Swedish Army Trangia mess kit, considered the very best

transmaster

transmaster

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The Trangia Mess kit was used by the armies of Sweden, Switzerland, and Hungary. It is considered by many to be the best field mess kit ever made. It was made obsolete by self-heating MREs. But for campers, it is still very useful. It uses 99% ethanol for fuel. I would imagine that Sterno canisters would work as well as alcohol.

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I had one of those Trangia kits before. Unfortunately the brass on the top cracked around the crimped seal causing it to leak. The metal was far too thin to braze it shut. Also in the cold weather you needed a preheater to warm up the bottom of can to get a good burn. They didn't burn very long and your water would just be warm enough for a hot drink before you had to refill the canister. To boil a pot of water you needed at least 2 canisters but you had to wait for the canister to cool before filling it again. I switched back to using sticks as a fuel source because it actually ended up being more efficient. If I had to use an actual stove I would definitely take my whisperlite international long before the Trangia.
 
Was reading about these Trangia mess kits. People report that Sterno is the best fuel; a canister the size of the kit's alcohol burner provides 6 hours of burn time.

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rhino said:
What features or qualities make it the best ever made?
Click to expand...
It was well thought of because the Trangia mess kit could generate a hot meal in the field. This was before individual self-heating meals in the field were available. It was first fielded in Sweden in 1951. The Swiss Army by the mid-1950's, Hungary, c1960. And widely after that. People using this field mess kit said if you ran out of alcohol fuel, you just burned twigs in it.
 
I wish I had bought a hundred of them when they were 3/$15 . I gave the 3 I bought to people who were just starting out in bushcraft
 
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