Make Beautiful Pine Cone Fire Starters
Learn how to make these beautiful pine cone fire starters to give as gifts or to use on your next camping adventure. They are simple to make with a few supplies and a bit of imagination.
I have seen fire starter pine cones and was wondering how to make them. I found an interesting article on the blog Searsport Shores Ocean Camping about Pinecone Fire Starters. It was about the different ways to make them so that they would change colors as they burned. Check out their article for the chart of different chemical combinations to make a desired flame color. Or just dip them in wax, they are still beautiful.
Supplies
You will need the following listed below:
- Pine Cones
- Paraffin Wax
- Double Boiler
- String
- Scissors
- Old Crayons
- Parchment Paper or Newspaper
Make sure to find pine cones that are medium size, the first ones I found were huge, and very hard to dip into the melted wax.
Directions
This is very simple process, but can get very messy. Protect surfaces from pine cones and wax by using parchment paper or newspaper. Make sure your pine cones are dry if you are just dipping them in wax. If you are not sure, bake them in the oven on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet on low heat about 200 degrees for 30 minutes. Make sure to check on them so they do not burn.
Step 1
Wrap string around the pine cone. This will be your wick and you will also use it to dip the pine cones into the melted wax.
Step Two
Melt the paraffin wax in a double boiler.
Next add broken crayons into the wax to make beautiful colors.
Step 3
Dip the pine cones into the melted wax. Be careful the wax is hot! Do two or three dips of wax, cooling between each dip.
Step 4
Let the pine cones dry a few hours on parchment paper or newspaper before using them to start a fire. Try to dry them standing up so that there isn’t a wax build up on the back of the pine cone.
Make sure to have dry kindling under the pine cone for the fire to catch.
Colorful Flames
It may be hard to see but the flame above has a purplish color to it. This was done by soaking the pine cone in a salt alternative that contains potassium. I let the pine cones dry a few days before dipping them into melted wax. This method seemed to work the best for me.
I also tried the method used in the blog post from Searsport Shores Ocean Camping blog that had you mix the chemical with sawdust and applying it to the wet wax after dipping the pine cone.
While it did make the pine cone pretty, I really couldn’t see a change in the color of the flame when lighting it.
The two colors I tried were Purple/Violet with the salt alternative (potassium) and Green/Yellow with Borax (sodium tetraborate). The only color I could get was the purple using the soaking method.
Pine Cone Fire Starters
Pine Cone Fire Starters make beautiful gifts for the camper or fire pit relaxer in your life. The pine cones are best for outdoor use because paraffin wax may cause a build up in wood fire chimneys.
If you can get the pine cone to change colors while burning you get extra points. Please let me know if you do and how you achieved it.
A great way to gift the pine cones is to place them in a cute bucket with a little stocking tied to the side to hold long matches. I also cut out sandpaper snowflakes on my Cricut to adhere to the bucket. In hindsight using sandpaper on my Cricut might not have been the best idea, but they did turn out. Do it at your own risk.
Or this cute bucket I found at Hobby Lobby with a lighter would make a great gift for any camper.
Pine cone fire starters are a beautiful and useful gift to give. They really to do work well to start a roaring fire.
Have a joyful holiday season and Happy Camping!
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