Alternatives to newspaper for fire starter

[luap]

empty egg cartons work well. Not the Styrofoam ones but the coarse paper ones Here people donate the cartons to the local thrift store, so they are available for fire starter or if you have a few chickens and are getting more eggs than you can use. I never cared for burning cardboard because it produces a lot of ash that ultimately needs cleaning out.  

[Sauna freak]

Whenever I rip a log in the woodpile with the chainsaw I end up with a goodly pile of long shavings.  I save these for multiple purposes, one of those is making fire starters.

Using an egg carton, I fill the compartments with these shavings.  Next time I fry bacon or fish, the hot lard is poured over the shavings in a cold place.  It solidifies into little fire bombs.  They light easily on the ragged edges of milk carton, and burn a long time, lighting even rather stubborn kindling.

At my hunting cabin, we're blessed with an abundance of paper birch.  I try to intentionally cut some in May or June so the bark pops off easily as it dries.

[Crusarius]

but don't you always crave bacon when lighting a fire. That would be the death of me

[doc henderson]

we do not use leftover meat grease for much, like cooking.  I will start incorporating it into fire-starting.  takes planning and recognition of the value.  things we try to teach scouts.

[Al_Smith]

I fired the news paper a couple of years ago .What 25 pages of nonsense for over $300 a year ,nope .Having said that I get enough junk mail to almost heat the house .My word  hearing aids ,reverse mortgages ,financial advisors. Credit card applications as if I need any more .Life insurance for $9.95 a month and on and on .
The dumbest is pre approved loans from the same banks I use who should know the last thing I would be interested in .So it's just junk mail and some pine splits from scrape lumber  and normally it's starting one fire per year .However so far I've let the fire go out twice this year .I'm loosing my touch evidently .

[1countryboy]

A barrel of dry sawdust, from my mill, is in my shop for floor dry.   Works well for starting any fire.   Could be used in your parlor stove.  I have vast supply of seed corn and soybean bags from the spring planting.  All get used daily to revive outdoor furnace when i reload in the mornings.   Net wrap does too, but sure don t recommend that in the house. ;D.   Outside furnace.......works great.   Ignites the dead ash fast.   

What are any of you doing with the Ash?   I can t waste it, but, the btu s are not great.   Sad that a great timber and firewood species is either dead or will be soon.   I just fire my furnaces more often.   

[Al_Smith]

I don't recommend it but my grandmother who was a tough old gal used corn cobs dipped in a coffee  can full of kerosene . Since they use picker/shellers these days I have no idea where you'd get the corn cobs . She didn't need to do it very often because she usually had about 2 tons of Ohio lump coal for the winter over night fires .Wood in the day coal at night .Wore her out ,she died at 96 . 

[doc henderson]

my dead ash goes in the compost pile... it is 15 feet tall and added to with the track loader.  my dead ash has no BTUs left, but the charcoal does.  

[tawilson]

I don't think anyone has mentioned chainsaw noodles yet. I forgot about them till I was making some yesterday.  Wait a minute, I need these I said.

[Spike60]

If this thread was a contest, Doc's the clear winner. Be fun to hang out there on a Sat afternoon and help make a few batches.

[woodroe]

Guess I shouldn't have sold my 13" planer a few years ago. 
Didn't realize at the time I might need it for fire starter ribbons.
The wax idea from Doc got me thinking about wax paper though, that 
stuff burns good and is relatively inexpensive.
Lots of great ideas here though. 

[doc henderson]

thanks spike, let me know if you are in the area or if you have any questions about the process.  lot of stuff burns well, but you  have to plan ahead.  i have all kinds of family saving and bringing the left over 1/2 inch of wax in a burnt out candle jar.   bon_fire

[Al_Smith]

Since the mention of the Boy Scouts has came up from time to time ..Decades ago one of the tests was building a fire using only two matches .A couple of us did not bend the rules we just lit a candle, big fat one .No where in the rules did it ever mention you could not  get creative about it . ;D 

 

[doc henderson]

yes, the old joke was to start a fire with only two sticks to rub together.  just make sure one is a match.     One of the secret ordeals was after sleeping under the stars, to get 2 matches, a paper cup full of water, a slice of bread and a package of hot chocolate mix.  If all went well (and it often did not) you had a boiled egg, toast, and hot chocolate for breakfast.  usually, you could use someone else's fire if you had a catastrophic failure, but some just sprinkled the hot chocolate mix on the bread and ate it and drank cold water.  bon_fire

usflag

[jimbarry]

Find someone who splits a lot of firewood. We get some much we dump it over the embankment. Compost for some future generation.



 

[mike_belben]

but don't you always crave bacon when lighting a fire. That would be the death of me

When i heated the house on pure sawdust and waste vegetable oil the entire neighborhood smelled like fried food.  A combination of buttery pancakes and fried street vendor meat.   I probably generated a lot of business for local munchie peddlers

[Crusarius]

mike, you missed a golden opportunity there  especially knowing your neighborhood problems

[Al_Smith]

Saw dust and planer chips .As a young boy we had 40-50 hens and would get sawdust and chips from a local lumber yard /saw mill  .Those hens, small they were  could tromp that stuff into particle board .It took a pick axe to break it loose .Smelled like fermented skunk rectums .

[doc henderson]

.Smelled like fermented skunk rectums .

I bet it tasted like it too.      8)   smiley_airfreshener smiley_smelly_skunk digin1

[Sauna freak]

I don't think anyone has mentioned chainsaw noodles yet. I forgot about them till I was making some yesterday.  Wait a minute, I need these I said.

Haven't usually used that term, but it makes sense.  I end up ripping a fair amount of un-splittable logs with the saw and generate a large pile.  I bag them loosely in old feed sacks for future use.  In a previous post I described using these and a cardboard egg carton with heavy fry grease for fire starters.  I also use them as-is for starting outdoor fires including the charcoal/wood grille and smoker.  They work great for charcoal chimneys or lighting small, well dried kindling for open fires.  Also make fantastic chicken bedding, wood duck house bedding, and garden mulch between the rows to keep down the weeds (if you are making them from a species that decomposes readily and doesn't contain heavy tannins).

[Al_Smith]

We plowed that chicken enhanced chip board under in the garden after it mellowed over in  the winter .It grew tons of tomatoes ,green beans etc .Five kids can mow away a lot of groceries . ;D We could not however eat the amount of eggs those hens produced .The good thing was those were old hens not the egg a day types .Some ended up in chicken and noodles .Too old and tough for fried chicken .Which has nothing to do with starting a fire ---side track warning .

[mike_belben]

I put chipper mulch and sawdust in my coop too.  All my food scraps go to the birds.  Mostly fruit and veggie peels, theyre doing pretty good, and anything they dont want gets turned in. 

mike, you missed a golden opportunity there especially knowing your neighborhood problems

That market is always pretty saturated anywhere i can afford to live!

[Crusarius]

I dunno, there are so many times I have a craving for funnel cakes and the only way I can get them is fair season in the summer, then I also need to go into the fair.

If I knew where there was a side of the road funnel cake stand I would be so happy

[Magicman]

Find someone who splits a lot of firewood. We get some much we dump it over the embankment. Compost for some future generation.

 
My splittings but I do not compost it.  Just toss a handful under the logs before I start a new fire.

Our outdoor temperature has fallen from 66° to 42° today so I just lit a flicker.  

[tim in New York]

Best thing I have ever used are the fiber egg cartons.  One of those, with kindling on top always starts the fire - works great!