These aren't shipping yet, and we're not going to take your money for something sitting in a maybe. Everything below is what goes in the box and what it costs — written up so you can judge it, and so we can find out whether anyone actually wants one before a pallet of fatwood turns up in a garage in Medford. Tell us if you'd buy one and you'll get a single message when they ship. No deposit, no card, no list we'll sell. Put your name down →

Fire kits & accessories

A short list,
and it stays short.

Good wood is most of a good fire. The rest is a spark and something dry for it to land in. That's a short list, and we'd rather sell a few things we use than forty we don't.

Everything here is designed to ship, free over $55, anywhere in the lower 48, once it ships. This is the one part of the business that won't depend on anybody's truck, anybody's yard, or the weather.

What we won't mail is racks, pallets and cordwood. A pound of fatwood in a box is a sensible thing to post. A firewood rack costs more to ship than to buy, and we're not going to bury that in the price and call it free.

$55
The Caveman Pack, shipped free
$9
Flat shipping under $55. Free above it
Post
Everything here ships. Nothing needs a truck
1
Match it should take. That's the whole idea

The one most people want

The Caveman Pack

A box that starts fires without matches, lighter fluid, or three trips back to the house. Built to be given as a gift and used until it's empty.

Why this and not a $12 kit off Amazon

Because a ferro rod on its own is a party trick. The reason people give up and reach for lighter fluid isn't the spark — it's that they have nothing for the spark to land in, and then nothing dry for that to light.

This is the whole chain, in the right proportions, from tinder to something that will still be burning when you sit down. Everything in it works with everything else in it.

What it costs elsewhere

WherePriceWhat you get
Etsy, handmade kits$8–45Usually a rod, some tinder, a pouch. No instructions worth reading.
The Caveman Pack$55Tinder, fatwood, starters, rod, matches, instructions. Shipping in the price.
Cutting Edge Firewood$89Kindling, excelsior, matches. Excellent, and 35 lb of freight baked into the price.

Competitor prices checked August 2026. They move; ours might too.

It's a good gift. For the person with a new fire pit, the one who just bought a house with a fireplace, or anyone who has ever stood over a smoking pile insisting it's about to catch.

What would be in the box

Sold on its own

None of this is for sale yet. It's what the box would hold, at what it would cost, so the waitlist is a real decision rather than a guess. We'd only put in things we use ourselves, which is why the list is short.

Fire starting

ItemPriceHow it gets to youNotes
The Caveman Pack $55 Free over $55 The one people ask about most. A card instead of an invoice, if it's a gift
Fatwood $14 / 2 lb Planned $30 for 5 lb. Resinous pine heartwood, lights wet, no chemicals
Excelsior tinder $9 / 1 lb Planned Fine wood wool. A fistful takes a spark instantly
Wax & sawdust starters $12 / 12 Planned Wax and compressed sawdust. One per fire, burns about eight minutes
Leather hearth gloves $22 Planned Split leather, 14″ gauntlet cuff. Handle a hot grate without thinking about it
Branded matchbox Free In every box Long matches. Keep it on the mantel

What we left out

What we don't sell, and where to get it

We costed out every accessory we were planning to carry. Some of them didn't work — not because they're bad products, but because we'd have to charge more than you can buy them for elsewhere. So here's where to buy them instead.

Firewood racks

A 4-foot rack with a cover lands here at about $100 delivered. To make anything on it we'd have to ask $150, and nobody should pay $150 for a steel rack.

Buy it at Home Depot, Lowe's or Tractor Supply, or build one out of two-by-fours and a pair of brackets for under $40. The brackets are the whole trick.

Moisture meters

A pin meter is about $38, and hardware stores around here carry them. Marking it up is not a business, it's a tax on not shopping around.

Get one anyway. A customer who can check moisture is a customer nobody in this county can sell wet wood to, including us. That's a trade we'll take. Split a piece, press the pins into the fresh inside face, read it.

Log carriers

We wanted to put our patch on a waxed canvas carrier. Then we found the company that makes them sells the same bag direct for $40. We'd have been charging you $69 for a logo.

Buy theirs. If we ever find one made somewhere we can stand behind at a price that isn't insulting, we'll carry it.

Also not on the list

  • Fireplace tool sets. Home Depot has them from $34 and they're fine. We'd just be marking up the same item.
  • Bellows. Handsome. Rarely used. If your fire needs one, the wood is wet.
  • Chemical fire logs and gel starters. Not our thing.
  • Anything we haven't used ourselves. That rule is why the list above is short, and it got shorter once we costed it out.

Getting it to you

How it would ship

We ship it. That's the whole system. Nothing here waits on a truck, a delivery day, or whether anybody has wood — which is exactly why it's the only lane left.

01

Free over $55

Which the Caveman Pack clears on its own. Under that it'll be $9 flat, lower 48. Nothing ships until enough people say they want one.

02

Small and dense only

Fire starting gear and gloves. No racks, pallets or cordwood — a rack costs more to ship than to buy, and we're not going to bury that in the price and call it free.

03

Ask your supplier for the rest

Buying a cord from somebody on the list? Most sellers carry kindling and some carry starters. You'd buy those from them, on the same ticket, at their price — we don't stock other people's trucks and we don't take a cut of a bag of kindling.

One thing we can't ship, ever: firewood itself. Every county in New Jersey is inside the spotted lanternfly quarantine zone, and moving firewood is how tree-killing insects travel across the country. The state asks that wood be burned within 50 miles of where it was cut. That's why there's no wood in the Caveman Pack and never will be — we're not going to write a rule on one page and break it on another. If you need cordwood, get it from somebody near you: that's what the list is for.

One match. That's the standard.

If it takes more than that, something in the chain is wrong — and it's usually the wood.