Wax Fire Starters out of all

Here in New England we need to get ready for winter. For everyone that means something a little different. To us it means: putting the garden up, getting the wood stacked, putting away all the gardening ornaments and items that are out, winterizing the house with storm window and plastic on the windows to help keep the cold out, completing any repairs that need to be done. We also check the flash lights to make sure they are working, buy batteries for all the flash lights, check the shovels, start the snow blower to make sure it's working properly and this year make fire starters.

Last year we used newspaper as a fire start, but this year we want to use wax egg cartons. For a number of reasons, one being it is better for our wood stove/chimney because it wax eggs will leave less residue. I've been saving up my egg cartons all summer and the carton collection may have gotten a little out of hand.



Making fire starter can be a great activity to do with your kids, but will require adult assistance and supervision. All the items you need are regular household items that you can re-purpose. I decided to make up a batch, I had just enough lint to make 24 or 2 egg cartons worth.

1 metal can ( I use a coffee can)
Egg cartons
Dryer lint
Newspaper (Tmall pieces that I use as a "wick". This isn't needed but it's my preference.)
Wax (I use paraffin, but you can use old crayons or candles. I just didn't have any lying around this time to use)





If you're using the newspaper for wicks you'll want to rip up little pieces (shown left) and place them in the middle of the lint (shown right). Peanut is only 11 months old and he helped get the paper ready.







Now you're ready start:

Step 1:

Place lint and newspaper in all the egg cups. You want to do this first so it's ready as soon as the wax is melted.

Step 2:

Put your metal can inside a pot to melt the wax. DO NOT melt the wax in another pot that you want to keep. Melting the wax will leave a residue that ruins the pot. The pot should be big enough that the can will not touch the sides of the pot.

Step 3:

Pour or spoon the wax into each cup. Make sure the egg cartons are set on something, like a piece of cardboard because there is the chance that the wax will leak through. I put the egg cartons on top of an old pizza box that I had left over.

Step 4:

Let the wax cool and harden. Once cool and hardened you can either set the cartons aside to rip one off as needed or rip them all off at once and put them in a storage container.