Use a cotton ball
covered in petroleum jelly to make a great fire starter. Simply roll each
cotton ball in the jelly until completely covered, then put it in a
plastic film canister. Each canister will hold about 30 balls. To start a
fire, put two or three cotton balls under your dry kindling and light.
Make
another excellent fire starter by cutting an old, worn web belt or hiking
compression strap into 3 inch strips. Soak them in wax and let dry. Next
time you want to start a fire quickly, use one.
Use
a ball of dryer lint soaked with candle wax to make a very good
fire starter. Only use lint from white clothing/linen if possible. The
colored stuff has dyes that release bad things into the air that you do
not want to breathe.
An
easy fire starter to carry: Soak charcoal in lighter fluid, then coat in
paraffin. Wax will melt with one match, and ensuing fire should start damp wood.
Take
a paper egg carton and fill each cup with some sort of natural fiber. Good
things to try are course sawdust, hamster bedding (wood chips),
dryer lint left over from doing cotton towels, or a Kleenex packed into each hole. Put the egg carton on a surface
that you are not worried about getting wax on. Slowly pour melted max into
each of the cups. When ready to use, tear off one egg for each fire.
Tear
up old cotton towels into strips about 1 1/2 inches wide and about 12
inches long. Roll up the strips as if they were sleeping bags and tie each
of them with a cotton string. Dunk them in melted candle wax. You can also
use strips of cardboard instead of cloth. These fire starters are called
trench candles.
Demo:
http://www.permapak.net/firestarters.htm
Wax
soaked corrugated cardboard: Melt wax in a small pot, soak 2 inch squares
of corrugated cardboard in the wax, and stack 2-3 high on waxed paper.
When it is hard, cut the waxed paper into little biscuits of 2-3 squares.
to use, fray a corner and light it, shove it under the kindling, wait a
minute and enjoy a nice fire. For a nice campfire starter, insert a
strike-anywhere wood match into a corrugation before you soak in wax.
Get
some of the tiny paper cups that fast food restaurants have for putting
ketchup in. Fill them with sawdust, Kleenex or cotton lint. Pour melted wax into the cups.
Waxed
paper can be folded up so that it takes up no space. It can be refolded
and used as a cup. There are other uses, but the point here is fire. Fold
a piece of this in half then fold back each "half" like making paper
dolls. When half way stretched out, a view of the end should look like the
letter M or W. Lay the paper down so that the two "ridges" of the letter M
form a valley. Into this valley place your shavings and/or other kindling.
You
can take six birthday cake candles or wax crayons with the paper still on
them and lay them together (like you would stack logs). Then roll them up
in a single layer of wax paper. Make sure that the wax paper is about two
inches wider than the stack of candles. Twist the ends of the wax paper to
make the final fire starter look like taffy. These fire starters are
called candle kisses.
Milk
cartons make excellent kindling. Fill with wood chips and crayon shavings
for a great fire starter.
Candle
stub: Useful for a long lasting flame, a source of wax sliced off with a
knife. Do not shove the entire stub under the kindling, otherwise you'll
waste it all on one fire and have none for your second fire. How much or
little to carry is entirely up to you.
A
battery touched to steel wool will ignite immediately. I like the 9-volt
kind because they have quite a kick, but all batteries work (PLEASE don't use your car
battery - too much kick!). You can also use steel wool with wood chips and
shavings woven in.
Heat
tabs of various types: Use the Esbit Trioxine or the WWII Hexamine tabs or
whatever brand you like.
Use
pine cones covered with wax.
Heat
tabs of various types: Use the Esbit Trioxine or the WWII Hexamine tabs or
whatever brand you like.
Demo:
Steel Wool Fire Starter
Coupled
with a cheap fire starter waterproof matches can almost guarantee you fire
in many situations. There are numerous ways of waterproofing matches; the
simplest way is just buying waterproof matches to begin with. But in a
pinch, waterproof matches aren't always available where as any old book of
matches can be found in virtually any convenience store.
o
Dip your matches in
melted paraffin wax
o
Coat matches in nail
polish (the way I usually do it) be sure to seal the entire match!
o
Store matches in a 35mm
film container, and glue a small piece of sandpaper in the cap (or
just keep a piece in the film container) to help start the matches.
Here
are some links to some good websites demonstrating how to make fire
starters:
http://www.permapak.net/firestarters.htm
