Tea Bag Firelighters. How To Make Easy Homemade Firestarters.
Tea bag firelighters are a genius way to re-use old tea bags and use up odd ends of candles. – This fab recycling tip came from one of my readers.
I never knew tea bag firelighters were a thing until one of my readers mentioned them. The comment was written on my post How to make homemade firelighters from recycled materials.
They wrote, “We drink lots of tea from teabags, which don’t compost. I “flatten” and dry the teabags thoroughly and save all my candle ends in a tin can which, when nearly full, I heat in a pot of simmering water until the wax is liquified. Then I dip each dry teabag in the wax and place them in neat rows on newspaper to dry where they “stick”. When cool, I cut apart the teabags stuck to the newspaper and drop them into a fireproof container near the wood-burner or fireplace. Lay a fire as normal, with a teabag amongst the tinder & kindling, then light. Works a treat.”
I couldn’t wait to try out tea bag firelighters for myself and share the results with you.
What you need to make Tea Bag Firelighters
- Used tea bags which have dried out fully
- Scrap candle wax
- Scrap paper
How to make Tea bag Firelighters.
In preparation to make these firelighters, I saved up our used tea bags and left them to dry thoroughly, which took about a week.
We melted our old ends of candles in an old candle tin sat in a bowl of simmering water, making a makeshift double boiler.
Please ensure you do this safely, bearing in mind that wax ignites easily! Please also remember that it is not safe to melt wax in a microwave or leave melting wax unattended.
Then I dipped each tea bag into the melted wax, using a wooden skewer to turn it over in the wax.
I left each bag in the wax for about twenty seconds to give it a chance to absorb some of the wax before removing it and laying it on a piece of scrap paper to dry.
Once the wax has set hard, the firelighters are ready to use.
When ready to use your homemade firelighter, light with a match and top with some kindling before adding logs.
Here’s a video showing our tea bag firelighters in action.
These tea bag firelighters are fab. They light easily, do their job, and I love that you can make them for free, using literal trash.
For another way to use up old ends of candles check out our fab tutorial How To Make Concrete Candles Using Homemade Moulds.
These concrete candles are made using part used pillar candles and homemade moulds. They are a great way of trying out candle making without spending a load of money on equipment.
Comments
Join the conversation
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Great, thanks for your lite-bulb idea, we all could use trhis.
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Will try this! I make firestarters from cardboard tube sections filled with paper towels then set them in wax melted in a scent pot. Uses up the wax and makes good fire starters. Dipping pine cones in wax works well, too.
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Can any kind of tea bag be used (Does it matter what kind of tea is inside)? I assume the whole bag, including the contents, is used. Correct?
I use a ton of tea bags. How could I get them dry?
Do you not have issues cleaning your fireplace due to the wax?