I got around to making my firestarters. I melted a bunch of dead candles over a basswood fire. My wife approved of using this calphalon pot. I needed wood shavings or chips, and I had just the thing for that. I bucked a bunch of decent sized branches of mostly shagbark hickory, but some beech was in there too. So it's high btu stuff. The pieces of wood went in the stack by the house, and the shavings went into cardboard egg cartons. About halfway poured with the melted wax. Waiting on more wax to melt as I miscalculated how much I'd need. I should have enough wax. Hopefully
Nice Horkn! is this a tried and true recipe youve used in the past? Its always nice to be able to make your own tools, helps with the pride of being able to do your own thing. Ive never made my own fire starters before but it sounds like fun.
I use an old, small double boiler and sometimes use candles found at garage sales, but also buy wax from the grocery store. We only buy eggs that come in those cardboard cartons, and use sawdust/chips from the shop (I gotz lots of that in there). I lay down a sheet of parchment paper on the counter under the cartons, and pour the wax in. Let 'em cool a little, then they get stacked up in the stove room. Very easy process that takes very little time. When I need one, it's easy to just break off one of the egg holders. I like eggs, and woodworking, so.....................
Still waiting for the wax to melt to finish the batch. Soon I suppose, but the stove is needing a reload, so stt is not as high as before. This is my first attempt. I followed Grizzly Adam recipe from a while back. Or was it papadave ? These are basically homemade super cedars.
Wax goes further if you CAREFULLY mix the sawdust into the wax with the pot safely off the stove and away from your wife's new rug, etc.
I read these threads and applaud anyone that cares to do this but I just can't bring myself to ever think I will make any of these myself. I always seem to have something else that I could do so super cedar will continue to get my dime.
Actually, I've got an order of Super Cedars coming in tomorrow. Down to my last 1/4 puck. I keep wanting to make my own and then run out of the SC and don't have any sawdust around. Well, one day.
Do you have the crumbly kind or the hard kind that I hear you need to score with a blade? My wife (awesome by the way) picked up some from the states and I like them but they crumble quite a bit. I still like them though.
My wife's been saving dead candles for a while, as well as the egg cartons. So, it was waiting for the sawdust. That happened today with my "sticks" that needed to be cut down and added to the stacks. Most things are down to timing, and planning.
They are hard and sometimes I score them or just break in my hands. I find they do crumble only where they are broken. The pieces stay solid. I only use a quarter puck with good dry splits. No kindling except on slightly moist wood.
I started using little 1 oz paper portion cups bought from the Real Canadian Wholesale Store (everyone just calls them Wholesale). They're the same paper cup as what you would get to put ketchup in at McDonalds. 250 in a pack for $2.50 or so. They hold less fire starter material but still work very well. My egg carton fire starters are probably overkill for dry wood.
I had to reload the stove with more basswood to get the stove temp up. The blower on this quadrafire blows under the top of the stove where I have the pot. So it doesn't get as hot as most stoves do on the top.
I have lots of pine around here so it would be nice to find some fatwood. Ive picked apart lots of old stumps in the woods and only found rot, fungi and grubs
Here's the results. I had enough extra wax for another 12 pack. So 60 starters is the haul. I cut up 12, that will be enough for a while. The house smells good too. Most were vanilla scented candles, but there were a couple cinnamon apple.
