- Joined
- Jun 11, 2009
- Messages
- 291
Hello outdoor people,
This christmas time I stayed in a rural area on the border to a national park. As probably most of you, I was hoping for tons of powdery snow, but instead it was rather warm here (just above 0° Celsius) and the terrain was quite wet from the very moderate amount of snow that had already started to melt. The forecast was disillusioning: increasing temperatures up to 10° Celsius on christmas evening. Nevertheless being out there is always a good experience and so I decided to test some different ways to use my Kuenzi hobo stove that I hadn't tried out before. Since I highly enjoy reading all the great threads in here, I thought it would be nice to take a few photos (or rather: have them taken by my girlfriend) to show you some. So here is my little report, hope you enjoy it!
First, I wanted to try a configuration with two tea candles and a coated raclette pan that fits perfectly onto the stove. Although this is a very well made and solid little pan, the coating would most likely burn if you would use it with a real fire underneath.
Getting the fire going under those conditions was very difficult, as you can see
(No it wasn't, I decided this is not a skills thread and it was OK to use matches.)
I just melted two slices of cheese to see how it would work, and despite the light wind and temperatures just above 0° Celsius it only took around 3 minutes to melt the cheese. Scoop it onto a piece of bread and you've prepared yourself a nice snack - nothing beats melted cheese. Except for melted cheese with bacon, maybe. Once the little pan is hot, you can go on melting vast amounts of cheese in a short time...mmmhhh. I'll try bacon next.
After that, I wanted to see how the stove performs with the Trangia fuel burner. I am not a big fan of fuel burners and when I was using a Trangia stove system years ago I preferred the camping gas bottle converter. So, if I am going to drag around a bottle of alcohol in my gear, it will more likely be Lagavulin 16. Still I enjoyed playing around with the Trangia burner configuration and it does work very well, too. The goal was to get boiling water from snow and see how long it takes to melt/boil it. (No, this is not my watch...)
After less than five minutes the snow had almost completely melted. Note that I didn't compress the snow, which of course would have led to more water but also longer waiting times.
After about 8 more minutes the water was boiling and ready for tea, instant noodles or what have you. I didn't use the lid that provides better control of the size of the flame / the amount of fuel you burn, yet took a picture with it just for demonstration (although most of you will probably know this system.)
Then, I lusted for a "real fire and decided to try making one from wet twigs and branches nearby. There are lots of larches in that area and I had no problem finding some and cutting them into the right size with my Silky saw (forgot to take pictures of that). I also made a very small amount of shavings and a poor featherstick, all of it rather damp, although I tried to take it from the core of the branches. While doing all this I was almost certain i had no chance to light the fire with my ferro rod with such a poor preparation. My laziness to make more shavings from dryer branches and more, better feathersticks resulted in failure to start the fire with the ferro rod and I couldn't even start it with the matches. My goal wasn't to practice fire making skills but looking at it now I should have either done it properly in the first place or by instantly using a few drops of alcohol left inside the Trangia burner, which I eventually did in the end. So, it may look nice in the pics, but I was cheating. Next project: find fatwood.
It was the first time I used my Enzo Camper which I handled myself with cheap and unspectacular beech handles and brass pins from the hardware store. I used epoxy to glue it all up and sandpapers and a metal file to shape the handle. The handle profile is a copy of Dan Kosters knives, fantastic design in my opinion. So far, I really like it. I also made the sheath for it out of sleek leather and 4 layers of very strong sole leather as spacers. I am a bit proud about how it turned out.
I also used the knife to baton through the little larch logs with my hand. I usually wouldn't do that, but the larch split really well and I had a pair of liner gloves beneath the thick leather, so my hand felt well protected.
Later, the photographer had already chosen to go back to the house due to low temperatures, I decided to prepare my first pine needle tea with melted snow. (The lousy image quality in these ones is generated by my phone camera.) For that I used my Tatonka cup and the grill configuration of the Kuenzi stove. As expected, it works like a charm. (I didn't measure the time, because the watch left along with its proper owner...)
Instant pine needle tea: it even comes with the liquid required!
The tea tasted alright, still I would like to hear your recipies. Do you boil the pine needles in the water or just leave them to infuse? For how long? I broke some of the needles apart thinking I would get more flavour, yet the aroma was still rather mild.
A pic of the little camp:
And a beautiful forest only 5 minutes to walk, a couple of days later:
All in all it was great fun and I learned one or two lessons. I like how versatile the little Kuenzi stove is and after about one year of using it I like it so much that I am going to buy a second one soon, to gain another hob to cook on. So my next project will be actually cooking something really nice on two of them!
Have a great start into the new year everybody!
ll.
This christmas time I stayed in a rural area on the border to a national park. As probably most of you, I was hoping for tons of powdery snow, but instead it was rather warm here (just above 0° Celsius) and the terrain was quite wet from the very moderate amount of snow that had already started to melt. The forecast was disillusioning: increasing temperatures up to 10° Celsius on christmas evening. Nevertheless being out there is always a good experience and so I decided to test some different ways to use my Kuenzi hobo stove that I hadn't tried out before. Since I highly enjoy reading all the great threads in here, I thought it would be nice to take a few photos (or rather: have them taken by my girlfriend) to show you some. So here is my little report, hope you enjoy it!
First, I wanted to try a configuration with two tea candles and a coated raclette pan that fits perfectly onto the stove. Although this is a very well made and solid little pan, the coating would most likely burn if you would use it with a real fire underneath.
Getting the fire going under those conditions was very difficult, as you can see
(No it wasn't, I decided this is not a skills thread and it was OK to use matches.)
I just melted two slices of cheese to see how it would work, and despite the light wind and temperatures just above 0° Celsius it only took around 3 minutes to melt the cheese. Scoop it onto a piece of bread and you've prepared yourself a nice snack - nothing beats melted cheese. Except for melted cheese with bacon, maybe. Once the little pan is hot, you can go on melting vast amounts of cheese in a short time...mmmhhh. I'll try bacon next.
After that, I wanted to see how the stove performs with the Trangia fuel burner. I am not a big fan of fuel burners and when I was using a Trangia stove system years ago I preferred the camping gas bottle converter. So, if I am going to drag around a bottle of alcohol in my gear, it will more likely be Lagavulin 16. Still I enjoyed playing around with the Trangia burner configuration and it does work very well, too. The goal was to get boiling water from snow and see how long it takes to melt/boil it. (No, this is not my watch...)
After less than five minutes the snow had almost completely melted. Note that I didn't compress the snow, which of course would have led to more water but also longer waiting times.
After about 8 more minutes the water was boiling and ready for tea, instant noodles or what have you. I didn't use the lid that provides better control of the size of the flame / the amount of fuel you burn, yet took a picture with it just for demonstration (although most of you will probably know this system.)
Then, I lusted for a "real fire and decided to try making one from wet twigs and branches nearby. There are lots of larches in that area and I had no problem finding some and cutting them into the right size with my Silky saw (forgot to take pictures of that). I also made a very small amount of shavings and a poor featherstick, all of it rather damp, although I tried to take it from the core of the branches. While doing all this I was almost certain i had no chance to light the fire with my ferro rod with such a poor preparation. My laziness to make more shavings from dryer branches and more, better feathersticks resulted in failure to start the fire with the ferro rod and I couldn't even start it with the matches. My goal wasn't to practice fire making skills but looking at it now I should have either done it properly in the first place or by instantly using a few drops of alcohol left inside the Trangia burner, which I eventually did in the end. So, it may look nice in the pics, but I was cheating. Next project: find fatwood.
It was the first time I used my Enzo Camper which I handled myself with cheap and unspectacular beech handles and brass pins from the hardware store. I used epoxy to glue it all up and sandpapers and a metal file to shape the handle. The handle profile is a copy of Dan Kosters knives, fantastic design in my opinion. So far, I really like it. I also made the sheath for it out of sleek leather and 4 layers of very strong sole leather as spacers. I am a bit proud about how it turned out.
I also used the knife to baton through the little larch logs with my hand. I usually wouldn't do that, but the larch split really well and I had a pair of liner gloves beneath the thick leather, so my hand felt well protected.
Later, the photographer had already chosen to go back to the house due to low temperatures, I decided to prepare my first pine needle tea with melted snow. (The lousy image quality in these ones is generated by my phone camera.) For that I used my Tatonka cup and the grill configuration of the Kuenzi stove. As expected, it works like a charm. (I didn't measure the time, because the watch left along with its proper owner...)
Instant pine needle tea: it even comes with the liquid required!
The tea tasted alright, still I would like to hear your recipies. Do you boil the pine needles in the water or just leave them to infuse? For how long? I broke some of the needles apart thinking I would get more flavour, yet the aroma was still rather mild.
A pic of the little camp:
And a beautiful forest only 5 minutes to walk, a couple of days later:
All in all it was great fun and I learned one or two lessons. I like how versatile the little Kuenzi stove is and after about one year of using it I like it so much that I am going to buy a second one soon, to gain another hob to cook on. So my next project will be actually cooking something really nice on two of them!
Have a great start into the new year everybody!
ll.
