Homemade fire starters...on the cheap.

With that in mind, I found a spot along the street here, might nip out and grab a few from there, Or anywhere else I can find them and not be in the way.
late September through November we'll start 160 fires, x2 a day till colder times. about the same for spring time.
2 cones per start.
I have a years' worth on hand....
Another thing to hoard up!

 

The only fire starters that I made, that went out, were ones I skimped on wax.

 

ya could, but why bother?
So far they light with a lighter, and the sap on the tips just goes right up.
and they smell good too.

 

I'm just stoked that this is that many wax firestarters I don't have to make.
The pine noodles can be used for other things.
no need to collect egg cartons.
no more buying wax
or the time and mess to make.

Just a few boxes of cones and time outside gathering.

 

Ok.. We almost always load twice.. bigger house higher ceiling.. can be 14 -18 hours.. I have no oak and none drying.. sugar maple is my heavy hitter

 

I told neighbor yesterday and he gathered some to try.

Side note: we gathered some huge pine cones in The Low Country some years back. Our friend told us to tie the trash back shut and let it sit in the sun outside IIRC to kill any mites on them. (They were beautiful pine cones for decoration)

 

I’ve been grabbing pinecones in VT and CT. Ended up bringing an empty pellet bag to VT to store them. They really help get things going; especially starting a fire in a cold stove.

 

perhaps I'll relocate my cones outside to a dry location.
Got enough 2 legged varmints, don't need more bugs and things to add to the mix.

 

See my next thread...
A handful of pills, and a gulp of tea....

 

Picked up a bucket full of cones yesterday and brought them in by the fire to dry.

 

Lots of EWP pine cones here as well. I've collected a couple buckets of them. Burning 24/7, we don't use much kindling.

 

It has been warm enough here that the fire goes out from time to time. I like a couple logs going to stave off the chill. But it goes out now and again. So I'm going through cones. Maybe we'll see some real cold in December.
Wait, nope, perhaps January.

I should poke around town for parks to take a bucket or two of cones.

 

Tried a couple cones in the fire. Both times got LOTS of smoke. Second time got a little flash of flames but went out quick. Got sap on my fingers so maybe they're not dry enough.
There were still hot coals both times and they didn't really burn. I'll let them sit a little longer next to the stove...

 

Yeah - right off the ground won't work so well. I have them in a milk crate where they can dry out.

 

Definitely let them dry out and open up.

 

Stove was cold this morning because we both were busy last night and let it go out. So i came down this morning to light a fire and thouht about trying the pine cones. Holy moly I'm glad i didn't! Had a terrible down draft and had to rush around and put the torch in the flue clean-out. The smoke was pouring out the air inlet under the stove. The thick white smoke i got from the wet cones would have made it 10x worse...
I even had to put the cap on the cleanout because the heat was just coming out past the torch for a minute. Ran over and opened the basement door at that point.
It's odd that the down draft was that bad at 21° and clear skies!

 

Yike!
so far, no down draft issues here. I think we have 25' of chimney and 5' of vertical stove pipe.
I haven't experienced that white smoke TD. Mine were EWP cones, slightly damp, but only the fully open and not green ones.
I usually wear a little sap when using them, but I like the smell, a little on the fingers doesn't last long.
gloves with sap smell good for days...

 

Used the last of my Firestarters today. Got some noodles drying out. It’s looking like im going to have to buy some wax tho.

 

I picked a 30# box of wax online last fall. I'm not sure if it was cost effective though. $60 ish. But I got a couple hundred out of half the wax I got.
Since I gathered EWP cones, I'm gonna use those up and leave my wax ones for use later (and I'm gonna hide them so everyone else doesn't use them up).

 

2$ per pound isn’t a terrible price. I have in the past bought a box of gulf wax when my wax supply was low, I think it was 4-5$. There wasn’t any in the store where I had gotten it today. The noodles need time to dry so I’ll figure something out. There is a candle factory a couple towns over I might poke around the dumpster next time I’m over there.