Best Fire Starter Ever

[murraymcleod]

Originally Posted by RonandDeb

I use a duraflame log and pile the firewood on top.

This is my preferred campfire method as well (but not for cooking!). One Duraflame and a couple of pieces of real wood will last hours. Buying Duraflames in bulk from Costco is much cheaper than burning up a whole $6-8 bundle of wood for an evening fire. If we're not going to be outside too long, I'll use my axe to cut the Duraflame in half for a shorter duration fire!

[m.elliott63]

Originally Posted by boiledowl

I wish I could find those strike anywhere stick matches. I think they quit making them for safety reasons. Fun pass time as a kid.

I recently found them at a Family Dollar store in northern Michigan.

[winniman]

Best fire starter ever is a small propane torch with an igniter built into it. No looking for matches or lighter. A small tank last for hundreds of light. It could even come in handy if you had to heat a stubborn bolt. I have heated my home with wood my whole life. I wouldn’t waste my time lighting a fire any other way.

[gjbales]

A couple of years ago, we were just walking thru the woods behind our campsite at a local state park, and noticed a couple of small pieces of lighter pine -- broken off limbs/logs from fallen pine trees. I picked up a couple or three of these, took a hatchet and sliced off small slivers of wood about 3" - 6" long. I keep these in the basement of coach in a plastic screw top container. Couple of these will get a fire roaring pretty good in no time.

[Cfreeda14]

Cheeto puffs! Works every time, I have a bag in a small Tupperware
container in the camper doesn’t matter how old, they still light and they still taste fine! 🔥😲😝

[153stars]

We used to save McDonalds when they had really well waxed cups, back in the day . Get someone to get us a warm case of beer"$1cheaper",ice it down. Head down too the woods for a bonfire.
A few of those cups would get damp sticks going.

[LETMGROW]

Originally Posted by Cfreeda14

Cheeto puffs! Works every time, I have a bag in a small Tupperware
container in the camper doesn’t matter how old, they still light and they still taste fine! 🔥😲😝

OMG, Cheeto Cheese Puffs? That's against all the rules. I'll trade a few sheets of newspaper soaked in Coleman fuel any day for a bag of Cheetos.

[TandW]

Pine straw. Cheap. No digging. No carving. No splitting. Loaded with terpene.

[Mudfrog]

Just got back from our annual spring break camping trip. The last two days had a lot of rain, everything wet, even deep down into the pine straw. Didn't have any problem getting a fire started using my old method.

Wet or dry, I always start with two larger sticks/logs laid parallel to each other. I lay small twigs crossways on top of them and then add larger, and then larger wood to form a teepee shape, all the while, keeping the small tunnel between the first two logs open on one end. A single match placed inside the little tunnel below the twigs usually gets them going fast but with everything being so wet this last trip, I used my small Bernzomatic soldering torch to make things go faster.

Works every time and I don't have to pay for or carry extra fire starting paraphernalia like charcoal lighting fluid, dura logs, wd40, homemade waxy stuff, or cheetos!

Edited to add: Just read TandW's post above, pine straw is my go to fuel to place inside the tunnel when it's available and dry. One match and she's a going!

[Rev. Roy]

Originally Posted by boiledowl

I wish I could find those strike anywhere stick matches. I think they quit making them for safety reasons. Fun pass time as a kid.

You're right. Ohio Blue Tip Matches were the first ones I knew about and that was over 60 years ago. The company was bought out and they discontinued the strike anywhere matches. I was taught the teepee method by my dad, a scout leader, when I was 5. These days I carry a propane torch with a built-in igniter. Ya, I have gotten lazy!

[dbircky]

Originally Posted by LETMGROW

OMG, Cheeto Cheese Puffs? That's against all the rules. I'll trade a few sheets of newspaper soaked in Coleman fuel any day for a bag of Cheetos.

Newspaper soaking in Coleman fuel probably tasted better than Cheetos and leaves no orange fingers.

[dbircky]

Cotton balls coated in Vaseline
Dryer lint
Sawdust mixed with wax
celluloid film
Pine knots
Pine cones
Everclear

All work on damp wood

[Joyce M]

I've found that a ziploc bag of cow farts works the best, along with pieces of road flares..........(;+)..............Just don't use gasoline, I've seen many idiots making that error..Foooomp!..........911.....

[Rexlion]

I bought a box of fatwood at WM and used a piece to start a fire last week. The doggone fatwood went out, partly burnt and partly not, before the rest of the wood caught! It was very still, no breeze at all. So I re-lit the fatwood and used my small O2Cool battery powered fan to blow gently at it, and that got the fire going. I guess the fatwood is no 'magic bullet' after all.