Love Me Tinder, Love Me Sweet

Hey, Firestarters!

Happy Campfire Day, Fire Fans! I’ve posted about campfire safety and good how-to knowledge in previous years, but today, I want to share a handful of different items that can be used to help start your fire and ensure you have a great Campfire Day! Often enough, you can use tree twigs and branches, but nature doesn’t always provide the dry materials you need to get your fire ripping and roaring!

There’s still hope, however, if you left home with the right material!

Don’t throw away that dryer lint! Instead, pack it into a used-up toilet paper roll. When it’s time to make your fire, you can place your firewood around the lint-packed roll. Light the center of the roll and the flames will burn outwards, catching on the firewood as it goes. Made from household items that would otherwise be thrown away, these tinder rolls are lightweight for easy packing!

Another option you have is to take five dry newspapers and to roll them into a tight tube. Then tie the tube into a knot. Place your firewood around this tied newspaper roll and light the knot on fire. The tightly knotted paper will burn slowly, allowing more time for the firewood to catch.

What kind of snacks did you pack? If you have a bag of potato chips you can actually use them as a fire-starter thanks to their fat content. Light a single chip on fire and it will burn for about 3 minutes. Pour a little pile of chips. Toss the burning chip into the pile of chips. Then, while this potato chip kindling is burning, place light, dry wood on top to catch fire over the burning chips!

While wet conditions will ruin most natural items you could otherwise use, you can still use sap from evergreens! Trees ooze this pine resin out which happens to be highly flammable. Collect some for a good means of starting fire. 

Use these inventive ideas for tinder to start your own campfires this evening (with the supervision of adults, of course) and enjoy the hypnotic dance of the flames on this great National Camp Fire Day! As always, thanks for reading!

- John