Fire Starters on A Budget

          Okay, so I was surfing YouTube a few weeks ago, like I do most every day.  I came across a video of a guy that claimed to have made 100 fire-starters for about $3.  Of course, I was skeptical.  For those that don't know, the main source of heat that we use at my house, is my Fisher wood burning stove insert.  I am always looking for ways to make the process easier and faster.

          I went ahead and tried it out.  Honestly, I am so glad that I did.  Go to your local dollar store, buy a pack of "cotton rounds", these come in a pack of 100.  Then get two candles of your choice, I used those tall religious looking ones because of the amount of wax you get for $1 each, and they come in fairly decent colors (you will learn why in just a minute).  In total I used almost a whole pack of the Cotton Rounds, and the two candles we bought.

          This is how to make these nifty little fire-starters.  Prepare your work area.  You will need parchment paper or aluminum foil, your cotton rounds, tongs or pliers (that you don't really care about), a pan or metal bowl to melt the wax in, and your candles.  You can get the wax out of the candle however you choose, I used a trusty old butter knife and my wife,  She dug the knife in and carved all the wax into a little metal camping pot I use for "garage projects".  I actually just did my part to go green and save the planet.  I already had a fire going in the wood stove, so i just placed the metal pot right on top of the stove to melt the wax.  You can probably put the candle right on the stove or however you want to retrieve the wax is up to you.  I then laid out my cotton rounds into little stacks and placed them on the counter behind my parchment paper.  Now keep in mind, most things I call mine, are actually my wife's, and she normally doesn't know what I'm doing.  For example, I couldn't find the old silicone tongs we have, so I used a loose leaf tea ball contraption she has (to be safe I did count that she had more than one).  You then dip each cotton round into the wax.  They do tend to soak up a massive amount of wax, so we only dipped one side and then laid them down so that the wax dripped down through the other side.  Let them dry, and then store in a Ziploc bag, or even batch into stacks of five or ten, and vacuum seal these to keep in a bug out bag, or survival kit.  My first batch is in a gallon Ziploc bag by my wood stove.

          I take mine out when it is time to use it, and just basically push it down over my thumb, breaking the wax and exposing the cotton interior (you can see in the video what I'm talking about).  I normally rip mine in half for maximum cotton exposure.  I then place on a thin flat piece of wood inside my fireplace.  Then light the starter and gently place your kindling on top of and around the flame.  I normally go with the tee pee route for kindling placement.  Then gradually add your bigger wood pieces.

          I was skeptical at first.  I experimented with the first couple and actually timed the burn time on these fire-starters.  I must say, I am rather impressed with these.  They average just shy of 6 minute burn time per starter.  That 6 minutes allows a decent amount of time to gradually build the fire up without fear of burnout.  I have been using these for about two weeks now, and I have only had to use one per fire started, I imagine that if you get capable enough, you can use half of a starter per fire.

          I hope you find this as useful as I did.   And keep checking back as we add more content (more frequently now I hope).