Egg carton fire starters
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Egg carton cups filled with sawdust or dryer lint and covered in melted candle wax. Tear one off to start a fire.
What You’ll Need
- Cardboard egg carton
- Sawdust or dryer lint
- Unscented candle stubs (or paraffin)
- Large aluminum can (fifteen-ounce)
- Pot for boiling water
- Electric heat source
- Pot lifters or pliers
- Metal cookie cutters (optional)
Equipment
- double boiler
- saucepan
Directions
- Fill all twelve sections of the carton with sawdust, dryer lint, or a mix of the two.
- Clean out a fifteen-ounce can; pinch and crimp one side into a pour spout.
- Put a handful of candle stubs in the can.
- Pour two inches of water into a big pot and set the can in it to make a double boiler (prop it on metal cookie cutters if it tips or sinks).
- Boil the water, keeping a close eye on the wax. When it has melted (about twenty minutes), lift the can out with pot lifters or pliers and slowly pour a layer of wax over each section.
- Let the wax cool, then cut the carton into twelve pieces with a serrated knife.
- At camp, set one in the middle of a kindling teepee and light the cardboard edge. Each one burns for upwards of five minutes.
Notes
Safety: wax vapor is extremely flammable; melt over an electric heat source, not a gas flame, and always in a double boiler. Never leave melting wax unattended; keep wax and finished starters away from kids and pets; use lint from natural-fiber loads (synthetic lint can melt and smell).