Fire Piston fuel problems (chaga)

[Humpback]

I've trawled through the posts on fire pistons and can now reliably make an ember with the chaga supplied with my purchased fire piston (1 out of 3 pumps).
What I'm struggling with is converting the ember into fire!
I have a couple of questions:-

1. do you ***** out the ember into the extender material or leave it in the piston rod?

2. with a flint and steel using charcloth I can get that to ignite very well all sorts of stuff such as kitchen towel paper. With the chaga I find the ember won't start a fire easily and not at all with the kitchen towel for example, burning out before I get a flame. Is the chaga used differently to charcloth?

I'm familiar with other tinder materials for the fire piston from other threads but have only these two at the moment in my kitchen. What do people use to get reliable results when transfering the ember to a flame?

OK thats three questions, but I need help otherwise I will have used up all the chaga before I get to start a fire for real! Oh fourth question can chaga be bought easily in the UK (I'm familiar with how it's made and will be processing some when I get chance.)

Best regards

Alan (frustrated pyromaniac)

 

[BOD]

It’s interesting that there is so much about fire pistons and their tinders but almost nothing about using them to make fire.

How did one traditionally make fire using a fire piston?

I was curious too and asked a native fire piston maker to show me.

Step 1 : Ask the wife to make a feather stick



Step 2: Prepare your fire piston

Step 3: Ignite your fire piston and whip it out at the speed of light and catch the silly questioner off guard

No pic

Step 4: Pry ember out onto an extender – twisted dried fibre from a jackfruit- like tree . Mix with firestick shavings and blow.


If you are just lighting a cigarette leave the ember in like a car lighter.

I’m going to see him in three weeks time to do a better job of the videoing. Do you have any questions you’d like him to answer?

 

[Humpback]

BOD
Thanks
I think the answer is as you say in the 'whipping it out quickly' to ensure the ember stays alight. I suppose your man's working in higher humidity than Midlands, UK. How does he keep the ember material in good condition?

I'm planning to experiment alfresco this weekend with chaga and charcloth to get a fire going from start to finish so to speak. Otherwise I'll just have to take up smoking .

Looking into it there seems to be several possible materials for the piston.

If I can find something as easy for me as charcloth with out the downside of dirty fingers from handling it I'll be happy. I would just like to get the chaga ember to start a fire.

I was beginning to think the chaga supplied was duff or damp but it certainly works in the piston, so I suppose its the old workman blaming his tools syndrome.

Regards
Alan

 

[decorum]

Hi Alan,

Have you tried transferring the fire piston ember to an ember extender? The extender can be anything which reliably smoulders on its own for an extended priod; my preference is to use either birch polypore or King Alfreds' Cakes.

The use of an extender gives multiple advantages. The first (as already mentioned) is that it extends the legth of time that you have an ember to work with. However, an extender should also allow you to 'grow' that ember ~ which means more conact with the tinder. Using an extender should give you plenty of time to adjust your tinder nest. This larger ember should then give out more heat than the original ~ which means any remaining dampness should be driven out, speeding up combustion.

When using birch polypore I've found that putting it down (somewhere safe and dry) and leaving it alone for a 'short while' and doing a couple of quick tinkerings around the fire site aids easier combustion.

 

[BOD]

Try Punk wood. Its free and won't dirty your hands once you collect and dry a heap of it