Wood stove starterss

[SandraMort]

I want to make fire starters for dh for the woodstove to give him for Chanukah. I was thinking of making them and wrapping them in giftwrap and just tossing them whole, wrap and all, into the wood stove. I think the kids would have a lot of fun making them.

Then I looked for recipes online and there are SO MANY!!! Which ones have people actually *TRIED* and find effective?

TIA,
Sandra

 

[miss_thenorth]

Fill egg cartons with dryer lint, pour melted wax on them. But that was way back when I used to buy alot of eggs, used my dryer, and had a wood burning stove. Now, (aside from the last few months) I don't buy eggs, hang my laundry outside or on racks in the house, and don't have a woodstove anymore.

 

[Beekissed]

I've heard of pine cones dipped in beeswax but have never tried it. I made the toilet paper rolls filled with lint but, since I don't use fabric softener mine didn't start very well. I have made some very pretty hearth baskets with spiced (all spice potpourri-type oil) pine cones but never heard if they work well as fire starters.

 

[PamsPride]

Here is an excellent video tutorial on how to make homemade lint fire starters in egg cartons:
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/379936/homemade_fire_starter_tutorial/

 

[MorelCabin]

I shove all my dryer lint into toilet paper rolls, they make a pretty good firestarter. You could probably add wax to them...and the best thing is that you can wrap them fairly easily in plain brown postal wrap and they look clean and presentable

 

[SandraMort]

What kind of wax?

 

[Dace]

I do the same as Morel, and we found that adding a small chunk of wax really helps. We had a candle that over flowed a bit so we broke off those hunks of wax and only stuck a small bit inside the toilet paper roll with the lint. We made about 10 of them.

We use ours in the regular fireplace so the wax is a concern we have to be careful not to over do it. My son likes to use pine cones, just plain as they are the sap helps to light a fire.

 

[VT-Chicklit]

I make my own pinecone and wax starters. I melt candle wax carefully in a pan on the stove useing low heat. ( I always have a fire extinguisher handy). I then pour the wax to about 1/4 inch thickness into the cups of an old cupcake tin and place a round pine cone into each cup. I wait until the wax has set and then pull the firestarter out by the pine cone. I get my wax from friends and family that burn candles. They save me the wax from the candles that they burn. I also keep my eye open at tag sales for candles in the Free pile. I use these starters in addition to some paper to start my wood stove.