Anyone have a source for a fire piston?

Darrel Aune makes some superb pistons. He has an ebay store.

http://stores.ebay.com/Fire-Pistons-R-Us

Jeff Wagner at Wilderness Solutions also offers quality pistons.

http://www.wildersol.com/



This image has one piston from Jeff and 2 from Darrel. Fun firemaking.

Aren't fire-pistons usually made by yourself?

Hard to justify $75.00 for one of these, you can buy a lot of Bic lighters for that price.

I would say firepistons are rarely made by yourself....at least good ones. I have read many reports of fellows attempting to make one and it is not a trivial task.

As to worth the money...a BIC is a useful industrial cheap tool to make a fire but a piston is an artful way to make a fire. Well worth the money for a finely crafted unique device.

Not one person is ever going to oggle a handful of BIC's....I have yet to find a person who it not interested in a firepiston.

I first saw a fire piston used on Les Shroud’s show, I loved it. I looked them up on the net and came to the conclusion that they would indeed be difficult to make. I have enough other projects that I’m working on to try to make one of these right now.

I like neat toys as much as the next guy, but I also want practical things. And to me a Bic is it.

But you are right it would be a cool thing to play with & people would like it.

I still want one, but they are too expensive for what they do. The ones I’ve seen on the net are like works of art, they are beautifully made. I’m sure the guys making them have a lot of time into making them. You are not only paying for a (very cool) way to make fire, you are paying for the craftsmanship of the item.

Exactly Bob...that is exactly it.

There is another fellow on ebay who makes a brass tube lined wooden block piston that is much less expensive and also quite efficient. A friend of mine has an article on it, but the magazine site is down right now.

The Aune pistons are works of art. I got mine for around $40 on ebay and it is worth at least twice that. My Wagner piston cost quite a bit more, but it too is awfully nice. The top of it has a tinder cavity.

Darrel Aune has a DVD on how to make a piston...just watching it convinced me that buying one was the cheap way to go.

Also there is quite a bit of information about firepistons and other less common methods of firemaking at Paleoplanet. The Firemaking forum has several threads on pistons. "Cutshurt" is Darrel Aune over there.

http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/

Darrel has a long thread over there about making a piston should anyone want to give it a go too.

I think firepistons are really fun tools but for me are more of a display firemaker than a first line tool. There are definately some advantages to the coal you can get from a piston on a windy day though...however tinder prep and type and overall fire prep are really important compared to the more direct (crude) matches and lighter methods.

I can promise anyone though that if you do a firepiston fire demo your audience will be very attentive....it is like magic to get the coal and blow it up into flame.

the fire piston I purchased on ebay is made from clear acrylic with an aluminum piston. $44.00 from crater12. it worked on the first try. after seeing les use one, i had to try it for myself. from the information i could find on fire pistons. it said that as nice as the ones made from wood are , that they can form cracks due to age and drying out. i would have like to get a wooden one just because how nice they look and the workmanship involved in making them . but I wanted to keep the piston in my pack and use it often and not have to worry about damage due to moisture ,heat, cold.

its a very old form of making fire.IMHO ,you can never know to many ways of making fire. this is just another skill to learn and practice . And it's pretty darn fun to show off

Schwert,

Please respond to all topics as long as you include your photographs, they are simply outstanding! Colors, arrangements, lighting, composition, everything is flawless. From an all too frustrated photographer (have used everything from 4x5 view camers to the latest megapixel digitals) I make pictures, you create art. Wow.

Thanks for sharing.