Got a wild hair today and wanted to try a cheap DIY fire starter from “waste” materials in my house. Materials: - cardboard egg carton - bacon grease and chicken fat - dryer lint - wood debris I had seen the cardboard egg carton trick with wax but didn’t have any wax, however I had left over grease/fat from our air fryer that we had poured into a glass jar. I took some dryer lint and mixed some wood debris from our firewood bag for our wood stove, put that in an egg carton depression and poured some liquified fat/grease on top. I put it in our cold garage to solidify for a few hours. We used it to start the fire in our wood stove today and it probably burnt for 5-10 minutes straight once we lit it. I know it’s not groundbreaking tech but I just wanted to share a fun little win from today. Things to note: - I understand how valuable fat is in a survival situation. - I used what I had on hand to see if I could. - This post is meant to get people thinking about what we have at hand and how to use it in creative ways. For the future: - I’d love to see how this does outside instead of just in the wood stove. - I want to test it wet to see how easy it is to light. I would love to hear about any fun things the community has been working on/experimenting/playing with. Anyone else trying to be more thoughtful about what we view as “waste” in 2026?
I keep film canisters with cotton balls saturated with Vaseline and strike anywhere matches. I found out that fat would eventually go rancid and switched to Vaseline. They will light with a magnesium fire starter and even with the sparks from an empty throw away lighter. I have also made little balls with sawdust and Vaseline for lighting the wood stove, but they are fragile and don't transport well.
I have had great luck with a commercial fire starter that I use to start my wood stove when I let it go out to clean out the ashes or when it is to warm to run it. They use a petroleum product and sawdust, A half stick will burn hot for about 15 minutes and lights with a match. It makes starting the kindling so much easier. I have made my own using candle stub wax or paraffin wax sold for candles or sealing jelly jars and sawdust. A fire starter, at least before the SHTF is a great aid in making using wood as a fuel pleasant. If you are using less than air dried wood that has dried at least a year, it may actually help keep you alive. With damp or fresh cut wood, you have to get the fire hot enough to remove the water and get the flue hot enough to create an air flow thru the wood. Having less than a perfect stove or chimney will make the task even more difficult. The problem is that though the fat works very well and makes an excellent fire starter, it is also going to be a very useful resource in the SHTF. Our very lives are going to be dependent on it as a food source. We need a certain amount of fat in our diet as an energy source and to utilize some of the vitamins. With wood ashes and water we can leach the ashes and use the fat to make a soap that will sterilize things to limit infections and clean our homes and clothes. We can use it to make lamps that are easier to use than candles and don't burn up the wicks. We can use it to preserve our meats, water proof our shoes and of course to both keep our food from sticking on the pan and as a source of seasoning in our cooking. How to Make a Vegetable Oil Lamp (with Pictures) Two of the long term storage of meat use fat as a sealant to keep air out. The following over view of long term storage of meats gives you an idea of where to start looking for idea to preserve meat. I know I am off the subject, but Puckerts brings up a very important point in our survival in the long run. Every decision we make to use a resource in our survival must also consider its alternative uses. The resource may well be more valuable if used in an alternative way. Fire starter, food source, lamp fuel, food storage, soap, waterproofing, seasoning and cooking oil, just a few uses of that "left over" cooking grease. Tempstar brings up a second point. All of our preps are aimed at surviving the longer turn collapse. While we need many long term storage items to survive the collapse, we will also need many different source in order to continue to exist in the long run.. While oil going rancid in a few months may limits use in long term storage, using it and wood waste to start your fire in a few days after the SHTF makes the question of long term storage moot. While perhaps not meant to be, a simple fire starter in fact indicates some of the problems we are going to face as preppers and hopefully as survivors. https://www.youtube.com/wath?v=DB-kkiIdla8
In the woods, I use dryer lint mixed sometimes with Vaseline but @Tempstar cotton balls work great also, actually better in most cases as they are already form into nice individual pieces. Normally to light my wood stove, which I do every morning (I got it down to a science now), is 3 small pieces of cedar about 4-inches long and my small propane torch. I hit it less than 30 seconds with the torch and got a nice fire in just a few minutes. @duane "We need a certain amount of fat in our diet as an energy source and to utilize some of the vitamins." I was just reading about the battle of Stalingrad and the bitter cold and how the German medical doctors could not understand why soldiers were simply dropping dead from no apparent reason and it turned out they were not getting enough fat in their diet to withstand the cold. They immediately issued fatty canned meat. "Every decision we make to use a resource in our survival must also consider its alternative uses. The resource may well be more valuable if used in an alternative way." Extremely good point! One that is overlooked for the 'now' solution. See, the Monkey will make you think and/or reconsider. LOL! Always learning something new here...or relearning.
