Up next The Most (And Least) Visited National Parks Published on April 19, 2023 Author Tread Staff Tags fire building methods, fire starting methods, log cabin fire lay, mini inferno fire starter, stoked fire, Share article Facebook 0 Twitter 0 Mail 0 How to Start a Fire: Get Stoked One of the biggest stresses facing someone in an outdoor emergency situation is their ability (or not) to start a fire. It’s so important that all outdoor aventurers know how to start a fire. Fire not only provides light and heat, but it can cook your food, ward off intruders (animal or otherwise), and provide comfort. This is particularly true in situations when you weren’t planning to camp, and either because of unforeseen events in nature or car trouble, you’re left stranded in backcountry. Welcome to Fire 101 To make a fire, you need three main ingredients: fuel, spark, and air. The fuel must be dry enough to light quickly and burn readily. (Tip: If it doesn’t break with a snap when you bend it, the wood is not dry enough.) It must be arranged so the air can get to the flame easily and build a good draft. The best way to do this is to leave an opening on the downwind side of your fire, so that the wind will naturally blow into the fire as it burns. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter The flame is added to your tinder. Tinder is small, fluffy, burnable material that is natural like dry bark or cattail duff or it can be a homemade or commercially made firestarter, some of which we’ve tested for you below. Your fire can come in the form of a lighter, matches, a ferrocerium rod and a knife, a blowtorch, or something as primitive as a piece of flint and a striker. A ferrocerium rod like this one, coupled with a striker or just your knife will give you a spark that will ignite petroleum-based firestarters or dry and fluffy tinder you find in the field. The best way to build your fire is to do it like cooking from a recipe. You need to gather all of your materials before you actually start building your fire. The last thing is to light your tinder with whatever source of flame you have to get it started. Then move your tinder into your fire if it isn’t already there and let it light the rest of your wood. Start With The Basics The key to a successful fire is to have enough of the different thicknesses of wood to build your fire. You need tinder, followed by kindling, which is then followed by the thicker sticks that actually fuel your roaring blaze. Once you have your fire going with medium sized sticks you can add even thicker wood, or quarter pieces from a tree if you want a fire that large. If you are lucky enough to find a dead tree that has fallen to the ground, then you likely have each thickness of wood that you need for your fire. Just start with the twigs at the very end of each branch and work your way towards the trunk, getting the increasingly larger pieces you need to build your fire. Tinder: This should be very dry woody material that is no thin and fluffy. Good examples of tinder are cattail duff, milkweed puffs, dry cedar bark, pine tar or pitch, or pine needles. Whatever you use make sure to break it up to expose its inner fibers and make it fluffy. Your spark needs these fine fibers to start the fire. If you can’t find any of these and don’t have a firestarter with you can use your knife to shave off fine strips of dry wood. Digging into a dry dead log is another good place to find good tinder. Kindling: This is the non-fluffy wood that will actually grow the fire. I like to think of it coming in two sizes. The first size you should use are the actual twigs at the end of a branch and the larger twigs that they grow out from. Moving even closer to the trunk are the next size of kindling, the pieces that are the size of a wooden match up to the size of a wooden pencil. Firewood: Also known as fuelwood, these pieces are the next size up and should be around the thickness of your little finger going up to the size of your wrist in thickness. Add it starting with the smallest diameter pieces moving up to the thumb sized and then wrist sized pieces. The Right Wood A fire gives you two main things; light and heat. If light is your main goal, along with some heat, you want to use softwoods like aspen, poplar, or any of the evergreens. These are less dense woods so they light faster but they also burn faster so you need to feed more wood into it more frequently. The resin in evergreens also helps it burn and give off more light. Your fire will need wood in a variety of thicknesses ranging from pencil thin to wrist thick. If a slower burn or more heat is what you desire then you should be using hardwoods like oak, maple, cherry, or hickory. These are denser woods so although they take more heat to ignite they will give off more heat and will burn longer than the softwoods will. Different Designs for Different Desires Different types of fire lays are best suited for different purposes. There are many different ways to lay your fire. Each one has its own benefits for the conditions you are in and the way you will use your fire. The two main lays are the tipi and the log cabin and will meet the majority of your needs. THE TIPI FIRE: The tipi fire lay is the simplest and probably the one you are most familiar with seeing. It lights quickly and burns quickly, especially if you have good air flow. Starting with softer wood for your kindling will make it easier to catch. You can add harder woods later if you want more heat or want the fire to last longer. Since this design will focus the heat of the fire directly above it, this is the ideal fire lay when you want to boil water or cook something in a pot suspended above the fire. The tipi fire lay is easy to make, lights quickly and burns fast. It is often the fire used as the starting point for a larger fire built off of it by adding more wood either higher or on its sides. How to buld the fire: You should assemble your tinder bundle and place it on the ground in the middle of the fire ring you cleared. Next stick three pencil-sized kindling sticks into the ground to form a tripod over the tinder. This will be used as a framework to hold your kindling. Now you can start adding your kindling, smallest pieces first followed by the slightly larger kindling building the walls of the tipi. Continue this until you have kindling on all sides except for the downwind side. You want to keep an opening on the side where the wind/breeze will be blowing in to give your fire the air (oxygen) it needs to burn. This opening will also give you a place to add your match or fire starter to ignite your tinder. THE LOG CABIN FIRE: The log cabin fire lay is best used when you want to get a bed of coals for cooking on or for use in making a warm bed of coals to cover with dirt and sleep on. It doesn’t concentrate its flame and heat in one place like the tipi fire lay does. It spreads the heat across the cabin framework and burns from the inside out. You can also use this fire lay to help dry out wood that is damp from rain by placing it along the outside of the cabin or on the top layers of the cabin. The crisscross layers of kindling are what makes the log cabin fire burn steadily and hot. The layers keep fuel right over the fire which helps it continue burning without having to tend it too often. How to build the fire: Put your tinder bundle in the center of your fire ring. Then place two pieces of your larger wood, a couple of fingers thick to wrist thick parallel to each other about six to twelve inches apart, depending on how big you want to make your fire. Then put two more pieces across the first two to form a square. This is the foundation of your log cabin. You now want to put a layer of small kindling across your foundation. On top of this layer add slightly thicker kindling. Continue this for a few more layers using thicker pieces each time. If you used thick enough pieces of fuel wood for your foundation you should be able to easily put your match in to light your tinder. If you don’t have a match and need to use a spark you can either use two shorter pieces of wood on the downwind end to leave a gap for you to put your lit tinder under the kindling or you can leave an opening in the first layer of kindling on the downwind side to push your tinder in. Safety First, Second… and Last As useful as a fire is, it can also be extremely dangerous. An unattended fire can grow outside of its fire ring and burn equipment in the campsite or turn into a forest fire. Sparks from too big of a fire or a poorly placed fire can land on shelters and equipment burning holes both large and small. So, locating and preparing the area around your fire is very important. Before you start building your fire, you need to pick a good location for it. A good location is one downwind of your camp, so the wind won’t blow sparks or flame toward your shelters or equipment. It should be at least ten yards away for safety purposes. For this same reason, you should store your supply of firewood upwind, too. To prepare the area for the fire, clear an area large enough to hold all burnable materials. Then surround the campfire area with non-burnable materials, like rocks, to serve as a perimeter. You should avoid crystalline rocks like quartz which can explode if they get too hot due to the moisture inside of them. Next, clear the ground of burnable materials for one or two yards around the fire ring, to prevent the fire from spreading away from where you built it through a stray spark. The Great Big Tinder Test Mother Nature can be a cruel mistress. It might turn out that the one time you really need to build a fire quickly, it will have been raining for hours on end and you can’t find any dry sources of natural tinder. Therefore, it only makes sense to carry some ready-to-light tinder with you. Here are five different products we tested. Instafire Time of burn: 4:31 Cost: $1.88 per pouch, $69.99 per 4 gallon bucket instafire.com Instafire has been around since about 2008. Their fire starter consists of volcanic rock, wood pellets, and paraffin, with an appearance like cat litter. Very lightweight, each pouch comes with enough of the product to light approximately four fires yet weighs less than two ounces. To use, a small quantity of Instafire Fire Starter is poured out and lit with either flame or spark. To keep our comparisons as fair as possible, our pile of Instafire was roughly the same size as the other fire starters in our test group. There were no issues lighting it at all. In addition to being easy to light, Instafire is waterproof. In previous tests, I was able to light a pile of it in my hand, then, still burning, float it in a bucket of water. The downside, though, is that you won’t need the entire contents of one pouch to start a single fire so you’ll have to have another container for the leftover mix. However, you could get ahead of the game by dividing the contents of a pouch into a few different 35mm film canisters or other such containers before you hit the trail. Mini Inferno Time of burn: 5:15 Cost: $7.99 for 6 selfrelianceoutfitters.com Produced and sold by Self Reliance Outfitters, a division of The Pathfinder School, LLC, the Mini Inferno fire starter arrives in a small, circular tin. Inside the tin is a small stack of waxy, fibrous disks about two inches across. The instructions are to peel open a disk, exposing the fibers inside. This was quite easy to do, actually, as the disk seems almost to have layers to it. We peeled it open about halfway, then lit it up. Within perhaps a single second, we had very hot flames reaching several inches high. Each disk can be easily cut into smaller pieces, allowing for several more fires. The Mini Inferno fire starters are also waterproof, which is always a bonus when we’re talking about getting fires going in bad weather. With the resulting flames as high and hot as we had, there shouldn’t be any trouble getting kindling burning quickly. Survive Outdoors Longer Tinder Quik Time of burn: 1:40 Cost: $4.00 for 12 adventuremedicalkits.com The SOL Tinder Quik product is found in many commercial survival kits as well as being available for purchase on their own. They are tightly woven bundles of fibers about an inch long and very lightweight. Before lighting, you’re supposed to take one end of the Tinder Quik and pull the fibers apart and fluff them up a bit. This is easier said than done as there just isn’t much loose material to grip at first. We did okay but I could see it as being a real challenge if you were shivering and had numb fingers. The Tinder Quik did light immediately, though, without any trouble. The Tinder Quik tabs work fairly well. They are easy to light and are so small they can fit just about anywhere in your various survival kits. But, because they are so small, they don’t burn very long and could be difficult to use with cold, trembling hands. WetFire Time of burn: 8:04 Cost: $9.00 for 8 ustbrands.com Another survivalist mainstay, WetFire cubes have been around for quite some time. Each white cube is individually wrapped and measures roughly an inch on each side. Once taken from the wrapper, you can light the cube as is or you can shave some of it into a small pile and just light that rather than use the entire cube. Again, in trying to keep the tinder comparisons consistent, we used one whole cube. It lit easily and burned with a very hot flame. There is a lot of heat energy packed into these little cubes. The cubes can be cut into small pieces to use for more fires but you’ll need to have some sort of container for them. Live Fire Sport Time of burn: 11:35 Cost: $7.95 lifefiregearllc.com The Live Fire product comes in two sizes, Original and Sport. Both arrive in small metal tins with sliding covers. The Sport tin is about two inches long and an inch wide. Inside the tin, you find yellow fibers that are impregnated with flammable chemicals. The design of the tin, with the sliding top, is such that you could close it up once your fire is going, saving the rest of the Live Fire material to use later. The instructions say to open the tin and fluff up the fibers, then light them with a flame or spark. I roughed up the fibers and set to work. Unfortunately, the Live Fire resisted every effort to start burning. In the end, I removed the cover completely and held the flame from a butane lighter directly on the fibers for several seconds before the fire starter finally lit. Once it took, though, it burned what seemed like forever with an extremely hot flame. I was disappointed in the difficulty of lighting the Live Fire. I’ve read several reviews that rave about the product and the ease of lighting but that simply wasn’t my experience. It did, however, produce easily the hottest flame of our test products. Tip: Don’t expect reading this article or watching some videos is all you need to do in order to build your first fire when you really need one. Hit the woods this weekend and give each a try to see what the little details are in picking your tinder and kindling that only practical experience will give you. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS What makes kiln-dried kindling an effective fire starter? Why is Kiln-Dried Kindling an Effective Fire Starter? Kiln-dried kindling stands out as a premium choice for starting fires due to its exceptional dryness and ease of ignition. Here’s what makes it so effective: Reduced Moisture Content: Kiln-drying rapidly reduces the wood’s moisture content to below 20%. This low moisture level is achieved by placing the wood in a controlled kiln environment where it dries quickly, usually within a few days. The absence of excess water means the kindling burns more efficiently and at a higher temperature. Quick and Easy Ignition: With minimal moisture remaining, kiln-dried kindling catches fire effortlessly. You often need little more than a bit of shredded newspaper or another basic fire starter to ignite it. This speedy ignition helps get your fire going faster, saving you time and effort. Consistent Performance: Kiln-dried wood provides a reliable and uniform burn. The consistency in dryness ensures that each piece of kindling burns at a predictable rate, eliminating the frustration of dealing with damp or unevenly dried wood that can lead to smoke and incomplete combustion. In summary, kiln-dried kindling’s effectiveness stems from its rapid drying process and reduced moisture content, which allow it to ignite swiftly and burn consistently. Whether you’re lighting a cozy fireplace or an outdoor bonfire, this type of kindling is designed to make the process easier and more efficient. What are the pros and cons of using newspaper, magazine pages, or cardboard as kindling? Pros and Cons of Using Paper and Cardboard as Kindling When it comes to starting a fire, many people consider using paper products like newspapers, magazine pages, or cardboard. But what are the advantages and drawbacks of these materials? Newspaper Pros: Easy Ignition: Newspapers ignite effortlessly, making them a convenient choice for starting a fire quickly. Abundance: They are usually readily available and can be recycled for this purpose. Cons: Fast Burning: While they catch fire quickly, newspapers burn out rapidly, which means they can’t sustain a fire on their own. Magazine Pages Pros: Quick to Ignite: Similar to newspapers, magazine pages ignite without much effort. Cons: Short Burn Time: These, too, burn out swiftly, failing to maintain a steady flame. Toxic Concerns: Glossy pages often contain inks and chemicals that may release harmful fumes when burned. Cardboard Pros: Longer Burn: Cardboard has a longer burning duration compared to newspaper and magazine pages, making it slightly more efficient in sustaining a flame. Cons: Air Quality Concerns: Burning cardboard can release undesirable chemicals due to the inks and adhesives used, which poses a risk to air quality and health. Conclusion While using paper and cardboard can be an accessible solution for kindling, it’s essential to combine them with other materials for an effective and safe fire, minimizing reliance on any one type for prolonged burning. Why is dryer lint recommended as a fire starter? Dryer lint is highly recommended as a fire starter due to its excellent combustibility. It ignites quickly, which makes it ideal for getting a fire started with minimal effort. Often considered waste, dryer lint is an abundant and free resource, giving it an edge over commercial fire starters in terms of cost-effectiveness. To make the most of dryer lint, some people pack it into toilet paper tubes and seal the ends with wax, such as paraffin. This DIY approach not only utilizes materials that would typically be discarded but also enhances the lint’s ability to catch fire by protecting it from moisture until you’re ready to use it. These homemade fire starters are highly efficient, providing a reliable method for igniting fires whether you’re out camping or lighting a fireplace at home. Overall, the combination of easy accessibility, low cost, and effectiveness make dryer lint a top choice for fire-starting needs. How can potato chips be used as a last-resort fire starter? Using Potato Chips as an Emergency Fire Starter When you’re out camping, you might find yourself in need of a quick fire starter and realize you’re short on supplies. Surprisingly, potato chips can come to the rescue as a last-resort option. Here’s how they work and why they’re effective: Oil Content: The key ingredient is the oil present in most potato chips. High in fats, these oils are highly flammable and can catch fire quite easily. Ignition Process: To use potato chips effectively, pile a handful into a small heap. Light them up with a match or lighter, and watch as the oil fuels the fire, allowing the chips to burn steadily. Best Varieties: Opt for chips that are greasier, like those from Lay’s or Ruffles. Their higher oil content makes them ideal candidates for this role. Temporary Solution: While they won’t burn as long as wood, chips can ignite kindling or dry twigs, acting as a bridge to getting your campfire started when traditional methods are unavailable. Using potato chips in this way isn’t the most efficient or environmentally friendly method, but in a pinch, it can certainly help you get a fire started to keep warm or cook. Always remember to proceed with caution and ensure your fire is well-contained. Can a magnifying glass be used to start a fire, and what are its limitations? Using a Magnifying Glass to Start a Fire: Feasibility and Limitations Can a Magnifying Glass Start a Fire? Yes, a magnifying glass can indeed be used to start a fire. By concentrating sunlight into a focused beam, the glass intensifies the light’s energy on a specific spot. This concentrated heat can ignite materials like paper, dry leaves, or small bits of cardboard in just a few minutes, especially under optimal conditions. Limitations to Consider However, while it’s possible, there are several significant limitations that make it less than ideal as a primary fire-starting method: Weather Dependency: The process requires direct, strong sunlight. Any obstruction like clouds or shaded areas makes it ineffective. Thus, starting a fire in overcast weather or at night is impossible with this method. Time Consuming: The method can take time to ignite even the most flammable materials, and requires patience and steady hands to maintain the focus. Limited Usability: Situational factors, such as being in a densely forested area, broader environmental conditions, or presence during nightfall, could greatly hinder the effectiveness of a magnifying glass. Summary While using a magnifying glass is a fascinating and viable method to start a fire, it should not be relied upon as a primary tool. It’s best used as a backup or when traditional tools like matches or lighters are unavailable, and conditions are fully in your favor. In what way can tampons or cotton balls be used to start a fire? Using Tampons and Cotton Balls to Start a Fire When you’re in the wild and need to start a fire, everyday items like tampons and cotton balls can be surprisingly effective. Here’s how you can use them: The Fire-Starting Potential Both tampons and cotton balls are made from cotton, which is known for its ability to ignite and smolder when exposed to flame. However, cotton by itself tends to blacken and smolder without catching fire completely. Maximizing Efficiency To transform these items into reliable fire starters, you’ll want to enhance their flammability: Break Apart: Tampons are denser than cotton balls. By tearing them apart, you create more surface area, allowing better airflow to fuel the fire. Add an Accelerant: To achieve a full blaze, saturate the cotton with a flammable liquid like rubbing alcohol or hand sanitizer. These substances help the cotton catch fire quickly and burn thoroughly. Performance Rating Without Accelerant: On their own, tampons and cotton balls are not highly effective, as they tend to smolder rather than blaze. With Accelerant: When paired with rubbing alcohol or hand sanitizer, they become excellent fire starters, capable of igniting into a robust fire. In summary, while tampons and cotton balls alone can start a fire, their efficiency increases dramatically when used with an accelerant. They are compact, easy to carry, and can be a lifesaver in survival situations. How effective is hand sanitizer as a fire starter? Hand Sanitizer as a Fire Starter: How Effective Is It? Hand sanitizer is surprisingly effective as a fire starter, a fact that might come as a surprise to many. The secret lies in its high alcohol content, usually around 60% or more. This is more than sufficient to ignite when exposed to a flame, making it a handy tool for starting a fire. How Does It Work? Alcohol Content: The ethanol or isopropyl alcohol found in most hand sanitizers is highly flammable, allowing it to catch fire quickly. Ease of Application: Simply squirt a small amount onto your kindling. The gel form ensures it clings to surfaces, providing a steady burn. Tips for Best Results Pair it Up: For enhanced efficacy, combine hand sanitizer with other fire-starting materials such as a cotton ball or char cloth. This combination produces a more sustained flame. Safety First: Use it in a controlled environment and keep a safe distance when igniting. Overall Effectiveness With its quick ignition and ease of use, hand sanitizer is a reliable option for starting fires, especially in emergency situations where traditional methods might fail. As a fire starter, it earns a strong rating for its efficiency and practicality, akin to a useful tool in your survival arsenal. Is 100-proof whiskey a viable option for starting a fire? Evaluating 100-Proof Whiskey as a Fire Starter When looking for fire-starting solutions, some might wonder if household items like 100-proof whiskey could do the trick. While it seems like an enticing option due to its alcohol content, the reality is quite different. The Experiment I decided to test the effectiveness of 100-proof whiskey in starting a fire. Using a soaked cotton ball, I carefully placed it among a small pile of sawdust and kindling, expecting it to ignite with ease. The Result Unfortunately, the whiskey failed to catch fire. Despite the flammable nature of alcohol, the concentration in this case wasn’t sufficient to sustain ignition in such conditions. Conclusion For those considering 100-proof whiskey as an alternative fire starter, it’s best to look elsewhere. Other methods, such as using dedicated fire starters or higher-proof alcohols, might yield better results. As for the whiskey, it might be more appreciated as a drink rather than a fire-starting fuel. How can wine corks be used as a fire starter? How to Use Wine Corks as Fire Starters Wine corks can serve as surprisingly effective fire starters, provided you use them correctly. Here’s a step-by-step guide to turning these little pieces of cork into a handy tool for your next campfire. Gather Materials Natural Wine Corks: Make sure the corks are natural and not synthetic. Natural corks are more porous, which makes them more effective for this purpose. Rubbing Alcohol: You’ll need a high-proof alcohol such as isopropyl alcohol. This will be used to soak the corks. Sealable Container: Use something like an empty pill bottle to submerge and seal the corks in alcohol. Preparation Steps Soak the Corks: Place the natural wine corks in the container and fill it with rubbing alcohol until the corks are fully submerged. Seal the container to prevent evaporation. Time for Absorption: Let the corks soak for a few days. This allows the corks to absorb enough alcohol to become effective fire starters. Igniting the Corks Light with Care: When ready to use, take a cork from the solution and carefully light one end. Natural corks should catch flame more easily due to their porous nature and the alcohol content. Use as a Fire Starter: Once lit, the cork can burn sufficiently to ignite even small, dry twigs and kindling. It’s a quick and straightforward way to get a campfire going. Tips for Success Selection: Ensure your corks are genuinely natural. Synthetic ones tend to be less effective because they don’t absorb the alcohol as well. Storage: Keep pre-soaked corks in a sealed container to have them ready for use whenever you need them. Conclusion By choosing and preparing natural corks correctly, you’ll have a reliable fire-starting method to make outdoor adventures more enjoyable. Just remember to always handle with care and adhere to fire safety practices. How does using flint work as a method to start a fire? A ferrocerium rod like this one, coupled with a striker or just your knife, will give you a spark that will ignite petroleum-based firestarters or dry and fluffy tinder you find in the field. To get started, follow these steps for effective fire-starting: Preparation: Begin by selecting a suitable location. Look for a sheltered spot to protect your tinder from the wind. If needed, dig a small hole to shield your kindling. Gather Materials: Collect dry tinder or petroleum-based firestarters. Ensure your materials are ready before you create sparks. Using the Ferrocerium Rod: Shave Magnesium: If using a rod with a magnesium strip, shave off strips into a small pile using your knife. Create Sparks: Hold the ferrocerium rod close to your tinder and strike it with your knife or striker. Direct the sparks toward the tinder to ignite it. Ignition: The sparks will easily ignite the tinder, especially if it’s dry or petroleum-based. The intense heat from the sparks can help overcome slight dampness in your materials. Remember, practice makes perfect. With a bit of experience, you’ll find this method reliable in various conditions, providing a quick and efficient way to start a fire when you need it most. Why is magnesium effective for starting fires? Magnesium is effective because it burns at a very high temperature of around 5,000 F, which makes it capable of igniting even in damp conditions by quickly evaporating surface moisture. How do environmental factors affect the fire-starting process? Wind can blow away the magnesium shavings, so it’s helpful to dig a hole to protect your kindling from the breeze. What are the steps involved in using flint to start a fire? First, shave strips of magnesium into a pile using a knife. Then, strike the flint with the knife to generate a spark that ignites the magnesium shavings. What materials are used in the fire-starting process? The process involves using magnesium shavings and a piece of flint to create a spark that ignites the magnesium. Why might someone choose a commercial fire starter over other methods? Mother Nature can be a cruel mistress. It might turn out that the one time you really need to build a fire quickly, it will have been raining for hours on end and you can’t find any dry sources of natural tinder. Therefore, it only makes sense to carry some ready-to-light tinder with you. Commercial fire starters are the unsung heroes in such situations. They offer unparalleled convenience and efficiency, allowing you to ignite a fire with minimal effort. These handy tools are often made from materials like sawdust and wax, ensuring they light easily, even if the weather doesn’t cooperate. Why choose commercial fire starters? Quick and Easy: They eliminate the hassle of searching for dry kindling, saving you valuable time when you’re eager to get a fire going. Cost-Effective: With each use costing between 10 and 45 cents, they are an affordable solution for frequent campers and outdoor enthusiasts. Safe Storage: You can keep them in your backpack or camper van without worry, as long as you store them away from open flames. Incorporating these fire starters into your gear means you’re always prepared, no matter how unfriendly the elements might be. What makes commercial fire starters a preferred choice? Their combination of affordability, ease of use, and safe storage make them a popular choice for those who need a reliable fire-starting solution. What are commercial fire starters made from? Many of these fire starters are composed of materials like sawdust and wax, which are designed to ignite easily and burn consistently. What is the cost of using commercial fire starters? The cost per use is relatively low, ranging from just 10 to 45 cents, making them an economical option for frequent campers or outdoor enthusiasts. Are commercial fire starters safe to store? These products are safe to keep in storage, provided that they are not exposed to open flames, ensuring peace of mind when carrying them in places like a camper van. How convenient are commercial fire starters? They offer a quick and easy solution to starting fires, making them a practical choice for those who want to avoid the hassle of gathering natural tinder. Editor’s note: A version of this article first appeared in the Winter 2015 print issue of Tread Magazine, and on treadmagazine.com in January 2016.