Homemade fire starters...on the cheap.

Those Blue Tips were awesome! They were made about 15 minutes from here.
I get along "ok" with those Diamonds, but not as good as BT's, for sure! I usually grab a box or two when Menards puts them on sale (I think I got the last 2 free after rebate) I guess for the price I paid I can live with an occasional failed strike or broken tip.
As far as fire starters...the last couple of years I have pretty much just been keeping a coffee can full of dryer lint and some junk mail around for fire starter...usually have a bin of noodles too...no real time or money invested, but quite effective...good enough for me...but I understand that most people want something a little neater and easier to store if their stove is in the living areas (I heat most of the winter with a whole house wood furnace in the basement)

 

Giving the Bic EZ reach lighter a go this year. Maybe it will convert me from using matches.

Flame on this thing is serious. And the commercial is HILARIOUS.

 

2021 Firestarter Run Today

The 10# block of Hobby Lobby wax and a couple old candles made 184 Dixie Cup starters, 10 full egg carton starters (120 cups), and about 40 corrugated cardboard and match starters I plan to try on the ceramic grill. Probably have 4 hours in this all together.

Melted the wax in a double boiler setup with an old percolator that was in the scrap pile.


Poured the melted wax in a 5 gallon bucket and mixed with a paint paddle attached to a cordless drill. Was shooting for the paper shreds to have just enough wax on them to stick together to make the wax go farther.


Packed the cups with a pair of gloves on. The egg cartons are much easier to fill. We’ll see if one burns considerably better than another.






Dark colored ones are from a funky candle the MIL gave me. Now the whole house smells like grandma.


Will do some testing and report back. Just buying a box of unwrapped Supercedars might be the way to go in the future…

 

Some quick math. If every firestarter I made yesterday works I’ll have about 300 fires. It took every bit of 4 hours to make those.

A box of 100 unwrapped Supercedars with the FHC discount code is $82.60 shipped. 1/4 Supercedar is plenty to start a fire so $82.60 for 400 fires comes to 21 cents a fire. I spent 4 hours trying to save at MOST $63 or $15.75 per hour. Realistically I spent $20 on the wax so that drops my hourly savings to $10.75 per hour.

This may be the last round of these I make. I ordered a box of the Supercedars to compare them from burn to burn. If the homemade starters perform significantly better than the Supercedars then maybe it’s worth the fuss, or if you just enjoy making them.

Will post back with performance data when I have some.

 

I've had a 6qt pot of wax I've saved since I was a young teenager. We learned that if one dips cotton string into melted wax, it becomes impregnated, and becomes a wick that can be used in many applications.

I saved all the butt ends from my folks candles, and then my own, including candle scrounges. I've dipped my own candles from this wax (they burned out waaay to quick). But I've had this tubba wax for prolly 30 years.

I put it on top of the wood stove today, not a particularly hot burn, and it took most of the day to melt. As suggested here, I took it off as the last of it was melting.

I have bags of pine noodling, that we use for the composting toilet. I balled them up and stuffed them in egg carton sections, and poured wax over the top. Then went back an added a little more wax after they cooled a bit.

Will try one tomorrow if we have to restart the fire in the morning.
I take it one just sits one of these gadgets on a log and light 'er up?

Sca
Can't upload pics just now. Security risk I am.

 

I bet those burn NICE!

 

Gratitudes to Horkn re security error fix.
(See help thread for details)

Fire starter attempt #1

Sca

 

I usually put them partially under the wood I want to catch fire.

 

Thats the first I've seen them.
How'd they work?

 

Followup: had a bed of coals this morning. No Firestarter used.
I've been absolutely pounding water down day and night (doctors instructions with the plague recovery here). So I kept the Jotul fed all night, feeding it every couple hours.....
Sca

 

Seems like a lot of matches in each one. One's not enough ?
Most people have cardboard lying around.

Also interested in how well they work.

 

Azz. Hat.
Lol

 

I still think I got the best deal of all. Menards had these. 4-pak and after you send in the rebate, they're free! 99 cents a pak, and then misus the rebates of 11% and 89 cents a pak.

They were on clearance, but they still start the fires. I cut them in half and get 8 fires started from one pak.

FWIW, I used to make my own firestaters also. But when a deal like this is staring at you...do the math, right?

 

As promised:
We started the woodstove with 1 firestarter. I set it on a flat split, with a taller split behind. I put a third split diagonally over the two others so the firestarter was under the third piece.
Lit it with a single match....probably because I left pine noodles sticking out.

I think it took longer for the stove to get going, just because it burned generally in one place....vs newsprint which would have started a much larger area of wood aflame.

But it worked, and we didnt use up kindling and newspaper. I rewarmed the wax for a short time on the wood stove, and made 4 dozen more, perhaps Ill give some away. Course now im on the scrounge for candle nubs again. I think each starter (with pine noodles wadded in fairly tight) took less than 1/8C wax.

Sca

 

These are for the grill (lump charcoal). I have some ribs to smoke this week. Will post back with results.

 

You and Snoop Dog?

 

I use one fire starter on a cold start up. I make fire starters from egg cartons, dryer lint and wax.
This pic shows a typical restart for me. All it takes is one.