"There are countless horrible things happening all over the world and horrible people prospering, but we must never allow them to disturb our equanimity or deflect us from our sacred duty to sabotage and annoy them whenever possible." -Auberon Waugh
Wednesday, May 7, 2025
Working-with-your-hands Wednesday
Bonus video! You outdoorsy types might be familiar with this, but I had never seen one before.
I got a Buck knife that came with what looks like a plastic stick that makes sparks when rubbed against the back of the blade. I only tried it once to see it work but man, that was a lot of sparks
I prefer the spark method. There are several different ways to do that, flint and steel being one example. The fire piston is cool, though.
The problem with starting any fire without matches is that you need decent tinder and lots of small kindling. Birch bark is fine stuff for that, but not always available.
Oh, and everything needs to be bone dry.
But there are all kinds of ways to start a fire; you can use steel wool and batteries, for example.
Rubbing two sticks together is very tedious; there are work arounds, but you need to be very patient. There's a reason why ancient people carried a fire around in some sort of container.
Or they were supposed to have done that; I admit my research is limited to popular reading on nomadic tribes and the movie Quest For Fire.
I got a Buck knife that came with what looks like a plastic stick that makes sparks when rubbed against the back of the blade.
ReplyDeleteI only tried it once to see it work but man, that was a lot of sparks
I prefer the spark method. There are several different ways to do that, flint and steel being one example. The fire piston is cool, though.
DeleteThe problem with starting any fire without matches is that you need decent tinder and lots of small kindling. Birch bark is fine stuff for that, but not always available.
Oh, and everything needs to be bone dry.
But there are all kinds of ways to start a fire; you can use steel wool and batteries, for example.
Rubbing two sticks together is very tedious; there are work arounds, but you need to be very patient. There's a reason why ancient people carried a fire around in some sort of container.
Or they were supposed to have done that; I admit my research is limited to popular reading on nomadic tribes and the movie Quest For Fire.
That's thermodynamics in action on the fire piston. I have to say, I don't recall seeing this before.
ReplyDeleteAs you compress a gas, it heats up. Enough compression, and (obviously) you get enough heat to make a difference.
That's half an air conditioner, by the way. When a compressed gas expands, it cools.
The leather cutter was seriously roached, but it's a cool machine!
ReplyDelete