How To: Start a fire with the "fire piston" method

Nick Spadaro shows how to make a fire with a fire piston. This device creates fire by compression, just like a deisel engine. You can find these online. Lubricate the gasket with just about anything, including chapstick or animal fat. Then put it in and make sure you have a nice fit. Pick your tender, preferably birch tender fungus, a nice spongy material. Put it in the piston, and put the piston on your leg. Your going to want to strike the piston sharply, straight down, so as not to break the plunger. Once you get a hot coal, remove it from the piston and very carefully place it in your tender bundle, lightly blowing on it to keep it smoldering. continue blowing untill you get a flame.