Most people buying a campfire will never ask how we polish a curved stainless-steel tube.
Fair enough. You have chairs to unfold.
But that manufacturing step has become part of our response to rising material costs. When the stainless-steel tubing used in BarCoal became more expensive, we commissioned a company in Portugal to build a custom machine that could polish the curved tubes. We have also started stamping parts to reduce labor steps in production and added a robotic welder to the shop.
You might never notice these changes while sitting beside your HOWL. They happen in our Colorado shop, where we are investing in equipment and processes to help control costs.
American Manufacturing Still Has a Materials Bill
HOWL uses stainless steel, aluminum, and brass. We cut, bend, and weld in the USA, while the hose comes from abroad. Those U.S. operations still depend on buying materials, and their cost moves with the metal market.
In June 2025, the Trump administration raised tariffs on most imported aluminum, including Canadian aluminum, to 50%. That increased the import duty on a material American manufacturers use to make their own products.
Canada is a major U.S. aluminum supplier, and those costs can flow through to a factory through its material supplier. U.S. aluminum buyers pay a regional premium that incorporates costs including duties. Reuters identified tariffs, low U.S. inventories, and tighter global supplies as contributors to higher U.S. aluminum costs.
For HOWL, purchasing from an American supplier has not prevented material-price increases. In April 2025, we explained that the price of the U.S. stainless steel we used was rising. We had bought material ahead of time, which gave us some protection, but those supplies were running out as production increased.
How Much Have Metal Prices Moved?
From December 2024 to August 2026, the Bureau of Labor Statistics producer-price index for aluminum mill shapes rose approximately 50.4%. Over the same period, its index for stainless-steel pipe and tubing rose approximately 15.8%. These indexes track prices received by U.S. producers.
Those are national market changes. They do not measure HOWL's individual purchases or isolate how much of each increase came from tariffs. Our actual costs depend on material specifications, supplier, quantity, and order timing.
They do provide context for the manufacturing decisions happening in our shop. When the material becomes more expensive, finding a more efficient way to turn it into a finished part becomes more valuable.
The Machine Behind the BarCoal
The curved stainless-steel tubes in BarCoal are a specific manufacturing challenge. As tubing prices increased, we reviewed the finishing work and commissioned a custom polishing machine from Portugal.
The machine lets us polish those curved tubes ourselves, reducing our reliance on buying tubing already supplied with that finish. It is a concrete change to the production process, undertaken to help offset the tubing-price increase.
Buying a custom machine has an upfront cost. We made that investment to gain a capability we can use repeatedly as we build more campfires. We are investing in the process to reduce the ongoing cost of making the part.
Sometimes controlling the price of a finished product starts with changing how you make one component.
That work is easy to miss from the outside. A customer sees the BarCoal tubes and feels the heat. Behind them is a decision about what work to buy from a supplier, what work to perform ourselves, and which equipment makes that possible.
Stamping Parts and Adding a Robotic Welder
We have also started stamping parts to reduce labor steps. Material is only one part of the manufacturing bill; the time required to turn it into a finished component matters too.
Each separate operation can mean another setup, another handling step, and more production time. Reducing that work helps us manage the cost of building each HOWL, even when the metal itself costs more.
We have also invested in a robotic welder. Alongside the polishing machine and stamping work, it is another addition to the equipment in our Colorado shop.
These investments give us more ways to improve production as material costs rise. They also require spending money on the shop before the finished campfire ever reaches a customer. Keeping our cutting, bending, and welding operations in the USA involves decisions about equipment and processes as well as the materials we buy.
What This Means for the Price Tag
These efforts do not mean every price can stay unchanged indefinitely. In 2025, we announced an increase in the R1’s price from $349 to $395. We explained that its original margin was too small and that rising material costs had added pressure. In the same announcement, we said bringing R4 assembly in-house and improving efficiency would help us hold its price at that time.
The polishing machine, stamping work, and robotic welder continue that effort: find places in the manufacturing process where an investment or a better method can help offset higher costs.
A finished HOWL does not come with a list of every production step we removed or every tooling decision we made. But those decisions help determine what it costs to build, what we need to charge, and how we keep investing in our Colorado shop.
Keeping the price under control takes work long before the first spark.
P.S. We bought a machine that polishes curved stainless steel. Apparently, this is what counts as retail therapy when you own a factory.
