I've got a big citranilla candle I plan to melt down tonight to make Firestarters, should be enough to last the first half the season or better. Going to have to pay a visit to Grizzly's Paw to get some sawdust from his shop.
I've been saving some candle wax and used egg cartons. I'm leaning towards BrianK idea. I liked his method.
There is a video of me making some on FHC-TV. Thing time it will be just sawdust and candle wax in egg cartons.
I'd love to see some pics, the gf has some old melted down pillar candles she wants to get rid of and I was thinking of trying my hand at this with saw dust and those small paper dixie cups. How do you melt your wax? I've seen people use the old crock pots which seems cool but I don't have an old one. I was thinking of putting chucks of wax in a mason jar and then lowering it down into a pot of boiling water. I would keep the lid off the glass jar just in case (would you even have to?) and just hold it down there long enough to melt the wax.
I take an old large tin can - the kind used for fruit or vegetables and place it on the woodstove. Might as well use that free heat! I can then dip my firestarters in the wax.
I have an old pot that I saved when the MIL was tossing stuff out. I put the wax directly in there and melt on the woodstove. I've had this candle for about 4 years, and am not convinced it works-- so I am putting it to better use.
Is it one of those candles that are supposed to bring wealth or good luck? Mine don't work either I've heard most people pour their wax into something that contains saw dust, you mention that you dip something in the wax? Can you elaborate on your method?
Razo, I save my dryer lint and put them in a cardboard egg carton. Cut up each cup and wrap with twine. Hold twine and dip into wax. Set aside to cool....
Hey I like that idea! Sounds much easier than trying to actually pour the wax. So the lint pretty much stays in place and doesn't try to "float out" during dunking or anything, wonder if I could do that with saw dust instead of lint.
I just made mine today. No old candles so I bought 3 lbs of paraffin~ $10. Got about 140 1" square starters. Should last me awhile
Every time I read one of these threads I always end up reading through all of it then my next thought is, I have so many things that need done around here, boy those super cedars work well.
Razo, There are some "tabs" left over when cutting the egg carton. I fold those over on top of the dryer lint and tie the string/twine around it to keep it closed. I leave enough twine to be able to dip the fire starter in the wax.
What I like doing is I'll go to the Dollar General Store and get a big jar of Vasoline and a couple of bags of Big Cotton balls. You unroll the cotton ball, dip the ol' finger in the Vasoline and get a nice chunk. Then put it on the end of the cotton roll, then start rolling and squeezing the Vasoline through the cotton ball. Then you can put the collection of cottons balls in ziplock bag. They burn for fairly long and they can be made while watching TV....
