Homemade firestarters

Husband loved a bag of firelighters he recently bought.  They didn't stink and when we looked at the ingredients it was coconut oil, wax and wood threads.
So we found some candles in the garage (not keen on candles anymore).
Melted the candle, filled an egg carton with wood shavings and poured over the melted wax.  And he loves our homemade fire starters.

My current favourite firestarters are dry cornstalks and one of the giant pine-cones that grow locally.



I like that the pinecones light easily but also burn for long enough to get the kindling going. Plus they are fun to collect...

Just did up a group of firestarters.
I'd collected a bunch of milkweed fluff in the fall and have been keeping the tp roll cores.
Then added in some bark from the logs and some beeswax bits from unrolled candles we got in a box lot.
Lastly, a bit of wax paper to hold it together.

I'm hoping that having a bunch ready to go will make getting the wood stove going faster.

It bothers me a bit that I often see RMH's being started with a propane torch.

Has anyone tried these sorts of fire starters instead? (I don't have an RMH yet, but still hoping... might have to be a Walker cook stove instead.)

I use my homemade fire starters for camping, but I use candle buds - that last bit of candle unused b/c it was in the holder, dryer lint & leftover thread from sewing projects, I also use TP rolls after we use up the TP either whole or cut into strips.  I also use natural materials when camping if needed.  I melt the wax, pour it over the lint, thread, TP rolls, let it cool just enough to handle it & roll it into little logs (about the size of my finger) and then store it in my drawstring bag. I also use cardboard pieces or non-plastic egg cartons waxed over.  I have used, less often, waxed leftover material from projects like yarn, material strips, etc.
--Tess

Waste paper (I only use unbleached for this purpose) can be inundated with grease, corded together, and used as such.

Anyone who lives in a climate where birches grow is blessed with a nearly infallible firestarter that is peeling off of the bark of trees!

What I typically do, is the old fashioned get a flame, add lots of little dry twigs or wood shavings, then some bigger twigs, etc.

Pine is a very good tree for small kindling, as well as dried-down herbaceous stalks. If you find standing stalks those are best because they haven’t been in contact with the ground. Taller grasses work too—if you have switchgrass, timothy, indiangrass, bluestems, miscanthus, reed-canary, etc. they often are sturdy enough to remain aloof from the ground.

Garlic mustard stems actually make good kindling as well—you could get a lot of them and bundle them together. They are very dry and aired out by winter-time.