Woodburning Stoves

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Tangled Metal
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Woodburning Stoves

Post by Tangled Metal »

Anyone use one of those lightweight stoves for wood you can buy? Wood gas, simple wood burners and rocket stoves. Just curious as to what your views are on them for various styles of camping (cycle camping, car camping, etc).
pwa
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Re: Woodburning Stoves

Post by pwa »

I've used Storm Kettles that boil water using twigs, straw, etc as fuel. Too bulky for cycle camping, but good fun for a little expedition into the woods with the kids. You get a boil in about ten minutes.
Tangled Metal
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Re: Woodburning Stoves

Post by Tangled Metal »

A local conservation group i got involved with used a large one for tea breaks. It was bought from a guy someone knew in west Cumbria who had a company making them. They were as good as the main brands but i can't remember the company name. Very easy to get going IIRC. One guy would finish the work a little earlier to walk around looking for dry twigs. Then he'd get the kettle on in time for a brew. Much more satisfying than the other group who used a cast iron gas ring and big old kettle.
PrinterJohn
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Re: Woodburning Stoves

Post by PrinterJohn »

Hi, I have just bought a Honey Stove + Expansion Kit from backpackinglight.co.uk for use on this years tour in France. The Honey stove works well, but is smokier and uses more wood than I expected (here, dead twigs off a Hawthorn bush, do not use dead wood off the ground it will be damp). The BBQ expansion worked well and 6 sausages fitted onto it. So now I do not have to buy another bottle of Meths until I run out (we are going to use Bikepacking Bags this year to lose weight so the thought of having to buy another litre of meths in case we run out in the middle of nowhere will be a thing of the past) as the wood stove will be used. I bought the Titanium versions which are very expensive, but so light. Having this also means I can use the Honeystove to hold my Trangia burner so can no lose Trangia Triangle burner holder I have been using. Attached is a photo of an omelette being made on it.
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Tangled Metal
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Re: Woodburning Stoves

Post by Tangled Metal »

I bought the honey stove shortly after it was brought out. Before some of the changes but after one improvement. I have only used it a few times. Whilst backpacking it was never practical in the lakes and the parts of Scotland i went to. I'm considering it now or the wild stoves woodgas one that fits into a small pot.

The honey i tried in the full setup and the four sided arrangement. Tyre 4 sided takes a Trangia burner nicely by putting the rim until the side slots of the stove.

There are a few interesting rocket stoves on the wild stoves website. You can feed large sticks straight into it, moving them up as they burn.

My biggest issue with honey stove is that i found it fiddly to put together when cold. Not nice with the warmth being sucked out of your hands as you struggled getting slots to line up. There's alternatives with a hinge arrangement. You just open out and lock into shape without needing too connect pieces together.
rualexander
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Re: Woodburning Stoves

Post by rualexander »

Been using a Honey Stove plus Hive extension set for about 5 years now.
Great wee stove, and very handy when the meths is running low. I have even burned peat and coal in mine in the Western Isles.

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Tangled Metal wrote:.... Whilst backpacking it was never practical in the lakes and the parts of Scotland i went to.....

......My biggest issue with honey stove is that i found it fiddly to put together when cold. Not nice with the warmth being sucked out of your hands as you struggled getting slots to line up......


I use mine in Scotland all the time, no real problems.
Much easier to assemble as it gets older but would be useful if it was hinged like the Vargo Hexagon stove.

I also have a Wild Woodgas Stove, or an ebay copy, but find it doesn't burn as well as the Honey Stove once a pan is placed on top, and is harder to feed twigs into. https://wildstoves.co.uk/product/wild-w ... get-model/

The Firebox Stove looks good but maybe a bit heavy http://www.thebushcraftstore.co.uk/fold ... 2574-p.asp
The inventor/developer has some great videos on his Youtube channel, including roasting a whole chicken https://youtu.be/_O6SYSiypEc

I'd be wary using a wood stove in France or other dry environments due to fire risk though.
Tangled Metal
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Re: Woodburning Stoves

Post by Tangled Metal »

Bought a soldering mat. It's a heat resistant glass fabric that's good for resisting setting fire to the ground.
rualexander
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Re: Woodburning Stoves

Post by rualexander »

Tangled Metal wrote:Bought a soldering mat. It's a heat resistant glass fabric that's good for resisting setting fire to the ground.


Yes I use a soldering mat too, ground still gets scorched through the mat though and there's always the risk of sparks and embers flying around.

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pjclinch
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Re: Woodburning Stoves

Post by pjclinch »

pwa wrote:I've used Storm Kettles that boil water using twigs, straw, etc as fuel. Too bulky for cycle camping, but good fun for a little expedition into the woods with the kids. You get a boil in about ten minutes.


I have one and agree with the above.

Now it says this in the instructions, and of course there's no particular reason I'm choosing to emphasise this point (no no no - no reason at all), but if you've poured out all the water don't put the kettle back on the fire. Certainly not if it's one of the aluminium ones.

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Tangled Metal
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Re: Woodburning Stoves

Post by Tangled Metal »

I wonder if there's a YouTube clip of what happens.
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andrew_s
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Re: Woodburning Stoves

Post by andrew_s »

pwa wrote:I've used Storm Kettles that boil water using twigs, straw, etc as fuel. Too bulky for cycle camping, but good fun for a little expedition into the woods with the kids. You get a boil in about ten minutes.

There is a small 500 ml version that would be usable for cycle camping - the mKettle
(it's a rip-off of the US Backcountry Boiler, but has the advantage that it's easy to come by in the UK)
rjb
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Re: Woodburning Stoves

Post by rjb »

couple of coke cans and some meths. enjoy :wink:
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trilathon
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Re: Woodburning Stoves

Post by trilathon »

I bought an emberlit stove a few years ago, but after testing in my own garden and seeing the proliferation of the scorch marks and open fire wounds of the mears/grhylls/ beavis and butthead wildcamp and a few beers generation I've never actually used it beyond that.

Taking and cutting wood in honey pot locations such as national parks and the like is not something for me. We aren't in a natural wilderness anywhere in this country and live in a managed largely degraded environment with impoverished soils and struggling ecosystems after the last 10,000 years of man's impact and this is something I can do without adding to.


I have seen one used with a carbon cloth underlay that protects the ground and it's nice to see them, as shown above, used on appropriate surfaces where they look enthralling.

However, in certain soil types you don't even need direct fire to ignite the soil deep below the surface and embers can smolder for days after the camper has left and all obvious signs exhausted. Loosening soil adds to erosion, killing vegetation adds to soil runoff, and burning the ground changes the soil structure and the type of plants that may re colonise tht habitat. In areas of sensitive archaeology lighting fires can change the chance of detecting ancient land use by non intrusive methods
Searching for, and camping in, places of antiquity and wild beauty. Former ironman, 3PCX, Rough Stuff Fellowship, fell runner, regional time trial champion and 20 odd years of cyclo camping around Europe.
PrinterJohn
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Re: Woodburning Stoves

Post by PrinterJohn »

I assume that members of this forum are a bit more switched on than the Beavis & Butthead wild campers/beer swillers and would put a wood burning stove on a large rock, bare ground use a fireproof mat or a combination of these methods.

These stoves do not work with green wood cut from trees, they need dead dry wood, so there is no reason to damage national parks etc. It is a matter of foraging pieces of thin dead wood.

If you use a small wood burning stove, the size a cycle camper would carry you will find there are no embers as the residue is reduced to a fine ash, and nothing would be smouldering for hours never mind days after use.
Tangled Metal
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Re: Woodburning Stoves

Post by Tangled Metal »

But the stereotype says you drink beer and cause damage if you are the sort to make fire. Them's the rules of the stereotype. If you're a fire maker you're a drunken lot lout swilling carling black label and throwing the empties away while setting fire to stuff in your drunken haze.

Just like you're a tax avoiding cyclist without care for rules of the road and red light jumping at every opportunity.

Both groups should be stamped out of existence!

OTOH! The people I used to know into bushcraft used to go to rather excessive measures to leave no trace. Something I've never seen techie wildcampers with the latest in stove technology do. Certainly not to that extent.

Things like removing the top layer of leaves and soil for the open fire (on soil not peat or other fuel). Then packing away any fuel that's not fully burnt to ash. Then scattering the cool ash widely (it's high in potash so actually good for plant growth). Before covering the clean scorch mark with the soil and then leaf matter or other debris that was the top surface before the fire. Absolutely zero signs of the fire. I got told off by one of them for the burn mark my meths stove made.

The number of wildcamping spots I've visited with clear signs of campers not of the bushcrafting variety. Evidence of remote can stoves through their clear scorch rings. Even rubbish. Worst cases include dehydrated food packaging, cans of sausage and beans, nappy, used gas canisters and my all time pet hate used toilet paper by water sources used by wildcampers!

Of course the neds with their roadside ******* are just as bad, but at least they're in a place near roads and parking spots where a council or charity working group could easily remove the evidence of use.

I can tell you packing out someone else's nappy that's been left out overnight and longer in the rain up in the fells, that isn't nice. The gel caused by the absorbing media having hours in the rain makes one very soggy mess. It just oozes water even if you squeeze some of the water out first.
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