Hobo Stoves and Firestarters

For our February Junior Forest Wardens club night we made hobo stoves and firestarters in preparation of doing an outdoor cooking weekend outing with the kids.

We took large cans from tomatoes or large coffee cans and used a can punch to put holes around the top and bottom edge of the can. You just had to make sure that at least one hole was big enough to feed sticks though. These types of stoves are twig burners and can heat things quickly due to the large burning surface area provided by the twigs. Twig burners are mainly used as cooking fires.

For the firestarters we made two different kinds. We made egg carton ones that were filled with any combination of wood shavings, dryer lint and shredded paper. Then the filled egg cartons were soaked in melted wax.

The second kind we made were chunks of wax wrapped in brown paper, like a candy.

The kids had fun making their own designs for their stoves and putting together their firestarters.

For our upcoming Saturday outing, the kids have been asked to bring their stoves, something to cook over their stove and a firestarter of their choice.

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