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These “snowy” pinecones are a cute Christmas decoration. And when the holidays are over, you can use them as eco-friendly fire starters for open fire, stove or charcoal grill.
The step by step tutorial on how to make and use the DIY pinecone fire starters, can be found further down in this blog post.
The fire starters are made of pinecones picked in the forest and reused candle-ends. I thus paid nothing for the material and the pinecone fire starters are also super easy to make. Don’t use chemicals to light your fire – make your own, smart pinecone fire starters instead!
DIY PINECONE FIRE STARTERS
Supplies:
Pinecones, leftover stearin candle-ends, scissors, microwaveable bowl, microwave oven, fork and greaseproof paper.
How to:
- Pick pinecones, bring them into room temperature and let them dry for a couple of days.
- Cut off the black wicks if you’re going to use the finished pinecones as decoration (otherwise they turn out grey). Put the candle-ends in a microwaveable bowl.
- Melt the candle ends on medium heat in microwave oven. When melted, remove wicks.
- Dip one pinecone at a time in the melted stearin.
- Put the dipped pinecone on greaseproof paper to cool of. When the stearin layer is hard, dip again, let dry, dip yet another time and let dry. If your stearin gets too hard, remelt it.
- The finished pine cones can be used as holiday decor or fire starters. Instructions on how to use your homemade fire starters can be found after the jump.
HOW TO USE YOUR PINECONE FIRE STARTER
Open fire / stove:
Place a pinecone fire starter between two dry logs. Make sure the pinecone’s scales are pointing downwards. Light the pinecone from underneath.
Charcoal grill:
Make a pile of charcoal and place a pinecone fire starter on top with the scales pointing downwards. Light the pinecone. Wait until the charcoal around it starts to glow and then mix the charcoal.
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