I decided to try making my own wax firestarter, I grabbed some remnants of candles, a ceramic flower pot (no hole in the bottom) to act as a melting crucible, and a few "additions" to the wax mix

I dropped the candle stubs in the flowerpot, and lit a propane torch to melt them down to a liquid consistency....

Lesson 1, you're working with fire and flammables, make sure you have a way of extinguishing flames, once the wax had all melted down to liquid, I had a merry little roaring fire in the crucible, placing a metal plate on top of the crucible cut off the oxygen and extinguished the flames quickly

next time I melt down candles for FireLumps, I'll do it outside on the asphalt driveway, this *could* have ended badly if I panicked.....

Once I had liquid wax, I added in some ingredients to the liquid

Sawdust (it sizzles when it hits the wax), a few handfuls of that
Dryer Lint (also sizzles) a few handfuls of that as well
0000 Steel Wool, I heard it burns, and it couldn't hurt to add it

I mixed the ingredients into a thick, waxy goop, *then* added my secret ingredient.....

A capful or so of Hodgdon H4381SC smokeless propellant (IOW, Gunpowder), H4381SC is a relatively slow burning propellant, earlier this afternoon, I test burnt some on a paper towel on the driveway, it took about 2-3 seconds for it to completely burn up, compared to Winchester 231, which is a much faster pistol powder (same quantity burned up in about 1/2 second), 4381 will yield a slower, more controlled burn

After I let the FireLump cool and cut it out of the ceramic pot, I squeezed the pieces together into a roughly spherical, lumpy ball, peeled off a piece about the size of my thumb, and put it in the fireplace, under some tinder, and lit it with a fireplace lighter

It took a couple seconds to catch, but once it did, it began burning merrily, the combo of sawdust and dryer lint gave it a strong basis, and whenever the fire would hit granules of 4381, there would be a small jump in flame size and temperature, all in all, a very consistent, hot flame

the FireLump fragment was extremely resistant to wind, nothing would blow it out, and the small pile of tinder was quickly reduced to ash, the FireLump itself continued burning for a good ten minutes, still having the occasional flame jump due to a 4381 granule burning off, after about 15 minutes, the fire winked out, the only thing that I was burning was a small pile of twigs and a dry maple leaf or two, that thumb-sized chunk of FireLump would have given plenty of time to get a decent survival fire going in inclement conditions

All in all, a successful test

next test, submerge a piece of FireLump in water (to simulate getting rained on), then shake it off and try to light it, this will test the water-resistance of the sawdust/dryer lint combo, and see if the gunpowder is compromised by moisture, or will the granules embedded in the wax be protected? it's a given that any surface granules will be damaged, but what about the granules in the core?

HOLY COW! IT'S BLAST, JUNIOR!

If he lives in Texas, it isn't the hurricane season the folks down there have to worry about. *shudders*

"Please pass the thermite."

"Here it is. Need any C-4?"

"Oh, maybe just a little. Well, a little more than that. Okay, that looks good."

And all of a sudden the Gulf of Mexico is larger and deeper than it used to be.....

I'd skip the gun powder. For several reasons.

Ditto.

I'd put in magnesium flake. *grins* I'd probably also take out the steel wool.

Maybe a little saltpeter, charcoal, and sulphur, just for kicks.

Susan, don't worry, I'm up in New England, besides, smokeless propellant isn't *explosive*, that's black powder, smokeless propellant simply burns rapidly, there's very little propellant in the FireLump, just enough to keep the burn rate consistent

I'm processing some vids of the propellant (50 grain load, approx 3 grams or so) and the FireLump in action, the FireLump is on a fresh, green maple leaf, a leaf which the FireLump renders to ash by the end of the vids, I'll link to them when I'm done

50 grains of H4381SC
FireLump part 1 of 4
FireLump part 2 of 4
FireLump part 3 of 4
FireLump part 4 of 4

nice work--try putting a heavy wick into it,that should help light it faster--note i said wick not fuze--

Yep.
Keeping a list of alibis on hand also helps.

-Blast, who swears it was the cat's fault.

LOL!! Once again, Susan, you crack me up and made my day. I didn't even know we could type in large screaming red letters. How did you do that, BTW? I don't see any font options on my reply page. Bless you for this and all your other wonderful posts.

MacTech (aka "Blast, Jr.") - Two quick thoughts: one, how about some powdered magnesium? Two, fires on asphalt will, at the least, soften and/or bubble the pavement. With persistent high heat, you can even start it on fire. And I think that Susan will agree with me that you're just the guy to do it. So think concrete, or at least concrete block. And thank you for your research.

Below the reply box is a button to select "Switch to Full Reply". Once you select that option, there are all manner of capabilities that appear across the top of the text entry box. I just wish it could improve my typing skills sometimes.....

BTW, All explosives burn, just at different rates.

speaking of burn rates, I read that gunpowder was once originally used in Asia to cauterize wounds - how crazy is that?

If its good enough for Rambo, its good enough for me! LOL

A Mac tech from New England- you wouldn't be with Small Dog, would you?

A friend has an interesting fire starter recipes that feature a Kingsford BBQ brickette. Sometimes just wrapped in aluminum foil. Sometimes in wax paper. His more elaborate was a version that had been smeared with a bit of Vaseline and dipped in wax. Kingsford seems to be the best brand because it has, evidently, more potassium nitrate that allows it to light quicker, stay lit in light rain, and form a nice coal very quickly.

That is interesting.

This may warrant testing in the future

Although it's only a single briquette, I assume standard CO warnings would still apply?

(And if I'm overreacting, let me know. I recognize that I'm very sensitive to the subject due to life experiences of my own.)

As it would with virtually any fire starter product, assuming it is being used to start a fire. The fire itself would be generating CO and therefore should only be in an area with adequate ventilation.

Pete

I'm surprised the wax, I'm guessing parrafin, didn't inactivate your smokeless powder, Mac. What size steel wool did you use, 0000? I've found that to burn well, unless it rusts, which it does almost instantly when exposed to moisture. Good test, good report. Thanks.
Any combustion, possibly except hydrogen/oxygen, will produce CO and so should be done in well-ventilated area.

Little saftey tip here: The melting point of candle wax is lower than the boiling point of water. To melt candle wax, put your melting pot in a larger pot of water and bring the water to a slow boil. (i.e. use a double boiler)

Slower than a propane torch, but much safer.

Old boy scout trick for making fire staters is to pour wax into egg cartons (the thick paper type, not the styrofoam ones) with dryer lint or saw dust. You get 12 little cups that burn for a long time. Tear or cut off one of the cups and light the paper.