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After a minor miscommunication ("Appointment? What appointment?") I was welcomed at the depository of the Wereldmuseum Rotterdam. I had asked for 9 fire pistons to be looked at, but the kind woman that helped me had located 2 more for me that were catalogued online under a slightly different...

The depository of Wereldmuseum Leiden is located in a non-descript industry park near the Hague, the Netherlands. I was welcomed by two friendly staff members with tea and cake and than we went to see the fire pistons in their collection. Some had beautiful details, like hidden...

I forgot to mention the publishing date, ISBN & publisher: July 31, 2025 ISBN:978-3-7518-0369-49783751803694 Verlag: Matthes & Seitz Berlin Book price is €32,- Cheers, Tom

It took some time but the book is now available in German (but still not in English): https://www.matthes-seitz-berlin.de/book/feuer.html Some info in English: The forgotten art of making a fire The knowledge of the art of making a fire is useful for a cozy evening by the fireplace, for...

Hi Mollyshock and welcome to the forum! All my skulls came from animals that had either naturally died or were traffic victims (I check the last category first for completeness of the skulls). My friends and family know of this hobby of mine, so they point them out to me if they come across a...

Latest addition: a northern lapwing (Vanellus vanellus), found dead in a field. Cheers, Tom

While searching for fire piston information, I came across this data on the Hezhe, a Chinese tribe that uses fish skins. It might be of interest in this thread :) Cheers, Tom

Last month I had an appointment at the Wereldmuseum Amsterdam, to take a look at their collection of ethnological fire pistons. A friendly young museum woman handled each of the fire pistons with blue latex gloves so I could take some pictures and measurements. Of all the objects that were...

Two more additions, from the same antique shop batch! Both are made of a kind of dark shiny hardwood. The lathe turned one has a piston that is made of light horn, with a hard wood knob. This one is probably from peninsular Malaysia or Thailand when compared to similar pistons in museum...

I nearly forgot this is a family-friendly forum! ;)

On request, the ' streaker' in a more relaxed stance. The head is a jackdaw skull. Cheers, Tom

The stork skull with the bill sheaths put back on: Cheers, Tom

I forgot to mention that the black keratin tip of the bills of ducks is called the 'nail'. Cheers, Tom

New addition, a male common scoter (Melanitta nigra). Unfortunately the bill sheathing with its fiery colouring could not be saved. In ducks, swans & geese these sheathings are of a rubbery/leathery texture, not hard like in other birds. The colours would not have survived peroxide treatment so...

Latest additions: A beautiful adult stork (Ciconia ciconia) and a washed up adult greater black-backed gull (Larus marinus): Stork skull with the two keratine sheaths ('rhamphoteca') for upper and lower mandible. Stork skull compared to a blue heron's skull. Big bird... Greater...

The cat from my colleague at work had dragged this in; a rose-ringed parakeet (a female, lacking the black collar of the male). So I collected it and turned the remains into this beautiful skull. url=https://postimg.cc/hJ60ggJZ][/url] Work under construction: a mole and a housecat...

Found this during a weekend in the Solling area (central Germany) last month: half a fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra terrestris)...it was snapped in two by an unknown, but probably very stupid or naive predator. Fire salamanders are highly poisonous (see the yellow glands with black dots...

Wonderful! I think your herring gull is not a herring gull, these might be tailfeathers from a curlew (see https://www.featherbase.info/nl/species/Numenius/arquata) or from something else. Cheers, Tom

Latest addition: Chiffchaff, a traffic victim found on holiday in Spain. Cheers, Tom

Great collection, keep them coming! Is that a fox(?) In the background & some boar tusks on the left? What species are the smaller bird skulls? Sparrow/finch? I really like the lego dodo! One of my favourite birds. Cheers, Tom