Kookork
08-10-2013, 20:34
The debate about weight saving potential of wood burning stoves by not carrying fuel has been around for a while and will be around for a long time. The weight is not the reason I have been using wood stove.
In my case I have been using a dollar store wood burning stove(military style but cheap) and a pot to boil water and cook my food for couple of years now and recently I have switched to ( purchased ) a bushcooker Lt I and snowpeak 700 pot and I have recently started to cook with the new stove.
The reason I chose the stove is not definitely convenience since it may take forever if ever to reach to a point that operating wood burning stoves be as easy as Alcohol and Butane gas stoves.
I opted the wood burning stove since I love the ritual of fire making and I am good at it.I carry 7 Oz of alcohol and a lightweight cat stove like alcohol stove to use it inside my Bushcooker Lt . With a wind screen and optimum situation it takes 6 minutes to boil 2 cups of water with two third of an Oz of alcohol . Colder the weather longer the time and more fuel necessary .
But when the weather is cooperating I can use twigs to boil water or cook dinner. I yet have to find a place with no twigs around in Canada( and possibly AT). Two times boiling water/cooking after setting up my tent is a routine for me and since it is after the daily hike I am in no rush to use alcohol. My fire starter and tinder is 4 cc of alcohol to jump-start the fire.
The weight of my kitchen including Titanium 700 pot, bushcooker Lt, handmade Neoprene Pot cozy, ground protection disk, alcohol stove and a handmade Aluminium foil windscreen is 9.4 Oz not including the fuel.( 7 Oz)
The learning curve of using any type of wood stove is slow steep and long but rewarding. You can never graduate from the art of fire making but after a while you find your tone and style and start to connect deeper to the land by using a wood stove. Now it is part of the ritual of hiking not a burden.
The convenience of using wood burning stove normally comes after years of experience not a short time flirting with one particular wood stove or the other.
After mastering the art of fire making you may even be able to boil water in your wood stove when it is raining outside but it needs patience and skills.
For me the moments of give and take with fire is why I use wood burning stove. If I can save weight with wood stove it is a double bonus and if not it is a joy to use wood fire and smell the smoke.
What about you?
In my case I have been using a dollar store wood burning stove(military style but cheap) and a pot to boil water and cook my food for couple of years now and recently I have switched to ( purchased ) a bushcooker Lt I and snowpeak 700 pot and I have recently started to cook with the new stove.
The reason I chose the stove is not definitely convenience since it may take forever if ever to reach to a point that operating wood burning stoves be as easy as Alcohol and Butane gas stoves.
I opted the wood burning stove since I love the ritual of fire making and I am good at it.I carry 7 Oz of alcohol and a lightweight cat stove like alcohol stove to use it inside my Bushcooker Lt . With a wind screen and optimum situation it takes 6 minutes to boil 2 cups of water with two third of an Oz of alcohol . Colder the weather longer the time and more fuel necessary .
But when the weather is cooperating I can use twigs to boil water or cook dinner. I yet have to find a place with no twigs around in Canada( and possibly AT). Two times boiling water/cooking after setting up my tent is a routine for me and since it is after the daily hike I am in no rush to use alcohol. My fire starter and tinder is 4 cc of alcohol to jump-start the fire.
The weight of my kitchen including Titanium 700 pot, bushcooker Lt, handmade Neoprene Pot cozy, ground protection disk, alcohol stove and a handmade Aluminium foil windscreen is 9.4 Oz not including the fuel.( 7 Oz)
The learning curve of using any type of wood stove is slow steep and long but rewarding. You can never graduate from the art of fire making but after a while you find your tone and style and start to connect deeper to the land by using a wood stove. Now it is part of the ritual of hiking not a burden.
The convenience of using wood burning stove normally comes after years of experience not a short time flirting with one particular wood stove or the other.
After mastering the art of fire making you may even be able to boil water in your wood stove when it is raining outside but it needs patience and skills.
For me the moments of give and take with fire is why I use wood burning stove. If I can save weight with wood stove it is a double bonus and if not it is a joy to use wood fire and smell the smoke.
What about you?