When you're looking for that ideal fire starter, it's important to make ones that you know will do the job. These handy fire starters are not only easy to make, but they're easy to pack in your bug out bag.

Making this fire starter requires less than 10 items! And with how easy they are to do it yourself, you'll never run into a hopeless campfire situation again!

For this project, you’ll need:

Plastic Drinking Straws

Cotton Balls

Petroleum Jelly

Needle Nosed Pliers

Lighter

Scissors

Ruler

Putting it together:

Cut the drinking straws into lengths of about 2.5″ each. You can actually cut the straws into any length you want depending on where you’ll be storing them. Mine are going into pill bottle survival kits, so I’m cutting them to fit in there.

Using your pliers, pinch off one end of the straw and burn it closed with the lighter. I like to use a butane wind resistant lighter for projects – the flame melts the plastic faster.

Take 1 cotton ball and work a little petroleum jelly into it. When I say “a little petroleum jelly” I mean VERY little. You won’t need more than about 1/8 of a teaspoon (if you really want to measure). I found this out the hard way when I glopped a ton of Vaseline on a cotton ball the first time. It was a HUGE mess!

Stretch out the cotton ball and twist it up a bit. This will help work the petroleum jelly into it more, and it will make it easier to stuff into the straw.

Slide the end of the cotton into the straw and continue to twist while you push it in. If you need some help with this part, use your pliers to help push the cotton into the straw (you could also use a chopstick, bamboo skewer or something of the sort here, too).

Once you have the cotton ball completely shoved into the straw, wipe the open end clean, clamp it off with the pliers, and burn it shut with the lighter again.

Using Your Homemade Fire Starter Straws
To use your cool new fire starters, you can cut them from end to end and pull all of the cotton out, or cut off a tiny snip from the very end and pull out just a little of the cotton (so you can seal the end back again and save some of the fire starter straw for another usage). Fluff the cotton up a bit so it’s closer to the consistency of cotton candy than matted dog hair. All you need is a spark to set the cotton ablaze – a ferro rod works, but you can strike a match if you want. You may even be able to use your lighter to get a spark to it without using any of your fluid in the process.

Pretty amazing! But it's important to remember that these are for emergencies. Don't depend on them for all of your fire-starting needs. Make sure you can build your own fire as often as you are able. For more information on these tiny fire-starter straws, check out Survival at Home!

Featured Image via Survival Sherpa