I love this product. These fire starters are environmentally sound, inexpensive (27 cents each), and they work fantastic. They are simply candle wax and sawdust, wrapped in paper. I put Lifeworks Fire Starters to the test one day this winter: it was 10 below zero. The water in my sauna bucket was frozen brick solid. My wood was ice cold, my sauna stove as cold as the air outside. I lit a fire starter with a match, put it in my sauna stove, added a couple logs, then ran in the house for 1/2 an hour or so (stationary bike). Upon my return, the sauna was 130 degrees and hungry for more wood. I shuffled the coals, threw on another log, then a Rhapsody music play list, and my sauna was 145 and climbing. I don’t know why folks think wood sauna stoves are a lot of work. Fire starters take the effort out of starting a wood burning sauna stove.
They sell versions of these at Home Depots and hardware stores, where you’d find charcoal and grills and such. I’m not sure if they are as natural and environmentally sound as the ones I use, but i’ve ordered these ‘organic’ ones online here. I don’t use them at my lake cabin sauna, as birch bark is known as nature’s gasoline. At the cabin, with a quick light, I get some birch bark going then add a bit more/thicker birch bark, throw in a couple logs and the Kuuma stove is barking within a couple minutes. In Minneapolis though, in winter especially,
