by Texas Homesteader ~
How do we easily start a fire in our fireplace? I’m sharing step by step instructions to make easy homemade FIRE STARTERS using cardboard egg cartons, natural fiber dryer lint or fabric scraps & melted wax.
(Note: Some links in this post will take you to other related articles for further information. But links preceded with * are affiliate links. If you click and buy something I could receive a tiny commission.)
Homemade Fire Starters To More Easily Start A Fire
I’ve seen these homemade fire starters before, it’s not a new concept. But I make them for use in our fireplace. They make starting the fire a breeze.
Simple Materials For Homemade Fire Starters
Making these easy fire starters requires only 3 simple items:
Cardboard such as egg cartons, toilet paper rolls or paper towel rolls.
Dryer lint or small cotton scraps (see note below regarding dryer lint)
Melted wax such as old used candles.
Let me show you how easy these fire starters are to make…
Drier Lint For Fire Starters – Only Natural Fabrics
When making fire starters from dryer lint you need to make sure the content is natural fiber since some synthetic fabric fibers like polyester or microfiber fleece don’t burn well.
We don’t use our dryer often because that lint pulled from the lint trap is actually our clothing being beat up and broken down by the dryer.
But occasionally we’ll dry a load of 100% cotton denim jeans. That’s when that dryer lint will actually serve a purpose!
Using Fabric Scraps For Fire Starters
Instead of dryer lint you can use small scraps of natural-fiber material for your homemade fire starters. I often use small scraps cut from RancherMan’s torn jeans to fill those cardboard egg cups.
I’m forever making things out of his old worn jeans like my favorite no-sew pocket coasters or rustic denim gift bags. So I’ve always got small scraps of denim left.
Remember what I always say: “Use whatcha GOT!” Just make sure to use natural fibers for best results.
Assembling My Homemade Fire Starters
It’s easy to assemble homemade fire starters:
Tuck natural fiber dryer lint or fabric scraps into cardboard cups.
Pour melted wax onto natural fibers, evenly coating the top.
Cool overnight
If using egg cartons, pull apart individual fire starters
You’re done!
Safely Melt Wax Using Homemade Double Boiler
Wax is obviously flammable. So it’s safer to use a double-boiler system to melt it.
But whatever you use to hold your melted wax will be near impossible to clean again. So here’s how I made my double boiler:
I took the largest tin can I could find. Using a pair of pliers I fashioned a small pour spout.
For the wax it’s cheapest to just use old candle wax from candles that no longer burn. Colored or scented, it doesn’t matter, but pillars that aren’t contained in a glass container were easiest to work with.
I chipped up the wax and placed it inside the can, placed the can in a pan of water and turned on the stove burner.
As the water slowly heated up, the wax melted beautifully.
How To Safely Pour Hot Melted Wax
Now comes the scary part – dealing with a hot can filled with hot melted wax and trying to transfer said wax from tin can to little egg cups.
To assure I was protected from the hot metal. I used my *hot jar gripper to grip the hot metal can.
Then I used a pair of pliers to firmly hold the can & help me pour slowly and steadily.
Hot wax can burn badly. But by going slowly and staying careful and focused I was able to easily pour this hot melted wax into each of the egg cups.
(For safety: no kids, pets or distractions in the kitchen until after the hot stuff is done!)
Tips For Containing Leaked Wax
I’d placed my egg carton on a piece of newspaper in case the hot melted wax oozed out of the cardboard. (Spoiler Alert: It DID!)
I also placed the newspaper/egg carton on an old cookie sheet to contain any melted wax.
The wax did slightly melt through the cardboard egg carton and onto the newspaper beneath it. So it was a good thing I took these preemptive steps.
Homemade FireStarters. DONE!
After the wax cooled I broke apart each of the cups I placed my homemade fire starters in a chunky metal pitcher we keep near the fireplace.
Starting A Fire In The Fireplace Without Gas Log Starter
There’s nothing quite like staying toasty-warm in the blustery winter months with the help of a roaring fire.
(remember: Fire Safety First – read my recent post about the importance of regular chimney cleaning)
We have a beautiful freestanding antique Franklin-style cast iron fireplace. I absolutely love it.
Without a gas fire starter it often takes a little longer to get the fire started. But these homemade firestarters make starting that fire fast and easy.
Using Homemade Fire Starters In Our Fireplace
To use our homemade fire starters RancherMan places one of the cups directly onto one of the logs in the fireplace to fully utilize the ignition power of these little gems and then he lights the fire starter and places smaller kindling-type wood on top.
The firestarter catches fire easily and the flames reach up through the other logs and start our fire without any other assistance from us.
RancherMan’s words to me were “Wow, that’s easy. Can you make me a bunch of these??”
Use Your Best Judgement
Again please remember that I’m sharing a procedure that works well at our homestead. This project worked beautifully for us. We’ve never experienced any wax buildup in our fireplace nor any negative results at all.
But there are lots of variables. Starting a fire in your fireplace should always be done with the utmost fire safety in mind.
So if you decide to give it a try you’ll be doing so at your own risk. Please do your research & make sure it’s the best thing for your home too.
But I’ll always make sure these fire starters stand ready for our cold-weather fires at our homestead!
~TxH~
This post categorized in 
Other ‘Use Whatcha Got’ Ideas
Outdoors & Garden
- Make A Cute Porch Lantern
- Predator Guard For Our Martin House
- Trick Birds Away From Garden Strawberries
- How Leaves Greatly Benefit Your Garden
- Protecting Tender Seedlings
- Assuring Safety Around An Underground Cistern
Indoors & Décor
Cleaning & Organization
- Safer Straight-Pin Storage
- Finding Free Storage Lids For Canning Jars
- Tame Electrical Cords
- Save Your Fingernails When Cleaning
- MYO Chalkboard Labels
- Keeping Boots Stored Neatly
Misc
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I replied, but doesn’t look like it got thru, Tammy. I built a solar wax melter, just lay the towers in there to catch the slum gum. But I did a little more research; bear with me, it addresses cleaning your wax, but does get back to used paper towels for fire starter….
So here’s what I found out:
I think you could use paint strainer bags to filter wax. (I use them to strain my honey, juice for jelly, and a whole lot more.) Around 3 or 4 bucks at Home Depot for 3, elastic at top, and fit a 5 gal bucket. Here’s my reasoning:
Water boils at 212 deg, depending on altitude.
Wax melts at 144 deg
Nylon melts at around 450 deg.
A lot of home brewers use these to boil the hops into wort to make beer.
Now, as to the waxy paper towel, you’d still have this, if you used it to wipe out your wax pot after cleaning wax, or after making those beeswax bowl covers you so graciously gave us instructions for!
Hope this helps! (Seems to me it would be less messy than paper towel.
Great idea! I also save the paper towels I render my beeswax thru-I hate to waste any of that wax! You’ve got a good idea about the denim, it’s molders for a long time. The. Rare times I use my bee smoker, I fuel it with denim seams and a piece of was coated paper towel. Burns for a long time.
Can you believe I was thinking some weeks about making my own fire starters? In our new house we have a fireplace and we love to be all together around it, now I need to find a cheap dryer for the lints. I remember I hate cleaning them at our old apartment… If I had only knew…
I’m just jealous that your egg cartons are actually cardboard! We’ve got a styrofoam of sorts here.
I really like your re-purpose ~TxH~.
I ask my wife to save the dryer lint in in a empty paper towel tube , long before you posted this post. ( Which is a good post . ) She gave me a funny look and said ” What ? ” And I have been saving empty egg cartons for a year. for another project I want to do . But Now that you have posted this I’m going to use some of that lint and some old candles and WA LA fire starters. Thanks for the Idea
I love homemade fire starters! I actually do use the lint from the dryer, but I put mine inside paper towel rolls. I haven’t tried wax, and that’s a great idea! I just use some type of oil. I keep them stored in a bag. I’m going to give the wax a try! I save all my extra candle wax! Great tip!
This sounds like the kind of thing that my husband would really appreciate me making. Thanks for sharing
my dad used a similar idea but he used waste cooking fat instead of wax
I wish I would have known about these a few years ago. I was buying fire starters and they were so expensive!
Good idea… we have made similar ones for camping. 🙂
I would worry about the wax in a woodstove melting onto the bricks. I use crumpled newspaper and cardboard I cut up with a little dry driftwood to start my fires. I warm the flue with a twisted sheet of newspaper then light the paper and kindling. That works well unless a light breeze is blowing and rotating chimney cap hasn’t turned yet to help with the draw. – Margy
I have been experimenting with toilet paper rolls: stuff with dryer lint, drizzle melted wax into the tube , add a little more dryer lint at each end, and then just before I use them I roll each on into a single sheet of newspaper. I use two underneath the kindling and build up from there. Don’t use the dryer much but love having this use for the lint.
We hardly ever use firestarters but when we we just use Vaseline on a cotton ball or old piece of rag. Really simple and works every time. Love the pocket coasters – I will trying them out.
Definitely a hit when the man asks for more! LOL
There are so-o many uses for old jeans. Hope it works for you.
I love making our own firestarters. Since many of our egg cartons at the stores are styrofoam, I usually resort to using empty toilet paper rolls. (fyi: it is easier to cut them down to smaller sizes before filling them.) I’ll have to try melting wax in a pot of hot water next time I have large pieces. Right now I’m going through old candles (in jars), so am using the candle warmer to melt the wax.
Love this! We just started using our fire place for the season and have already used up our fire starters. I think I need to make a batch of these this weekend. Now to find out where to acquire some wax. 😉 Thanks for linking up to Motivation Monday!
Quite a neat experiment, glad it worked out so well for you.
I’ve seen them made with sawdust and wax. You could try that and let us know!! Thanks for all your great posts. I love checking your site. Stay warm!
My son put a tarp down under the logs he was cutting and collected so much sawdust I mulched my 20×48 garden with it. I call it GoAway SiltySoil. Only 49.99 a bag. he.
If one were to be doing a lot of these, or doing it often, maybe an old, metal, stovetop coffee pot would make handling and pouring. Thrift store? I just happen to have a couple and will be trying these firestarters for gifts. Thank you for the tutorial
Paper shreds from an electric document shredder will substitute well for the dryer lint.