Grumpy Dog Firestarters

Pack of 20 Oak shavings & wax No harsh chemicals

Twenty chances to stop embarrassing yourself at the fire pit.

Compressed oak shavings, soaked in wax. One out of the bag, one match, fifteen minutes of flame. No lighter fluid, no newspaper, no kneeling there blowing on it while everyone pretends not to watch.

1

$10.00 a pack — fifty cents a fire. Shipping calculated at checkout.

A kraft bag of Grumpy Dog Fire Starters with a window showing the pucks inside

One bag · twenty starters · one per fire

20Starters per pack
15 minBurn time each
1Starter per fire
0Harsh chemicals
01 — The product

It's oak and wax. That's the whole trick.

Oak shavings pressed into a puck — an inch tall, an inch and a quarter across, about the size of a shot glass — and saturated with wax. Oak is dense, so it holds a lot of wax and gives it back slowly — that is where the fifteen minutes comes from. Softwood flares up and quits; this doesn't.

Twenty to a bag. Take one out, set it at the base of the fire, light it and let it work. One starter burns hot and steady for a full fifteen minutes — one per fire, every time. That is roughly fourteen and a half minutes longer than a wad of newspaper, and considerably longer than your patience.

No harsh chemicals. No kerosene, no accelerants, no chemical stink on your hands. Use one in a fire pit, a wood stove, a chimney starter, or a fireplace your landlord has opinions about. It gets the fire going and then it's gone.

Keep the bag somewhere dry. These aren't waterproof — a starter that has been sitting in a puddle is a soggy piece of oak, and it will behave like one.

A single compressed oak firestarter puck
One starter
1.25 in across
1 in tall
Contents
20 starters per bag
Materials
Compressed oak shavings and wax
Burn time
15 min per starter
Coverage
One starter per fire
Starter size
Puck, 1.25 in dia × 1 in tall
Pack weight
11 oz (300 g)
Storage
Keep dry — not waterproof
Shelf life
Indefinite, stored dry
Made in
Massachusetts, by two brothers
02 — Instructions, in order

Three steps, and none of them are lighter fluid.

01

Set it at the base

Take one starter out of the bag and put it on the ground where the fire is going to be — underneath everything, not tucked into the side of the pile.

02

Light it, let it build

Match or lighter, straight to the starter. Give it a minute to come up to a real flame instead of stacking wood on a flicker and wondering why it died.

03

Build on top of it

Kindling first, then firewood. If your wood is properly dry you can skip the kindling and go straight to logs. Then stop touching it.

03 — Questions, answered curtly

Things people ask.

Are they waterproof?

No. Keep the bag dry and they'll light every time; leave one out in the rain and you have a wet piece of oak. Fifteen minutes of steady flame gives damp firewood a real chance, but it isn't a miracle.

Can I cook over it?

Not over the starter itself — it's for lighting the fire, not for cooking on. Let it burn out completely and cook over the coals, the same as you would with charcoal, which you already knew.

How many do I need for one fire?

One. One starter, one fire, fifteen minutes of flame. If you are reaching for a third, the problem is not the firestarter.

Is twenty enough?

Twenty fires is most of a camping season or a whole winter of Sunday evenings. If you burn through a pack in a weekend, we'd love to hear what you're doing out there. Possibly the fire department would too.

Why is the dog so angry?

He has watched a great many people light a fire badly.

Do you take returns?

If a pack shows up crushed or won't light, email us and we'll send another. We're grumpy, not unreasonable.

04 — The management

About the dog.

A long-haired dachshund with a greying muzzle lying on a striped bed, looking at the camera without enthusiasm
Management, mid-shift.

There is a dog. He is old, there is grey coming in around his muzzle, and he is not grumpy all the time — only when it counts. He has spent years watching grown adults stack logs like a Jenga tower and then wonder why nothing caught.

Two brothers in Massachusetts make these, in small batches, because he sighed at us one too many times. Oak shavings, wax, twenty to a bag, tested on nights when it would have been much easier to go inside. The dog supervises. He is not impressed, but he has stopped sighing, and around here that counts as a rave review.

Made in Massachusetts · two brothers · one critic

Buy the twenty. Light the fire.

$10.00 — pack of 20

Shipping calculated at checkout.