Fire skills

[DFW_Dave]

Well the wife is away so I decided to start rummaging through my gear locker. I realized that I have not practiced any of my wood craft skills in some while so with my fire steel, and new bushbuddy stove set out to practice my fire skills.

I live in the city so I have no ready source of dead wood, but I did have some hickory left over from my last smoked brisket. I made a small mound of kindling. I used some for the base of the fire, lit my petroleum jelly saturated cotton ball in seconds. I had a great little fire going in about five minutes.

Now, to why I am posting. I usually am an alcohol stove fan, but this stove may have just converted me. I'm very impressed because: It weighs only 6 oz's, all stainless steel, the design does not scorch the ground (sterilize) and it burns clean! No soot! Very impressive!

Take a look at the website, they are expensive. When mine came in the mail it was easy to see why. The stove is very well designed. It clearly has taken allot of work, and shows! I have made sooo many coffee can stoves and such and some of them were pretty good, but I have to admit this is on another level!

 

[storl]

That thing is pretty sweet. The price is rough, but I have definitely spent more on gear, like the two touring kayaks I bought today at REI on super clearance.

Maybe a deal will pop up on these one day, or they will get to the economies of scale where the price drops drastically. It sure would be nice not to have to carry fuel along with my Jetboil or other stove.

 

[DFW_Dave]

I found the stoves by stumbling across some reviews. The reviewers had other gear that I either had or knew I wanted and this came in at the top of the list for stoves so I figured it was pretty "safe". I rarely rave about gear, but this has so far exceeded my expectations I had to share!

"The 'BushBuddy' is a natural convection 'inverted downgas gasifer' stove and uses secondary combustion (more complicated, efficient and cleaner burning). The 'BushBuddy' has a double wall internal construction where fresh air comes in the bottom feeds the 'primary combustion' (a top down smolder), the remaining air gets heated as it rises up the double wall before feeding the 'secondary combustion' at the top of the stove. The 'BushBuddy' doesn't burn wood, but rather 'cooks' the smoke out of the wood and burns the smoke. The 'BushBuddy' works very similar to the Sierra 'ZipStove' and the Spenton 'WoodGas Stove' both which are battery powered.

The proper way to operate a 'inverted downdraft gasifier' stove is as follows.
1) Fill the stove full of very small pieces of wood (wood pellets work best on the Spenton stove).
2) Light the top of the wood (I use a bit of lighter fluid)
3) Once the stove comes upto temp the flame turns yellow/blue and little to no smoke can be seen.

The basic theory of operations is as follows.
1) The 'batch' of wood is lit on top, it heats or 'cook's the smoke out of the wood below the primary burn area.
2) Primary air is fed in the bottom, rises through the batch of wood, maintaining the top down slow burn/cook.
3) Secondary air is heated as it rises up the double wall and enters hot at the top of the stove.
4) The hot fresh air and the smoke burn vigorously in the 'secondary combustion' zone with the clean yellow/blue flame.
5) Another feature of an 'inverted downdraft gasifier' is that the 'tars' that normally don't burn very well in most wood stove/fires (ie the smoke) get a double chance to burn. First the tars being 'cooked' out of the wood have to rise through the hot primary burn zone and they are 'cracked' to simpler combustible gases. Second this 'cracked' 'Wood Gas' is then burned in a hot lean secondary burn zone.
6) Although a small light weight packpack stove can't fully utilize the three 'T's of efficent wood combustion, Time, Turbulance and Temperature, the BushBuddy, Sierra ZipStove and Spenton stoves have done a good job at getting clean burns."
(Prolite Reviews)