The Numyth Vulcan fire piston is one of the coolest ways on earth to make fire. Making fire from nothing is in itself pretty cool, but using the fire piston makes it that more interesting.
Fire pistons work in a similar fashion to diesel engines. A piston compresses air which in turn heats the air to the point of ignition. A fuel source such as char cloth is ignited by the super heated air in the cylinder. As long as you have a fuel source to ignite, a fire piston can be used indefinitely. The only thing needed to make fire is a fuel source; other than that a fire piston is self contained and reusable.
It may be a little confusing without actually seeing it in action, so check out the video below to see the magic of the Numyth Vulcan fire piston!
When you absolutely need to make fire now and the conditions aren’t ideal, you need a product like UCO Storm Proof Matches. These things will light and continue to burn no matter what. It’s actually pretty amazing.
These UCO matches will light in any condition you can imagine and will continue to burn for up to 15 seconds. They will burn even if they are smothered, completely submerged under water, or exposed to gale force winds. When UCO says storm proof, they mean it. If you are an avid outdoors-man, or even a preparation oriented person, you know the importance of being able to make fire when it is needed most. Fire is the universal survival tool; it has so many uses that being unable to create it is not an option.
UCO matches make a perfect addition to a bug out bag or small survival kit. Come to think of it, they are a perfect item for pretty much any kit. If you still aren’t quite convinced, watch the video and behold the inextinguishable fire.
The Vargo Titanium Hexagon Wood Stove is one of my favorite items to take on extended outdoor trips. It folds up small, is nice and light, and only requires twigs to use. Using my Jetboil is definitely faster to boil a cup of water, but there is something special about using a wood fire to get your food and drinks nice a toasty. Plus, not having to take fuel canisters or white gas is a big advantage on long trips or areas where fuel is hard to find.
The stove has some slots cut in the top to allow you to lay some tent stakes across and cook in containers that are smaller than the top opening. Burning in the stove even gives the unit some pretty cool color patterns since titanium can be heat anodized.
At the very least, this will give you a nice break from my flashlight video onslaught.
Prepare to be amazed at a video and post that is not about a flashlight. It is about fire though, so not a huge departure for me.
The Smokey Mountain R&D Rapid Fire Capsules are a new packaging of an existing concept. Put a few drops of glycerin on potassium permanganate powder and after a few seconds, a searing fire will erupt and easily light your tinder. The powder comes in gel capsules metered out for a perfect amount of fire starting goodness, so you do not have to worry about any messy measurements. The package also contains wax covered jute twine bundles that will allow you to keep the flame burning much longer than with the chemicals alone.
I burn some stuff in a video to give you a better idea of how this all works:
Jetboil makes my favorite cooking systems on the market. I am lazy, and a Jetboil FLASH is a lazy man’s dream. They are super simple to use, easy to setup, extremely fast, very efficient, and lightweight. The FLASH system is new this year, with an improved design over the original Personal Cooking System and a temperature sensitive gel on the side of the cup that shows you when the water has reached the optimal temperature. The FLASH is so efficient thanks to the insulation and Fluxring that it can boil 16 oz of water in right at two minutes, which means that you have your food faster and you save your fuel for more uses per canister.
They have larger systems as well, if you want to do more than just boil water. The Group Cooking System has a larger pot that you can use to cook meals for groups and the Helios has a remote canister setup that allows for cooking in a much wider temperature range compared to regular canister stoves. They even have a Coffee Press for making coffee in your FLASH and other accessories like hanging kits, extra pots, cups, and much more.
When the Gearpods products were released last year, I was impressed with how well thought out the kits and components were compared to other premade kits and containers on the market. Imagine my delight when they decided to update the line this year, improving the quality and moving the production of the main components to the US.
The new pods use Nalgene style threads to achieve their watertight feature instead of a rubber gasket like the first version. They also added some new colors, bringing the available color total to four with orange, black, tan, and olive drab. I made a few videos showing the connect systems, custom kits, and stove kit:
I went a little video crazy over the past couple of days, meaning that after being really slack on the blog and video front over the past few months, you now have 12 new videos to suffer through.
The first one shows the butane lighters I stock. I had several requests for this one, which kind of surprised me. I always figured the lighters kind of explained themselves…
If you read my blog, then you probably already know that I get excited about my products pretty easily. Such is the outcome of owning a business that focuses on products for activities that you love.
A new line of products has had me ridiculously excited for about a year and I am very happy to finally be able to share the news. The products are GearPods: modular survival, tool, and adventure kits.
The main parts of GearPods are various tubes, connectors, and other pieces that all connect together. You can have your fire tools in one tube, first aid in another, cooking in a third, gear repair in a fourth, etc. Once you have your kits put together, you can connect and arrange them as needed for different trips. The connector and cap pieces have rubber gaskets to keep your gear dry and safe.
The empty tubes and connectors will be available in the coming weeks and months, but for now, very well thought out premade kits are in stock and ready to ship. The Trailhead kit contains basic survival and first aid items. The BackCountry fleshes out the Trailhead kit contents and adds cooking items such as an aluminum cup, stove, and fuel. The Wilderness kit takes all of that and adds in shelter items like an ultralight nylon tarp and an emergency blanket. Covers for the two larger kits are also available.
I made a video showing the new Firesteel Super Strikers from my store. I was really pleased with the way the strikers turned out. They work as well (or better) than anything else I use, even the squared off spine of a fixed blade, which is impressive considering they are under $2.
Some customers asked if UST’s Wetfire can actually burn while floating in water. Yes, yes it can. I know I’m the guy shilling it, but that is pretty friggin’ cool.
