In the Nov/Dec 2008 issue of Backwoods Home magazine http://www.backwoodshome.com/ there was an article on Fire Wick Fire Starters. They are little pieces of wick coated in wax and are used as an aid for starting camp fires, fires in wood burning stoves, or basically anywhere that you may need to start a legal fire and not have the hassle that comes along with getting a fire going.
I was intrigued but skeptical; I keep thinking of the guy in the mall with the Styrofoam plane, once you bought into his demonstration and brought the plane home … bang it hits the floor on the first try and it breaks. Money and time wasted, hopes shattered.
But I figured this is a good magazine with information about practical ideas for self-reliant living; why not give it a shot. So I ordered some #840 - 5/16” wick from www.wickstore.com and picked up some Gulf Wax brand paraffin wax at the local supermarket and collected all the necessary tools to begin.
Following the directions in the article, we first heated up the paraffin wax in a double boiler pot, then we cut the wick into two foot lengths, ran the wick through the heated paraffin wax, lay the lengths out to dry, then we cut them into 2 ½“ lengths.
After all was said and done, I placed a fire wick fire starter on some ice cubes so I could replicate what was shown in the article and you know? It really did work, it burned for 8 ½ minutes.
It was a fun little project for me and the boys to do and the fact that it did really work was a plus. At a cost of about 8 dollars for 200 – 2 ½” long fire wick fire starters we ended up with about 28 ½ hours of fire power.
Not a bad deal and definitely not a waste of time.
Soooooooooo Cool.
ReplyDeleteGoing to give it a try. We cook on the beach a lot. This would be handy.