Another way to make firestarters, from William J. Neubert,
wjn&colossus.storz.com (&=@)

1. Cut cardboard rectangles of about 3/4 inch by 1 1/2 inch.
2. Cut a 2 x 4 stud (which are 1 1/2 inch finished) about 3/4 inch
long. Using a wood chisel, split off thin sections to match the
cardboard.
3. Stack the cardboard and wood in alternateing layers such that five
pieces of cardboard and three pieces of pine are used.
4. Tie each firestarter stack together using cotton string.
5. Soak the firestarter in used mineral spirits for about 15 minutes.
6. While the material is soaking, melt the wax. Add fine sawdust until
the wax had a grainy consistancy. Be careful when adding the sawdust,
because air trapped in it may cause the wax to temporarily foam up.
7. Remove the firestarters from the mineral spirits and dry them for
about 15 minutes.
8. Coat the firestarters with wax by dipping them repeatedly in the
was/dawdust mixture. Allow the was on the firestarter to cool between
each dipping so that the wax eventually forms a layered coating.
Alternately, put all the firestarters in a container and dump the wax
on them. Then drain the wax, let the firestarters coal, and repeat.
9. After the final wax coating, pull out a section of the cotton string
from each firestarter as a wick

The purpose of soaking the wood and cardboard in mineral spirits was
originally to insure that the pine would ignite easily. I also thought
that adding to low temperature combustion material might be needed to
get the starter going before the wax ignited. And, I thought the
mineral spirits would help the was adhere to the wood and cardboard
better. Drying the spirits only removes the outer layer of liquid. Much
of the stuff appears to remain soaked in the pine.

In reality, I'm not sure it does any good at all. I made new batch a
few weeks ago without the soak step, but I haven't tested them yet.