Re: What fire starter do you use?
OK, here is the results of my little (un)scientific tests.
I took 2 pieces of lint approximately the same size.
I poured kerosene on the one on the left and parafin lamp oil on the one on the right and lit them one right after another (only a couple seconds apart) to be as fair as I could about it to see which burned better.
I forget the camera inside and had to go back in to get it so it took a couple of minutes to be able to make it back outside to them.
When I first lit them, the flame was probably about 2 and a half inches long, but was dying down by the time I was able to snap the pictures. It will burn better and longer after everything is mixed together. This was just to see which fuel burned the best.
Although both fuels did well in the beginning, the kerosene burned a couple of minutes longer before burning out, so I am going to use kerosene in my mix. Plus I have about 60 gallons of it stored for emergencies.
Alright, here is the recipe.
Step 1 pull dryer lint into small pieces.
Step 2 sweep up a bunch of small sawdust and wood chips from your workshop. I prefer the really fine stuff more than the big chunks for this.
step 3 mix the sawdust and lint into a container (using twice as much wood than lint) and soak them in kerosene long enough to get saturated and then press and drain the excess kerosene out of the mix and let stand so the mix is clumpy but not wet with kerosene.
step 4 fill a kettle with water and get it to a boil and then place another kettle on top of that with the wax in it. It's important to let the steam melt the wax so it doesn't catch fire. If it does, put the lid on it and take it off the heat, but it's not as likely to catch fire if using steam.
Step 5 once the parafin wax is melted, pour it onto the wood/lint mix and stir it all together real good. You have to be pretty quick with this step, but remember, the mix is going to be flammable so be careful.
After it starts cooling, but while it is still soft and moldable, use a rolling pin or something and roll the mixture out as flat as you'd like, but I try to keep it about 3/4"-1" thick and then let it cool until it's hard.
step 6 use a knife or saw (bandsaw or hacksaw is fastest) and cut it into whatever size pieces you want.
When you light a 2x2 square is usually more than enough to get a rolling fire going from a stump or limb. They'll burn for quite a while and almost always enough to get a camp fire going.
I store them in a ziplock bag.
It makes starting fires so easy, even a caveman could do it .