Fire Starters using lint

[jrlehr]

I got many people hooked on starting their fires using dryer lint. It start right away and you have a great fire in no time at all. Just have your wifes place the lint from your dryer's in a plastic bag. When you camping, grab your bag and give it a shot. You will be hooked also. Enjoy

[Rav]

I'll be trying this come spring. I should have quite a bit saved up by then. Thanks

[3 Happy Campers]

We`ve used drier lint for years.
We fill discarded TP tubes & stuff them with the lint.
Seems to burn longer & hotter.
This past year we also started using those compressed sawdust logs.

[mindenglock]

try rubbing Vasoline on the lint. When ready for a fire, fluff out the lint and it burns like a candle.

[Kris10May]

I use a cardboard egg carton. Fill each 'egg hole' with dryer lint and then pour melted wax over the lint. Let cool and then break off one or two 'eggs' and use to start your fire. I know some substitute sawdust for the dryer lint but I don't have a good source for sawdust and I have a LOT of dryer lint.

[cstover]

I do the dryer lint, egg carton, and wax thing.

[Earth Station]

We used sawdust and old candles...... you can get candles CHEAP at thrift stores and some smell nice too!

[4bnabird]

We do the dryer lint and TP or paper towel rolls cut in half. Everybody thought we were crazy when we would start our fire. Now they are doing it. Best of all no starter fluid taste or smell. Haven't used starter fluid in years!!

[OldCoot]

Originally Posted by Kris10May

I use a cardboard egg carton. Fill each 'egg hole' with dryer lint and then pour melted wax over the lint. Let cool and then break off one or two 'eggs' and use to start your fire. I know some substitute sawdust for the dryer lint but I don't have a good source for sawdust and I have a LOT of dryer lint.

Shame you weren't close to Concord, NC last Tues, I dumped the box under my table saw and had over 30 gal of sawdust when it was uncompressed from being in the box. Don't know how it gets compressed that much, but it sure expands when you dig it out.

[F and E Damp]

We still use the technique we learned from our grandparents in England. We take newspapers (double-page full-size, not tabloids) and roll them up diagonally. Then we tie them in a loose knot.

Two of those and some kindling will light a coal fire, so dry logs are no problem. With all the grief about transporting logs, we're seriously thinking about hauling a 50-pound bag of coal instead. Coal fires will run for about 5 hours without having to add more fuel. The intial smoke at start-up can be obnoxious for maybe 10 minutes, compared to wood smoke, but once it's up and running, it's almost odor-free. Of course, the "nostalgic aroma" of a log fire is absent.

In our earlier S&B, we had a fireplace that could actually burn things (not like our present place which has a gas "log" fire with a through the wall flue rather than a real chimney).

With our fairly frequent power outages in that area of Washington, we kept a store of coal on hand. We didn't use it that often, but coal takes a lot less maintenance of the fire than logs, once it's lit.

[Maranatha]

I have also heard of backpackers using cotton balls dipped in vaseline.

[RickV]

I use dryer lint at home to start fires in my woodstove. I used to use pine lighter and the lint works just as good. Plus I don't have to split the pine into splinters.

[fordmantpw]

When I was a kid, we burned our trash. When it was time to take the trash out, I emptied the drier lint trap, put it in the trash, and lit that to start the fire.

For campfires, I use old newspaper wadded up and some kindling (scraps from my wood working endeavors) under the real wood to get it all going.

[punkaccountant]

I'm lazy. I use the cheap compressed wood fire logs. They usually burn for a couple hours and make lighting the fire easy. When i don't have one of those i use one of these: Propane Torch with Three Burners

I just attach it to a small disposable propane canister. It is the most fun method of starting a fire and sometimes draws a crowd.

[BurgPath]

This tread has got me planning and plotting my own fire starters. Good mental exercises when I need a break at work.

I've been accumulating dryer lint, toilet paper tubes and stray 1/2 burned candles. With the 1/2 used bag of match light in the garage I'm hoping to make a nice batch of fire starters.

I'm thinking of putting a briquet in the center of the toilet paper tube. Stuff lint on both sides, then crimp close. Pour wax over the tube to wet it and then dry.

I'm going to build some this weekend and test them out.

Thoughts?

[rattleNsmoke]

Sounds like a pipe-bomb to me.....
I may have to try the lint thingy. All I have to do is turn my pockets inside out, there's nothing in there except lint.... well maybe a coupla' Zig-Zags. Wifey makes certain of that. Well, hell, as long as I get my JD allowance I'm fine with it.

[Kris10May]

I would make sure that you saturate the dryer lint with the melted wax. I don't know that you necessarily need the charcoal briquette but it isn't going to hurt.

Happy Camping!

[BurgPath]

I found an old citronella candle to use. Cant hurt.

Matchlight TP tube bomb.

[Weezer]

I've been using the egg carton (make sure it's the cardboard type), old candle/wax left overs and drying lint for at least 10 years...started out using it for lighting the fireplace here at home, even when we have the gas line underneath the firedogs for lazy man fire starting, and now have progressed to using it for the RV.

I am not known to be big on recycling, but this I *will* do. It costs nothing and it works *so* well.

Newspaper fire starters? meh, who actually buys printed newspapers anymore? I read our local paper online. Nope, not in order to save a tree either....I don't hafta walk out to the driveway to get it, ...and.... it saves me the BP rise when the paper person doesn't throw us one.

[SUPER K]

Always used lint lightly soaked in baby oil , stuffed in an old pill bottle. You only need a pinch to start a fire.