Clever Uses For Wood Shavings

Here we are. Another Thursday in my shop on Facebook here. How you doin' today? I always seem to start with a weather report, so why change that now? Cool, but sunny today, it's, I don't know, four inches, five inches of new snow on Easter Sunday.

And today, you know, it's still cool out, and there's still snow on the grass, but you can at least feel sort of that spring is in the air. I think it's because the sun is out so strong today, and it's just a crystal clear blue sky. So I think on Saturday it's supposed to be 65. That'd be a big change from today. As always, we're not here to talk about the weather, although I do it anyway, we're here to talk about some kind of woodworking related thing.

And we've got this little thing going on. A week ago I showed you how to make end grain coasters from scrap. Let me just go, I'm gonna go over here and grab a couple. I should have done that before. Stay where you are, I'm coming right back.

So last week, if you missed it, one of the things I did or what I did was I took a bunch of pieces of scrap. There was some table saw work, other stuff involved. They got glued into a block like this. And then that block got cut up to turn 'em into coasters like this. These are not yet sanded.

They don't have finish on 'em. When they get wet with finish, they look really neat. And the pieces in here are primarily 3/4 by 3/4. So really small scraps of wood. So a great way to burn up scraps.

If you missed that, Molly is behind the boards on these lives always, and she can, Molly can put up the link for the video on Facebook that shows you how we made these scraps. What we wanna do today, we're talking about a different kind of scrap, and that is scrap that comes from your planer or joiner. So it's important that what we're talking about here are the shavings that come from a joiner or planer, not the dust that comes from sanding or your table saw. What we want is stuff that looks kind of like this. And we're gonna make this into these.

So if you go camping, if you have a fireplace in your house, if you ever have a bonfire in your backyard, you're gonna find these to be very useful. And I see comments are popping up. So I'm not checking my social status, but it's hard for me to read the comments on my iPad. So let me get to where you are on my onephe. Sorry for the dead time.

Comments are popping up, so I'm not checking my social... Also, a special shout out, as they like to say, to my mom. So my 91-year-old mom is busily watching us do this in just outside of Chicago. She's still in the house that I grew up in. And Mom keeps on keeping on, she's doing great, and is on, is watching us on Facebook today.

So I want everybody to see, now I can see it. Her name is right there on the screen. Everybody say hi to my mom, Jean, who's at home watching this video, that's cool. And now, my sister Ann is also there at her house today. So you can also say hi to my sister Ann.

She's there with my mom probably as we speak. And I also see in the comments, Molly has put up the link to the video where I showed you how to make these. So you'll find that in the comments. Back to our project du jour. Again, what we want is we want shavings, not dust.

And I've made, I've made eleventy billion fire starters. I used to, when I was Assistant Scout Master with the Scout troop here, we'd meet here once a year. And the kids would come in and we would make gazillions of them. And then it would get us through the next year of camping. So what I have found experientially is that stuff like pine and cedar shavings work really well for this.

Now, of course, any wood is gonna burn, right? But I think because of the resin, the sap that's in Facebook lives... Get it? The sap. Get it?

Okay. Self-deprecating humor, because of the resin in the sap that's in woods like pine and cedar, I think it just makes them ignite really, really, really well. That being said, my sample one, the one I did and I'll show you more on this later, this is, these are maple curls that came off of a bowl turning I was doing. So that's from using a bowl gouge and a shearing technique. So they're gonna work, there're gonna burn.

But like I said, if you've got pine or cedar, that's gonna maybe be a little bit more better. So I think we're ready to bring you in so you can see more closely what's going on. Here's what you're gonna need. An egg carton, empty of eggs. Shavings, we already talked about.

Wax, we're gonna wax philosophic. Now, this is backwards for you because of the way my iPad is facing. So it's not xaw flug, it's Gulf Wax. This stuff, you can buy wax on Amazon. So when I was doing a lot of these with Scouts, I bought the wax in huge blocks from Amazon.

If there's a place by you where they sell canning supplies, if they sell canning supplies, they typically have Gulf Wax. And some people also call it paraffin wax, same stuff. It takes not quite a pound of wax to completely fill our container here. So completely fill, here's how this goes. Like many things, there are some subtleties that make some fire starters work better than others.

All right, empty egg carton. And it can't be a styrofoam carton. It's gotta be one of these paper ones. And when the shavings go in, and this can be a little bit messy, don't just do this. And don't just pour 'em in.

Get in there with your pinkies and pack 'em down. We want this to be densely packed. So I'm really leaning on this, boy, it smells good. This is pine, and I can really smell the pine. If anybody's watching and has not yet said hello to my mom, Jean, don't make me come back there.

Don't make me yell at you. Everybody who's watching needs to say hi to my mom. Okay, very tightly packed. I think I can get a little more in there. And what happens here, the difference between tightly packed and loosely packed is you're gonna get a lot more heat off of this if you really pack the shavings in there.

It's a weaker flame if they're just kind of, if they're just laying there and you didn't compress 'em like this, you won't get as good a flame. Now, look at what's going on over here. We're melting the wax in a double boiler, and this is really important. You don't want the wax to go directly onto a heating element. It can combust on its own.

It can start on fire. So this pan is full of water. This old coffee can has got the wax in it. And, oh, there's still a little bit in there that's unmelted, but I think we have enough melted to do what we're trying to do. Let me get organized here 'cause this, it's conceivable a little bit of wax, and that's why I've got this piece of scrap MDF on the bench.

So let's try, how's that for you? Is that in a good spot? Glove 'cause I reckon that can the wax is in is hot. And then this part's simple. We just wanna douse all these shavings with wax, kinda making a big candle.

Now here's the thing. You can't, you're not gonna completely fill this in one go. So what I mean by that is if I just keep pouring this wax, I'm gonna switch sides. Whoops, I'm sorry, and I'm gonna kick the camera. If I just keep pouring this, it's gonna start flowing out of the egg carton.

And I'm just gonna, I can, of course, peel that wax back up and put it in the can once the wax cools, but a better approach is do, I don't know, about that much of a pour. And then let this sit and what'll happen is that first layer of wax will solidify. Then you can come back and add more wax. So just like I said, if you don't densely pack the shavings, you won't get as robust a flame. If you don't do the wax in a couple of pours, it tends to just come out the egg carton.

You don't have a lot of wax in there, and then you don't get as good a flame. So I did a couple Instagram Stories this morning. Did anybody notice the subtlety of the song playing in the background 'cause I'm so funny that way? Bruce Springsteen. ♪ Oh, oh, oh, I'm on fire ♪ Because I'm pretty darn clever that way.

Or I think I am. All right, I'm gonna let that sit. That's as much as I'm gonna get in there 'cause I can see on this end, let me see if I can get you there, it's actually starting to drip out a little bit. Right there, I'm losing a little. So you wanna stop when that starts, let that solidify, melt more wax, and then come back and pour over the top of that again.

And then, because this is a cooking show, and everything gets prepped ahead of time, look, low and behold, we have a set of fire starters where the wax is already nice and solidified. Isn't it funny how that works out? Yeah, Keanna, these are Smurfarrific for a bonfire season. And it's, you know, with every set we make, you're getting 12 of 'em. So if you do this, if you set up to do this, I'd have four, five, six egg cartons ready.

And in the future, when you can invite your neighbors over, when you have, this is a kind of, this is a cool social event, you know? This, like we used to have 20 Boy Scouts in here doing this. And it was kind of fun. Some kids were packing, some kids were pouring. So when you can have your neighbors over to the house, you can do this.

Now we're to the point where we want individual fire starters. I'm gonna take the lid off. That's waste, we don't need it. I'm gonna take the, whatever this thing is, the closer off, we don't need it. Now, you can sometimes just start tearing these apart.

My preference is to slice. And you just, I don't know, you get a little neater result. I'm not super OCD or anal about this stuff. But I like when I do this, and this, and then I do this, and I get this. It's just a little, it's a little nicer-looking.

And then, rinse and repeat. So do that, whatever, 10 more times. The other thing I like about this, and I've done this a bunch, if you know people who have a fireplace, or who camp, or who use a bonfire, here's a thing I've done a bunch of times. I gotta think a second. Make these, and then where I live...

I've only left you a little bit, I'm coming right back. Where I live, there's a cigar store. And when they empty out cigar boxes, they sell 'em for like two bucks. So I'm not sure this is the right size, but you make the fire starters. You go to the cigar store.

You get an old cigar box for two bucks. Oh, that's gonna work. You fill that with fire starters. If you're creative, like my kid Jenny is, you put some cool ribbon on top of that. You do that, whoop, and then you give that as a gift.

And that, it's kind of a neat overall package, I think. All right, more of that. But then, it's a cooking show, stuff is ready. So next stuff is, what's the deal with these? Do they actually work?

Why would I believe George that a container full of shavings and, and hang on, I'm finding the lighter. There it is. Why would I believe George that a shaving, or a container that's made out of cardboard and is full of wax and shavings would possibly actually ignite? Because the proof is in the pudding or the proof is in the fire. Just gonna leave that in the background where we can watch it closely and make sure nothing bad happens.

All right, preguntas, any questions? What do you think? Did I miss any questions here? Yeah, Clay made some western red cedar. If you have cedar shavings, man, that makes a wonderful fire starter.

And is, again, if anybody is watching and has not yet said hello to my mother, Jean, you don't want me, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry. Everybody say hi to my mom, Jean. "Have you tried adding smells to these?" Nope. Just as a fire starter, I don't know what you'd get out of that. Like, I mean, it's not a...

I'm not gonna burn this like a candle in my living room. And so when I'm doing this outside to get a fire going, it's under a pile of logs and other stuff. All right, what else? I'm gonna revisit this for a second. If you missed this a week ago, end grain coasters, Molly put up the link for this.

This was Facebook Live a week ago today. You can go back and watch that and see how we made these out of scrap wood. And then a week from today, come back because we are going to use scrap wood. You know, can you get that, is there a theme? You getting a theme?

A week from today, we're gonna come back and we're gonna make a little candle holder for these tea lights out of scrap wood. Leviticus says, "What sort of wax did you use?" So this is, this is actually canning wax, but it's just, it's just wax. When I was doing this in bigger quantities, I ordered, see how nice that thing is burning? When I was doing this in bigger quantities, I ordered blocks of wax from Amazon. And it's very inexpensive.

You can take, if you're a candle burner, I am not. I mean, I burn the candle at a bunch of ends, but like, I don't actually have candles at my house, you know what I mean? If you burn candles and you save all the stubs, then throw 'em in there, there being the double boiler. And that works fine. And you don't have to worry about getting the wicks out or anything.

Just let that pour over the bed of shavings, and you're gonna be great. All right, set, anything? Bueller? All right, a week from today, we'll come back, we'll do this again. And I actually haven't made the candle holder yet.

So hopefully I didn't over promise, but I'm reasonably confident we can make a scrap wood candle holder. So I will give you another second to see if there are questions. I'm watching the questions on my phone. "Are they safe for a fireplace?" As far as I know, I mean, that's, it's wood and paper is what's really in there, plus the wax. And that quantity of off-gassing is so tiny compared to what we're gonna do when there's a fire going in your fireplace.

I can't imagine you'd have a problem. Well, Dallas, that's a cool idea, a fundraiser, 'cause it's, it's, I mean, especially when you cut 'em up nice so they look nice like this and put 'em in some kind of a cool box. And like I said, the old cigar boxes, that's such low-hanging fruit 'cause they're stupid cheap from cigar stores. That'd be a great fundraiser. Great idea, 'cause I think people would pay 20 bucks for a box of those that had a dozen in 'em.

All right, I'm gonna jump ship. So Mom, thanks for watching, Ann, my sister, thanks for getting Mom onto Facebook on the interwebs. And thanks everybody else for watching and we'll be back for more cool, fun, and excitement a week from now. All right, see ya folks.