Id love to see the bass. Upload a pic?

Thanks for the compliment! I posted my instructable a few years ago so no inspiration there, I'd seen the "tinder claw" idea in a few other designs.To be honest I haven't actually watched your video yet (youtube is blocked here at work) but I'm going to check it out when I get home. Based on the image I saw in the Instructables newsletter I had a pretty good idea of what you'd done.

After a few failed attempts at making a fire piston I finally gave in and ordered a really nice wood/brass one online, once I had a working one in my hands I was able to see where my problems were and was finally able to get a working design of my own.

As for the all wood pistons, the wood density is extremely important, living where I do we have more softwoods than hardwoods. A guy on Ebay called EB Primatives was making really nice all-wood ones and selling them for a really reasonable price ($29) so I ordered one just to see how those worked. It even came with tinder and a "fire box". I guess his all wood design wasn't exactly all wood, at the end of the piston he had a circular piece of leather which was held on by a philips screw. The leather acted as a seal and the screw head held the tinder. Unfortunately I just googled him and he doesn't have anything for sale now on his ebay store.

Anywho thanks for the comment, I look forward to watching the video when I get home from work.

Cheers,
James

Sorry I missed a line there, I mentioned we have more softwoods than hardwoods where I live, because of this I had the same issues as you. You need a really dense/hard wood that is non-porous. Another possibility would be getting the hardest wood you can find and then somehow sealing it with epoxy or something like that. I know when you buy some types of burl for wood turned pens they call it "stabilizing" and the wood is saturated all the way through with an epoxy.

There is a video on youtube somewhere of a guy recording an aboriginal tribesman out in the jungle somewhere carving one completely by hand, its an amazing thing to watch knowing how hard these are to make even with modern tools and materials!

Crap, one more thing. I just looked up the Ebprimatives ones and it looks like that design used a brass cylinder too but the piston itself was wood. Here's a rewview that one guy posted, mine was a different model but same idea http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/557968-EB-Primitives-Fire-Piston

I'm guessing that your lint wasn't 100% cotton. Synthetic fibers do not work.

Good job on the piston. I've seen a few demos and none of them impressed me, at all... Yours is the exception. Most of them require precise tools, like a needle, to pull out a burning ember, which is practically impossible with cold and shaking hands. It looks like with your piston a knife or small stick could be used to push the ember out. This is one I'll have to try.

A few days ago I bought 2 rom wilderness solutions. If you use shagga , the gross looking fungis that grows on bich trees it is very doable. I did get coals after a few tries with JEff Wagner stnding over me, I did mush better later on. I even managed char cloth. An interesting fire nest (something you put the glowing ember into) and very nice indeed was a dead dried up flower head (marigolds) DEAD AND DRIED AND READY FOR DEAD HEADDING . They were superb.

other good thigs for piston fodder are mulin pith and cat tail fluff.I would imagine incence sticks are good too, I will be trying soon.

sparkie

err cotton undies and towels, (all of mine are cotton).

SPARKIE

You might want to try a mix of lint and saw dust. The lint ignites quickly and the saw dust holds the heat to continue the burn. (this does work much better if the lint is all/primarily cotton as opposed to synthetics)

that sounds rather a good idea. Must try that with cerium rod sparkers. I picked up a stick to make a mag light fire piston if I can get it to work I will let you know how it goes. On one site I watched native guy make one in two hours and he used a plant fiber seal ggreased with water, uhhuh?! yep he gets it wet he uses it and on second pop he gets it good. This intrigues me lightly damped no grease.

Other fibers that could work for you plant pith cat tail fluff heck maybe even dandelion fuff.

thanks fer the sawdust suggestion, I think that might be really good for general fire techniques as well as fire pistons

Perhaps it would needs investigating though. As I see it wood is more ignitable then Charcoal. So Perhaps wood powderwould go up faster. I do not know this for sure it needs testing. Briquets take fer ever to start going and get perfect to cook over, but wood get flaming pretty fast. What you are doig is burning up the more volitile wood gases first then it becomes char-coal and if hot enough burns nicely. I will not be able to play with this idea for a week or more. People I know are in hospital, so I am otherwise engaged.

A note on additives. A few years back I started looking to make on and read tons a stuff. Several gents were having a discussion on different things to make better ignitions. WD 40 was suggested as an additive. Another gent wrote in that he did just that, and it exploded his piston sending it into his ceiling. So I called a gun friend of mine who plays with many things dangerous and he explained that WD 40 is not silicone at all but another derivative of oil, and is highly flamable and leave a coating on fibers that is awesome in firemaking. At his rifle range they spray an old t shirt with a touch using that for tinder and it always works extremely well.

I look forward to other posts that peole make after doing their own test!

WD-40 over a lighter is what I have always used to eradicate black widows in my yard. It makes an excellent flamethrower. WD-40 was on the market long before silicone lubricants were on the consumer market [My dad used it in the 1960's.