Here's another description of the concept of a fire piston,
"The primitive Fire Piston operates on the same principle as a diesel engine. When air molecules are rapidly compressed within the cylinder, the temperature of the air becomes hot enough to cause combustion. A single push of the piston ignites tinder placed in the end of the shaft. Since fire pistons create fire through compression, they function even after complete submersion. The fire-piston is capable of creating a live ember in a fraction of a second and open flames in less than 30 seconds, even in windy conditions."
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sol Invictus
The process of making char cloth to me is a massive turn off, and find that if it cannot use anything bar one source of material to ignite, I am not interested.
Great if you have an abundant supply of cotton to turn into char, but if not, its no use.
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Yes charcloth does indeed boost your tinder but it is not entirely necessary. Using just decayed wood in
this video an ember is created.
Like many methods of firestarting, fire pistons are iffy in inclimate weather conditions, but (like someone else in this thread already mentioned) double, triple, quadruple, quintuple... redundant fire starting tools/methods will be helpful and perhaps necessary. I've got all kinds of crazy firestatring aids.
Another cool one I like is my little
magnesium flintsick. The magneisum can usually still catch a spark in wet condtions (of course you still need some sort of dry tinder).
As I'm sure many in this thread already know, being able to make a fire is one of the most important skills you can posses in a survival situation. The difference btween camp w/ fire and camp w/o fire is like almost like night and day.
Oh yeah, Mac, my little sister is dating a marine (he just got back from Afgahnistan) and I was just talking w/ him tonight about the type a solar panels you mentioned. They have these roll up panles on the roofs their humvees and can even hang smaller ones off the back of their packs if they go on a long foot patrol.
I'd love to know about all the classified gadgets the DOD is sitting on. Maybe some day.
