Campfire Tool: Pocket Bellows Builds Fire By Blasting Air

[leadin]Getting oxygen to the heart of a fire takes big lungs, scorched facial hair, or, traditionally, an accordion-like bellows to move air. A small brand, Epiphany Outdoor Gear, offers a new solution.[/leadin]

The V3-Pocket Bellows is essentially a collapsible tube. The metal is thin, and the product feels like a TV antenna.

Collapsed, it is just 3.5 inches long. Telescope it out and you have a 20-inch pipe to place in your mouth and blow.

Epiphany notes that this process “compresses and focuses extra oxygen directly into the heart of a fire,” thus making a hotter flame.

For years I have simply leaned over and got close, burned-off eyebrows no matter, to get my breath into the coals.

New Kind Of Bellows

The V3-Pocket Bellows makes this process a lot easier. I tested it out on a trip last weekend, where cool fall weather in northern Minnesota encouraged a fire in the morning and when the sun went down.

The product, which costs $14.99 at Epiphany Outdoor Gear, was highly effective — simply put the bigger end between your lips and expel air.

It pipes a jet of oxygen to the base of the fire, immediately bolstering the coals and the flames.It’s pretty fun to blast air into the coals and see them turn bright and hot instantly.

Notes Epiphany Outdoor Gear, “the byproduct of this extra oxygen is a significant amount of extra heat,” and it can be “key to overcoming wet firewood.”

It works like a champ, and quickly became one of the favored gizmos in the camp. “Who has the bellows,” became a common call any time the fire needed stoking.

The V3-Pocket Bellows is a no-fuss little item I will now keep in my camping kit. It’s small, inexpensive and pretty darned awesome.

–See more at the Epiphany Outdoor Gear site, where the V3-Pocket Bellows costs $14.99.