Firelighters

[Bad_Omen]

I don't know if you get them in the States but in Europe we get little individual cheese's called Mini Baby Bells. My kids love them so we get through a fair few. Well they come in a wax coating so what I've started doing is saving the wax. When I have about a tennis balls worth I melt it down and mix it with some sawdust. Makes superb free firelighters.

On the subject of fire, I went to our local sawmill today to buy some firewood. I buy the edge of the logs when they're cutting boards. I pay about 11 euros for a cubic meter of oak. Cheaper than getting it from the usual suppliers. Only downside is it coming in 2 meter lengths, not a big problem though. Well today after buying my wood the owner pointed to a large pile of off cuts and said to take as much as I wanted. This stuff was in one foot lengths so no cutting needed, bonus. May be worth checking out your local sawmill, can't hurt to ask about those offcuts.

[333]

Peace,

Excellent,

I was requested to build a few "Adirondack" chairs for the in laws on my second to last visit to Bordeaux. They are pretty simple, but the metric conversion was hard to over come at her cousins saw mill, so we just over cut the templates or rough stock, and I did the rest by jig saw, worked out nice.

You don't find the little saw mill carpenters here in new york, its lowes and home depot for the home owner, 84 lumber and pages for contractors. But no more small independent folk. SAD.
We get the baby bell all the time, much better than process cheese food garbage they sell here. Never thought about the wax though thanks.

333

[Bad_Omen]

Well I chucked a couple of the wax wrappers on the the fire after the kids had eaten them and they went up beautifully, it got me thinking and one thing led to another.

Do you get the green goats cheese Baby Bells there? Now they are nice :D

As for the sawmills, they're great, I love being able to go in and and ask for exactly what I want and watch while they cut it. Superb, you cant beat watching craftsmen at work.

[333]

Peace,

See what happens when folk start to think, you pyro homo sapien. lol

We get the red ones, and the goat cheese ones are pink here.

As for saw mills,

A long forgotten class of folk here, no more, we do not even support "shop" classes in school any more. Disgusting really. While we all hate monger the Islamist, we seem to have forgotten the undeniable movement of socialist and fascist in our own land.

333

[Shamrock1121]

I make "firestarters" by filling the cups in a cardboard egg cartons with sawdust and filling each one with some kind of wax - usually from candle stubs, scented candle remains, or paraffin. Then break them apart for use.

My hint for safely melting wax... They now have little electric heating plates for scented wax and scented oil, and for keeping a mug of coffee hot. These are hot enough to melt the wax, but not so hot the wax would catch fire or the melted wax burn your skin.

I put the wax in a Pyrex (glass) measuring cup so that pouring is easy from the cup spout and the handle is cool to the touch.

Have ready some type of scrap paper to wipe the liquid wax out of the measuring cup, while still wet. Then you can tuck the wax-covered paper into a paper cardboard roll (toilet paper, gift wrap, paper towel, etc.) and use them for starters.

We also take a lot of nutritional supplements which often have a wad of cotton in them. I'll use the cotton in the egg carton, instead of sawdust, and cover it with wax.

-Karen

[Bad_Omen]

We use an old crock pot to melt wax for fire starters. *Also use the sawdust in an egg carton, but this year I may try dipping fir cones into the melted wax and see how they work since we have a huge supply of fir cones now.

I've heard fir cones in wax work really well but not had the chance to try them. If you do try, let us know how you get on please.

[bookwormom]

quote:
As for the sawmills, they're great, I love being able to go in and ask for exactly what I want and watch while they cut it. Superb, you cant beat watching craftsmen at work.

know just what you mean.
where in New York do you live,333 ,that you do not have small sawmills around? here in Ky there are more small sawmills than you can shake a stick at. I have the choice of four where I live. plus a guy who comes to your place, sets up his saw and cuts your timber into lumber. We buy from a one man Amish operation, he is doing very good work, very reliable and the price is much lower than Lowe's and the like. Nice young man with a wife and two year old daughter, a milk cow, a garden.
Once in winter we got there and there was a butchered hog hanging there, nobody was home though.

[karlsgunbunker]

The ladies at church were cleaning out their closet and had several 10lb slabs of wax left from a candle making class.

They told the Boy Scouts to throw it out.
Luckily my son snagged one for me before it was destroyed by the boys.

I plan to mix it with paper from my shredder and see o\how it works as firestarters.
I don't have a source for saw dust.

[pergammano]

I use the cardboard boxes coated with wax that I collect from the local grocery store! While enjoying a hot cuppa...& the tunes of Mother Nature, I cut these into strips, easy to store, works like a hot darn! Wax coated cardboard is not recyclable.....but a lot of produce is shipped in them.

My concern is that wax is made out of petroleum residues...even with the small amount needed to lite a fire...what sort of impact am I making.

I use fir cones a lot too! Collect them (by rake) to get rid of the ground fuel in my forest. Put them in dairy cases. Air can circulate & dry them! They work great on their own!

[karlsgunbunker]

Another good method is to cut strips of cotton rags and dip them in wax.
they light easy and burn hot.