DIY Firestarters - What's your favorite?

[bigealta]

I've recently been using Egg Carton and cooking oil and White pine pine cones if i'm short on kindling and to just try different things. What's your go to if you use DIY starters?

Here's a short on how i do the egg carton starter.

 

[PaulOinMA]

Never short of kindling here. One-acre wooded lot. Just newspaper and kindling.

Neen to burn a lot of kindling and branches at the end of the season to reduce the piles just off the driveway.

 

[begreen]

SuperCedars, but once we are heating 24/7 no starters needed until things warm up again.

 

[bigealta]

SuperCedars, but once we are heating 24/7 no starters needed until things warm up again.

Yeah here i start from cold almost every day, and many days twice a day. Temps have been too warm to run 24/7. I'm kind of a pyro so i'm good with it.

 

[Woody5506]

I save chainsaw chips, leave them in a bucket for a year or so, then fill paper egg cartons and dump either paraffin wax over them or the wife's old unwanted candles. Paraffin definitely works better. I've also made them with bacon grease but they don't harden up the same even in my cold garage. I try to make several dozen at a time and really only need them in the shoulder season.

 

[kborndale]

Birch bark

 

[fvhowler]

Kindling, lightwood and Rutland safelight squares are what I use.

 

[ericm979]

Lots of kindling comes off the wood as I'm splitting. I keep a garbage can next to the splitter and toss it in. The can goes under cover in the barn where it dries for a year or two. When the kindling is not enough there's the propane torch.

 

[Sono]

I've recently been using Egg Carton and cooking oil and White pine pine cones if i'm short on kindling and to just try different things. What's your go to if you use DIY starters?

Here's a short on how i do the egg carton starter.

I have egg layers so I get a lot of cartons. Recently I have been saving dryer lint, supposedly you pack the recycled cartons with lint, add cadle wax or grease to make them into little fire starter cubes. Break one off and set in the center base and light. I havent done this myself yet as I wonder about any messes from the wax/grease... but I think the lint alone would work great as I use the lint to start my trash fires outside.

 

[bigealta]

I have egg layers so I get a lot of cartons. Recently I have been saving dryer lint, supposedly you pack the recycled cartons with lint, add cadle wax or grease to make them into little fire starter cubes. Break one off and set in the center base and light. I havent done this myself yet as I wonder about any messes from the wax/grease... but I think the lint alone would work great as I use the lint to start my trash fires outside.

Yeah i have not tried that, i like the "no prep needed" for the egg carton and a drizzle of cooking oil. But i'm going to try the lint in paper towel tube version pretty soon.

 

[Todd]

Sawdust and a little wax in egg cartons works great for me. No need for kindling, just stack the splits in the stove and place a fire starter in between.

 

[rwhite]

I tried the lint and wax starters once. They worked great but I have shedding animals and a large portion of my lint trap is dog hair. It smelled terrible. I use these now. They are around $10/box. I break them into 3rds so one box lasts me all year. It's mainly the shoulder season I burn in cycles and do cold starts as the house gets to hot if I burn all day. Once December rolls around I'm burning 24/7 and don't need them very often.

 

[Highbeam]

Clean, cheap, fast, effective, hand help finger trigger ignition propane torch. Works so well that you will throw away the egg cartons.

My kindling is just firewood split down smaller then hit it with the torch.

 

[begreen]

We have tons of splitter trash which I am chewing through, but definitely a lot more than we need for starting. We had so much for the past couple years ago that last year I used it on sunny shoulder season days for the primary fire fuel just to burn it up. Not much need for kindling when burning 24/7.

 

[Sono]

Clean, cheap, fast, effective, hand help finger trigger ignition propane torch. Works so well that you will throw away the egg cartons.

My kindling is just firewood split down smaller then hit it with the torch.

View attachment 288343

I got a torch in my plumbing box too, also have a torch tip extended reach BIC lighter I use for the pit.... both cheap at $3 ( except for the $30 torch handle if you need to buy one ) but the tanks last a long time for $3

 

[Dan Freeman]

Two pieces of balled up newspaper (I use the flyers from the grocery store.) and a handful of dried kindling. I have enough kindling to last me all winter. Anyone who splits should have plenty. Merry Christmas and keep the fires burning. 🎅

 

[Highbeam]

I got a torch in my plumbing box too, also have a torch tip extended reach BIC lighter I use for the pit.... both cheap at $3 ( except for the $30 torch handle if you need to buy one ) but the tanks last a long time for $3

Refill those bottles for like 40 cents!

 

[Sono]

Refill those bottles for like 40 cents!

free if I get an adapter for the home or bbq tank.

 

[weatherguy]

Clean, cheap, fast, effective, hand help finger trigger ignition propane torch. Works so well that you will throw away the egg cartons.

My kindling is just firewood split down smaller then hit it with the torch.

View attachment 288343

I bought a big box of super cedars and it'll last me 4-5 years but I want to get a torch like you have, it's on my list next time I go to harbor Freight.

 

[bigealta]

Also Pine Cones from White Pine Tree are working well for me.

 

[Highbeam]

I bought a big box of super cedars and it'll last me 4-5 years but I want to get a torch like you have, it's on my list next time I go to harbor Freight.

This torch was from Home Depot. I actually bought a second one for the second stove. They’re kinda spendy but there are many uses including starting the stove.

I own a mr heater brand adapter to refill the 1# propane tanks from the bbq size tanks. My cost for that propane is about 40 cents. Ability to refill them is a great skill to have.

I’ve used a super cedar and they work well too.

 

[ABMax24]

Birch bark and wood pellets
Dry sawdust and diesel fuel
Propane torch

 

[tlc1976]

I always saved my non gloss newspaper and cardboard and plastic. Between rolled cardboard and food boxes and newspaper wads it usually stayed going. Sometimes I got really stubborn fires, didn’t get hot fast enough at first to keep going for awhile. In which case, certain plastics like Taco Bell cups would melt and stay on the wood and burn long enough for the fire to sustain itself. Only had these because my kid’s mom lived nearly 4 hours away in the winter and I made sure she was fed. Yes I know not great for the environment but I did what I had to do. Later on when I could afford them I used the firestarter squares, sometimes up to a block of 4 of them and that would do it.

 

[ratsrepus]

Kindling, lightwood and Rutland safelight squares are what I use.

Me too, they are great $15 a box from amazon with 144 squares per box

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I have a birch tree on the property which this tree alone will give me enough sticks to start my fires for the year. I also use shorts and split them down to roughly one inch to use as kindling to get the stove going. I do some newspaper on occasion if its a cold start to get good draft, and I'm a fan of the torch to get things started. I don't like to buy starters, there's to much stuff thats free to burn. Ill put my money elsewhere..