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.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
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.
-
1
