Charcoal Fire

Most of us have our own favorite ways of getting a charcoal fire started. When I was a child, it was always fun to watch my dad douse charcoal with an entire bottle of lighter fluid and then light a match and fling it onto the grill. He always had to jump back pretty quickly to avoid being left without eyebrows, beard, and arm hair for several weeks.

While this is a common way to start a fire—and brings out the inner pyromaniac in all of us—it is not really the best, and is certainly not the safest, way to get the charcoal burning. I hope I can persuade you to use any of the following tools, which allow for much better and safer fire-starting methods.