Super Cedars

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I just don't understand why Super Cedars are so expensive compared to the no name fire starters I can buy at the $ store which are EXACTLY the same...sawdust and wax.

Ruttland safe starts are $12.50 at Tractor Supply 144 lights.
 
you could save some money and just make your own out of dryer lint, wax, and egg carton. My wife found out about these and they work really well.

https://diyprojects.com/make-fire-starter-egg-carton-dryer-lint/
We have chickens (and plenty of old egg cartons), a wood shop (plenty of saw dust), and boxs of cheap candles. A couple of hours, cook up some fire starters, a couple years supply, each to their own. It's all in where your at, and what you want to get out of it. I'm repelled from some goods and services. Purchasing wax/sawdust cookies is one of them. I got some with the stove when new, and thought they were great. Once gone though it pretty much ended there.
 
I gather up a bucket of pine cones from the back yard in fall, they work great for starting fires and 1 pail usually lasts me all season. Sometimes i use dryer lint balls too. Birch bark is another option, just to many free resources to use to be paying for something else and im so tight i squeak anyways.
 
Ruttland safe starts are $12.50 at Tractor Supply 144 lights.

And as always, it pays to shop around - just out of curiosity I checked Amazon on this, a little over $21, with free shipping. I'm doing more and more "shopping" of Amazon ... seems they used to usually have a very attractive price, but in the last few years I have found that I can find things cheaper from other on-line vendors and sometimes locally.
 
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And as always, it pays to shop around - just out of curiosity I checked Amazon on this, a little over $21, with free shipping. I'm doing more and more "shopping" of Amazon ... seems they used to usually have a very attractive price, but in the last few years I have found that I can find things cheaper from other on-line vendors and sometimes locally.


I bought them for years at a local hardware store, last of the mom and pops type. I think i was paying 15 or so a box. Well then changed hands and don't carry them anymore. It looks like a general dollar store now. So on the way home i hot the local tractor supply and low and behold they had them for 12.50
 
Your right amazon want 20 bucks and home depot want 22. How can things be so far apart in pricing?
 
OK, here is my two cents. I am getting my insert installed next week, but I have already purchased 100 Super Cedars for $75.00 ($125 x .6), I was actually surprised at how small the box was. OK, when you do the math… many people say they split the super cedar between 2 or 3 or even 4 fire starts. NOW the MATH... at 200 fire starts the cost is $0.375 at 300 fire starts the cost is $0.25 and at 400 fire starts the cost is $0.1875.
My question is how many fire starts do you do on one super cedar disc? And I purchased a CAT inset, I don't want to use any ink or anything that will damage my insert, hence I purchased the super cedar.

Ah, a fellow "math guy"! :) I joke with my friends that I'd be dead without math! Before I got my Super Cedars I did that same math and using 1/4's I figured that for around 19 cents I could afford starting my fire each day (I heat 24x7, but let the fire go out overnight most nights except in really cold weather).

And since the Rutland product came up on this thread, I did the math on that and those are around 9 cents/fire. I used some of those that I got as a sample and they worked fine, but I would say they have a bit less "firepower" than a 1/4 Super Cedar. I'm also kicking around trying a 1/8th Super Cedar just to see how it will do.

Since my switch from the trusty old VC Defiant smoke dragon, to the Oslo, I've been having fun trying different fire starting techniques and things to start the fire with. I am a total "top down" fire starter guy. I put off trying it after so many years starting the Defiant bottom up with paper and kindling (the way a fire should be started ;)). After trying top down twice I never looked back and I ditched the paper.

My two go-to fire starters are the 1/4 Super Cedar and my homemade egg carton-sawdust-wax. I do like the Super Cedars, but like many of us here I like things that are "free" (or close to it) and I'm a project guy and have a lot of fun when it's time to make more of my egg carton ones.
 
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I bought them for years at a local hardware store, last of the mom and pops type. I think i was paying 15 or so a box. Well then changed hands and don't carry them anymore. It looks like a general dollar store now. So on the way home i hot the local tractor supply and low and behold they had them for 12.50

Tractor Supply Company (TSC as those in the know seem to call it or just Tractor Supply) is new around here in my part of WI. The closest one opened in Stoughton, WI only about 15 miles from me, so I'm just getting to know that stove. Only been in there once just a few weeks ago to get a part for, of all things the tractor, but shopped around for a bit and was pretty surprised at what they had and felt that the prices were good. I've added that as a place I look for things when comparing prices or trying to find something a bit different for the tractor, splitter, etc.
 
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Ah, a fellow "math guy"! :) I joke with my friends that I'd be dead without math! Before I got my Super Cedars I did that same math and using 1/4's I figured that for around 19 cents I could afford starting my fire each day (I heat 24x7, but let the fire go out overnight most nights except in really cold weather).

And since the Rutland product came up on this thread, I did the math on that and those are around 9 cents/fire. I used some of those that I got as a sample and they worked fine, but I would say they have a bit less "firepower" than a 1/4 Super Cedar. I'm also kicking around trying a 1/8th Super Cedar just to see how it will do.

Since my switch from the trusty old VC Defiant smoke dragon, to the Oslo, I've been having fun trying different fire starting techniques and things to start the fire with. I am a total "top down" fire starter guy. I put off trying it after so many years starting the Defiant bottom up with paper and kindling (the way a fire should be started ;)). After trying top down twice I never looked back and I ditched the paper.

My two go-to fire starters are the 1/4 Super Cedar and my homemade egg carton-sawdust-wax. I do like the Super Cedars, but like many of us here I like things that are "free" (or close to it) and I'm a project guy and have a lot of fun when it's time to make more of my egg carton ones.


Ive used super cedars before, I like the rutland better
 
Ive used super cedars before, I like the rutland better

And you lucked out - they are the cheapest!

Nice thing about firestarters is that a guy can buy a small number of a couple of different kinds and then use the one you like. The Rutland are "cleaner" than the Super Cedars - those always seem to have a few "crumbs" that will fall off.

Now don't ever try one of these - you'll never go back! LOL!

fire_starters.jpg
 
I made up another 6 dozen firestarters a couple nights ago. Egg cartons, wood chips, wax.
A row if splits NS with a starter in the middle, a row of splits EW above that, and a few small splits on top. Light and shut the door.
 
If anyone has ideas for using shredded paper let me know .I have an unlimited supply .

Criss cross your splits with a handful of shredded paper in the middle. I've done it with noodled maple shavings.
 
My wife just bought a 100 pack_g I had previously used 14 pucks in 2.5 years..... Apparently she was looking ahead. Waaaay ahead!
Yeah, old man brain got me. I ordered a 72, it arrived and I went to put it away and saw the half-box I still had left. ;lol
Ruttland safe starts are $12.50 at Tractor Supply 144 lights.
Yeah, I like those as well. You can take a big knife and split the wafer to half-thickness, then fold it in half and tent it..works great!

P1030933.JPG
 
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Depends . . . there is a difference in some newspaper. Some have more of a filler -- I think clay -- it gives it a different feel and I suspect makes color photos and print "pop" more to the eye. In my area the daily newspaper is nowhere as good at burning as the weekly entertainment newspaper which still uses the older style (and I suspect cheaper) paper.
I like the paper from the Boston Globe.
 
Yuuup...Old man brain got me too, after I ordered this years #72, I found last years unused remaining 1/3 in the place where I knew I wouldn't forget, ha! Anyway, I used to be miser too, I would scrap for pallets, cut 'em up for kindling, and use a 1/4" of supercedar. Now, Nope, No more...I use 1/2 of a cedar, no kindling, no newspaper or using some lint and wax stuff or otherwise, just a few nice smaller splits on the bottom and takes off in a few minutes. No need to rationalize with math either down to the $0.17, as I just had the fortune of paying $3.69/gal (regular) for gas in this stupid socialist state, so for me it's no brainer. Heck, if I'm feeling really good, I even use a whole cedar sometimes! :)
 
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Gas here now can be had for < $2/gal. Don't know how long that's going to last. Fuel oil hasn't followed suit though.
 
Yuuup...Old man brain got me too, after I ordered this years #72, I found last years unused remaining 1/3 in the place where I knew I wouldn't forget, ha! Anyway, I used to be miser too, I would scrap for pallets, cut 'em up for kindling, and use a 1/4" of supercedar. Now, Nope, No more...I use 1/2 of a cedar, no kindling, no newspaper or using some lint and wax stuff or otherwise, just a few nice smaller splits on the bottom and takes off in a few minutes. No need to rationalize with math either down to the $0.17, as I just had the fortune of paying $3.69/gal (regular) for gas in this stupid socialist state, so for me it's no brainer. Heck, if I'm feeling really good, I even use a whole cedar sometimes! :)

Right On Brother! There are counties (Sacramento) where you are prohibited from using your Wood Stove at all, unless it is the *only* source of heat or you are participating in a religious ordinance (i.e. burnt offerings). Thank God I live in a county (next door) that allows people to employ "carbon neutral" strategies to heat their home/family. <SARC> I'm sure the new Governor will see the myopic nature of some of the past environmental ways and reverse the no burn restriction and open up the option of wood burning (with a approved EPA-certified wood stove of course) . </SARC>

I used to scrounge parking lots after a windstorm to get branches that fell to use as kindling. Now with SUPERCEDARS, the scrounging is curtailed - although I find myself looking longingly at a felled pine tree thinking of the bounty of kindling/heat that could provide...
 
My Christmas tree is on the fire pit in the back yard, my cupboard is full of Super Cedars. I use them in halves, or even whole, lighting full loads of medium to large oak splits. Screw kindling!
 
My Christmas tree is on the fire pit in the back yard, my cupboard is full of Super Cedars. I use them in halves, or even whole, lighting full loads of medium to large oak splits. Screw kindling!
I'm just surprised you haven't converted to Andrew Jackson, Ulysses Grant, or Ben Franklin branded fire starters yet. Those are the starters for the most discerning wood heaters among us.
 
I'm just surprised you haven't converted to Andrew Jackson, Ulysses Grant, or Ben Franklin branded fire starters yet. Those are the starters for the most discerning wood heaters among us.

I can buy 100 SuperCedars for one Franklin, and I’ve found they work much better.
 
I can buy 100 SuperCedars for one Franklin, and I’ve found they work much better.

Very frugal - I think that old Ben would approve! :)