What’s more Christmas than sitting around the fire place, with stockings hung, all the family gathered around, watching the fire burn. Well I will tell you it! Watching your father, down on all fours, struggling to get the #@$%! Fire started. Well here’s one holiday trouble that I have a solution for “The Homemade fire-starter”. Best of all! Most of the supplies are made from what would otherwise be garbage.

This Fire Starter is also an amazing camping/Survival tool, just take out the evergreens and pine cones and add more wood chips and add course saw dust.

Step 1: Find Everything

Gather all the supplies need

Supplies needed
New or old candles
Shredded paper
Dryer Lint or Course saw dust
Woodchips
Evergreens trimmed to 1.5”ish
Pine cones or Spruce cones
Paper muffin holders
Cheap Aluminum foil muffin pan
Stove
Old pot

Step 2: Fill It Up

Place paper muffin holders in muffin pan, then fill 1/3 of the each of the holders with dryer lint.

Step 3: Add Some More

Push a pine cone in the center of each fire-starter, then put wood chips around the pine cone.

Step 4: Melt Some Wax

Place Candles in pot, heat pot on stove at medium temperature (carefully, combustible vapors are formed here). keep watch over the melting wax until it is fully melted.
Turn off the stove for now.

Then fill the fire-starter half-way with hot wax (be very careful!).

It was suggested to me that i should have used a double boiler and monitored it with a candy thermometer.

Step 5: Let Stand

Let sit for about 1 minute then carefully push the evergreens into the fire-starter. Place a little of the shredded paper on the top of each one.

Step 6: Fill With Wax

Turn back on the stove, heat back up the wax, and carefully fill each fire-starter with the candle wax.

Step 7: Pop Them Out

Let sit until they are hard, mine took about 2 hours to be completely solid. Next you need to pop them out, do this be pressing firmly on the bottom of the muffin pan. You might bend the pan, this is why we used an aluminum foil one.