How to Start a Fire With an Air Piston

If you're in the woods and get lost, cold or hungry, you'll have a good reason to start a fire. Among the many ways to start a fire without matches is using an air piston. It's the same way as a diesel engine works, by compressing fuel so it will combust. An air piston uses the principles of compression to superheat a small piece of tinder at its tip. It's a fast, efficient way to start a fire.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Buy a fire air piston. An air piston looks like a hollowed out bullet casing with a shaft that goes inside it. It can be made out of several different types of material, wood, metal, horn, and can be found at most sporting goods stores.
2. Pull out your handy air piston that you purchased well in advance of this emergency, attesting to the sage-like wisdom that your camping experience has given you.
3. Open the air piston, removing the piston from its sleeve or cylinder.
4. Attach a small piece of tinder fungus or charcloth to the end of the piston. A charcloth is a piece of material, usually cotton, that you've put in a fire and charred, and then quickly smothered out. It ignites again real easily. These can also be found at a sporting goods store or you can easily make your own.
5. Insert the piston back inside the cylinder, and once it has gone in, slam it closed as rapidly and with as much force as possible.
6. Quickly open the air piston again. Place the glowing and burning ember you just created on top of your tinder nest.
7. Gently blow until ember ignites the tinder into a small fire. Continue to add additional wood to build the fire to the desired size.