The other day I was rumbling through the garage and found an old candle I’d saved for making emergency fire starters.  I also had an 18 egg carton and decided today was the day to melt it down and pour it into the egg carton.  I cut some kerosene wicks down to put them in as wicks for the fire starters even though the egg carton would have been enough by itself.

Today I cut the carton apart and put the fire starters in a plastic bag and placed that in the hunting trailer.  I’ll probably be using the hunting trailer if I ever am in need of an emergency fire.  But then that could happen anywhere in the woods.  You never know.

So, I decided it would be a good idea to know just how long they would burn and with that knowledge you would know just what you had to do in preparation before you lit it.

The picture above is just after I had lit it.

Two minutes later this is what it looked like.  I can imagine placing small twigs and such around it and having them start to burn.

At the 5 minute mark it was blazing pretty good.  If I had the need to get a fire started this would be more than enough time to dry out wet twigs and get it going, I would think anyway.

And at the 8 minute mark the flame went out.

Eight minutes is a pretty long time to get a fire going and so I think these will work just fine.  Place one in a plastic bag with a half dozen strike anywhere matches and put it in your day pack.  You just never know when you might need it!

Bears Butt

November 8, 2015