Craftsman - Fire Starter

Webelos Craftsman: Make 4 useful things (non-wood)

My 11-year-old son went on his first Snow Camping trip last weekend.  The older, more experienced scouts were building the fire, but having a tough time keeping the flame long enough to catch the kindling on fire.

My son gave them one of these fire starters that he made a couple of years ago at home.  It doesn't look like much, but not only did it light right up, it kept the flame going long enough to get the dinner fire going.  The older boys were very grateful for his homemade useful item.

Webelos boys will be going camping in the next year.  A homemade fire starter is a very useful thing to have, so easy to make, and very inexpensive.  Also, backpackers want to carry very little weight, and this very useful item weighs VERY little!

 

What you need: 
A cardboard egg carton with the sections cut apart
Clothes dryer lint
A candle
Matches or lighter.
(To make it more obvious it was from an egg carton, we didn't cut the sections apart for the pictures, but you only need one section per fire.)

Put lint in the egg carton section, then drip wax over the top of the lint.  The dripped wax serves to 1) hold the fire longer, 2) hold the lint in place in the egg carton section, and 3) waterproofs the lint from the top.