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Post by WILL on Nov 20, 2012 13:25:02 GMT -7
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Post by ncguy on Nov 20, 2012 19:02:25 GMT -7
Awaiting the review!
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Post by alex on Nov 20, 2012 19:04:20 GMT -7
My BIL is a machinist and I had him try to make me one...It proved to be very difficult to make..according to him...like I said, he's a machinist and is used to minute perfection and precision. He got it to work once but that's all and he never let me get my hands on it...I'll have to revisit this subject with him shortly. I look forward to hearing your view of the piston.
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Post by WILL on Nov 21, 2012 16:33:29 GMT -7
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Post by WILL on Nov 23, 2012 12:52:17 GMT -7
The fire-piston came in the mail today. My son and I were both able to make a fire with it fairly easily. It did take a few tries and definitely wasn’t a one strike, guaranteed fire. It was a reliable source of fire, just not quite as easy as you-tube would have you believe. Maybe there are some tricks to it that we’ll work out with time. Anyhow, I was initially concerned it would be fragile with my only reference being the online picture. Now that it‘s arrived, I can attest that it’s a very sturdy unit and I would even classify it as heavy in the hand. I will not be able to break it in the field, period. Its hammer tough. In use, I wadded up a pea sized piece of char cloth and shoved it in the recess at the head of the piston. There’s plenty of space there for it, and the recess held the char-cloth well. My best success came from blowing some fresh air into the brass tube between tries and bracing the tube against a tree whilst pounding the piston handle with my palm. Here are some pictures of what came in the mail, with my hand as a size reference.    |
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Post by ncguy on Nov 23, 2012 14:23:02 GMT -7
Nice! Thats kinda how I use one Will, I will place it on a rock and smack the handle with my palm.
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Post by offtrail on Nov 23, 2012 16:44:07 GMT -7
Good deal will i love messing with fire. I did try to make one from pvc pipe and wood, rubber gasket just never worked for some reason. Happy to see your using the striker from your bic, they do come in handy.
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Post by WILL on Nov 28, 2012 15:34:48 GMT -7
Well now that I've had it a while and mastered making fire with it here's where I'm at. My fire piston seems to require tinder in the form of char-cloth or a tree fungus I don't believe we have here in Florida in order to produce an ember. It doesn't seem to make an ember using any other materials. Since I don't seem to have access to the tree fungus, I'm stuck using char cloth. Char cloth is a project in itself to produce, requiring a specific man made container, cotton fabric and a fire to make. Without those ingredients, the fire piston is useless.
In addition to the afore mentioned ingredients, the piston itself requires lubricant and a proper sealing O-ring in order to work. A spare O-ring, small zip lock baggie of lube and a bit of char-cloth came with the unit, so I was good to go for probably a dozen fires before I needed some re-supply. I have no idea how long an O-ring lasts. Long story short, the fire piston requires quite an extensive list of support equipment to keep it functional.
It’s also hands down the heaviest piece of fire starting equipment I own, not even counting the support equipment. It’s roughly 3x heavier than my largest fire steel or magnesium /striker block. Another issue is the number of steps that have to happen to make fire. First I have to produce the char-cloth. Next I use the piston to make an ember with the char-cloth. Then I move the ember to a tinder nest, hopefully coaxing it to flame. Seriously, I can light at least 100 fires with my BIC with none of that fuss, weight and support gear. My fire-steel skips half those steps and probably makes over 1000 fires per unit.
For those reasons, I wouldn’t consider it a great piece of field gear. It would be fine for homestead or in a vehicle where all necessary support gear is present, but for back-packing or bugging-out, it wouldn’t be my first or second choice. It’s too complicated, basically requiring a multi-step, multi-component kit, and too heavy/bulky compared to its competition to be a viable bug-out or back-packing fire source. Cool toy or home/car TEOTWAWKI kit though.
As far as TEOTWAWKI use, I imagine with all the oil filled cars and cotton clothing out there it would be decades before you ran out of those items. The O-ring could be an issue, but I hear fire pistons O-rings can be replaced with hemp or cord in a pinch. I could probably use my Dutch oven to make char-cloth. I welcome any other input.
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Post by alex on Nov 28, 2012 16:34:18 GMT -7
That's the way I see fire pistons also...I would love to have one to play with and experiment with because tribes in the Amazon were using them and did not use char cloth...not sure if they used the fungus or not...Either way, I don't have one but do hope to get one one day to play with if for nothing else but to show my BIL so he can see one and maybe make a few at his shop for us to try out.
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Post by ncguy on Nov 28, 2012 17:02:25 GMT -7
Did you try punk wood? I have used punk wood and it worked for me.
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Post by WILL on Nov 28, 2012 17:43:44 GMT -7
Did you try punk wood? I have used punk wood and it worked for me. I had to look up punk-wood... Fire Starting Fires start best when the initial spark or flame can catch in a soft, dry material containing many air spaces. Punky wood that has rotted until it feels spongy, then dried, works well to get a fire going. The wood can be crumbled from a rotten branch for immediate use, but, according to Green Earth Survival School, it works best when it has been cooked over a fire in an enclosed space. The resulting lightweight charcoal ignites easily and takes up less space than other forms of tinder. Read more: What Is Punk Wood? | eHow.com www.ehow.com/info_8725808_punk-wood.html#ixzz2DZGaTq4LThe way it's made sound similar to charcloth. I'll try it, thanks. |
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Post by alex on Nov 28, 2012 17:48:00 GMT -7
Punk wood is found naturally in the woods from old rotten trees...but when it's charred like char cloth...it works even better...so you're right back in the same boat...got to have fire to start with and that defeats the purpose.
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Post by ncguy on Nov 28, 2012 18:01:19 GMT -7
My nephew and me were successful with just punk wood gathered from a dead pine. Not charred just straight wood. It took a few pumps but it finally took.
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Post by offtrail on Nov 28, 2012 18:42:06 GMT -7
Hello will  Yes to replenish your fire piston with needed items would be a problem in the field. Still not many fire preps out there that don't need resupplied. n |
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Yes to replenish your fire piston with needed items would be a problem in the field. Still not many fire preps out there that don't need resupplied. 