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by **WillyPete** » 13 Mar 2011 17:31

Yeah, steel wool makes a great firestarter with a battery. I'll mix up a few like that and see how they work.

by **308gun** » 13 Mar 2011 16:20

another item you can add to your mix is old used or dirty STEEL Wool , the wool will burn if broken up and adds heat to the mix, i used steel wool and newspapers to make my own fireworks as kid , it works best with air added such as used in fireplace blowers .

by **WillyPete** » 13 Mar 2011 11:32

Yeah, I understand your point, the propellant is just a means to getting the reaction started if the sawdust and paraffin won't get burning as well as I would like. I'll only use that if the original concoction doesn't burn well.
I also thought about putting some shredded paper into the dust paraffin mix, the paper would definitely get a fire started and the paraffin would keep it from being wet in a rain possibly. I'll see what happens and report back if I get enough minutes to do my mad scientist thing in the garage.

by **Toepopper** » 13 Mar 2011 10:23

The Pacific Lumber Co used to manufacture a fire starting log made of sawdust coated with paraffin. The directions on the wrapper said to cut a 2" piece off the log and light it in the stove and then stack your kindling on top. These things worked great especially with damp kindling but if you used too big a piece it would get a roaring fire going in about 15 seconds. Everything burned up leaving no melted residue or other crud in the bottom of your stove. Your design should work just fine without the expensive propellant.

by **WillyPete** » 10 Mar 2011 15:14

I was doing some work on my other house and had a brilliant, at least to me, idea to make some fire starters.
I was sanding the hardwood floors to be re-finished and I had an incredible amount of fine hardwood dust left from the little I did. I swept it into a pile and put it into two 48 ounce plastic jars almost to full.
I went to the grocery store and bought some paper baking cups and two boxes of paraffin. I'm planning to fill the paper cups with wood dust and dryer lint then slowly pour melted paraffin over it to make a solid fire starter block. Light the paper cup and that should start the paraffin block to blazing in short order. I'm thinking of putting a very thin layer of propellant on the very top of the block for a bit of extra "git 'er done" just to see if it makes a difference. I won't try but one at first, gunpowder can get expensive.
Anyway, forgetting the propellant idea, anyone see any other problems I may run into for the paraffin/wood dust fire starter?

by **SS5R** » 07 Feb 2011 12:11

I usually use gelled alcohol to start my pellet stove but the other day I thought I would try the petroleum jelly covered cotton ball trick and it worked great in the pellet stove. I like the idea of the wax-covered pellets.

by **308gun** » 04 Feb 2011 22:16

talking about fire starters, for firewood in outdoors camping/hunting/survival the fastest easy way to get firewood/starters find rock/stump and with good pair boots stump up/down always lots down/broken tree branches/ beats saw/ax/hammer wood breaking ,, this is for fast outdoors use, not to break big logs/// but it will keep you in outdoors all you can use.. and yes you need area with trees .......

by **Toepopper** » 04 Feb 2011 21:55

Some pallets are worth some money, like the big heavy duty ones that are used to deliver concrete block. There is a $14 deposit per unit on them. The lightweight jobs are usually tossed and these break up into excellent kindling material. It is actually faster to smash them up with a 12 pound sledge hammer than to cut them up with a saw. Gets your blood going too.

by **308gun** » 04 Feb 2011 19:36

take care not to use too much pine or cones , make sure wood is well dry, you may get too fast of buildup on inside before you can do regular cleaning....but all other starters seem safe, green wood will smoke too much too..use only if a matter of life or death......

by **WillyPete** » 04 Feb 2011 15:59

I've hauled off more pallets than I can remember to use for firewood for a friend that uses a woodstove. Ask first, some places WILL NOT let them go.
I also make fire starters when camping by picking up big pinecones and stuffing them with shredded and crushed pine straw then light 'em up. To shred the pine straw, take a big handful and scrub it between your palms to tear it up, burns even easier that way and they'll get going even in the rain!

by **308gun** » 04 Feb 2011 15:07

I collect all the old pine cones , and bark that fell off , save all my wood working scraps, and cardboard or old boxes and get old wood pallets from work to bust up, check trash dumpster for wood scrap and collect old hardwoods out as trash like in old chair's etc, and find lots road side drops of wood etc.

by **dejure** » 30 Nov 2008 17:23

We too hit garage sales for candles. At the start of the fire season, we end up with boxes full for pennies on the dollar. Since our only source of heat, while home, was wood, we had to start a lot of fires. The wife will not part with egg cartons, since we get our eggs in packs of eighteen or so and have to break them down to fit the fridge. As such, in invested $4.50 on a bag of pellets. We then melt a few candles in a double boiler (an old canning pot with another pan resting in water and the stove on a low setting works good) and pour it over the pellets, mixing as we pour. We start fires with wanton abandon (as far as use of the pellets goes).

by **Toepopper** » 03 Nov 2007 20:58

Good idea Badwuf, I will give it a try

Thanks for the info.

by **badwuf** » 03 Nov 2007 08:30

For the past few years my wife and son have made the best fire starters I have ever seen. They take the paper or cardboard (not styrofoam) egg cartons and fill with dryer lint then melt candle wax (bought for pennies at yard sales) and pour it over the lint . They pour just enough wax to soak the lint but not enough to smother it. Cot the little egg cops apart and you have a fire starter that will burn for about 15 minutes enough to start wood bigger then kindling. The pressed paper lights easy and the wax and lint burn fairly hot.

by **Toepopper** » 24 Oct 2007 20:57

We burn anything that creates BTU's but DRYER LINT !!! That is a new combustable material to me and I will definately give it a try!
Raked up a big pile of hardwood leaves that dropped and we stuff them into small grocery store brown paper bags and use them to get the fire going again in the morning. It works good and emits a lot of heat in a hurry which is what is needed on a cold morning.

Toepopper

by **Watchman** » 23 Oct 2007 08:12

My wife came up with this idea and I think it's pretty neat. We shred all of our outdated personal and business financial papers and I usually turn the shred into the recycling center. But she figured that she could stuff toilet paper tubes with the shred and use it as a fire starter in the wood stove. It works like a charm. She also stuffs dryer lint into them and they work equally as well. Just to be sure we asked our chimney sweep this year if he noticed any extra buildup and said it was unusually clean.

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