Yet another (?) stove thread

I've had a dragonfly for about 2-3 years and have never had any problems but I would prefer a brass or aluminium fuel pump
 
Good eye Rockspyder!! :D

The knives in my current avatar are a set of three talonite knives, by Simonich, an Aurora, a Kanji, and a Pikuni, with maroon micarta grips. I don't know if he has made any other Auroras in talonite. I am curious, but have not asked. Except for one larger knife made up for testing as a chopper (as reviewed by Steven Dick in Tactical Knives ??? if I recall correctly), I don't think there are too many large Talonite knives.


If I didn't have those knives, perhaps I too, could afford to be looking at stoves ;) I would check out the sites and generally roam around. There is a lot of knowlegable comment, that could help you pick the best overall stove, for your purposes. Ease of use, safety, reliablilty, ability to both simmer and work at high settings, vary.

Where I am, in South Florida, I figure an alcohol stove or two, along with regular type fires/hobo stove/charcoal grill, will do me....mostly for backup in the event of a hurricane....not to mention, under a fondue pot. :p
 
Originally posted by Donald
Good eye Rockspyder!! :D
The knives in my current avatar are a set of three talonite knives, by Simonich, an Aurora, a Kanji, and a Pikuni, with maroon micarta grips. I don't know if he has made any other Auroras in talonite. I am curious, but have not asked. Except for one larger knife made up for testing as a chopper (as reviewed by Steven Dick in Tactical Knives ??? if I recall correctly), I don't think there are too many large Talonite knives.
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I don't know about Talonite Auroras. But I can tell you he has done at least one (slightly modified) Aurora in S30V. ;) No opportunity to review it yet, though. Nice balance, excellent handle ergonomics, as perfect grind lines as I've ever seen. After buying quite a few customs from different makers, I can definitely see why there are a few guys out there that are the big names and occasionally have to stop taking orders.

Thanks again for the site. Interesting idea about hurricane back-up. I was just thinking the same thing about water filters, but not for hurricane back-up. More like just getting water. With the drought up here in the mid-Atlantic, they are talking so much doom and gloom lately, I'm wondering if I'm going to have to start pulling my water out of the local stream. Yech! :)

SCUM, from what I have been able to find, the Dragonfly is a hit or miss proposition. Some people love it, some people seem to have gotten lemons that they just can't get right. It's hard to tell, though, how much of it is operator error. ;) But definitely true about the pump.
 
Rockspyder,

Sounds like you got a great knife. Let me know what you find. My email is in my profile. S30V should be great. No wonder you recognized the knives.

I did some very limited chopping. I found that despite the great feel in the hand generally, that it was not quite as comfortable as I thought it would be on a hard swing into dried bamboo. Further experimentation is definitely warranted.

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Off topic
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If I was in rural Maryland like you, I would have more chance. I was born in Baltimore and my parents now live in Howard County on the edge of a farm. Another coincidence! The farm has a handy strip of woods along Route 70.

I now live in a pristine Miami neighborhood and don't have a spare woods around. If I had only had my toys, I mean tools, when I was a youth, Boy Scout, etc. Speaking of your drought, I used to fish in Liberty Resevoir. Are you on city water or well water? My parents on on well water and with some new development in the area they are more concerned and do see an impact. I also know the resevoirs are low.

The residents at the other end of the county, Columbia, like to make it difficult, as they want to "preserve" the country for their Sunday drives. At least this seems to be the main rationale for delaying "city" water. Keep the farmers under their thumb, and not let the land get too valuable.

Here in Miami we get much of our water from up around Lake Okeechobee, and it was very dry in that area. Further, they had drained the lake some to kill off weeds on the borders for preservation purposes, or something like that, right before the drought. Thus, we had the anoyance of flooding in our neighborhoods, while we were under water restrictions. The restrictions have been lifted as the rain finally went to where it was needed.

Unless you have a generator, being on well water can be inconvenient if the electricity goes. Personally, I live a couple miles down the road from the water treatment plant. :p
 
Yeah, it feels great. I will let you know. Actually, i will proably put a review in the review section of the forums after I get a chance to use it a bit. I want to actually use it, though. Not just hack up cardboard. So, it is probably going to be another couple of weeks before I can actually get into the woods.

I live down in southern MD, well down below Waldorf, on the western shore of the Chesapeake. No well water; I live in what passes for a city in this part of the state. But I do have a state park boundary starting about 300 yards from my house. I plan on heading into there soon and hacking up some of the downed timber. Then I'll be able to comment on more aspects of the Aurora. The grip feels like it was custom made for my hand, so I'm thinking it will probalby work pretty well for me. Have a lanyard set-up as well, with paracord tied in a fob arrangement through one of the fastener holes in the concealex sheath.

OK, way off topic there. Sorry (even though I DID start this thread :D). I am looking through the spiritburner site, and getting even more confused, it seems. Just found one guy that does reviews of the stoves (almost sounds like a Cliff Stamp or Joe Talmadge at first glance). Just found a review/comparison he has done between MSR's plastic pump and Optimus/Primus metal pumps. This stove business is starting to give me a headache (or maybe that is the pollen). :rolleyes: It is pretty much down to the Primus Vari-fuel, Primus Multi-fuel, and Optimus NOVA (yeah, the expensive one). :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
 
Take 2 ibuprofen and avoid fumes from the stoves! ;) Now if you read www.equipped.org you would also have to find a stove that would run on aviation fuel, for the planes emergency kit. :p

I look forward to the knife review.

P.S. I just came back to state that I just realized why I wasn't really off topic. You need a good stove in case you have to boil questionable water, when the usual sources of good water dry up. Further, if your stove breaks, it gets taken, or you run out of fuel, you might need a good knife or two, to help you find alternative fuel sources for a regular fire....... :p
 
Originally posted by Donald
Further, if your stove breaks, it gets taken, or you run out of fuel, you might need a good knife or two, to help you find alternative fuel sources for a regular fire....... :p
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You never hear much about the old Heximine army type stoves these days. Might be worth throwing one in with the gear just as back-up.
I wonder if they are allowed in flight luggage?

Good luck with the trip, give us a report when you return.
 
Originally posted by jacknife
You never hear much about the old Heximine army type stoves these days. Might be worth throwing one in with the gear just as back-up.
I wonder if they are allowed in flight luggage?
Good luck with the trip, give us a report when you return.
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I will try to report back on the trip, what stove I took, and what knife I took, and how they all worked. It is most likely to read like a comdey of errors, if it is like my standard trips. Fraught with unlikely weather and amusing circumstances, but rarely boring. :)

I do have one of the Army trioxane stove set-ups. The kind that nests around the canteen cup and around the canteen. I probably won't take it though, with the cup, stove, and empty canteen, it probably weighs as much as the stove. That canteen cup is heav-ee. And I doubt the airlines would let me near an airplane with the trioxane. :eek: ;)
 
Northernmountain supply http://www.northernmountain.com have a list of carriers that allow or dont allow stoves/lanterns on the plane. or the categories like its ok bust must be clean etc etc.

I have an Optimus "The original Himilyan stove" It burns everything!! Although priming can be apin in the butt. I used regualr unleaded gas on a 3 month trip in the Ozzie outback adn the jets didnt get fouled once. With Coleman fuel it happened all the time. Its also heavy but some mods could drop the weight by 40~50% I reckon.
 
Rockspyder,

By the way, if you are planning on hiking in Arizona, you might want to try this forum:

New site:

http://www.hikeaz.com/haz2/

Older site:

http://www.hikearizona.com/index.php

or something like those links. I say something like, because I believe you have to sign up to view the pages. There are reports on trails and there is a forum section with 5 sections, such as, general, trail chat, gear, etc. I mention this so you don't miss it. The link appears to be at the top right of the main page HAZ Forum.
 
Originally posted by Uncle Bob
Northernmountain supply http://www.northernmountain.com have a list of carriers that allow or dont allow stoves/lanterns on the plane. or the categories like its ok bust must be clean etc etc.

I have an Optimus "The original Himilyan stove" It burns everything!! Although priming can be apin in the butt. I used regualr unleaded gas on a 3 month trip in the Ozzie outback adn the jets didnt get fouled once. With Coleman fuel it happened all the time. Its also heavy but some mods could drop the weight by 40~50% I reckon.
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Are you talking about the SVEA? Or one of the boxy ones?

Thanks for the link. I'll check it out.

{EDIT} I checked out the link. Not sure what to think. It does lead you into a possible quandry. Let's say you go look there and see that Delta allows cleaned stoves and cleaned full bottles. Excellent! You go and clean everything immaculately, and follow their advice when you get to the check-in and declare it. As they say, the airlines leave the final decision to the ticketing agent. Well, this one isn't sure what their policy it; he says nope, it has to be a never used stove, and no fuel bottles at all. Now you're fuct. You don't have time to go to the PO and send it general delivery. You barely have time to go find a locker to store it until you get back. And now you are stuck trying to find a new stove when you get there. Soooo...... I guess forewarned is forearmed, eh.
 
Originally posted by Donald
By the way, if you are planning on hiking in Arizona, you might want to try this forum:

New site:

http://www.hikeaz.com/haz2/

Older site:

http://www.hikearizona.com/index.php

or something like those links. I say something like, because I believe you have to sign up to view the pages. There are reports on trails and there is a forum section with 5 sections, such as, general, trail chat, gear, etc. I mention this so you don't miss it. The link appears to be at the top right of the main page HAZ Forum.
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Thanks again, Donald. I'll check those out, too. We will probably only hit the Grand Canyon while we are there. And I doubt we will do much hiking while we are there, unless just a day hike. But, thanks anyway; I might decide we want to do more! :)
 
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