Quick Firestarter

Intro: Quick Firestarter

This is a very simple firestarter made out of old candles, some dixie cups, and toilet paper rolls.

STEP 1: Melting the Wax

This should be self explanatory. you melt the wax and fill up the little paper cup. leave about 1cm of space between top and wax.

STEP 2: Filling the Roll

Take a spoon or a tool similar to this and dig some wax out of the cup. Fold the end of the roll down and plop a spoonful of hardened wax into the roll.

STEP 3: Making the Fire

After you have folded both of the ends down so you cant see the wax, go get some wood. A good variaty of small and big chuncks are best.

STEP 4: FIRE

Lay a piece of bark down on your grate and build a little log cabin over it. light both ends of the roll and carefully put it into the little house. and enjoy your fire!

Tips. if you put the smaller ones on the fire will start faster (duh)
make a little roof over the starter so the wood will catch. it wouldnt do anything if the flame just shot out the top. be sure to leave a "chimney" so that the smoke can escape.



scale of 1-10 10 being best, how helpful was this?

Comments

[sparkster1]

You could add some powdered milk and it will start a fire with a flash! 

[MattandJora]

That would be sweet!

[trike road poet]

One gimmick I use is those small gift boxes like jewelry stores have.  I fill them 3/4 full of wax, add some sawdust and a cotten string laid over the middle of the box from side to side. I then fill the box the rest of the way with liquid wax.  Once cool, i worl a little wax from a candle over the string ends by pulling the string across the candle.  Fold the string into the box and put on the lid.

To use, open the box pull the two 'wicks' up and light.  The improvised 'candle' lights and the large flame is easy to start the fire with.  I use a heavy stick or log fragment on each side of the box and pile the kindling over the candle.  As the flame ignite the small stuff, add the heavier stuff in a log cabin structure over the burning kindling.  One very important point, use a small narrow stick to keep air passages open as the fire starts to keep the flames fed with air as the wood pieces come to ignition temps.

[Phil B]

Someone told me a very good fire starter is a bag of Fritos corn chips large enough to serve two or three people. Just open it and place a lit match inside it.

[MattandJora]

i heard about that too. only it also said that any chip would work. i think they all are flammable to some extent.

[mojobo1]

It's the oil. Potato chips have lots of oil.. So they're pretty flammable.


This is more portable, but I like newspaper. (Wood stove is my only heat source.. Start a fire in it every morning)

Also, I think letting the wax drip onto the wood helps. Think of a candle.. The wick is IN the wax so it burns a lot longer. If the cardboard burns up and theres still wax, there will just be a big puddle of melted wax.

Wax doesnt burn easy by itself (has to be really hot), but if its on something else like wood/wick/string/etc, it burns better.

[sharlston]

why not just cut a paper cup in half the put sawdust and cotton balls and use a q tip as the wick it works

[cx420ns]

someone told me that's how all the convenience stores "accidentally" catch on fire <.< >.>

[mynameisjonas]

....... what?

[tech-king]

then the grease inside of it goes fwooomp

[Phil B]

That is my understanding of what happens. I have not tried it. The person who told me has a friend who does it quite often. I like Fritos too much and do not start fires very often.

[knexsuperbuilderfreak]

just use one of them i can start a bon fire with 1

[imshanedulong]

Bet it would work better if you crushed the chips!

[tyty100]

Spray some wd40 on it to start it easier and u will not waste ur lighter.

[EmmettO]

This is a good way of doing it. Try this though and see how you like it. Take a dixie cup, fill it with cottonballs and if you have sawdust you can add that too. just make sure the cotton is on top to act as a wick. Then add molten wax to the dixie cup. Put it under your logs and light! The first time I did this, I used a full sized paper cup, flames were rocketing out of it for two hours! It was cool, but overkill. Next I tried the dixie cup. It was just right, about a half hour of flame to get logs going. Later I tried just sawdust and wax (using an old muffin tin as a form) that worked, but the wax would tend to melt all over and then ignite. The paper cup helps keep the molten wax in one place.

[bylerfamily]

The full sized cup was burning the wax vapors.I made a mini stove that burned wax vapors.

[MattandJora]

Cool I'll try it. thanks =]
For this one the fire can get started in about 15 minutes depending on how you set your logs up. If you have two biggish logs on either side of the bark horizontally then some smaller ones vertical on top of it, it goes faster.

[maruawe]

I use a small amount of calsium hypochlorite and brake fluid . About two ounces of the calsium hypochlorite and half ounce of brake fluid .. I set the wood for the fire and then put the dry powdered chemical in a hole in a piece of wood near the bottom pour on the brake fluid and step back away from the fire and the smoke, which is clorine gas(not good for you ), as soon as the smoke clears you are ready to cook what ever you want. I use this method during the winter because of the moisture from snow and the altitude in the mountains around Silverton Co. At over 9000 feet you want warm food and hot coffee as quick as you can make it. Ps don't carry both the powder and the brake fluid in the same saddle bag.. The trails are to narrow to scare a horse or yourself , just be careful

[MattandJora]

i've heard about that but was always skeptical. i'll have to check it out. where do you get the chemicals?

[maruawe]

calsium hypochlorite is pool shock (there are two types,read contents). Any pool supplies dealer should have it ( the smoke is toxic,chlorine gas)... any brake fluid should work never use this indoors.......the fire is very hot and bright I'm going to try to start a thermite fire with it and see if it will start thermite........ best thing I can tell you is BE CAREFUL WITH CHEMICAL FIRES use protection