Burma Research — Monster Matches
How a camping trip with my dad changed everything I thought I knew about fire
I grew up outdoors. Camping, fishing, hiking — fire starting was never something I struggled with. I had my methods. They worked.
But on a camping trip with my dad at Kissimmee State Park, the guy at the campsite next to us started a fire that stopped me cold.
No lighter fluid. No fire starters. No setup.
I walked over and asked him what it was.
He pulled out what looked like a single wooden stick, leaned it up against a rock, stomped it clean in two. He handed me the other half.
I went home and couldn't stop thinking about it. That was the last time I used a wax fire starter.
The Problem With Every Fire Starter On The Market
I started researching fire starters. What I found was frustrating.
Most fire starters on the market are essentially petroleum wax pressed into shapes. Paraffin wax. The same stuff in birthday candles.
It works. But it smells like chemicals when it burns. It leaves residue on your cookware. It melts in your pack on a hot day. And you're burning petroleum — on purpose — while you're trying to enjoy the outdoors.
The "natural" alternatives weren't much better. Wood wool with wax coating. Compressed sawdust with paraffin binders. Synthetic firelighters dressed up with outdoor branding.
Everything had wax. Everything had chemicals. Everything was trying to look natural while being fundamentally synthetic.
I kept thinking about that stick at Kissimmee. Pure wood. Nothing added. Fire in thirty seconds.
Where could I find that?
A Year Of Research. One Answer.
After a year of development, I found it.
Korean pine heartwood — historically considered the finest kindling in northeast Asia, prized for centuries for one reason: natural resin content that nothing synthetic can replicate.
When a Korean pine ages, resin saturates the heartwood completely. Shave it and the curls catch a match in seconds. The resin burns for 8-10 minutes — long enough to establish any fire in any conditions.
No wax. No synthetics. No petroleum binders.
Just wood the way nature made it.
I sourced it. I tested it. I failed a lot. I tested more. And then I made something I'm proud of.
Kissimmee, FL. Some mornings are worth waking up for.
Introducing Monster Matches
Monster Matches are pure fatwood fire starters. Two sticks — a match stick with a standard safety match head, and a blank fatwood stick that serves as your tinder and kindling.
Use your knife to shave the blank stick into a small pile of curls, or baton into 6-8 pieces of kindling. This is your tinder bed.
Strike the match head firmly against the strike pad. One confident stroke.
Place the lit match on your shaving pile. Feed larger fuel as the fire grows.
I've been running this out of my garage in Venice, Florida since we launched. Every order ships personally. Every customer gets my email address.
This is a real product built by a real person who got obsessed with a campfire he didn't start.
What People Are Saying
"Very good product and well worth the money. I am stocked up for several months. They are lightweight and easily storable for backpackers and light gear camping. I have gone through about 10 now and I've had zero problem with lighting or holding a flame. This is a great alternative to cotton balls, Vaseline, flint and steel. I honestly have zero complaints."
"The matches work great and look sick. Comes with way more than I was expecting. 10/10"
Ready to burn cleaner
No wax.
No synthetics.
Just wood.
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