How to make your own Fire Starter Logs and Disks from Recycled Items

Whether you have trouble starting fires, lighting charcoal, or just wish to speed up the process; fire starters are a common and much sought tool. Instead of paying for fire starter logs or disks, you can make your own from common items around your house. Save money, recycle items around your house, and boost your fire making ability!

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Old candles
• Sawdust, Lint, or Shredded Paper
• Toilet Paper or Paper Towel Rolls
• Old metal can

1. 

   Start 3 inches of water to boil in a large pot. Place an old metal can in the center and place in chunks of old candles. You can also use new candle wax or gulf wax if you have them on hand.

2. 

   Decide on which medium you will use for your fire-starters. You can use accumulated lint from dryers, shredded paper, or sawdust.

3. 

   Place rolls onto cutting board or piece of wax or foil paper. If using paper towel rolls, please cut in half first.

4. 

   Place medium into plastic bowl and slowly pour a little wax over it. Mix with fork. Keep repeating until it is crumbly and when pressed in palm of hand stays together. Do not add to much wax. Different mediums will require different amounts of wax.

5. 

   Spoon mixture into rolls and press down using the end of a wooden spoon or a dowel. I had a left-over dowel that was perfect for pressing the mixture tightly into the toilet paper rolls. Stop and press every spoonful or two.

6. 

   Adding potpourri: You can add old potpourri to any of your mixture prior to adding the wax. It will make the finished product more attractive and may add a pleasant aroma when used.

7. 

   Allow to harden overnight. The next day you can slice the rolls into ½ -inch disks or leave as entire rolls. I use my husband’s band saw and it works great. You can also use a hacksaw. To use simply hold a lighter up to the paper until it catches on fire. It will take a while as the roll will have soaked up a bit of wax.
   
   The less air trapped in the fire starters the longer they will burn. I found that my disks with potpourri burned totally out in about 10 minutes. The larger pieces of potpourri allowed more room for air to circulate. The paper disks burned out in 15 minutes. The wood shavings burned out in 20 minutes. The fire starter disks made with dryer lint burned for almost 25 minutes each.

Tips & Warnings

• If you notice a wax residue after you use a fire starter then you are using to much wax in your mixture.
• You can wrap your logs in old wrapping paper and tie off with scraps of cotton twine or yarn. When ready to use simply light up the wrapping paper. You can place them in a decorative basket near fireplace or give as gifts in the winter.
• Do not use wood shavings from treated lumber as it contains arsenic and can be dangerous to inhale.
• Do not attempt to melt wax in your microwave. If wax reaches a certain heat it will combust.

[Vanillatte]

on 8/15/2008 Very clever! I will have to try this Winter.

[poetrymuse]

on 8/11/2008 Love this idea! Sounds like an easy way to use up all the old potpourri around my house. Thanks for sharing!