Sepuh Crafts- Malaysian made parangs & fire pistons

 

The handmade wooden fire piston was an integral part of Sepuh Crafts

There were 2 places I know that had traditional fire pistons in Malaysia. One with the indigenous Semelais of Lake Bera and the other with the indigenous people down in Johor, somewhere near Endau Rompin National Park (if I remember correctly). I visited the later with Pak Abu a very long time ago. Pak Abu was kinda like a hound for this sort of bushcraft things. I remembered a few other trips we did together that literally was a wild goose chase. But the one in Endau Rompin was a bit special. 

Above is yours truly demonstrating one of the fire pistons from Lake Bera. What made the other one in Johor a bit different was that the owner used wax instead of water to swell the Terap fibers to keep the seal. I remember seeing Pak Abu's excited face as he prod along with questions about the implement. Questions that ranged from how old is the set to 'what would you used in the old days instead of wax'. The set was literally a heirloom but the shaman still knew how to use it. He lit his ciggie using the fire piston he had with him. Probably trying to impress his visitors that day (and indeed we were impressed). 

A traditional wooden dugout canoe can still be found with the Semelais of Lake Bera

Of all things, the traditional handmade wooden fire pistons was more of an excuse rather than a business venture. Friends close to me were puzzled why I would get into something that's not profitable. I had my own personal reasons. The idea of immortalizing the fire pistons, especially the hand made ones to the Semelais of Lake Bera was important to me. It was a big deal. It was my (small) way of making sure that the word is out there that these people were the 'real' people who knew the story of the fire piston. It is part of their society and culture. And in a country where one group of people constantly trying to stake claim over things that is (obviously) not theirs, I think this is important. 

Sepuh Craft ceased to exist the same reason why My Rainforest Adventures disappeared from the world wide web. The websites got hacked at a time that things were getting interesting with my personal life. I was never a techie person (hence Wordpress) and trying to figure out the hack seemed like a monumental demand at the time (still is). I decided to shut everything down. Juggling too many things while trying to restore the websites will just not working out for me.