Tom is the "bamboo spark method" the same as what i have been pursuing? I thought you were talking about something else!
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Yep , bamboo-spark, bamboo-percussion, fire-bamboo... it´s all the same: striking ´temiang´ bamboo to produce sparks (and theoretically make fire with those sparks...).
Unfortunately I don´t find `new` old firestarting methods every week but if I just look at the different methods that were formerly practised in Borneo alone (handdrill, flint and steel, fire saw, fire thong, fire piston, bamboo-spark) I can´t help thinking that in all those thousands of years that mankind all over the world has been trying out to set things on fire there must have been many more methods discovered and subsequently lost.
I am currently thinking about naturally occurring methane (literally moerasgas, `swamp gas´ in Dutch) a gas that can be found in about every marshy pool in Holland. Maybe it can be used with sparks to ignite tinder that normally doesn´t ´catch´ sparks? If it does it would be readily available for every caveman that roamed the lowlands to create fire.
Did not realise that the post had become an "article"
I came across it a while ago, if I recall correctly it ends with ´David Maybury Lewis´, the name of the man you formerly quoted in your signature, as if it was him who wrote the article!
What do you think of the Thai fire piston maker? All sort of questions rose when I saw the pictures. Where were those pictures taken? Is this the remainder of traditional skills or did he just found out about fire pistons on the internet and tried to copy that, like I did?
The carved tiger fire piston sure is original!
Cheers,
Tom