Fire Piston

**NY MtnMan72** · 02-12-2008, 02:32 AM

the fire piston i own is what i consider a back up. I also keep a couple magnesium/flint blocks around, but if i have a BIC lighter in my pocket, that's what i want to use.

That being said a couple points.

I do like the fact that a fire-piston is pretty much all you need.
The rubber o-ring can and would probably wear out, thus losing compression- but all you would need to fix it would be a small piece of twine/string to fill in the space- in fact some fire-pistons are sold with twine for a o-ring....

As far as char-cloth... i think thats bunk... its such a pain in the *ss to make, and to be honest i have had pretty decent success using a small wad of dry leaves, and a small tuft of dryer lint works fine as well.

I'd say it comes down to preference... but i think they're kind of neat....

Here's a video i found on youtube showing use with "chawga" a fungus im not familar with....

ART
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAKYR...eature=related

**Rick** · 02-12-2008, 07:13 AM

Char cloth is super easy to make. Gray Wolf did a great "how to" post:

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...har+cloth+soup

As for fungus, do a search on here or google for true tinder fungus and/or false tinder fungus a.k.a. horse hoof fungus. You have both in NY. (You may already know about them. If so, sorry). The dryer lint is almost as useful as paracord and duct tape but if it gets wet then the fungus is a god send.

**NY MtnMan72** · 02-13-2008, 12:07 AM

i guess the next time i have a camp fire, or a fire in the fireplace ill have to grab one of my old "holy" tee shirts... your right looks easy enuff with some cans/ vent hole etc...

as far as the fungus (im honest when it comes to admitting errors) i have not sought it out in the wild, but i will do some reading on the types mentioned and then keep my eyes open...

Dryer lint- will not get wet in a 35mm film can, as long as you dont do something silly like drop it while the tops off etc etc....

as mentioned in another post... lots of items are "multi-use" and those little film canistors are a gods-send.....

Art

**Rick** · 02-13-2008, 09:33 AM

You bet. Check out the multi-use thread for just how much of a god send. Some ideas on 35mm cans start on post 24.

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...lti-use&page=2

For the char cloth cans, just a tiny hole is all you need. You just want to let the gas escape.

Here's a link I posted on a fungus tinder stove:

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...=tinder+fungus

**sgtdraino** · 09-15-2008, 09:22 PM

Originally Posted by NY MtnMan72

i have had pretty decent success using a small wad of dry leaves, and a small tuft of dryer lint works fine as well.

I really like the idea of fire pistons, and so I got one, but for the life of me I am having a hard time making it work with anything except for char cloth. The dryer lint seems to get hot, and even seems to light up sometimes, but when I take it out and blow on it, there's nothing.

Am I doing something wrong?

Are the larger pistons more effective maybe? I got a smaller one, a "Tinderlite Fire Pen" I believe it's called.

**oldtracks** · 10-04-2008, 07:51 PM

i found where this guy made one out of pvc pipe and a wooden dowel rod @ wildwood survivial.com?survival/fire/firepiston i made one but i broke it the second time i used it i didn't push down strait but ck. it out

**crashdive123** · 10-04-2008, 07:57 PM

We've had some discussions on fire pistons if you're interested (I've never used one). You can try the search function and see what comes up. In the meantime head on over to the introduction section when you get a chance and tell us a bit about yourself. Thanks.