Making homemade firestarters is quite simple and easy. Some may ask: What’s the point of making my own firestarters at home when I can by matches at the store. The answer is simple also. Making homemade firestarters is cost-effective and doing so will increase your knowledge of basic wilderness survival. Homemade firestarters can be made from just about anything in your home. Here are a few examples:
Vaseline Dipped Cotton Balls - Take a few cotton balls (enough to fill up a sandwich bag) and coat them in Vaseline. After you’ve thoroughly coated them in Vaseline, place them into the sandwich bag and seal it up for use later.
Wax Coated Newspaper - Cut or tear your newspaper in strips, and coat them with melted wax. Be careful when using the melted wax because it is very flammable. Be prepared to put out the fire should one start.
Dryer Lint - Yes, that’s right, dryer lint. Dryer lint is pieces of flammable material all balled up together. This is the simplest homemade firestarter there is. You just collected from your dryer and go on your way.
Homemade Wicks - Take a few cotton cords or rope and cut into desired sections. Melt the wax and dip the cords into it. Let dry and store the waxed cords away from heat.
Paper Towel Rolls - Use paper towel rolls to start your campfire. In order to do this you need to stuff it with either paper towels or newspaper. Newspaper works better for kindling the fire.
There are many things you could use to make homemade firestarters. The key is knowing what you CAN use. Almost all paper products can be used to start fires. Newspaper as mentioned above is the best for starting fires. When the recipe calls for paper, newspaper is the recommended product. Wax is another product useful in making firestarters at home. You could either melt your candles to get wax or you could buy a block of wax, particularly paraffin wax, to melt. Regardless of your method of attaining the wax, it will serve as a valuable resource for producing firestarters.
Mostly anything that you wax can be burned also. Anything natural, that is. You could wax old cereal boxes, juice boxes, or rice boxes. Pine cones from a tree covered or dipped in melted wax are great firestarters too! The possibilities are virtually endless. If you have wax and paper, you’ll have a firestarter. So you see making homemade firestarters is a simple task.
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Original: http://survival-training.info/articles/Homemade%20Firestarters.htm
The absolute best ever fire starter
ReplyDeleteCut plastic drinking straws into 3 inch lengths
(The best are the large diameter ones for use in cold coffee beverages)
Pinch one end with needle nose pliers and melt closed with a lighter
Stuff petroleum jelly soaked cotton ball into the opened end.
Pinch that end with the pliers and melt closed.
These fire starters are super compact, will stay water proof even when submerged for an extended period of time, and never leak petroleum jelly on your gear.
To use, simply slice it lengthwise, pry it open, and light. (I use a magnesium fire starter)
You can also simply light one end if using a match or lighter.
I found the burn time to be approximately 4 minutes.
Rich