Like any home made gear they can and do work. The fact you can knock one up from a couple of tin cans using your Swiss Army knife has to make them sort of disposable.
My question would be if the performance would be acceptable for what I needed and what was required to make a new one. My previous attempts have brought me to something that was no better than a Trangia burner but required me to source epoxy as well as the right sized tin can to make a new one when it broke.
I’ve therefore, depending on how the trip is expected to go, reverted to:
1. Three blocks of hexamine, a pocket stove (basically 5 bits of flat stainless that assemble into a fire box) and a Trangia burner, all stuffed into a Crusader cup with it’s lid. You can boil a pint of water in about 15 minutes and therefore not actually die of thirst in your snow hole. Burning sticks in the pocket stove it takes an hour to get water hot enough to shave! You keep warm looking for the dry sticks.
2. A Swedish army Trangia. Basically some better thought out mess tins with a burner that slots in. Boils water in 15 minutes. Can be used to heat a can of something. You may actually get a decent nights sleep if marooned in some rural bus shelter.
3. British Army Mess tins with a Korean Army Optimus crammed inside. Make Spag Bol from scratch or heat up tinned/dried whatever outside your tent if the local pub is closed.
4. Full size Optimus and British Army tank crew tins. Cook a stew from scratch while getting ****ed and having a laugh on the camp site.
The only bits I would be gutted about losing would be:
· The pocket stove: Cost £50, could be copied by anyone with a hacksaw and time though.
· The Korean Stove and crew sized mess tins: now rare on E-bay but still of no great monetary value
· The big Optimus: cost a fortune.
I could buy a new Trangia burner at any decent camping shop and E-bay is full of ex-military stuff that while not cutting edge is serviceable and fine for those times when hot water is better than calling the mountain rescue lads, or a tin of curry beats an evening meal of polo mints and toffees.
I think option 2 does what most homemade stoves do at a cash value that won’t worry you if lost.
Andy
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