Watch: Making Fire Starters With Wax, Dryer Lint, and Sawdust
Russ Chastain 10.18.16
Making fire starters using wax is an age-old way of creating a small but intense blaze that’s likely to spawn a good flame in your kindling and firewood. The guy in this video shows us how his family has done it for years and tries out a different version to see which one is best.
He begins with a paper egg carton and dryer lint–yep, those bits of your clothes that get captured by your laundry dryer’s lint trap. Then he gets out some sawdust, as well, and makes 6 “egg carton fire starters” using each material.
If you’re not interested in whether he and his wife are hoarders and whatever other mind-numbing minutae he yaks about once he starts packing stuff into the egg carton, you will want to skip ahead to about the 4:10 mark. You’re welcome!
My mistake… more yammering and packing. I hopped to 5:40 and he’s finally pouring the wax.
Melted wax is poured over the material to saturate it. After the wax hardens, the egg compartments can be individually cut apart and used as fire starters.
Around the 6-minute mark, he starts talking about guns and asks for recommendations for an AR-15. Hmmmm. Random much?
The burnoff begins at 8:54.
Which one is better? I’ll leave that for you to find out, but both are excellent and would make great fire-starters for camping, wood stoves, fireplaces, etc. The fact that both were still burning strong after 10 minutes tells me they would be great for outdoor use.
