Great stuff! A couple of years ago I got intrigued by fire pistons. They’re interesting technology that makes fire using air compression just like a diesel engine. I worked out my own design (they’re pretty simple and there are lots of designs on the Internet) and keep a few around in kits for firemaking. I’ve never messed with fire drills or such – I should do that just to add the skills.
The point about practising on the woodstove is a good one. I use a fire piston to get the woodstove going, partly to stay in practice, partly for the fun of it (kids and fire, eh!) and partly because I can brag about how this fire piston that took me five bucks to build just saved me a five-cent match.
My fire kit looks like this:
- matches in waterproof container (change them every two months!)
- fire piston
- char-cloth in sealed container
- small jar of Vaseline (lubricates the fire piston)
- magnesium firestarter
- birch bark
- small magnifying glass
- replacement o-ring seals for fire piston
Looking forward to more!