Longtime reader Myke recently commented on a post I published on Fire Starting. What he describes as an inexpensive and effective fire starting tool is exactly something I’ve experimented with previously. Excellent idea Myke – so I am sharing it with as many people as possible. ~ Rourke
I’ve made the popular cotton ball/petroleum jelly type fire starters before and found them too messy. I came across what I feel is a better way to make fire starters. Go to Dollar Tree or Walmart and buy the round cotton “makeup remover” pads. You can get 80 per pack.
- Go to a thrift store and buy cheap candles, tongs, and a pan.
- At home, put newspaper on the counter where you’ll be working. I use a small butane single burner camp stove because no matter how hard you try, you will spill some of the wax and its time consuming to clean it up in the kitchen.
- Melt the candle wax in the pan then place the pads in the wax. As you pull a pad out put another in. This lets them soak up the wax as you rotate through the process.
- Place the soaked pads on the newspaper. When you’re done and they’ve hardened, I’ve found that they fit great in one of those Lay’s potato chip plastic container tunes (like a Pringle container but plastic). There’s enough room on the side to fit a butane lighter and even a Magnesium firestarter block with Ferro rod (found at Harbor Freight $1.99).
- To use just bend the wafer back and forth then tear that bend halfway. This exposes the cotton fibers to ignite.
I’ve had these burn for 3-4 minutes with a flame height of 5″. In my experience, the petroleum jelly balls burn a little longer but the flame doesn’t reach as high, and they are messier. I’ve made a number of these inexpensive firestarter kits and placed them in all of my BOB’S, 72 hr Kits, Get Home Bags, etc.
Just my 2 1/2 cents worth.
Myke
******Great stuff Myke!!!! ~Rourke
I make these as well… but I never use new candles… I use old scentsy wax or old used candles that will no longer light… I have done these with my grand kids… letting them choose the wax color or “scent” they want to use… then they have their own starters (providing of course their age and common sense is there) they have there own can or bag of them so they can help gramma start the fire or mom and dad when they are camping… I have never thought of using a potatoe chip sleeve though… what a great idea… I may just have to go buy a couple just to have the container… thanks
I’ve seen these both commercially and homemade. Another container, depending on how many you want to keep handy, would be a travel pack of the makeup remover pads. You see them in the travel sections at Target/Walmart with all the other small sized toiletries. I think they are usually about an inch tall, probably holding about 10 pads.
I wonder how well this would do using a Soy or bees wax instead of paraffin since it tends to be softer making it easier to fluff up the pad.