On my forest outings, I am keen to look for coniferous trees that have broken open bark where pitch has flowed out. I find dry semi malleable pitch is an excellent firestarting media, and use it in combination with other products (wax, dry fir needles, paper, dryer lint, etc.). Douglas fir is a very good source.

Benjammin,
I read in Lofty Wiseman book that you could use pitch as a fire starter but never knew exactly how. Now I do! Thanx for that <img src="images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

One of the web sites I visited suggested fire starting cubes made out of laundry lint & candle wax mixed in an egg carton. You tear out the respective cubes that are part of the carton, wrap in plastic wrap and use as necessary.

Has any of you tried this, and how long does a full cube burn.

Churches and funeral homes would seem to be a good source of waste wax for making these cubes.

Bountyhunter

IME: They work OK. Vulnerable to wind until they are fully "involved", bulky and heavy, and you need a match or lighter to ignite them. I think of them as "Cub Scout" fire starters - which is not meant to be derogatory. I just threw out a *case* the scout troop had made a few years ago - my scouts sneer at them. They have become huge afficiandos of cotton-wool + petroleum jelly, ignited by a spark. Snobby boys...? Anyway, the stuff you describe works OK. I think they may be a little better than impregnated cotton wool at dealing with truly wet wood that has not been properly prepared (splitting into small kindling), but that's an impression - nothing scientific.

Make some up and see what you think. If you want to compare, try melting in 1/3 to 1/2 petroleum jelly by volume to the melted wax - IME, it makes them less difficult to ignite than straight candle wax. If you over-do the jelly, they are a bit greasy and should be carried wrapped in plastic film or bagged in plastic. In any event, use a double-boiler to melt the stuff - a tin can inside a sauce pan keeps the home kitchen a happier place than using the chief cook's snazzy double boiler <img src="images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

HTH Tom

I use the lint wax egg carton cubes all the time as firestarters for my charcoal when I camp cook. They burn about 5 minute or so, with enough flame to get the charcoal in the chimney starter lit. They do need to be protected from the wind at the git go as AyersTG says. Adding tree pitch to the wax makes them unsuitable for the grill, but definitely adds to their combustability.

"When I was a scout..."

We did all of our cooking on folding charcol grills. We started the coals using home made chimneys from coffee cans; both top and bottom removed and vents punch around both rims via a Church Key. a.k.a. can/bottle opener.

We'd set the can on top of the grate over the coal pan and push a loose wad of paper towel or newspaper at the botton. Next we'd add a dozen or so sticks of kindling sized sticks meant to support the charcol while providing air gaps for air flow. Then we would take a block of parafin and shave off a fair amount into the chimney. Finally, we would add the charcol.

Lighting the paper would provide enough heat to melt the parafin wax, which would let it burn long enough to ignite the kinlind and, hence, eventually the coals.

I chuckled to myself the first time I saw a commercial version of the chimney in the store. <img src="images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" /> With the advent of low impact camping, we now use propane stoves for cooking. We do have one of those new chimney's for coals to cook with the dutch oven. And, fortunately, dutch oven cooking is becoming more popular with the patrols these days, enough that we're consider purchasing a few more for the troop trailer. We usually start a single chimney load of coals and share for all the patrols. But perhaps I should stash a few coffe cans in the trailer and show the boys an alternative method!

If you have a small animal in the house, you can substitute wood chip bedding (clean or used) for the dryer lint and make them into egg carton lighters (I use paper ketchup/tartar sauce cups). They take a little bit to get going, but once going they'll burn for about 15 minutes and are very hard to blow out.

Or, if you're a cotton ball man, I find that mineral oil (pharmacy laxative or baby oil) works a little better than vaseline. It's less messy (easier to wipe off hands or absorb into skin), easier to integrate into the cotton and ignites at a lower temperature. You just have to make sure you give it a good hard squeeze before sparking it - if it's too soaked the spark won't catch.

Try inserting a "trick" birthday candle into the center of the egg-crate filled with stuff and then pouring the candle wax over it all. The birthday candle will light and not go out and it will very easily start up the egg crate. If you have some fluff (cattail, milkweed, pocket lint, cotton ball you can stick just enough to catch the spark on the tip of the trick candle and this will light easily from a spark. The full combination provides tinder and kindling since the wax / sawdust / egg-carton flame bomb will burn long enough and hot enough to start wrist diameter fuel even if it is wet.

This is certainly a bulky / heavy item to carry about but there are circumstances when it may prove invaluable. I usually will have one or two in the pack for a long trek. Always have one in the BOB and car kits. Wouldn't consider it an improvement over the cotton / vaseline in a straw for the PSK usage.

I have not tried this kind of firestarter.
About the bulk problem for a PSK : do you think you could use an Altoïd box and fill it completly with your wax (etc...) preparation ? A firestarter in a (disposable) Altoïd tin ??

Yes,you can. Just remember that some of these firestarters can leech wax, petroleum jelly, mineral oil etc. when warm. You may want to consider taping the Altids tin. Fire is so critical, I've not only packed redundant firestarting systems and tinder ( petroleum soaked cotton balls and sparklite tinders,) but a small supply of fatwood (aka Maya wood) for kindling. I expect someday to figure out how to pack those small bundles of firewood sold at the markets <img src="images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />.

drill a hole in it and voila: a keychain ! or atleast a lanyard hole to hand to something. I got a chuck of mayawood attacked to mine firesteel''s lanyard.

I like gasoline! <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I was out once with another ex G. I. His firestarter was a small block of NAPALM. It was very stable,worked well, and I never asked if it was a service souvenier or what he was cooking up in the bathtub.

If you can find an old, completely dried, hardened glob of tree pitch (which is usually pretty easy to do), you can crush it into a fine powder which can be lit with a firesteel. Once it's burning, it burns very well, about as well as petroleum jelly. Dried chunks of pitch are easy to find, easy to carry, and not too difficult to light with a spark. It's like fatwood without the wood, and even easier to find. <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

--Mike