Fire piston out of native wood, which types of wood would work?

[Galemys]

Hi all,

A question asked by a fellow Dutch bushcrafter (not a member here):
is there anyone out there that has made an all wooden fire piston out
of a North European species of wood?

I know that most types of wood, even most hardwoods are too porous to make a fire piston
and most commercial sellers use cocobolo, lignum vitae or rosewood (besides buffalo horn and bamboo)
I also have seen a Malaysian hardwood fire piston and a working one made by another Dutch fellow bushcrafter out of olive wood. But what type of wood growing in Northern Europe would work?

Has anyone tried European woods? Boxwood maybe? Or possibly saturated fatwood?

Cheers,

Tom

 

[The Big Lebowski]

I dont know anything about the pistons themselves...
other than brief video's but i did find some saturated fatwood the other day that was very, very marbled which would be an ideal contender for trying.

About a 6"x 4" branch section weighs several ounces more than a similar piece so it could be possible!
Its one large chunk of solid fatwood and smells more like raw alchohol than fresh rich pine.

TBL.

 

[Galemys]

Hmm I must try and find some piece of fatwood myself to try this out.
Still curious what other types of wood will work.

Cheers,

Tom

 

[tim_n]

thought fatwood was good for lighting fires, not a hardwood of the density required for a fire piston. I would guess british oak would be best - reclaimed from an old structure/door, it's like iron. Green or newly seasoned oak may still be seasoned.

 

[dwardo]

I wonder if stablized wood would be a possible?

 

[BOD]

What you are saying then is that the fire piston could not have originated in Europe until metallurgy advanced to a sufficient level.

This only happened when?

 

[Galemys]

thought fatwood was good for lighting fires, not a hardwood of the density required for a fire piston. I would guess british oak would be best - reclaimed from an old structure/door, it's like iron. Green or newly seasoned oak may still be seasoned.

Tim N and Dwardo,
thanks for your input. Making a fire piston is not just about the hardness of the wood. IMHO the only real factor of the material used that counts is the ability to withstand air pressure. I have tried oak, beech and a few unnamed much denser tropical hardwoods (from old pieces of furniture so I guess that is stable/stabilized) that were very dense and heavy but all of them were still too porous, the air that I was trying to compress went straight through the wood.
I am guessing/hoping that fatwood is practically airtight because of the high resin content.

BOD,
In Europe there were no fire pistons before the early 1800´s, although technically it would have been possible to make one out of horn with stone tools.

Big L,
Since you are not familiar with using a fire piston; I have posted a tutorial for making a fire piston out of DIY-store material a long time ago:
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=35523
Try it, you might like it

Another question from the Dutchy that came up with the original idea for this thread:
has anyone tried vaseline or wax to overcome the problem with porous wood to make the bore airtight?

Cheers,

Tom