This is a "Gobek Api", a Malay Fire Maker, given to my husband by a Malay prince in the 1950s. He was a civil engineer working for the government in Trengganu in the Malay States (now Malaysia). It is made from Buffalo horn and silver.
You use some fluffy seeds, a bit like cotton wool and wrap it round the stick then push it into the barrel where friction lights the cotton wool which can then be used to light fires or a cigarettte.
Gobek Api - Fire Maker
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Tregganu, Malaysia
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- 20cm
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