Awesome Fire

Science educator Steve Mould shows off a fascinating thing that happens when you ignite lighter fluid in a narrow channel. The flame travels around and around until the fuel is fully burned. He started with a circle and tested various shapes to see how the flames behaved. Along the way, you’ll learn about the concept of an excitable medium.

The car that Doc Brown drove (and flew) in the Back to the Future movies was a DeLorean DMC-12. Mixing things up for the 21st century, the guys from Supercar Blondie show off the TMC-12x, a Tesla Model X Plaid modified by The Shop in Tampa to look like the time machine. The EV even leaves a trail of fire on the ground. Stick around for a second awesome car.

A good knife can be a useful self-defense tool. But if you really want to ward off enemies, adding fire to the equation couldn’t hurt. Actually, getting stabbed by a flaming knife would hurt a lot. Integza shows how he made a knife that shoots flames from tiny holes in a porous metal blade. He theorizes that the tech could be used to improve jet engine efficiency.

Set up an outdoor fire quickly and easily with this lightweight folding fire pit from Campfire Defender Protect Preserve. Its rustproof mesh platform holds up to 125 lb. of wood and helps promote airflow for a clean, low-smoke fire. It opens up to 24″ x 24″ x 15″ when in use and weighs just 7 lb. It’s also available with a heat shield.

These long and strong fire tongs from Kabin help keep fires going. Their easy-open claw design can grab logs big and small. They provide a 38″ reach to reduce the chance of burns and have comfortable hardwood hand grips. Made from anodized aluminum, so they won’t rust if left outdoors. Great for campfires, fireplaces, and fire pits.

This unique lighter features an extendible gooseneck that puts more distance between your hand and the fires it starts. It uses a high-voltage plasma spark to light fires and works in winds up to 80 mph. When closed, its rubberized ABS body provides IPX6-rated water resistance and can float on water if you drop it.

Over a decade ago, Destin from Smarter Every Day and his pal John Henry tested the idea that you could light a match with a bullet. Now that he’s got a much better high-speed camera, he and John wanted to revisit the experiment. Once they dialed in the aim, they captured some incredible slow-motion macro footage at speeds up to 380,117 FPS.

Colin Furze has created all kinds of inventions over the years, from useful to useless. This one falls into the latter bucket, though it could be used to get your campfire going. Because nobody was asking for it, Colin created a flamethrower that mounts inside of his pants and shoots fire from his butt. It’s powered by an aerosol can and an electric igniter.

Quiet Nerd was looking for a way to add some warmth outdoors. Rather than buy an off-the-shelf heater or stove, he decided to build his own. He started out with four stainless steel dog bowls, which he cut and assembled to form the body of the wood-burning stove. It stands on four tall threaded rods.

This terracotta tabletop heater has an eye-catching visual presence. Its flame spins in a tornado-like vortex, while its terracotta chimney provides warmth. It burns eco-friendly bio-ethanol fuel on a ceramic wool pad. Add a few drops of essential oil, and the fire’s motion distributes scents more efficiently than ordinary diffusers.

These firestarter rods include a few bonus features which could come in handy in an emergency. In addition to a magnesium rod and striker tool, they’ve got a built-in compass and whistle, and come with a length of paracord. They come two to a pack, so you’ll always have a spare. Available in several colors, including glow-in-the-dark.

After showing off a simple rocket built from a soda bottle, Integza was inspired to make a more powerful see-through rocket. He built its combustion chamber from a glass cylinder with a custom-made metal swirl injector. Along the way, you’ll learn how fuels and oxidizers work and a little about turbochargers and top-fuel dragsters.

Say you’re out camping, and you need a stove. You could pack a storebought metal stove, or you could build your own from a log, some twigs, and a piece of baling wire. Woodsbound Outdoors walks us through the simple process of building this primitive camp stove called a Swedish Torch. If you’re really lazy you can buy this pre-cut Swedish fire log.

Combining a fan with fire can produce an impressive vortex effect. Hoshizora Camping shows how a simple metal stove can produce a unique fire tornado. The individual openings produce thin jets of flame, creating a woven effect as the vortex starts to spin. It also works with colored flames. Watch with subtitles on.

When is a fire extinguisher not a fire extinguisher? When it’s designed to stoke a flame instead of putting it out. Ollari’s took an empty old fire extinguisher, polished off its paint, and sliced it down the middle – turning its bottom half into a grill and its top half into its lid. The chainlink hinges are a clever design touch.

One place you never want to be when a fire breaks out is a theater. That is unless you’re in this “5D Cinema” theater that produces a real fire that leaps off the screen and across the ceiling above the audience’s heads. We couldn’t confirm where this attraction is, but apparently, it’s somewhere in China.

These flammable, fiber-filled plugs help light campfires and fire pits with ease. They ignite quickly and will burn long enough to get a fire going, even if they get wet. Each bag comes with enough plugs to start 50 fires, and they have a 30-year shelf life, making them great for a survival kit.

You’ll never have trouble starting a campfire again with this firestarter kit from Prepared4X. It includes a 36″ length of tinder wick rope that can burn for up to 3 hours, along with a curved ferrocerium striker and metal handle with a flint edge to quickly spark things up. Available in 4″ and 6″ sizes.

Ferrofire’s carbon steel striker tool works with standard ferrocerium rods to quickly start fires. In addition to its sharp striker edge, it has a serrated tip for making wood curls or soft ferrocerium to use as tinder. The striker comes two to a pack, but ferro rods are sold separately. Ferrofire also sells combo kits that include a striker and a rod.

A fire basket (aka “brazier”) is exactly what it sounds like – a metal basket that holds a bunch of flaming logs. Blacksmith Torbjörn Åhman walks us through the process of creating one of these, which involves cutting, stamping, bending, forging, and welding multiple matching pieces of metal. Also, hot riveting never gets old.

After seeing another artist make a tabletop by scorching wood, Burls Art was inspired to try the technique with a guitar body. After burning some maple, he coated it with epoxy to preserve its finish, then cut a thick sheet of copper to inlay into its face. He forced the copper into a blue-green patina using ammonia, vinegar, and salt.

When is a candle not really a candle? When it’s a high-voltage plasma flame like the one shown here. James from The Action Lab shows how an ultra-high-frequency solid-state Tesla coil can produce an intensely hot flame that can’t be blown out and that can even melt steel.

There’s nothing inherently dangerous about playing a tuba. Sure, you might run out of breath, but that’s about it. YouTuber and maker MasterMilo has created the most dangerous brass instrument we’ve ever seen. His flamethrower tuba is powered by a chainsaw engine and spews a stream of flaming propane out of its bell.