DIY - Homemade Firestarters

Nothing completes the suburban homestead better than a fire warming the room on a cold night.  I love my fireplace but have to buy wood every fall for burning all winter.  I suppose I could go cut down some trees in the timber somewhere and leave them somewhere to cure for a year or two but that has just not happened yet so I leverage my time elsewhere and buy wood.  Not being a good Girl Scout, I never did learn to start a fire without my handy Bic lighter and a "firestarter".  In seasons past, I purchased boxes of little compact "bricks" that would easily light and stay burning long enough to catch my wood on fire.  It always "burned me" to pay another $20 for a box of those firestarters that would last only a season, but I did not know any other way until I found this "recipe" that may interest you too!

Last night Journey and I made Firestarters out of materials we had around the house.  It was so much fun!  Kind of messy and a little time consuming but we got to spend time together and learn as we went.  Let me show you what we did.

We made two kinds of firestarters last night.   The first was made totally from trash and our trusty double boiler full of candle wax.  Any kind of wax will work.  Old crayons, old candle pieces, purchased parrafin, or in my case, old wax that I used to dip candles into.  You can add aromatic oils or color to your wax if you like.  The first type we made was constructed of DRYER LINT and Toilet Paper Rolls... just what we could find in the trash. 

Start by filling the toilet paper rolls with the dryer lint and a piece of string that will suffice as the wick for lighting.  I used a muffin cup paper to catch the overflow of wax, which worked well and will also burn.  Anything that burns can be used to fill your toilet paper rolls, like hair, lint, fabric... you name it. 

Keep in mind that it is Halloween season and the mustache that you see on her forehead was in the correct spot above her upper lip just a few minutes before this pic. She had a great time stuffing dryer lint and a wick into the toilet paper rolls.

After they had dryer lint stuffed in them we poured or ladeled hot melted wax into them... as they were sitting on end in a paper muffin cup.

Any kind of wax will do.  I happened to have some in a double boiler that was left over from candle making years ago.. you can even use old candles or pieces or broken crayons.  Anything flammable in your toilet paper roll and any kind of wax.  The wick sticking out can be any kind of fiber.. just enough to start the rest of it burning.

Here they are finished... not pretty but functional! 

Now on to the REALLY PRETTY AND NEAT ONES!!!!
I had some pine cones in a metal basket (for so many years they were dusty...) and some more downstairs in a plastic bag that almost got sold in the garage sale except no one else wanted them.  For some reason after the sale I thought I might use them for something some day so I put them back in the basement.

I gathered all of them and put Journey to work tying string to each of them at the top with a long enough tail to dip them into the melted wax.  We dipped them once into the wax, completely covering each of them and then held them above the wax pan while they drip-dried a little bit. 

When they were done dripping we put them on wax paper to dry a little bit and dipped another one.  We ended up dipping each of them twice into the hot wax to make them nice and coated.  When we were done dipping, we cut the "wick" off at about 2 inches so we could light them.  Because they are so dry and cured, they will burn nicely, the wax keeping them on fire until our logs catch too.





The look really pretty in the holder on the hearth of the fireplace and will stay handy there all winter.  They would also make great Christmas presents if you have family or friends with a fireplace.  Experiment with scents and colored waxes and let me know how yours turn out.  I really love my plain ones!