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Veteran
Posts: 178
Location: Richmond, Ky | here's something to keep in mind the next time you're camping and want to start a campfire. If you happen to be around some pine trees look on the ground for there cones, these things make dandy campfire starters. Guess you could store some up during the year for future use also. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 657
Location: Rayne, LA | What we do is take a beer can and cut the top off. Fill it with gasoline. Put it in the center of the fire ring and mound pine cones all around it and stack logs in the shape of a teepee around this. Light the gas and it makes a candle style flame. just be sure not to knock the can over |
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Veteran
Posts: 136
Location: Watertown, TN | My wife saves dryer lint and stuffs it into empty toilet paper rolls. I was pretty skeptical at first but it works great. |
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Location: Kentucky | Duct tape! |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 657
Location: Rayne, LA | How do you use the duct tape? It would be more money than traditional fire starter logs. |
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Member
Posts: 23
| 2nd the dryer lint idea! A friend put dryer lint and melted candle wax in the cardboard egg cartons. then cuts up the egg cartons and 1-2 of the "candels" work great to start fires |
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Regular
Posts: 96
Location: Grapeland, Texas | First time I saw someone use the beer can and gas I stayed way back, I was skeptical. It amazed me how well it works. I have never tried it but have seen a lot of people do it. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 657
Location: Rayne, LA | Actually gasoline doesn't burn, the fumes do. That is why it kind of acts like a candle. I also carry a propane burner that is normally used to melt tar for roofing ( like a flame thrower ) that works well with green or wet logs. When I am camping I will HAVE A FIRE!!!!!!!!!!! |
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Veteran
Posts: 178
Location: Richmond, Ky | amen, ya got-ta have a fire for roasting the hotdogs and marsh mellows, not real sure bout the can of gas just yet..lol |
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Location: Kentucky | Originally written by cajunmuleman on 2013-11-18 10:03 AM
How do you use the duct tape? It would be more money than traditional fire starter logs. Not really, just a wad up a length of it leaving a little tail to light and stick it under your kindling and light it up! |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 522
Location: Tucumcari NM | Dryer lint works very well and doesn't leave any nasty fumes to ruin your food. Don't need to bother with waxing the lint and it's free. |
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Veteran
Posts: 186
| Road flares work good. I also use dry hay/shavings off the floor of the trailer. |
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Expert
Posts: 2453
Location: Northern Utah | As a boy scout, I learned to light a fire with no more than two matches. With today's Meth labs and EPA safety regs, the match companies have changed the formulas for their matches. Gone is the red and white phosphorus that we used to be able to strike ANYWHERE and get the match to light. It drives me crazy that today I have to strike 7-8-10 matches to even get one to flare up and stay lit. Most just seem to smolder through the match head and die. And forget striking a match on the back of your leg, zipper or even a rock. You almost always need to strike on the box.Folks have commented to me that matches are old school and that I should just carry a butane lighter. The problem is those don't work well at higher elevations. So if I get caught in a summer thundershower and get wet and want to dry out on a 11,000 foot ridge top. The dang butane lighters don't have enough atmospheric pressure to push the gas out to produce a flame. I'd be interested in other matches that work.I've always felt that gasoline was a little too flammable and dangerous to light fires with. I do keep some charcoal starting fluid in the trailer and can squirt a little of that on damp wood to help. With the Pine Beetle damage to western forest. There is always some trees with dead brown needles. They seem to have enough pine sap in them to ignite easily and burn hot enough to get a fire going. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 657
Location: Rayne, LA | One more thing about the fire. Use a piece of copper tubing about a foot long and put a piece of garden hose inside the copper. Add this to the fire when the fire is good and hot to see many bright colors. The real way to do it is to drill small holes in the copper and crimp the ends. This makes it last longer but is harder to reload for the next night. |
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Member
Posts: 11
| Gasoline is so flame able, combustible and dangerous. Diesel fuel is so much less combustible. Much, much safer around camp fires, and will run mosquitoes. A gallon can stuffed with old rags and saturated with diesel fuel will burn for hours. You can pour diesel fuel directly on wood to build a fire. Gasoline is so unpredictable. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1069
Location: MI. | We use firestarters. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 326
Location: central IL | I also use firestarters now. Tried making my own using an old deep fryer to melt candles I then poured over sawdust. Added some chemicals to give the campfires color. Too much trouble. Instead, bought a huge length of copper pipe cut into shorter lengths. Hubby cut holes into each one and then inserted pieces of old garden hoses. I bent wire clothes hangers strung into an end of the pipes so I could handle when hot. They can be used over and over. BTW, I stick them in pool noodles to keep the mess out of the bucket I haul them in. Or you can just hang them up, too, as I did here for a photo to share.
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