In outdoors stores you may come across boxes of matches that claim
to be waterproof. Don’t buy these; they’re the biggest ripoff going! These
matches are tiny and flimsy and come in a little cardboard box with a striker
on the outside edge. If the box gets wet, the striker edge also gets wet, and
now you’ve got nowhere to strike your dainty little waterproof matches.
Magnesium Flint Strikers
Wonderful devices, magnesium flint strikers can be struck anywhere, come
with their own emergency fuel source (the magnesium shavings them
selves), and—best of all—you can get them soaking wet and they still work
like a charm.
But the real beauty of the magnesium flint striker is that it produces a
powerful spray of sparks. If you don’t have any other tinder material avail
able, you can scrape magnesium shavings off the flint stick itself and light
these with a spark.
Fire Piston
A relatively new addition to my collection of firestarting devices, the fire
piston gives me the ability to start a fire quickly and easily. In a nutshell,
the fire piston works because heat is generated when air is compressed.
The fire piston is made up of three components: an outer barrel, a
plunger with a hollow tip, and a gasket. Insert a small piece of tinder (usu
ally a dry, punky wood bit) into the hollow tip of the plunger, which fits
into the barrel. Then thrust the plunger down one (or more) times and the
tinder should ignite. The compression of the air inside creates the heat
that ignites the tinder.
Fire pistons are not without their drawbacks: they are a little bigger
and bulkier than other primary firestarting methods, and their success relies
heavily on a gasket, which can get worn out or lost. And although all fire
starting methods require the right selection of tinder, the fire piston seems
dependent on it. You need the right type, and it has to be very dry. But if your
other option is a lastditch firestarting method, opt for the fire piston.
Fire (^) | 115