Have a fireplace, a wood stone, outdoor patio fire pit…this not only works great to start your fire, they smell amazing and give you beautiful flames. I pick these treasures up off the ground around my home in GA, if you don’t have pine trees in your yard, seek out a nearby park or recreation area that is open to the public and get yourself a bag of these gems. They make great gifts, this is only one way I use them I will be posting more on other ways to use pine cones.
Tools and Materials
- White beeswax, old candles, or wax melts
- Double boiler or crock pot
- Wire or tongs
- Dry pinecones
- Drying rack or towel (garbage bag)
- Salt of choice (Epsom salts, table salt or salt substitute)
- twine
Pinecone Fire Starter How-To
- Melt wax to between 150 and 175 degrees. (until melted)
- Carefully dip pinecone into hot wax use tongs to turn
- Set pinecone on drying rack I use a garbage bag (I can throw away after wax dries) and allow to cool for a few minutes.
- Optional…Dip pinecone into wax again and immediately coat with salt. Depending on the salt used, the flames of the starters will burn a certain color (Epsom salts, white flame; table salt, yellow flame; salt substitute, violet flame).
- Cut twine into 12-inch pieces, dip into lamp oil soak for about 2 minutes, remove twine and place on towel to dry, tie around the pinecone with a knot and let ends hang
- When lighting fire, place pinecones on top of newspaper in fireplace and light twine. Once lit, starters will burn slowly (in desired color) to guarantee that logs light.
