Pine Cone Fire Starters: DIY for Decor, Gifts, and Wedding Favors
This is an article about how to make pine cone fire starters and how to use them as gifts, wedding favors, and hearth decor.
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Pine cone fire starters are dry pine cones dipped in wax with a twine wick. Set one under the kindling, light the wick, and the fire catches without newspaper. They cost almost nothing to make if you use up old candles, and they take about an hour, most of it drying time.
They also happen to be a good gift. A handful of them in a basket or an old crock by the fireplace looks like something you bought, and a single cone with a kraft tag works as a stocking stuffer, a hostess gift, or a favor at a winter wedding. This post covers how to make them, how to color them if you want to, and what to put them in.
What You Need to Make Pine Cone Fire Starters
- Dry, fully opened pine cones
- Wax. Old candle stubs are the upcycled option and the reason a lot of people make these in the first place. If you don’t have a drawer of half-burned candles, a bag of soy wax flakes.
- Jute twine, baker’s twine, or cotton candle wicking, about 12 to 24 inches per cone
- A double boiler, or a heat-safe container set in a shallow pan of water
- Wax paper or parchment for drying
- Optional: candle dye or crayons for color, candle fragrance oil for scent (I personally love these and P&J fragrance oils, below)
- Optional: kraft tags for gifting
On wax: candle stubs and paraffin catch fast and burn hot. Soy burns cleaner indoors and dries opaque white, which gives the cones a frosted look with no dye. Any of the three works. Mixing leftover candles of different types is fine too.
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How to Make Pine Cone Fire Starters
1. Dry the pine cones. Use cones that are fully open and dry to the touch. Closed or damp cones won’t hold wax. If you gathered them outside, spread them on a tray indoors for a few days until they open, or bake them on a foil-lined sheet at 200°F for about 30 minutes to dry them out and deal with any bugs.
2. Add the wick. Wrap twine around the middle of the cone, tucking it between the scales so it grips. Tie it off and leave a tail of two to three inches at the top. That tail is what you light.
3. Melt the wax. Put the wax in your heat-safe container over gently simmering water and stir until it’s liquid. Keep it over water, not on direct heat, and if it starts to smoke it’s too hot. Stir in dye or fragrance oil now if you’re using them (see the next section).
4. Dip. Hold the cone by the wick, or use tongs, and dunk it all the way under. Lift it out and let the excess drip back into the pot.
5. Dry and repeat. Set the cone on wax paper. Once the first coat has set, dip again. Two to four coats gives a thick layer that catches and burns long enough to get the wood going. Let the finished cones sit for a few hours before you store or wrap them.
Adding Color and Scent
Natural wax on a natural cone looks fine on its own. Soy dries white, so a soy-dipped cone looks frosted without doing anything else. If you want color, candle dye blocks or chips give a deep, even color with a small amount. Crayons work too, since a crayon is wax and pigment, but they tend to give a paler, chalkier color and you need more of them. For the two-tone look, dip in white first, let it set, then give the tips a quick dip in a second color.
Muted colors read as decor. Burgundy, deep green, teal, and white all look good together in a basket. (Bright primary colors look like a school project…which is fine, if that’s what you’re going for.)
On scent: a cone in a fireplace burns off any fragrance in seconds, so the scent is for the basket on the hearth and for the moment someone unwraps one. Candle fragrance oil is the right product for that. It’s made to hold in wax, and the scents you’d want here (balsam, cinnamon, orange clove) are standard candle scents. (Essential oils mostly evaporate at wax temperature and cost a lot more.)
We love this brand and can personally swear by the Fig as fantastic. Also Forest Pine is great. Rain is fresh and clean, and all of them are great to blend and try.
A cinnamon stick or a dried orange slice tied into the wick does the same job if you just want something that looks nice.
How to Use Pine Cone Fire Starters
Set the cone under your kindling or between the logs and light the wick. It burns for several minutes, long enough for dry wood to catch. They work in a fireplace, a wood stove, a fire pit, or a campfire. They don’t work in a gas fireplace, and they won’t rescue wet wood. Store them somewhere dry and away from heat.
Pine Cone Fire Starters as Gifts
Three or four cones in a small basket, an old tin, or a kraft box with a tag is a finished gift. They work for men who are hard to shop for, for hosts, for teachers, and for anyone with a fireplace. Tie the tag to the wick so it doubles as the handle. If you’re making a batch for several people, one afternoon of dipping covers a whole list.
Pine Cone Fire Starters as Winter Wedding Favors
One tagged cone per guest, set at each place or piled in a crock near the door, works as a favor for a winter or holiday wedding. They’re light, they don’t spoil, and guests actually use them. Color the wax to match the wedding palette, or keep them natural with a white tip.
Plan on roughly one pound of wax for every 10 to 12 cones, so a wedding of 100 needs about 8 to 10 pounds. Dip in batches over a couple of evenings a few weeks ahead, since they keep indefinitely if stored dry. For the tags, a short line and the words “pine cone fire starter” is enough, because most guests won’t know what it is without the label.
How to Display Pine Cone Fire Starters
Put them in a basket, an old crock, a galvanized bucket, or a brass planter on the hearth or the coffee table, close enough to the fire that you’ll reach for one. A container with some age to it does the work here. The cones are rough and matte, so they look good against woven, glazed, or metal surfaces.
Or use them, scented, as decor more than actual fire starters and put them in a nice crystal bowl with silver base, or a white crockery bowl or anything that shows them off. You could stage with dried orange wheels and cinnamon sticks.
We used a glass bowl with silver base to show these off but any vintage basket or bowl will work!
FAQs
How long does a pine cone fire starter burn? A few minutes, depending on how many coats of wax it has. That’s enough for dry kindling to catch.
Can you use them in a wood stove or fire pit? Yes. Anywhere you’d otherwise use newspaper or a store-bought starter.
Can you use them in a gas fireplace? No. Gas fireplaces aren’t built to burn anything but gas.
Is burning pine cones bad for a chimney? Not at this scale. One cone under a fire of seasoned wood isn’t a concern. Keep your chimney cleaned as usual.
Do pine cone fire starters go bad? No. Kept dry and away from heat, they last for years.
What wax is best? Whatever you have. Old candles and paraffin catch fastest. Soy burns cleaner and dries white. All three work.
Do you need candle wick, or is twine enough? Twine is enough. Jute or cotton twine soaked in wax lights easily. Avoid synthetic string.
