Trying a new idea for home made fire starters

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fsr4538

New Member
Jul 13, 2007
83
I bought a bag of pellets to try an experiment with. (Experiment failed, oh well) Now I have a bag of pellets. I make my own fire starters from egg cartons, cedar shavings and wax. My wife wondered out loud if the pellets would make good fire starters if packed in the egg crates and waxed like the cedar shavings.

We will know soon enough. I have a carton cooling now. I will try it tomorrow evening for starting my basement fire. I will let you know how it goes. If it works it will be much cheaper filling material for the carton cells at 4.00 for 40 lbs. of material.



Regards,

Forrest
 
We use egg cartons, dryer lint, and wax. The lint is free! ;)
 
I use 3 oz paper bathroom cups filled with woodchips from chainsawing and wax.

Next I am going to try strips of newspaper drizzled with wax, rolled into straws and cut to length.

Possibly with some hearty lentil soup and glass of wine.
 
I had a big bag of those ceder shavings for animal bedding, I also had a bunch of old candles. I went to the dollar store and bought a turkey roasting pan for the mold. I melted all the candles in an old pot that had been in my shop collecting dust (warning: use a double boiler!)

I dumped the molten wax in the roasting pan then started adding the shavings until all the wax was absorbed. After it cooled I had a big brick of firestarter. I took a hatchet to the block and made nice little pieces. So far I have used 1/3 of the whole block. They work just as good as any commercially available fire starter.
 
The short blast from a propane torch is very effective. I started the burning season in October with a half a bottle of fuel (the little 16 ounce ones) …. It’s still not empty so maybe it takes me only a minute or so. Of course, I only need it if there are no coals so about once/week because we run 24/7. The hot blue flame starts the tinder/kindling very quickly. No newspaper or wax required.
 
sunglider said:
I use 3 oz paper bathroom cups filled with woodchips from chainsawing and wax.

Next I am going to try strips of newspaper drizzled with wax, rolled into straws and cut to length.

Possibly with some hearty lentil soup and glass of wine.

Having been born into a Dutch shipwright family I know for a fact that the only wine you can make fire starters with is the strong ancient "brandewijn" (brandevin) they used on the old square-rigged barques sailing to Dutch India and other far-off places.

Be very careful, matey! They say that exploding brandevin barrels sent more Dutch India men to Davey Jones' locker than all wars and pirates combined. :)

Henk

PS As far as the lentil soup goes; you're on your own there ;)
 
Easy way to make starters is with a bandsaw and scrap 2xs. Start out with 1/4sq then 1/2sg then 3/4sq pieces all abour 6inches long. Load in big to small with changing direction. You can start them with nothing but a match. Or just start one fire in the fall and don't let it go out till winter is over. hehehehe.
 
I am totally spoiled by SuperCedars. Once again they saved my butt this morning as I hurried to light the fire and get ready for work.
 
I bought the super cedars to start the fire with but the dang blaze king just wont go out. I have only lit it once since we first installed it 4 weeks ago. I tried to let it burn out to clean it last week but just could not get it to go out, the bed of coals was so nice I just decided to keep it going. I am beginning to think I may not shut it down until summer...
 
BeGreen said:
I am totally spoiled by SuperCedars. Once again they saved my butt this morning as I hurried to light the fire and get ready for work.
 
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