“I have no other task than being at home, finally alone with my woodburning stove full of logs” – Monica Ritterband
Fire starters are necessary when you need to start a fire and the wood and/or kindling is wet or the wood you are trying to burn is a little on the green side. Fire starters are best if they are homemade because making something shows ingenuity and is more frugal. To make homemade fire starters you will need: newspaper, metal food can, dryer lint, metal pie pan, old candles, toilet paper tubes and scissors.
Step 1: Use scissors to cut toilet paper tubes in half. Place dryer lint inside of each toilet paper tube. Then place toilet paper tubes into metal pie plate. The reason for the metal pie plate is to contain the excess candle wax that might happen to leak out. Newspaper is also used as a work surface to work on top of in case of spillage of candle wax. Also you could use crumpled newspaper inside of each toilet paper tube instead of dryer lint.
Step 2: Place old candles inside of metal can. Place metal can on top of outdoor charcoal or wood burning grill. (If you melt wax inside your kitchen, place the metal can inside of a large pot with a small amount of water so that you will have a double boiler system.) When candles have melted into wax use gloves to handle the metal can because it will be hot!
Step 3: Pour hot wax on top of lint filled toilet paper tubes. Let tubes cool and the wax dry. Store these cooled homemade fire starters into a plastic bag until needed.
When ready to use place the fire starter under your kindling, strike a match and lay on top of the fire starter. These homemade fire starters will burn effortlessly and get your fire going. I like to make these fire starters because I get to re-use items I would normally throw away into something useful.
To learn more self-reliant skills, please visit www.thetexaspioneerwoman.blogspot.com.
