How-To: Fire Starters
How to make the best fire starters.
What you need:
Loads and loads of laundry so you can save the lint from the trap, lots of children helps make this part of the process much quicker
About a year or more worth of old candles, saved up in an old grocery store bag
Cheap dish gloves
Crock pot, nice if it’s an old one you don’t mind getting messy
Crock pot liner
An old ladle
Parchment paper and a big place for finished starters to cool
So, 5 kids in a house makes for TONS and tons of laundry. My oldest daughter does our laundry and has, for a couple of years, been mostly in charge of it. She knows to save the lint in an old grocery bag we keep near the detergents. Anytime I have a conversation with someone about our laundry it’s always, “How much laundry do you really have.” To which I say, “Well, we do at least two loads a day, generally. BUT, the way it goes is that IF we skip a day, we have to do 8 the next day to catch back up.” It’s funny, but it’s also pretty much true. I don’t know how laundry math works, but that’s always the numbers I come to in my house. Anyway, save your lint, it’s GREAT for these!
Now, I know some people also use egg cartons to put this all in, but we USE our egg cartons, like over and over, so we don’t really have those around to use for fire starters. We do have some get worn out over time, but I like to make a LOT of fire starters for the kids so it doesn’t really make sense for us. (If you buy your eggs and just throw away your cartons, totally keep those and try them out! I hear great things.) My oldest son and oldest daughter, laundry girl, also generally tend to the fire. They’re great at it and it’s never that easy for me to get to along with other chores so the help is amazing and they are practically pros by now, even though they don’t get paid. Ha.
Okay, so the candles don’t really matter, as in the type of candle. I don’t have any sort of process in which I pick out candles for these. I have even been known to take other people’s old candles when they are going to throw them out. I usually end up with a lot of unscented candles in the lot, so I can’t say if the scents would cause any sort of problem, they are usually so diluted by the tapers and other types of unscented that it doesn’t matter. I’ve also used candles that had push pins and paint on them, the paint usually melts into the wax and the push pins I removed with some pliers beforehand. Wicks and the little metal part and even stickers just fall off and I pull them out as I go. I use the ladle to get them to the surface and just pull them out and onto the parchment to cool.
Okay, so I like to gather my materials, line the crock pot and throw in as many candles as I can fit. I put the lid on and turn it up to high and I just go on about my day. Within a couple of hours, the candles should be melted and at this point I will even decide if I want to add some more, since they melt into WAY less space. It’s honestly hard to really explain how much of everything you will need, so it kind of has to be observed and learned as you go.
Once your candle wax is melted, you have your parchment out for cooling and you are prepared to burn the life out of your hands, turn your crock pot to warm and brace yourself. It really is pretty hot, you can wait for it to cool down, but it will make the wax a little thicker on the starter and makes them a bit harder to use. It saves your hands and usually I make as many as I can with the really hot stuff and then walk away for a few and come back to finish. Doesn’t sound worth it now, but trust me, these are far better than anything you can buy in the store or online.
I tear off a piece of the lint and dip it quickly into the wax, then I squeeze it between my fingers and shape it so it’s fairly flat, in case we need to place it on top of a piece of wood. Balls will roll off and make for unhappy fire tenders. The really hot stuff squeezes out so it’s almost like you didn’t dip it, and these are the best ones. When it cools a bit before dipping, the wax really sticks on the outside, not bad, but it’s a little harder to light. This year I had to stop because I had to leave the house and when I returned the wax had cooled a bit and I finished with cooler wax, which made for a lot of very thick waxed starters which I haven’t had any complaints about just yet, so maybe it isn’t as big of a deal as I think.
Another option is to put the lint onto the parchment and then pour some wax on top. I did this one year in a pinch and then we broke pieces off to use. Unless you use very little wax and then press it down to get some out and stuff, it will be really hard to break apart, and they could end up with too much wax and be harder to light. They WILL still burn for a really long time and make starting the fire much easier though. Either way, these are just the best!
Once they cool, I place them into an old cookie tin and we keep it by the fireplace, usually with matches or a lighter inside. There really isn’t much of a need for kindling because they light up and burn for so long, but my 7 year old really takes pride in his kindling making skills with his little ax, so we usually still use it because I like to encourage the hard work and inclusion in family chores that we all benefit from, like a warm fire to heat our home.
So now you know the trick, the world's best fire starters are actually the world's cheapest and they probably take the most prep work, if you count months of saving candles and lint. But nothing can compare, honest.
Do you have anything you save to turn into something else?
Did you know ladies used to save their hair off their brushes to place under their hair as they styled it to make it look bigger? At least we aren’t doing that! 🤣
