Centerfinger.com

After spending much time visiting the forums of lesstroundonline.com, I decided that instead of spending cash on a professionally made fire piston I would take a stab at making one. A fire piston is a very unique and primitive way of starting a fire, it is believed to have originally been concepted in the asia’s hundreds of years ago.

Here is an excerpt from www.onagocag.com stating how a fire piston actually works.

“Air gets very hot when it is compressed under high pressure. A classic example would be the heat that is created when one uses a bicycle pump. But when the air is compressed in a firepiston it is done so quickly and efficiently that it can reach a temperature in excess of 800 degrees Fahrenheit. This is hot enough to ignite the tinder that is placed in the end of the piston which has been hollowed out to accept it.

Ancient examples of the tube itself are of hardwood, bamboo, or even horn. It is closed on one end, very smooth inside and accurately bored. Equal care is taken in the creation of the associated piston. A “gasket” of wound thread, fiber, or sometimes leather insures a proper seal for successfully creating the compression. This gasket is “greased” to help with the seal and to allow free travel of the piston. Those pacific natives I told you about earlier believed that the firepiston wouldn’t work unless it was greased with dog fat. The natives of the Philippines say to use the grease of a wild pig from the jungle. But if you don’t have time for a wild pig hunt, or the money to lipo-suction Fido , shortening has been shown to work. You might also want to try a combination of bacon fat mixed with a little candle wax, which is what outdoorsman John Rowlands used on his firepiston.”

Here is a video that I made showing that it can be done. We didn’t actually get flames from our tinder bundle, but you can definatley see the coals being made.

I’m currently working on a “how to” tutorial for this working project. I have all the pictures ready to go and I just need to finalize the steps, but you can count on it coming soon.