28 July 2008
Wax and Wood Firestarters for $12… LOL
Posted by admin under: Equipment .
I can’t believe these are the same guys I thought had such a great idea for marshmallow roasters. Sure, you have to wade through three sets of ads before you get to see what they are selling, but then you find out it’s wood and wax in a paper cup… for $12. Oh, no.
First, let’s review the purpose of a firestarter. You don’t have the right kind of kindling and tinder to start your fire so you need something that will light easily and continue to burn for a while so it can get those big pieces of wood going. You’ve tried using newspaper, but it burns out too quick and doesn’t get that big wood going. That’s when you need a firestarter. What to use?
First off, my Girl Scout troop did a test and we found out that the best firestarter is a cotton ball with a swipe of petroleum jelly (that’s Vaseline to you and me) on one half. The dry, light cotton burns easily and ignites the petroleum which will continue to burn for 3 or 4 minutes with good heat making it more likely that your big wood will catch fire. Carry a little bit of Vasoline in a tube and a few cotton balls and you’re ready to go.
Another good firestarter was wax and lint in a paper cup. If you save up your old candle stubs, broken birthday candles, or you have some canning wax (or jar wax as the case may be… call around, not everyone sells it). You can use a tin can or pie tin, put these remnants in it and hold it with a pair of tongs in a pot of boiling water. The wax will melt. Dont’ worry about the bits of food in the wax. That gives it character! Collect some lint from the dryer or you can use shredded paper. When you brush your teeth and rinse out using that waxed paper cup, don’t throw it out. Put it in your firestarter kit so you can use it on the next step. Or you can take your egg carton and cut it with scissors so you have little cups left over from where the eggs were stored (if the egg carton was made of cardboard. Don’t try this with the styrofoam kind.., yech). Fill the paper cup with lint. Really pack it in. Pour the melt wax in. It will cause the lint to compress further as it “wets” it. Fill the space up again with lint and this time pour the wax only around the edges. Inside edges. No need to spill wax all over. The lint in the middle should be dry. When the wax cools, you’ll have a firestarter that lights easily because of the dry lint, but then continues to burn for about 15 minutes because of all the wax.
The least effective firestarter we found was the wood and wax mix being sold at the above site. You can light the cup, but it can burn out because it isn’t mixed with wax. The wood bits sometimes catch fire and sometimes don’t. Even if it does, it tends to burn out before the entire firestarter has burned which was the whole point of getting a firestarter in the first place.
$12. I still can’t get over that. Cop some cotton balls from the bathroom and get some of that petroleum jelly lip balm. Might as well get some use out of it until you need a firestarter, right? Then, when necessary, you’ve got your components for a sure-fire (ha, ha) way to get your campfire going.
Of course, you could always take out your pocket knife and make your own tinder and kindling from the wood (the dry stuff is in the middle-ish area if your collecting wet wood). Firestarters are quicker and more fun, though. You really don’t need to spend $12 and wait forever for them to come in the mail, though. You can do it yourself cheaper and easier.
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