How To Make Your Own Fire Starters
Make your outdoor fire or wood burner start with a breeze using this easy how to recipe for some natural fire starters. So many interesting combinations you could use that can even make your toasty fire smell even more fragrant.
Equipment
- Muffin Tin
- Old sauce pan to melt soy wax in
- knife to slice
- scissors to forage
- small liquid measuring cup
- measuring cup
Materials
- 1 2-5 lbs. Soy Candle Wax I bought the 5 lbs and have a little under half left so the 2 lb. may be perfect for what your looking to make. I made around 35 starters for what I used.
- 1 24 paper muffin liners
- cinnamon sticks
- cloves
- mini pine cones
- dried orange slices Slice your oranges very thin and place on a sheet pan along with parchment paper. Put your oven on low heat so they don't burn (about 175 or 200 degrees) and bake for a couple hours. I just check on them until they seem fully dried like a stick when you pull them out, not gooey.
- foraged fir tree sprigs about 1-3 inch pieces
- ground cinnamon or nutmeg
Instructions
- Purchase your wax and gather all your materials needed and lay them out so they are easy to grab when ready.
- I didn't want to waste my wax so I only melted about 2 C. at a time. Just place your wax melts right into a sauce pan of choice and start heating on medium to low. Once its fully melted turn on low so it does not start to reharden on you while your doing the next step.
- While the wax is melting go ahead and put your muffin liners in the pan, and start placing your fire starter combinations of your choice into the individual muffin spots. I did one cinnamon stick Brocken in half , 1-2 dried oranges, 2-4 mini pine cones, 1-2 fir springs, & 2-3 cloves. Be certain that they are arranged and sticking up high enough so when you pour your wax in, the items will be sticking up higher then the wax itself so you can see all the pretty ingredients.
- After all my liners are filled and looking ready for their wax. I very carefully put a candle wick in the middle of each. The items helped hold it in place keeping the silver end on the bottom of the liner with the candle wick sticking straight up from the middle. Some of mine stayed fallen while the wax was melting and I just fixed them as I poured the wax when ready. It didn't effect the fire starter process at all. If you don't have wicks or prefer not to use them, lighting the paper or a pine cone will get your fire starter lit up just as well!
- Next I used a little mini liquid measuring cup and filled about 2 TBS. of my now, liquid wax, into each paper muffin liner very carefully (be careful with your warm wax, although my kids loved this part.). I also used this time to fix my candle wicks to stand a little straighter or if something needed pulled up a little to be seen in the wax better.
- Now you just wait for the wax to dry together with all the ingredients in your muffin liners!
- Lastly, you could do this right after you put the liquid wax in your liners, but I did it when mine where just about solid. I sprinkled a small pinch of ground cinnamon on each one. You could use nutmeg as well. I like extra scents and didn't want the cloves and pine to be to strong so I put some extra cinnamon in mine. I f you like the more rustic smell you may choose to just let it be.
- They should easily pop out of the pan when dry and don't forget to cut the tips of your candle wicks down to an inch or so above the wax if you chose to put some in your fire starters.
- They are now ready for use. We tested ours later that day in an outdoor fire and it burned for almost 20-25 minutes.
Notes
**RECOMMENDED FOR OUTDOOR FIRES ONLY**
**IF YOU CHOOSE TO PLACE ONE IN YOUR WOOD BURNER STOVE , THE PINE CONES CAN PUT OFF A LOT OF SMOKE SO BE PREPARED IF YOU TRY IT AND WE HAVE NOT HAD AN ISSUE WITH THE WAX CAUSING A PROBLEM OR BURNING COMPLETELY OUT OF THE STOVE**
**NOT RECCOMMENDED FOR INDOOR WOOD BURNING FIRE PLACES**
**DO NOT USE IN A GAS FIREPLACE AT ALL**