American Bushman

"If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing." —Benjamin Franklin

Friday, December 21, 2007

The Hobo Stove

Several months ago I mentioned buying a cutlery caddy from Ikea and yesterday I finally took my Dremel Tool to it to open up a fuel door and then ran a test burn and boil.

It was probably in the 30s (F) here with little wind and the stove worked a treat. It took longer to grind down the burrs from the cutting than it did to put in the door. I used the many holes as a guide and just cut from one to the next until I had an opening large enough to feed in sticks and pinecones. I suppose I could still open it up a bit more as the caddy is made of some nice sturdy stainless and could still withstand additional material removal.

I used my drop point knife from ML Knives for all the splitting and carving of larger pieces of firewood to reduce them to a useable size. Can you believe the patina on that beauty? Matt can really make a heck of a knife and this is truly one of my most treasured pieces of gear. I've gone on and on about it in the past so I won't do so here.

This was such an easy project that I'm not toying with the idea of cutting a hole through the bottom of a caddy to use it with a Trangia burner. I could also cut around the caddy to make a shorter stand that would support a pot and lift everything off of the Trangia burner while still nesting around a 10cm or 12cm billy can. I don't know which will fit the easiest so it'll take a bit of experimentation.

Stay tuned as this project unfolds.


Thanks for reading,


B

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