Combine these common household items – old, junky candles and a raggedy terrycloth towel – to make a great survival firestarter.
by Leon Pantenburg
You probably already have some candles that won’t ever be used again (Except during a power outage emergency.) They could be half-burned
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survivors from a nice dinner, old Christmas or holiday candles that are about used up or candles you picked up at a garage sale or thrift store.
Likewise, you probably have some old 100 percent cotton rags that are destined for the trash. You can turn them into a preparedness treasure.
Here’s what you need to make firestarter:
- 100 percent cotton cloth. This can be anything: An old towel, athletic sock or worn-out or out-grown blue jeans denim. This is great project to use up the seams and odd pieces from jeans.
- Candles or other source of wax. Could be leftover paraffin from canning or other projects.
- Number ten tin can or some sort of high-sided pan for melting the candles in.
- Cookie sheet covered with aluminum foil.
- Tongs to handle the hot pieces of firestarter
- Safe heat source. This can be just about anything, but I prefer to do this job outside. Spill melted wax on anything and you have a major cleanup problem!
Here’s how to combine these throw-aways.
It’s a good idea to have candles for lighting during power outages, but everybody has some junky candles that could be put to better use.
Gather the candles: You might decide to remove the wicks. I snip off the little pieces of charred wick in the firestarter, even though it has no effect on the finished product. This is not really necessary, but it makes things tidier for the next step. The wicks are easy to fish out of the melted wax.
Cover a cookie sheet with aluminum foil – this is where the hot, wet firestarter strips will be placed to cool and harden.
Melt the wax: I like to do this outside on my Camp Chef double burner stove. As always, have a fire extinguisher handy in the event of an accident. Melt the wax down to liquid, then heat until it’s almost smoking hot.
Shut off the flame! For this next step, you don’t want to have an open flame anywhere near the melted wax and cloth..
Tear the terry cloth into strips, and dip them in the molten wax. Place on the cookie sheet.
Let dry, then place the strips into plastic bags. (You don’t want to leave this firestarter in a hot car unless it is in some sort of container. It will make a major mess!)
The end result should be a good, usable firestarter. Since the fibers are infused with wax, the end result is waterproof. Be careful, though. While the firestarter generally works well, not all candles are created equal. The wax from dripless candles doesn’t tend to be as flammable as that from regular candles, so test the firestarter (or any survival tool item) before relying on it.
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