Take empty toilet paper spools and cut them to half length. With scissors flute one end and fold the flutes in to make somewhat of a bottom and so that it will set upright. Place in a paint roller tray and fill the spools with sawdust (dryer lint can also be used. Melt old candles and pour over this, saturating it well. Any spillage or overflow can be recycled. When lit they will burn long enough to get a fire started even with wet wood and can be used to start charcoal. They are waterproof. Carry a couple in your vehicle for emergency.

Cotton soaked in Vaseline works great too. Coughlan makes small ones you can buy, and I keep them in a waterproof match container. Easy peasy.

quote:

Originally posted by BaxterB:
Cotton soaked in Vaseline works great too. Coughlan makes small ones you can buy, and I keep them in a waterproof match container. Easy peasy.

X2
DIY cottonwool & vaseline in exact same containers.

I have a pillow case full of lint from the wifes dryer, great fire starter..and a handful is easy to pack around in your back pocket and its dry, no need to soak it in anything..

In our camp a 5 gallon can of sawdust soaked damp in kerosene for morning fire starter..A big spoonful will start any fire pronto..

When it cold and raining or snowing, nothing beats a tiger torch.

Grizz

That lint starter is much better if it's all cotton .

Back 20 yeas ago when I was selling firewood a friend used to help with the sections that were too big to lift onto my hydraulic log-splitter...


He would use his big stihl saw lengthwise on a 20-24" length of 30" diameter tree trunk and it would make these beautiful long curls of wood that quickly clogged his saw, but I'd promptly scoop up several garbage pails worth of them..

a handful of those dried curls would allow me to make a roaring fire in only a few minutes with even a single glowing coal found in the ashes...

I once made it 104 days without using a single match...

But to really get things going a double handful of that dried thin wood with the second handful dug out of a coffee can filled with drain oil would ignite any firewood even if soaking wet...

Didn;t yo mama teach you since enough to get out of the rain before you built a fire!!

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:

In our camp a 5 gallon can of sawdust soaked damp in kerosene for morning fire starter..A big spoonful will start any fire pronto..

This is the best fire starter I have ever used (ok, mine is diesel instead of kero but same idea).

Sure + taking some 4-0000 steel wool + using it connected to the posts of your 6 volt flashlight battery. Be ready though because it flares immediately. Speaking of the toilet paper, we would put a roll in a coffee can fill it with rubbing alcohol + it would work as a wick + bit of handwarmer in the deer blind + doesn't smoke or smell.

quote:

Originally posted by Use Enough Gun:

A little diesel from the water separator...