Making a pot to boil water?

Daniel L

Daniel L

Gold Member
Joined
Nov 2, 1998
Messages
2,000
Hi all,

How would you go about making up some sort of container to boil water if all you had was a knife? (assuming no other means of water treatment are available and no other scavenged materials at hand)

The only thing I could think of is bamboo but that doesn't grow everywhere. Maybe fashion a wooden bowl from a burl... is it possible to boil in that?

Ideas?

Thanks,
 
I suppose, given time, you could fire a clay pot. Of course, that's assuming you know how to do that. (I don't).

I've heard that you can boil water in large leaves.

Perhaps using a bowl shaped rock?
-- Rob
 
One technique is to dig a hole in the ground and line it with something waterproof-like. Animal skin or plastic would be easiest, but I suppose other ideas would work as well. Use something smaller to fill this hole while heating some nice non-stream stones in a fire.

The technique of using hot stones dropped in water to boil is discussed frequently, just try to knock off as much ash as you can before dropping it in!

I've heard that using animal skins can add a nice flavor to the water...
 
If you have access to birch bark, you can form a container out of that. Water can be placed in it and then by adding hot stones, it can be boiled. It's an ancient technique.

Bear in mind that birch bark contains a flammable oil, so placing it directly on the flame or coals will likely ignite it.

Have fun!

Mike
 
Jean Auel discusses this technique often in her Earth’s Children series. The first is Clan of the Cave Bear. There are 4 books, that I know of, in this fiction series. I did see a comment about 6, anyone know what happened? Although they are fiction they are supposedly well researched. Those who read this forum should find them interesting. Most techniques seem to have some thought behind them, and even if one knows enough to find whatever faults there might be, you can feel smart pointing them out to the rest of us. Each volume is rather long.

The protagonists are always boiling things in hides. The main secret is to make sure there is enough liquid to keep the material from overheating and burning. I would imagine there would be some seepage. You obviously want to keep the heat source below the liquid level. With the line-the-pit method mentioned above, I think it was in one of the aforementioned books, that I read the suggestion to place a few bones (or rocks or whatever) on the inside so that when you drop in a hot stone, it does not directly contact the bottom.

The primitive people that are the subject of the books were adept at fashioning flint tools. Given that, I wonder if individuals in those circumstances, would choose a nice metal pot to cook in or a metal knife?

I don’t happen to have a big spare hide handy so I’ll look forward to some posts by someone who has practiced the technique. I recall in one of Ron’s videos, he pointed out some holes in solid rock that the Indians used, to drop in hot rocks, to boil things. In the Jungle video Karen showed some ceramic cups being made, but I do not know if they would hold up to the use being discussed by this thread.
 
Now that you mention it, I did see somewhere a birch bark container in which soup was being made where the hot stone was laid on top of the goodies, which were in the water.

I've been meaning to give this a try for some time.

Mike
 
To create ceramics you need to give yourself at least a week. One day to mine & process the clay & form the bowl/pot/cup. 5 to 7 days to dry it (NOT in direct sunlight). One day & night for firing the finished piece. And even then it's tricky to keep it from exploding on you in the fire. You only want to use this option after you have found a more immediate way to meet your needs.

It is also possible to weave a watertight basket that will support the hot rock method, but this also takes time and considerable skill.
 
I've used the hole in the ground technique for a couple of projects and in the sweatlodge. The projects (Screwing around to see if it actually worked) actually worked. The sweatlodge incident was when a guest from Africa freaked out and kicked my bucket of water over into the hole full of hot rocks. Result was boiling water and a lot of steam but the hole wasn't lined.:mad:
recondoc
 
You car carve a hole in a fallen tree with your knife and a thick stick and boil water with hot rocks. I have also heard you can do a hole in the groung and put an animal bladder or a stomach inside out to boil via the same technique, but I don´t know if this last thing works.
 
i heard that American Indians on the plains used to use buffalo stomachs as a container to boil water in. properly treated, they dry out and turn into a nice solid container. you put it away from direct flame, but it'll hold and boil the water well. i don't know if anyone has time to experiment with this method though....

toast
 
My little brother and I were able to boil water in a wooden container using the hot rock method. I chopped out a depresion and then used coals to burn it deeper. What really accelerated the burn out was using a reed to blow a directed stream of air on the hot coals. We were able to keep the peice fairly even this way, and a lot faster and more controlled than carving.
Sar
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top