Fire Piston – How To Make A Campfire
Posted: June 6th, 2010 | Author: Mitch | Filed under: Camping Tips | Tags: camp fire, campfire, compressed air fire, fire making methods, fire piston, fire piston how to, friction fire, Kodak Easyshare M1093 IS | 25 Comments »
How to make a campfire using a fire piston. This video demonstrates a fire piston in use, out in the field. This campfire was made in the high desert just west of Rio Rancho, New Mexico @ 5400 FT, April 5, 2009. The background is a chroma key or green screen illusion. I added that just for fun. The day that I recorded this video, the sky was really clear and “blue” so I figured I would give it a shot and add some other wilderness pics to the background. My blue jeans were also somewhat blue which is why they tend to fade to different colors toward the end… Video was captured on a Kodak Easyshare M1093 IS 720p HD camera. Enjoy the video!
yeah but the are empty within an our. a firepiston not. and you can use straw as char cloth for example that you find in the bush
but lighter runs out of gas plus they get damp die o and they break
no way, you can get a totally whet (Bic) lighter dry in under a minute. and with the right tinder you can start a hundred or more fires, even empty it will still spark (all tested) If your charcloth got whet it is end of story.
a fire piston is a nice experiment (of how a diesel engine works) but no way a reliable source of fire making
lol the fire looks fake
The fire is REAL… the changing background…FAKE. I chroma keyed the blue sky behind me with some of my winderness pics.
no i know its real but it looks fake like trick photagraphy but i know its real
if your doing real camping where theres actually a risk of being stranded any reak camper would rather have a fire piston because they will last much much longer then any lighter. if your a fisherman who takes a motor boat and beer every where then a lighter is definitly the way to go.
I am a hiker.
when it rains and you only have whet tinder (bark or semi dry grass)
Piston: no fire
Lighter: fire
Also a glowing piece of coal is something different than a flame for igniting stuff
Ok a piston will last longer but It is not like you have to spend two years alone in the wilderness.
A lighter will give a flame for 2-3 months everyday. An other point is that it takes a skillet person to make a fire with a piston so what if you are injured.
@gimepepe they are alot more reliable than a bic lighter. the flints fall out of those all the time. plus you still need something considerably flamable. a fire piston can be made from a bolt and a metal tube for very cheap. you dont need a charcoal cloth. you can use anything that will burn under 800 F. that kind of cloth just holds an amber longer than something else but in no way is it the only thing that can go inside the fire pistol.
Very well made how to.
I might debate that mesquite creates the best smell when burned
haha the background at 1:11
…..and thwe rest of the time
as for the lighter v. fire piston argument. both last just as long as thier fuel source out in the wild. for the lighter butane, fire piston charcloth. you are unable to obtain either in the wild. unless you know how to find cotton and farm it. for long term survival the best fire tool you could have is a knife. with that you can fashion wood into a bow drill and use that method for fire. you get string by digging up a root and cutting it off. so with a knife you have fire werever there is wood.
@ every 1 disagreeing
its called a little thing called being prepared! and plus its just plain fun!
u can use alot besides charcloth what about milk weed or punk wood omushrooms fungis etc they all work great and readily available
How in the heck do you make the background change on the video? Very cool effect.
Why would you choose this over a blastmatch or regular flint and steel??
The original background of this video was blue. The sky was perfectly clear the day I filmed this demo. I used chroma key software to display some wilderness pics I had to the blue sky (as I picked the color blue for the chroma keying) and it turned out to be a cool video effect. Same kind of effect that weather reporters use on TV when reporting on the weather.
Very cool effect thanks for the explanation of it. Please dont forget to subscribe to my channel. I have some very cool videos coming up very soon.
There are alternatives to char cloth that can be found in the wilderness. Chaga for instance, it’s a fungus that grows on trees, or cotton tale fluff, and various other types of materials that are all found in nature and if you can’t find at least one of these things you have no business being in the woods. However there is no alternative fuel for butane lighters that can be found in nature.
let me show you how to use a lighter. Flic. or maybe a firestriker. What happens when you run out of the special tinder? the same thing that happens when your lighter runs out of fuel.
will lint from your dryer screen work as well?
@Clancy236
Dryer link will not work for a fire piston unless you “char” it first. I like to use 100% cotton rags or string and char that for tinder. For natural tinder, try using the dried skin and the inside pith of a Mullen plant, or the inside of a Milkweed pod, Tinder Fungus (also called Chaga… mushroom tinder), Yucca cactus fibers (dried fibers) or even old punk wood which is the center of rotton wood. I have tried all of these and they work well!!
nice fake back ground
Nice stuff im an eagle scout and i love this kinda stuff. haha i must say at 2:35 it gets a little sexual haha!