Paleo Lighter - UPDATED!

Friction Fire aka making fire using friction. Wood to wood, rope to wood, rope to rope, wood to car, car to dog, whatever.

Am I the only one who seems to have enough of it?

In every fire-related Instructable, in every survival video, in every schoolbook and in every edition of the SAS-bible you'll get the same ol' story that hasn't changed a word since, let's say, the last 20.000 years - the start of the last Ice-Age, more or less.

In order to take our species a Big Step Forward I decided to revisit our classic views on fire-making.

If we really want to survive the next Icy Apocalypse we need to be a lot smarter than we were untill now.

Proudly presenting: the first friction fire lighter ever - aka the lighter that'll keep you running (literally).

Cheap, refillable, reliable, waterproof & pocketsized - that's what they say about latest I-phone, also. About pocket-sized, I mean. Not about the cheapness, the refillable-ness, the reliable-ness & the waterproofness.

Winter Is Coming.

But we shall know no fear. Not anymore.

Wanna see it in action?

To make this crazy device you will need:

- two beared wheels (can be from a skateboard)

- a wooden dowel

- a piece of hardwood

- a piece of steel tube

- a 50mm pvc 'T'

- a few 50mm pvc covers

- 10m paracord.

And a beer. A really good beer.

In fact, the key-feature of Paleo 3.0 is just a wooden rod that turns on a wooden support, causing friction, heat & thus fire.

Put all that in a waterproof housing & you're done.

In a nutshell:

- in the 'T' is a wooden rod that turns freely in its 2 wheels (upside of device)

- to the rod is winded a lot of paracord (middle)

- a socket is pushed to the rod - which will collect the coal once the rod has gone crazy (downside)

Once you have a coal you can make a fire.

Easy peasy!

And humanity waited 20.000 years for that.

Get a clock drill and drill it halfway into a thick piece of softwood.

Get a paddle drill half the size of the clock drill and go halfway through the board.

Use the clock again to drill all the way though the board.

Result: the weirdest piece of wood ever.

Push it in a piece of steel tube which has miraculously the right size.

Screw both to one of the pvc-covers.

Make a pen, push it into the two (for better stability) wheels, wind some tape around both and smash it in the T.

Glue the cover & done you are.

To get the spindle winded you can insert a screw into the cover-side of the rod & then you go HILTI.

If you want to do it less 21th.-century-ish: go manual, your choice.

Whatever. Wind some (10m should be fine) paracord to the rod, glue the last cover and start admiring the most unattended pvc-construction ever made.

Or start wondering what exactly you've just been making.

Honestly, the first 3 times I tested this thing I failed gloriously, snapping the cord every time.

Fourth time was the good one. A nice piece of coal appeared - the cutest I've ever seen - and whether or not I managed to turn it into a fire hasn't the slightest importance.

Attach the loose end of the cord to a fix point, push the socket firmly to the pen, get the whole 90° and start running in a straight line.

Smoke will appear and fire you will make.

Next Ice-Age will be fun.

As in classic 'manual' friction fire, the choice of the wood species is extremely important.

The old school says that 'it's good to use a hard(er) wood for the spindle and a soft(er) wood for the socket aka fireboard'.

Commercially sold rods are mostly beech - which is a hard(er) wood.

I tried pine, epicea, elderberry, poplar & willow for the socket to see which species gave me the best results. And oak, also, because I'm just a contrary person.

Oak was definitely bad, and so were pine & epicea.

Elderberry was nice, but willow & poplar went just crazy: nice & a lot blackish sawdust and only a couple of runs needed to set the birds nest on fire.

Beech for the spindle, willow for the fireboard. My experience.

It's been announced and you were waiting for it: the famous upgrade to 4.0!

Inspired by the pullstart of a lawnmower - thanx jobar007 - I wanted the device being steady while I tried to get that coal - instead of me running like a fool.

So I added a spring to a rope and attached it to the spindle. Next I winded a second rope a few times to the same spindle and fixed the end to a handle (well).

Yes it's a lot less compact, but who cares? It's awesome!!!

The concept is simple: while you're pulling the handle its rope will unwind and wind the spring-rope, putting the last one on tension.

Graphics are on their way - unless you're already getting the picture.

Since I really didn't have time to change the fireboard (they burn fast, you know) and show you a more realistic video I made a small shortcut, sorry.

Match heads in the socket, some elbow-grease and LOOK AT THAT FLAME!!!

With a new fireboard it's almost the same, but longer.

And without those flames.

But almost the same, anyway.