Glad to have found ya!

[Bill Hill]

Greetings . . . .

Glad to have discovered this place! I'm "ancient" in any reckoning, and have fiddled around in the woods, on most continents, "for forever," it seems. Right smart of the stuff people are so enthused about as "newly discovered old ways" are sort of "old hat," to me.

Piston fire starters, for example: My grandfather had been an officer in "The Great War," and had been a subartern when Pershing had his Mexican expedition--he'd brought back a brass firepiston "fire-lighting" device marked "Paris." Just like the modern stuff, only it required "packing:" A fancy name for wrapping the end with string. [Almost all of the "pistons" used back then (from well-pumps to oilcan pumps) required "repacking" from time to time.]

That gizmo had a deep hollow in the end of the piston rod that took a wad of "ignitor." The thing was "loaded" with a wad, and closed. When the user wanted to light a cigar or pipe, he used the tool. (Cigarettes were late-WW-1 discoveries by Americans, who found the trash  cigars the Army had provided to be unsmokable.) The cap on the piston-rod was banged, and one pulled the piston from the cylinder. Holding the ember to one's cigar or pipe, one puffed 'til it was lit.

This was supposed to be "an improvement" over the spark-lighter that ignited a length of slow-match cord! For one thing, the thing was waterproof--the slow-match could draw damp, and become unusable. For another thing, there was no "spark-spark-spark" from the lighter wheel to draw the attention of a sniper at night.

Too, the gizmo was "eternal;" the original was bought in 1918, and still worked in 1968, when I inherited it! Not that it'd lain in a drawer all of those years; it was put to use about every month of those 50 years, either lighting the hearth-fire or kindling a campfire. All it required was a supply of "lint" (or home-made nitrated cotton) and an occasional "repacking" and greasing of the piston.

Then, my uncle had done a decade with the merchant marine in the Pacific, and had put in four years of that time on several small "tramp steamers" plying the smaller islands. He'd said he had learned of the "fire piston" from crewmembers. When he came back, he took up working with pack-mules, again, and applied lots of what he'd learnt as a seaman toward making things easier, as he ran packmules in and out of the "tall timber country."

Other fire-lighter skills were taught to me by my grandparents and uncle, as I'd really wanted to be in the Boy Scouts, but was hampered by the fact that there were not enough boys to form a Troop, where we were. At least, many years of my youth. Either we were "back in the hills," or were with Dad on one of his overseas postings. Dad was in the Air Force Air Technical Intelligence Corps, so we got to live in Beirut, and many other odd places.

(Know anybody else who'd routinely brewed pots of tea over fires fueled by dried camel dung. at age ten? Or did the same thing, at age eight, burning mule dung?)

Friction fire-starters? Well, I've done 'em. The "fire plough" is least complex and most difficult. (I'd "LMAO" when I saw my first & last survival show on the boob-tube, with some clod whining and poking at a plough--he never kept it up long enough at one go to stand a chance of getting fire, even if his "overall time" seemed to be hours!) The hand-twirled stick is next-hardest.

Get up to a bow, and it's easy--I used to have a favoritew burl-knob I used as a palm-socket. Kept it on a string, drilled through, hanging from my belt. The string was also the bowstring, and anything else could usually be picked up close to hand.

The flywheel or "drill" methods are nice. Did anybody ever re-discover that many Nations had ceremonial fire-starter drills, up to almost man-high, which they used to kindle their special ceremonial or sacred fires?

Flint-and-steel's nice . . . providing you don't pay too much attention to the new wannabe-experts who at one hand advocate carrying nothing but stainless steel knives, and at the other hand suggest using the backs of those stainless steel blades as flint-striking "steels." The stainless steel knives I've tried it with can't strike sparks off of flints! Not 440A, 440C, 420, AUS8 . . . . Oh, well.

Am also "slightly disturbed" with survival-knife gurus who thump their tubs for long, heavy, double-guard knives. In Scandanavian countries, only rank beginners--the little kids--are expected to carry knives with double guards. It's thought to be an honor when one's become skilled enough to have the guard(s) ground off.

The same thing with the fixation on long, heavy, blades. Scandanavians who live their whole lives "in survival situations" seldom have knives over 5" long. The most popular styles of knives in that part of the world have slim, light, blades between 4" and 5" long. Usually the whole shebang of knife-and-sheath only weighs a few ounces.

Well, I see a storm's coming, and storms mean power and/or cable outtages, so I'll stop writing, for right now. I'm glad to have found this site, though! I'll enjoy comparing notes with folks.

[Bill Hill]

"Zum donder-unt-blitzen" went through like "the mother-in-law of battle"-- the artillery--and now I can demonstrate my senility some more. ("Mother-in-law of battle" for artillery? Sure . . . shows up "out of the blue," raises 'oly 'ell, devastates all & sundry, then leaves. Kinda like my two late mom/laws!)

The French piston-lighter has a different sort of tinder-pocket in the piston-rod: Because it's supposed to work as a cigar and pipe lighter, there are two small holes, drilled through into the tinder-pocket. When puffing on a pipe to light it, the "draft" through the holes lets the user almost "suck" the ember out of the thing, into the tobacco.

Granted, one would have to get somewhere out of the rain, to recharge the thing; but ol'-timers didn't smoke pipes as often as folks ('50s through now) smoke cigarettes. One "bowl" or pipe-full every 4-6 hours was considered okay; even the French laboring parties went a couple hours between pipes, during WW-1. True, though, French explorers and trappers were accurately reported as taking hourly bowl-breaks, while exploring "New France" (the present US & Canada) via canoes.

I mentioned having a favorite bow-drill palm-socket: I don't know if it is ever practiced or even mentioned, now, but in the old days, the drill-socket was a very special piece. Some Nations even favored inletting a piece of soapstone in a hardwood burl, so that the drill would spin as smoothly as possible.

Both the soapstone and the "top end" of the drill would be lightly oiled or even greased, to help matters along. At the VERY LEAST, rubbing the "top end" of the drill along the side of one's nose and across the forehead should be done, to "lube" it with your "personal" oils.

Obviously, you'd better not get confused, and try to drill up an ember with the greasy end!

My "pet burl" was of rock-locust root. If you've ever tried to run a chainsaw through dry black or rock-locust, you will have noticed that the wood would actually throw sparks; it's that hard. I didn't inset a piece of soapstone or Catlinite, but the pocket was polished like it was a piece of gold jewelry. The hole going through it held the bowstring, so I always had the two critical parts of a bow-drill fire starter close to hand.

Well, the screen's dancing up and down, and the thunder and flashes are almost simultaneous, so I'd better pull the plug yet again!

Keep your feet dry!

Bill Hill----------------------------

[JAHNS79]

That is a great story and i would have to say that no i have never cooked my meal using camel or mule leavings, although i had heard that it could be used as a fuel source.  I would also like to see a picture of the fire piston you have, I was unaware that the military had issued them for use.  As often as i lose things it is amazing to me that it never got lost throughout all these years and the distance it sounds like it has on it. I am glad to hear that it is still around