When it comes to BBQ, there are plenty of gadgets and accessories on the market promising to make your cooking easier. But which BBQ tools are actually worth having?

At CLD Fabrication, we spend a lot of time around the barbecue...prepping meat, lighting charcoal, cooking low and slow, cleaning up and of course, serving it all at the end.

Over time, we’ve found a handful of accessories that genuinely make the process easier. They aren't all specifically designed for charcoal BBQs or Weber kettles either. Some are products we’ve sourced ourselves, while others are from manufacturers we trust and use regularly.

These are four BBQ accessories we actually use and the reasons they have earned a permanent place around our barbecue.

1. The Australian Brisket Board

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When you're cooking large cuts of meat, your cutting board matters.

Our Australian Brisket Board is one of the most recognisable products in our range, and we actually use two different sizes depending on what we're cooking.

The Medium Brisket Board

This is our workhorse.

It's thick, heavy and seriously large, which means it's not something I particularly enjoy moving around once it's sitting on the bench. But when you're dealing with a large brisket — especially an 8–10 kg brisket — the size, weight and quality of this board are hard to beat.

One of the biggest advantages is the deep juice grooves around the board.

Anyone who has sliced a properly cooked brisket knows just how much juice can come out once you start cutting. Without somewhere for those juices to go, your kitchen bench can quickly turn into a disaster.

The deep grooves give those juices somewhere to collect, helping keep them off the bench and making cleanup much easier.

And, importantly, that also makes my wife much happier!

The BBQ Board

For smaller cooks, we use our much smaller and more agile BBQ Board.

This board comes with a set of magnets built into the top corners, which are designed to hold BBQ tools such as tongs and knives.

And when I say the magnets are strong, I mean they're annoyingly strong.

But there's a good reason for that.

When you're cooking outside, you might already have your hands full. Add kids, dogs, hot BBQ equipment and everything else that comes with an outdoor cook, and the last thing you want is a sharp knife sliding off the board and ending up somewhere it shouldn't.

The magnetic tool holders make the BBQ Board particularly useful as an outdoor BBQ cutting board and preparation board.

We pull this board out for practically every cook, except when we're dealing with the really big briskets.

If you regularly prepare, slice or serve BBQ meat outdoors, a good BBQ cutting board is one of those accessories that quickly becomes essential.

2. Turbo Jet Oz Pro Blower

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I'll admit it, I was initially sceptical about the Turbo Jet Oz Pro Blower.

And the reason was simple: the price.

Before buying one, I went through around three cheaper alternatives. One was a computer-branded blower and the other two were direct-copy versions.

None of them lasted particularly long.

I was lucky to get around six months out of some of them and they also lacked one feature I eventually decided was essential: a replaceable battery.

Eventually, I bit the bullet and bought the Turbo Jet Oz Pro Blower with the replaceable battery. I also purchased a second battery so I always have a backup.

The difference in quality was immediately obvious.

The cheaper blowers I had used previously would get extremely hot as the motor worked. The Turbo Jet Pro just keeps going.

It pushes a huge volume of air exactly where you need it, without feeling like it's struggling.

Supercharging a charcoal chimney

One of our favourite uses is speeding up a charcoal chimney starter.

Sometimes I leave lighting the charcoal until later than I should.

When you're already behind schedule and need that chimney ready quickly, the Turbo Jet can give the charcoal a serious boost and dramatically speed up the lighting process.

It's particularly useful when you're trying to get a charcoal BBQ or smoker up to temperature quickly.

Cleaning up after a cook

It's also surprisingly useful for cleaning.

Charcoal BBQs inevitably leave ash, charcoal dust and small pieces of debris around your work area. The blower makes it easy to clear benches and tables after a cook.

Rather than wiping everything around with a cloth, you can simply blow the mess away.

The Turbo Jet Mini

We also have the Turbo Jet Mini, which we originally bought for our 3D printing setup.

3D printing creates plenty of dust, tiny filament scraps and other debris that can accumulate inside an enclosure.

The Mini is perfect for getting into those tight spaces and blowing everything out, including debris around the rails and other components.

For BBQ use, however, the full-size Pro is our go-to.

If you regularly use charcoal, a high-powered rechargeable blower is one BBQ accessory that can genuinely save time.

3. Jet Fire Lighter

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Another accessory that has earned a permanent place in our BBQ setup is our Jet Fire Lighter.

I've actually been testing this style of lighter for around two years.

I originally bought one for our 3D printing setup, where I use it to carefully remove the little strings of filament that can sometimes be left behind after printing.

But it quickly found another job around the BBQ.

Lighting charcoal fire lighters

I've gone through a ridiculous number of flexible-arm BBQ fire lighters over the years.

I've bought expensive ones from major hardware stores, and while they generally work well initially, I've found that eventually the flame starts getting weaker and weaker.

Even replacing the lighter fluid doesn't always solve the problem.

That's why we decided to source our own Jet Fire Lighters, complete with our CLD Fabrication branding.

The adjustable flame is one of the biggest advantages.

You can run a relatively small flame when you need precision, or extend it out to produce a long, extremely hot flame when you need more heat.

At full power, they can run for up to around five minutes, which gives you plenty of use between refills.

Can you use a jet lighter to light charcoal?

In a pinch — absolutely.

It's not the method I'd recommend as your primary way of lighting a full charcoal chimney because the lighter itself is tiny compared with a chimney full of charcoal.

But I've been caught without fire lighters before.

In that situation, I've used the Jet Fire Lighter to get one or two pieces of charcoal going hot, then let the chimney starter take over.

It got me out of trouble.

For everyday BBQ use, though, I primarily use it for lighting fire lighters and for precision high-heat applications.

A good jet lighter is a simple BBQ tool, but having a reliable one makes a big difference when you're trying to get a cook started.

4. Kimbo Knife Sharpener

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The final accessory on this list is probably the one that surprised me the most: the Kimbo Knife Sharpener.

I actually made one of my own knives during a knife-making course in Tasmania run by Metal Monkey.

We started with a piece of flat bar and worked through the entire process — forging the blade, shaping it, making the handle and eventually sharpening the finished knife.

As part of that process, I bought a sharpening system and learned how to sharpen knives properly.

The problem was finding the time to actually do it.

As life got busier, I found myself reaching for the sharpener less and less.

I'd seen Kimbo advertised on social media a number of times and eventually decided it was worth giving it a go.

So I picked the knife I was least worried about ruining.

Unfortunately, that happened to be one of my wife's favourite knives.

It's one of those stainless-steel, one-piece kitchen knives. It's been around for years, and despite regularly running it over a sharpening steel, it had become incredibly blunt.

I'm talking about a knife that hadn't properly sliced a tomato in three or four years.

The tomato test

I followed the Kimbo instructions carefully.

I sharpened the knife, then deburred it as instructed.

Then came the test.

I grabbed a tomato and started slicing.

The difference was ridiculous.

The knife went through the tomato effortlessly compared with where we'd started.

No crushing. No sawing backwards and forwards. Just a clean slice.

And that's what I like about the Kimbo.

It's not about spending ages learning complicated sharpening techniques. It's about being able to quickly sharpen your BBQ and kitchen knives and get a genuinely sharp result.

If you've got a collection of BBQ knives that are getting a little dull, this is currently my number-one recommendation for a quick and easy knife sharpening solution.

So, What BBQ Accessories Are Actually Worth Buying?

There are hundreds of BBQ accessories available today, and you certainly don't need all of them.

For me, the best BBQ tools are the ones that solve an actual problem.

A good brisket cutting board keeps your workspace under control when you're dealing with large cuts of meat.

A high-powered charcoal blower helps you get charcoal going faster and makes cleanup easier.

A reliable jet fire lighter gives you a dependable high-heat flame whenever you need it.

And a good knife sharpener keeps one of the most important tools around your BBQ genuinely sharp and ready to use.

None of these accessories will magically make you a better BBQ cook.

But they can make the entire process: prepping, lighting, cooking, serving and cleaning up just soo much easier.

And that's exactly what I'm looking for in a BBQ accessory.

If it gets used regularly and makes my life easier, it earns a spot in the BBQ arsenal.

Shop BBQ Accessories at CLD Fabrication

At CLD Fabrication, we're constantly testing BBQ equipment and accessories ourselves before deciding what deserves a place in our range.

From charcoal BBQ accessories and Weber kettle accessories to brisket preparation tools, BBQ knives, fire lighting equipment and cooking accessories, our focus is simple:

Products that make BBQ easier, more consistent and more enjoyable.

Check out our range of BBQ accessories and equipment at CLD Fabrication and find the tools that can make your next cook a little easier.

Built tough, Aussie made and engineered for serious BBQ.