"When I tell you something is dangerous, I mean it. And, I never forget the Victims"
T.J. Hooker
"Everyone can master a Grief but he who has it”
William Shakespeare
”I had given him a life not worth living, but I had also given him an iron will to live. This was a common combination on the planet Earth”
Kurt Vonnegut about his character, Kilgore Trout.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Homemade Fire Starters from recycled stuff.......... Whee!

 The finished product
When my brain goes into overload and dwells (wallows) in the past, I have to remember what is important and where I AM, now.  Thank you Ellen.  And, where I like to be best is knowing that I am a handicrafter who likes to get my hands dirty and likes to have fun.

This idea was bandied about in Ravelry sometime before Christmas a couple years ago, so I started saving the ingredients for Firestarters. I never can get my hands on sawdust very easily anymore ( you know how  to make cupcake fire starters with wax and sawdust and a cupcake paper) so I started saving lint from towels and cotton sheet drying in the dryer - well blue jeans,too, as they are cotton denim.

I noted, while making these that they began to look like fire crackers, in fact I was hoping as I was putting them together that I wasn't making some sort of little bomb like thinga! Wouldn't that be special? We've had potatoes that exploded in a fire, and that was fun.

When I showed the first one I wrapped to Hubster, he commented that it looked like a big firecracker. I could see the gleam of "little boy" in his eyes.



The "dry ingredients"   The little basket will be their "carryall".


Melted wax in the Double boiler.  When I dipped these I poured a little bit of wax down into the fuzzy stuff in the middle, and then down the sides. The next step is to cover both ends and pour a little wax into the center of the tube if none ran Then......... on to the other end.

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Here they are, all covered with wax except to that one little rascal in the second row.  I went back and got him.

Here are some wrapped and some about to be wrapped.  I wanted to have some that were for "festive occasions" like birthday campfires or something, so therefor the two Stars and Moon (Celestial) ones.  When we use these we'll pull out the end papers to have something easy to light.

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I Hope you liked the tutorial on making these.  I feel that they will save a whole lot of angst and blue language when it comes time to start a fire on a drippy day out camping.

I also got my hands dirty transplanting four African Violets yesterday.   It's good to get your hands dirty.

6 comments:

  1. These are brilliant. I would love to know how to do the other one also ... In case I get any sawdust ya know ;)

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  2. Why thank you, Rho. I thought they were amazing, too. They are really fun to make, and very useful.

    I'll make a new post for the cupcake ones...

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  3. Your fire starters are MUCH prettier than mine. I generally just put some vaseline on cotton balls and keep a few in a little bag in my camp cooking bin. They'll light even when the weather is crappy.

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  4. What a great idea! Vaseline on a cotton ball is a great fire starter, ellen. It apparently works on dryer lint, too.

    I can't believe all the interesting YouTubes there are from all over the world. Native Americans made a sort of bundle that they could carry around from one camp to another, or down river on their canoes. Masai make a similar one the video made of them working a stick on a stick. Wow. Isn't YouTube wonderful?

    I was sort of thinking of dressing up bits and pieces of Christmas tissue papers to see if these would be "festive" enough to give to neighbors or kin who have little fireplaces, too. Camping "out" gets fancier the older I get. ;o)

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  5. I also can never find saw dust. Of course, living in a condo might have something to do with that. I do something really similar. I usually use 11 TP rolls and drier lint to make one starter. If you fold 10 rolls really flat, you can fit all of them inside the 11th. Then I use a pencil to stuff drier lint into any of the voids. I wrap them in paper bags from the grocery. Viola! fire starters that burn for like 2-3 hours! It's really good if your wood all gets wet!

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  6. I like your fire-starters, too, Renvi. Now that it's time to make more, I'll try making them your way. Denser would last long enough to get a roaring fire.

    I'm seeing your comment almost 6 years later, and for the first time, too!

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I’m going through some stuff but I will peek in now and then and will be back when it’s over..