Ever since I started gathering my food storage and preparedness gear I have always had one question on my mind. If we ever had an earthquake that took out our power and or gas, how would I be able to cook my food? Fire is the obvious answer, but you can only store so many matches, and the fuel in my lighters won’t last forever. The thought came to me that I need to learn multiple ways to start a fire.

I came across this video while doing some research and I just had to share it. This is probably one of the coolest things I have seen in the preparedness world. In this short clip, Grant Thompson shows us how to construct a fire piston for under $1. Not only is this cheap to make, but it has a ton of value in the survival world.

For more information, you can also want to check out Grants video on how to make char cloth.

Some times when attempting to start a fire it can be difficult to find an item that will ignite easily and burn long enough to get the rest of the tinder in flames.  One item that I have found that works better than all the rest is something called char cloth. So what is char cloth? Char cloth is cotton that has had the hydrogen and methane gasses burned out. This process breaks down the fibers to a point where they are fragile and very prone to heat, making them easy to ignite with very little energy.

As shown in the video below, Grant Thompson makes char cloth by placing cotton pieces and cotton balls into a metal tuna can and heating it to the temperature of more than 400 degrees. This process helps extract the gasses without setting the cotton on fire. The char cloth can then be used or set aside for a rainy day.

It might be wise to always have some char cloth in your storage and your bug-out bag just in case.

For more information and to see different ways to ignite the char cloth, you can also check out how to start a fire with a fire piston.