Sometimes my neighbors catch me doing funny stuff like standing on a table on my porch photographing an empty egg carton, a mason jar of beeswax and a plate of sawdust.

Weird, yes, but these are the supplies for making fire-starters, and campfire season isn’t really the same without them. Really easy to put together (I first learned how in Girl Scouts), fire-starters make building a roaring fire a snap.

First tear the top off of a cardboard egg carton and fill with sawdust (if you don’t have access to sawdust, torn cardboard pieces would probably work fine). Carefully fill with melted beeswax or paraffin wax. I used about a quarter of a pound of beeswax which I melted in a mason jar in a pot of gently boiling water. Allow the wax to cool in the carton, and you’re ready to head off into the woods.

To use your fire-starters, just tear one from the carton and stack your kindling around it. Light the cardboard edge of the fire-starter and the flame will burn long and hot, ensuring a good start to your fire.

Happy campfire season.

—SCB

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