Things I set on fire with my fire piston, including a new natural tinder

[Galemys]

Charcloth (duh...)
Horse hoof fungus or 'false tinder fungus' (Fomes fomentarius), the felty trama-layer, scraped into a woolly mass or sliced very thin
Cramp ball fungus (Daldinia concentrica)
Chaga or 'true tinder fungus' (Inonotus obliquus)
'lulut'; the fluffy layer that can be found on the base of the stalks of the fish tail palm (Caryota mitis), (growing in a garden centre near your house...)
The same from the palm Trachycarpus fortunei (it is inferior to C. mitis though)
The fluffy stuff that can be scraped from mullein (Verbascum thapsus) stalks
Artist conk fungus (Ganoderma applanatum); the felty trama layer, untreated

And a new one I found out about yesterday:
The fluff from coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara) seedheads, these consist of slightly thicker fibers than other plant down and don't burn as fast.

This is coltsfoot, I come across it almost everywhere
(clicking on the images will lead you to my photobucket-account with larger sized pictures):


The fluffy seedhead:


I collected some of the fluff and discarded the seeds, leaving only the white fibers:


Picked some of the fluff and rolled it into a felt-like ball:


Inserted into the tinder cup of my fire piston:


Ready to go:


A glowing coltsfoot coal!:


This coltsfoot fluff tinder greatly expands the probabilities of encountering natural tinder for fire pistons as the fungi mentioned above are not common at all in my area (and the palm tinders can only be scraped off illegally from the trees at my local garden centre ).

Coltsfoot fluff is a lot harder to light with flint and steel but it can be done.

Cheers,

Tom

 

[Ivan]

Neat Tom. I've tried similar fluff from a few different plants before but everything I tried instintly burnt away. I'll have another go at it. Thanks for the tip. Nice fire piston too.

 

[Barney]

I,ve never tried a fire piston out. It looks interesting though. Well done on finding something new to set fire too.

 

[dwardo]

Ivy bark or atleast the fur/fluff works well for tiner bundles and sparks.
No idea how it would work with a fire piston, maybe another one to try....

 

[Galemys]

Ivy bark or atleast the fur/fluff works well for tiner bundles and sparks.
No idea how it would work with a fire piston, maybe another one to try....

Dwardo,

I will try out ivy bark as well the next time I encounter it. Fire pistons are kind of critical about their tinders though. I have found that as a rule something that doesn´t light with a traditional flint and steel will not work in a fire piston. This coltsfoot fluff is exceptional because it is kind of hard to light with a flint and steel (or maybe I just have to practice more ).

I,ve never tried a fire piston out. It looks interesting though. Well done on finding something new to set fire too.

Barney,

you can make a fire piston yourself out of stuff from the hard ware store (search this site), it´s a nice little project and very pleasing too (and when it works it takes a lot less sweat to create fire than a bow drill ).

Neat Tom. I've tried similar fluff from a few different plants before but everything I tried instintly burnt away. I'll have another go at it. Thanks for the tip. Nice fire piston too.

Hi Ivan,

I have read that coltsfoot grows in the US as well, is it a common find in America?

I´ve tried thistle down, cattail fluff and dandelion seedheads amongst others and all these tinders tend to ´flash´. I presume this has something to do with a kind of critical density; the fibers are too loosely packed and the burning particles can not transfer to their neighbouring fibers so the coal cannot sustain itself.

The fire piston comes from Mario Zwaneveld, a fellow Dutchman. He gave me some turned ironwood fire piston and this one has a nice contrast between the sapwood and heartwood. I accentuated the ´female´ shape and sanded and polished it smooth myself.

Here is a picture with two of his fire pistons, amongst others:

Cheers,

Tom

 

[jimford]

Is 'true tinder fungus' (Inonotus obliquus) rare in the home counties? The last few times I've been walking in the woods I must have checked thousands of birch trees, but not found it.

Jim

 

[Galemys]

Is 'true tinder fungus' (Inonotus obliquus) rare in the home counties? The last few times I've been walking in the woods I must have checked thousands of birch trees, but not found it.

Jim

It is not easy to find here in Holland as well, I have seen about 4 specimens over the last 5 years and encountered at least a hundred look-a-likes that turned out to be birch burrls or other growth deviations. I guess it´s just a pretty rare fungus.

Cheers,

Tom

 

[Ivan]

Hi Tom. Here in California we have a native plant we call Coltsfoot (Petasites frigidus). Different from what you've got and anyway it's not in my area but further north in wet forests. We have many other plants of the same family with similar floss attached to the seed I can test.
I read awhile back about a plant in the Milkweed Family from Egypt with similar floss which has been used as tinder for flint and steel. The stems of the plant were also used for both hand drill and hearth. The plant is called Markh or broom bush (Leptadenia pyrotechnica), Aswan Upper Egypt. The scientific name hints at its use, ‘pyrotechnica’ means ‘fire-making’. The seed floss of the Silkfloss Tree was used as flint and steel tinder in Africa, but it was charred first. I don't know if Markh floss needs pretreatment.

 

[Galemys]

Hi Tom. Here in California we have a native plant we call Coltsfoot (Petasites frigidus).
I read awhile back about a plant in the Milkweed Family from Egypt with similar floss which has been used as tinder for flint and steel. The stems of the plant were also used for both hand drill and hearth. The plant is called Markh or broom bush (Leptadenia pyrotechnica), Aswan Upper Egypt. The scientific name hints at its use, ‘pyrotechnica’ means ‘fire-making’.

Thank's for that, fascinating.

Your Californian coltsfoot seedheads looks a lot like the one we have overhere and it is in the same genus so there is a fair chance it will work:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petasites_frigidus
This Wikipedia page also says you can use the dried and burnt leafs as a salt substitute, I had read that before and am gonna to try this out sometime.

A plant named pyrotechnica, how cool is that!

Cheers,

Tom

PS I walked to work from the trainstation in the rain this morning and collected some wet coltsfoot fluff. Squeezed a drop of water out of it and dried it by rubbing the 'felt-ball' on my dry t-shirt. After 2 tries in my fire piston I got a coal

 

[jimford]

Thank's for that, fascinating.

Your Californian coltsfoot seedheads looks a lot like the one we have overhere and it is in the same genus so there is a fair chance it will work:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petasites_frigidus
This Wikipedia page also says you can use the dried and burnt leafs as a salt substitute, I had read that before and am gonna to try this out sometime.

I can remember some years ago, buying in Swansea Market candied coltsfoot roots. I can't remember what they tasted like, though (unlike lava bread - once tasted, never forgotten!)

Jim

 

[Asa Samuel]

That coltsfoot looks a lot like dandilion, has anybody tried the white fluffy bit from dandilions in a fire piston? my only warning is when I have lit dandilions with a firesteel the head burn very fast, less than a second, it might just burn up rather than produce an ember.

 

[Galemys]

That coltsfoot looks a lot like dandilion, has anybody tried the white fluffy bit from dandilions in a fire piston? my only warning is when I have lit dandilions with a firesteel the head burn very fast, less than a second, it might just burn up rather than produce an ember.

I tried those first as they are the most ubiquitous fluffy seedhead plant around in my neighbourhood. In my opinion they burn too fast too get a reliable coal in a fire piston, it seems as if the individual fibers burn out before they can transfer the coal to their neighbours. Maybe it has something to do with the shorter and thinner fibers.

I managed to get a coal out of thistle and out of bullrush/reed mace seedheads (´reed cigars´ we used to call them when I was a child) last week but those were a lot harder to light than the coltsfoot fluff. The only reed cigar fluff that worked was from a really old and battered looking stalk with hardly any fluff (only the lighter coloured inner bits) left. I think the density off the felt-like ball is an important factor.

Cheers,

Tom

 

[Asa Samuel]

Ahh, I thought it might, it's a shame really as there is a lot of them around here.

I really want to get my hands on one. Maybe a plexiglass one so I can see the flash as the tinder ignites

 

[Galemys]

Ahh, I thought it might, it's a shame really as there is a lot of them around here.

I really want to get my hands on one. Maybe a plexiglass one so I can see the flash as the tinder ignites

I must try combining tinders for a fire piston, in theory a ´flash-burning´ tinder like dandelion fluff could be combined with a slower burning coal extender or a harder to light tinder. The dandelion would than act like a accelerant or a ´katalyst´ for the other material. Don´t know if it would work in the real world though...

Plexiglass fire pistons are fun, the flash can also be seen without a tinder, the air itself is enough.

Cheers,

Tom

 

[Asa Samuel]

That sounds lke a good theory though, let us know how it goes.

Really? Cool. What's a rough price for a plexiglass one?

What about dryer lint? It does burn quite fast but lights up easily enough from a firesteel

 

[Galemys]

That sounds lke a good theory though, let us know how it goes.

Really? Cool. What's a rough price for a plexiglass one?

What about dryer lint? It does burn quite fast but lights up easily enough from a firesteel

Hi Asa,

I got mine for free so I can´t really tell how much they cost but if you google around you´re bound to find some sellers for plexiglass fire pistons.

I tried dryer lint but it wouldn´t work for me, that maybe because we dry a lot of non-natural fiber clothes in our machine, if the dryer lint would be made up of pure cotton or linnen it may work.

Cheers,

Tom

PS You could also try to make a fire piston yourself, it´s a nice project to do, here ´s a tutorial of mine for making one out of hardware store material:
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=35523&highlight=galemys

 

[Asa Samuel]

Free? Where'd you get that then?

Yeah, even with a fire-steel things other than cotton don't light too well. 100% cotton burns a treat though!

Thanks for that link, the nearest hardware store is quite far off and I don't go very often. I'd love to make one but with the extra costs of shipping all the bits (possibly from different places) would put me off doing it

Asa.

 

[Galemys]

After some more experimenting I have found two more natural tinders that will also work in a fire piston.

The first one is fluff from willow trees (Salix sp.).

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WeidenFrucht01.JPG

I had tried and rejected this twice as a possible tinder, the first time at home, the second time on a morning walk.
At home in my backyard I had collected some fluff that had fallen off my neighbour's tree. This tree is infested with aphids leaving a sticky fluff mess that resembles candy floss. It didn't work.
Later I found huge amounts of willow fluff during a morning walk in a nature reserve. When I took some it looked dry enough but when I rolled it into a ball little droplets of morning dew came out of it; it was simply too wet to work so I couldn't get it to light.
Last weekend was cloudless and hot though so I tried some of the last bits of willow fluff that I could find on the streets. I rolled it into a tight ball, put it in my fire piston and got a good burning ember in one go! This one makes a nice crackling sound when it smoulders.
I should have found all of this out when it was still to be found in huge quantities…ah well there's always next year.

The other natural tinder comes from meadow salsify/showy goatsbeard/Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon (Tragopogon pratensis, gele morgenster in Dutch), it's flower is another dandelion look-a-like. The plant is taller though and has different shaped leaves.
-LINK-
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bestand:Illustration_Tragopogon_pratensis0.jpg
http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/organicweeds/weed_information/weed.php?id=142
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon

The seedheads are also larger and covered with little parachute-like seedbearing discs. One 'disc' (without the seed and little stalk) rolled into a ball was enough to give me an ember in one go, good stuff.

What I couldn't get to light in my fire piston was fluff from Clematis. At least the garden variety that is growing in my frontyard. Maybe wild Clematis has better burning properties.

Cheers & have fun,

Tom

 

[Stryker]

Hi Tom,

I hope you don't mind me asking, but I'm realy looking for tips and techniques on basically just getting a fire piston to work. I've got two different models, and out of many hundreds of attempts over many weeks I've only ever had one coal.

I've watched all the videos and read everything I find, but success remains elusive. Would you be able to break your technique into steps.

Cheers in anticipation.

 

[Galemys]

Hi Tom,

I hope you don't mind me asking, but I'm realy looking for tips and techniques on basically just getting a fire piston to work. I've got two different models, and out of many hundreds of attempts over many weeks I've only ever had one coal.

I've watched all the videos and read everything I find, but success remains elusive. Would you be able to break your technique into steps.

Cheers in anticipation.

Hi Stryker,

I started out making myself a fire piston after I had seen some clips of them on the internet. It took me a few months to make myself a working piston after unsuccesfully trying out tubes made out of pencils, test tubes (I work in a lab) and other miscellaneous stuff. I finally made a version out of copper tubing with a matching wooden dowel rod and I got it to ´bounce´ on the compressed air. After that it took me a lot of effort and time to get my first coal. In the end it all depended on the movement; a fast slap inwards and pulling out of the piston rod in one fluid motion by gripping it with my index and middle fingers. I hold the tube in my left hand and strike the piston rod with the palm of my right hand but other people find it more convenient to rest the tube vertically on a table, holding it with one hand and striking with the other.

I did a `make yourself a fire piston`-workshop (like the tutorial I have put up some time ago at BCUK) a couple of times here at the Dutch meetings and most people that failed to get a coal were either too slow in withdrawing the piston (causing the ember to die due to lack of oxygen) or didn´t push the piston in deep enough (so the compression wasn´t sufficient to create the right amount of heat). A third common reason of failure was leaking air, which means that either the piston or the tube wasn´t airtight enough. This is easily detected though for the piston rod will not bounce back on the cushion of compressed air after pushing it in slowly.

It may be that your tinder is your problem. It is another critical factor in making a coal. Charcloth works best but I have had batches of it that where not working well; one was ´undercooked´, one was made of a t-shirt that wasn´t pure cotton or linen and one batch initially worked good but had become slightly damp.
I find that in general if my charcloth doesn´t work with a traditional flint and steel (an old file will do) it just won´t work in a fire piston.

In my quest for my first coal I knew I got closer and closer when I began to smell a burning odour after each hit. If you use dryer lint as fuel for your piston it will also tell you if you reached a temperature hot enough for ignition (it is useless as real tinder for it won´t smoulder) by the discolouration, this is hard to see with charcloth. So try it out by just pushing the piston rod in fast. If you see (or smell) a burned area it is evidence that your compression is OK and that you just need a faster backstroke to pull the piston rod out and give the coal some fresh air.

So I suggest that you start out with a (fresh) batch of good charcloth and just practice some more. If you´ll get the hang of it with charcloth you can start trying other tinders.

PM me your E-mail address and I´ll send you some more fire piston info.

Cheers,

Tom