. Poor out a heaping cup onto a paper plate. Set it where you want to build the fire, add kindling and set fire to the shavings. Use this method for both the wood stove and camping fires. Never fails.

 

[pmsmechanic]

Melt some wax, stir in as much sawdust as you can. Press it about 1.25" thick in a pan. When it's half hard cut into 1.25" squares and let harden. Each piece burns for about 20 minutes. I tried this idea with dryer lint but it burns to fast. I like the long burn time of sawdust.

 

[Hermio]

We were wondering, what are some of the ways that you guys are making your own fire starter’s. I tried small dried fir cones dipped in wax not good. Now using shredded paper stuffed into an ice tray with melted wax works good! Any other ideas? Thanks in advance for any ideas.

Starters, not starter's. An apostrophe makes it possessive, not plural.

 

[Hermio]

I've been using leftover or discarded wax candles. Melt them in an old skillet and pour the wax about 3/4 inch thick in some kind of container. Add as much sawdust or wood shavings as the wax will absorb. When cool enough to handle break it apart into whatever size pieces you desire. Garage sales or GW Fashions (GoodWill) are good places to get large old candles for a quarter or two.
As mentioned above, pretty much any source of organic material can be used instead of sawdust. Paper, cotton balls, etc. After learning of this method I won't go back to using just newspapers and kindling. (That and the fact our local newspaper just quit.)

I have done that too, but I use small wax paper cups to press the hot sawdust mixture into. BTW, this whole thing is best done outdoors.

 

[Rockbadchild]

Starters, not starter's. An apostrophe makes it possessive, not plural.

wow seriously dud ??

 

[John_Mc]

Those of you using sawdust as one of your ingredients: are you actually using sawdust, like from a circular saw or table saw, or are you referring to the chips from using a chainsaw

 

[hunt4570]

The punctuation police have arrived!

 

[hunt4570]

Those of you using sawdust as one of your ingredients: are you actually using sawdust, like from a circular saw or table saw, or are you referring to the chips from using a chainsaw

Well if their chain is dull it might be sawdust!