Fire Pistons

Has anyone had any experience with a fire piston? I’ve been wanting to pick up or make one for awhile, and I’ve been wondering how they really match up to the claims that are made about how easy and reliable they are. Supposedly, with a little dry tinder and a quick enough movement, it will always light, because they use compression to catch the tinder.

I guess not?

I just purchased one of these on eBay, so I’ll update you all when I get it and try it out. I’m also thinking of buying some plans for making them, and if I do I’ll probably reproduce them for you guys.

You can purchase fire pistons on eBay?

Yea, some of the prices are decent, too (that is, if it works). I just bought one for around $25, with a brass lining on the inside, lubricant, a bunch of tinder, and of course directions.

UPDATE:

I got the piston in tonight. Turns out, they’re a bit harder to light than I thought, but with a bit of practice I got a coal. With a properly greased up piston and a motion so fast and hard that it hurt my elbow a bit (bad joints), I was able to get a pretty stable little coal. Now I just need to practice so I can do it in one go.

[quote=“incendiary_dan, post:6, topic:735”]UPDATE:

With a properly greased up piston and a motion so fast and hard that it hurt my elbow a bit (bad joints), I was able to get a pretty stable little coal. Now I just need to practice so I can do it in one go.[/quote]

Have you been able to figure out the motion or piston-positioning any better so that your elbow explodes less?

Thanks for doing leg-work, Dan.

If anyone wants to try the firepiston concept with hardware store parts and not a lot of fuss (…wait, what forum is this, again?) this looks like fun:

http://wildwoodsurvival.com/survival/fire/firepiston/rbmodelt/index.html

At least it’s cheaper, depending on the value of your time.

Definitely cheaper for me.

Aside from being kind of big, that looks like a good set of plans.