A good source of fire is essential while camping for keeping warm, cooking, warding off wild animals, and a variety of other needs. Unfortunately, while on a hike, at times you may not even have a good lighter handy.
In this article, we will give you different cheap and easy DIY fire starter ideas that can help you during a hike or camping trip. All of these options are highly inexpensive and won't cost you more than a few bucks.
Warning: Please take the necessary safety precautions while melting wax. It is highly flammable.
It is best to use the double boiler method if you don't want to ruin your pot or pan while melting wax.
Also, store your DIY fire starters in a Ziploc bag to keep it dry.
DIY Paper cup fire starter
Things you need:
Procedure:
- 1Fill the paper cups with wood shavings
- 2Now pour the melted wax into the paper cups so that the wood shavings are soaked
- 3Let the wax solidify, Voila! You have your fire starter.
Note: You can use a cut-up egg carton in place of the paper cups. Alternatively, you can fill the paper cup or egg carton with melted wax, and use a strip of cardboard dipped into the wax as a wick to light it. You can also use pinecones in place of wood shavings.
DIY Sawdust fire starter:
Things you need:
Procedure:
- 1Melt the wax or old candles in a pan or double boiler. (Take safety precautions as the wax is highly inflammable)
- 2Add the sawdust to the melted wax in the ratio 2:1
- 3Now transfer the mixture to a cupcake mold or an egg carton
- 4Let it dry, and your fire starter cubes are ready
DIY Cotton Pad Firestarter
Things you need:
Procedure:
- 1Dip the cotton pads in wax
- 2Let it dry
DIY Toilet Paper Roll Firestarter
Things you need:
Procedure:
- 1Stuff the toilet paper roll with lint
- 2Now wrap the roll in wax paper
- 3Twist the ends to secure it. Your fire starter is ready!
Alternatively, you can pour melted wax into the lint inside the toilet paper roll instead of using wax paper.
Upgraded DIY Vaseline Ball fire starters:
Everybody knows that cotton balls dipped in Vaseline work as a great fire starter. But what about an even better and more efficient method?
Things you need:
Procedure:
- 1Dip about half of each cotton ball in melted wax
- 2Let the wax dry
- 3Now cover the top part (without the wax) of the cotton ball in Vaseline, which will act as a wick.
This fire starter burns for a much longer time as compared to just a cotton ball dipped in Vaseline.
DIY Self-Igniting Fire Starter:
Things you need:
Procedure:
- 1Wrap the strike-anywhere match in tissue
- 2Dip it in melted wax
- 3Let it dry and scrap off the wax on the match head when it's time to light.
DIY Duct Tape Fire Starter
Things you need:
Procedure:
- 1Cut the duct tape into two short pieces of equal length
- 2Now stick the cotton ball or paper on the middle of one of the tape pieces
- 3Now stick the other piece above it to seal it
- 4Simply pull out a bit of the cotton or paper like a wick when you light it
Infographic on DIY Firestarters
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Quick Emergency DIY Firestarters:
Use these if you don't have any pre-made DIY fire starters handy during your hiking or camping trip.
The Primitive Way!
Let's suppose you are stranded in the wilderness with no matches or lighter. What do you do now? Your best bet is to go the primitive route and start searching for flintstones. No! I don't mean "The Flintstones," I'm talking about actual flint stones that our primitives used to start the first fire.
Here are some quick tips for identifying a flint rock:
Check out the above-given link to get more information on how to identify flint and other fire-starting rocks as well as how to start a fire!
Here is a bonus video on how to start a fire using only flint rocks in case you don't have a metal.
You can then use natural fire starters such as pinecones, dry leaves, tree resin, twigs, or dried orange peels to transfer the fire.