Craftsmanship > Accoutrements

fire pistons

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burch:
Is it hard to make a fire piston ?   I have one of those factory made flint strikers that isn`t worth a nickle and i`ve already broken a piece off of it,  i`d like something more traditional.  Also what do you folks use for flint and where could I get some ?

Indiana:
I'd look into having one of the smiths here forge you up a steel striker.  Get a good one and it should last a lifetime, I would think.  As for flint... I just walk along the road and pick mine up, but places like Track of the Wolf and JSTownsend have flint shards for striking, if that is what you are looning for.

northwoodsdave:
If you are good at workworking a fire piston would be a pretty simple project  It's basically a tube with a bottom and  a close fitting piston that slides inside of it.  In a tiny space in the bottom is where your char goes.

The whole thing works on the science that a sudden rapid compression of air is accompanied with a rapid (and extreme) rise in temperature.  One stroke of the piston will heat the char to ignition.  You then dump the hot char into your tinder and you have almost instant fire.

Actually, I think a striker and flint is more 'traditional' than a fire piston. A peice of iron or steel and a hunk of flint would be much easier to obtain than one of these.

But the pistons certainly are fun!

Hope that helps

Dave

burch:
I tend to agree. I just used the back of my knife.

Three Hawks:
Fire making with flint and steel is dead easy.  Almost all the catalog outlets sell good quality kits with everything needed along with clear instructions for not much money.    If memory serves there are several threads here on the subject as well.   Nearly any hard rock will give sparks with a good steel.  I've used, agate, quartz, basalt, as well as the much commoner flint and chert.  I live near Puget Sound, and have found hundreds of beach pebbles that when broken have sharp enough edges to strike good sparks.  Most rivers will yeild good stones as well.  Just crack one  into bits with another and give the shards a try.

Fire steels can be made, found, or bought.   Files don't work all that well, they're too hard.   You can break one into smaller pieces, and anneal.  Heat a piece red hot then drop it into a container of wood ash.  This insulates the steel allowing it to cool slowly and soften.   By cooling slowly, I mean overnight at least.  Then file or grind off the teeth on the narrow edge, rounding it slightly at the same time.   Testing with a sharp, hard bit of stone will tell if it's a firesteel or scrap.  They mostly end up being scrap.  Mostly.

I suggest you buy one at a rendezvous.  Whoever you buy from should be happy to show you how to use it.  Many vendors sell good kits cheap.

I strongly suggest you purchase a Dixie Gun Works catalog as it is one of the best text books on primitive living available.  It's also a dang good source of needful things including firesteels and strike-a -light kits.

Then buy the Books of Buckskinning series.  VERY GOOD stuff there.  Most, if not all of your questions are already answered in them.   Buy as needed.  Numbers II and VIII are out of print but still easily available.   The eight books all cost on average, $20 each.  I began in the early 80's and completed my set in Feb of this year.  

The fire piston is SE Asian in origin.  A cute toy, but certainly not relevant to anything North American or European.

The backs of knives are almost universally useless as firesteels.

Three Hawks

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