View Full Version : fire starter
On surivorman on tv this week in alaska, he had a fire starter, looked like a round tube with a plunger. starts a fire with compressed air? does anyone know of a vendor of this item? thanks:-?
Dirtygaiters
11-06-2007, 16:06
I saw one on ebay once but forgot what keywords I used to get there. Try Google.
On surivorman on tv this week in alaska, he had a fire starter, looked like a round tube with a plunger. starts a fire with compressed air? does anyone know of a vendor of this item? thanks:-?
"Fire Piston"
warraghiyagey
11-06-2007, 16:13
Removed by moderator
Yes, thats it fire piston thanks for the info
shelterbuilder
11-06-2007, 19:25
Yes, thats it fire piston thanks for the info
The fire piston is an old technology that was supplanted by phosphorus-tipped "strike anywhere" matches and kind of fell by the wayside. They are popluar with some survivalists and primitive-technology groups. If you get to a Barnes and Noble, check out the Backwoodsman magazine - you'll see some ads for them.
Dakota Dan
11-06-2007, 19:33
The piston way(compression) of starting a fire is how Diesel engines got invented.
Frolicking Dinosaurs
11-06-2007, 20:15
Vendor info for fire pistons (http://www.firepiston.com/) and DYI instructions for making a fire piston (http://wildwoodsurvival.com/survival/fire/firepiston/index.html)
Bootstrap
11-07-2007, 06:11
Cool - never saw these before. (I don't have a TV, so I haven't seen Survivorman either...)
Wikipedia also has a good article on these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_piston
This would be a fun project for a physics class or a scout troop.
Jonathan