Lighting a fire is a thankless task if ever there was one.

Conserving fingers while cutting the kindling, avoiding the native cockroaches while you’re hauling the wood, all to have the whole thing fail to light is enough to drive one to madness.

Someone’s on it, however.

The George & Willy Firestarter is how clever people light their fire and look fantastic doing it.

No kindling, no newspaper and it works every time. You had us at “no kindling”.

The Firestarter was inspired by Alaskan whalers of the 18th century, who used whale fat as an innovative way to light their fires. Forgoing the less-fashionable whale blubber route however, Firestarter uses a porous ceramic stone head which, when dipped in oil, produces a decent-sized flame for a 15 minutes, perfect for lighting those logs without newspaper and kindling.

It’s old-school smart, and pretty sexy too: handmade in New Zealand from blackened steel and hand rubbed with beeswax, comes in a solid plywood gift box with lamp oil ready to go.

Price: $340 NZD

The George & Willy Firestarter is a finalist in the Best Design Awards. Check out all the finalists at www.bestawards.co.nz