Fire Piston

[tomme boy]

Anyone ever use or make one? I would like to try to make one.

[nanuk]

I had one, that I gave away as a gift

it was made from a beautiful piece of Cocobola

they work and work well.

I will be trying to make my own this summer.

they are an amazing example what can be done with simple equipment

[MT Gianni]

I made one from a 1/4" pipe nipple and decided to buy a good one if I needed one. I would like to hear a success story of a good one.

[waksupi]

I have one that I made. Works fine. Use a hard close grained wood, or man made materials. Mine is made of Osage orange, and ebony.
The fit must be very close, or it won't function correctly.
Lots of videos and instructions for making them on the 'net.

[nanuk]

for a gasket, mine used two rubber O-rings, lubed with vaseline, or lip balm

I have read that dental floss wrapped up tight to make a bump, lubed the same will work also.

cut a groove in your piston to hold it in place.

mine was about 3" stroke and it worked good

[Alan in Vermont]

What is a fire piston?

[stubshaft]

Go to YouTube and type it in.

It is a primitive method of firestarting.

[plmitch]

Very cool! I have never seen one of these before.

[DLCTEX]

I've never heard of one. Intriguing.

[13Echo]

A fire piston is basically a hand operated diesel punk igniter. The heat to ignite is created by a tight fitting piston used to suddenly compress the air in the cylinder to several atmospheres which raises its temperature to the ignition point of the punk. No matches, no flints, no rubbing two sticks together. Ingenious.

Jerry Liles

[atom73]

I would like to see some pictures of some that members have made. It would help those of us who are interested in making one to visualize the manufacture process and maybe help us along.
Mike

[stubshaft]

I made the utilitarian version using a 1/2" OD aluminum tube and a 3/8" aluminum rod. I cut the slots with a hacksaw blade, while spinning the rod in my handdrill. For the end plug I used a short section of the rod and JB welded it in place. The 22 K-Hornet is for scale.

[45 2.1]

At the last gun show I attended, a fellow had a table full of these. I got a demonstration. A bit of char cloth in a hollow in the end of the piston and a quick 1" push into the body of the handle (for lack of the correct name) and the piece of char cloth was a glowing coal. Some tinder and you would have had a fire. At $45 I thought the price was rather steep though.

[KCSO]

Ah well one more fire starter I will have to make.

[plmitch]

At the last gun show I attended, a fellow had a table full of these. I got a demonstration. A bit of char cloth in a hollow in the end of the piston and a quick 1" push into the body of the handle (for lack of the correct name) and the piece of char cloth was a glowing coal. Some tinder and you would have had a fire. At $45 I thought the price was rather steep though.

I would like to have one but I don't think I'd put out $45.00 for one. If some one was to make some and sell the for say $15.00-20.00 here I would think they would sell well.

[nanuk]

I paid more than $45 for mine, and it was a work of Art!

a thing of beauty, and Function!

[tomme boy]

Waksupi, you think walnut would work? I have a really nice piece of burl walnut I was saving for some knife handles.

[waksupi]

I tried walnut at one time, and it was too porous on the end grain. It may work if you sealed it well with epoxy.

[freedom475]

I would like to have one but I don't think I'd put out $45.00 for one. If some one was to make some and sell the for say $15.00-20.00 here I would think they would sell well.

Go ahead If you use good wood and do them up nice, I'll bet by the time you get them done and perfected you will see that even at $75 you'd still be losing your butt..

[plmitch]

Go ahead If you use good wood and do them up nice, I'll bet by the time you get them done and perfected you will see that even at $75 you'd still be losing your butt..

Yes sir, which is exactly why I haven’t wasted my time trying to turn one out. I’ll wait for someone else too.