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Camping Stoves & Recommendations Please

Discussion in 'Clothing, Gadgets & Equipment' started by GunZenBomZ, Aug 1, 2017.

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  1. Just ordered a large array from solostove including there massive backyard bonfire! Quite excited even though I'll be hit as usual from import tax. I've got a kelly-kettle which is quick & amazing at boiling water though you cannot use it without water. This solo stove design also acts as a re-burn gasifier much like a rocket-mass-stove without letting smoke (secondary fuel) pour off into the atmosphere.

    What I'm after recommendations for is a good hatchet & fold out wood saw. Might be digging out the wild-camping gear (bivy & ground matt et'cetra) for a trip down to Gibarlter. Also a tarp that you can set up with extendable poles would be a nice. Meaning you don't need to rely on trees & the usual bugs taking cover in that sort of environment.
     
  2. For bushcraft tools, if you're prepared to buy very expensive gear from one of the plethora of Ray Mears spin-off bushcraft websites, do yourself a favour and buy the real thing from one of the best blacksmiths in the country who's been making the real deal all his life.
    http://www.olivemeadforge.co.uk/ Check out the hedging and bushcraft section.

    I had two billhooks and a slasher made by John Beavis for hedge-laying and the quality is simply superb. His tools are in a completely different league from anything I've ever seen at shooting or bushcraft fairs. They're like tools from another age and the moment you pick them up you know they'll easily outlive you. His tempering and the quality of the steel he uses is something else. All mine are shave-sharp and their ability to keep an edge through day after day of hard use is amazing.
    They're not cheap and they are custom made to order. The billhooks were £75 each And the slasher was over £100. But these are serious tools, of the bygone sort which get handed down to the next generation and will still be sought after and in use a century from now. (If there are any hedges left to lay or any wilderness left to camp in..).
     
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  3. @Gimlet cheers for the details & I'll take a nosey however I'm smitten with some Fiskars gear.

    About the solo-stove, bizarrely my order was refunded because I ordered to much! However they supposedly have a uk distributor I am about too locate..

    Well that is strange they seem to have loads of outlets in blighty, I suppose when you read about a kick-starter company you should not assume they are still just starting up.
     
    #3 GunZenBomZ, Aug 4, 2017
    Last edited: Aug 4, 2017
  4. Fiskars garden tools are OK especially for the money so the bushcraft gear should be too. Probably the best of the high street brands. Trouble is once you've tried hand-beaten laminate steel that's been tempered and hardened by a blacksmith, every metal object that's been mass-produced feels like it came out of a cracker.
     
  5. Have you looked here for saws? Expect you're familiar with HH. I've bought quite a few knives from them. Spot-on company to deal with.
    https://www.heinnie.com/knives-and-tools/saws?p=1

    Kershaw and SOG are pretty good. Deer stalkers love Mora gear because its no-frills quality at unbeatable prices. Got an EKA knife. Nice design but doesn't hold an edge. Don't know if I'd trust their saws. You'd surely want really good steel for a saw or you'll spend a lot of time sharpening it or a lot of money on replacement blades.
     
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  6. If your after a folding saw I recommend the folding Silky, they are a favourite amongst the tree surgeons. Just be careful as a cut off one of these bastards will normally end up with a visit to A&E.
     
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  7. How many people do you know these days Gimlet that do or can sharpen their own saws these days. I don't bother anymore, it's easier to buy a hard point and throw it once it goes blunt.
     
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  8. To be honest I don't use saws away from the work. I don't use folding or field saws of the sort Gunz is talking about. But a lot of knives these days have serrated cutting sections on the blades (I don't have one of those either, I like plain blades) so I'm assuming it must be possible to sharpen field saw blades because you can't throw an expensive folding or fixed blade knife away every time it goes bunt.

    Saying that I'm working with a chippie at the moment who served an old-school apprenticeship and every Friday at 3:30 the work stopped for tool sharpening.
    When I did my o' level woodwork at school in 1982 we were taught to sharpen saws and set the kerf etc. Its a pity we don't use those saws still because the throwaway ones are shite. You can wear one out in an hour on decent timber.
     
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  9. Lovely jovely; my solo-stove kit's has arrived!
    [​IMG]
    Can't wait for tonight too get some wood burning & do a little fry up, yummie.
    [​IMG]
    On the left is the solo-stove campfire (4+people) 2 pot&pan kit and optional tripod. Center is the bonfire & right hand-side the solo-stove titan (2 person) kit with 1800ml pot. Everything comes with carry bags & is made of stainless steel...actually the tripod is aluminium! The kits are designed so that the cooking stove fits inside the pot for space saving & can burn charcoal or wood.

    Please check out the american site for your local uk-stockist.
     
    #10 GunZenBomZ, Aug 10, 2017
    Last edited: Aug 10, 2017
  10. with a brew from yer kelly kettle?. which btw no man is complete without one. they are the dogs. :upyeah:
     
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  11. I'm going to have too dig out the kelly-kit ;) ...and the stove purchases are not ending either! I've found another american designed system which is on the 2-buy list this year. It also can be brought from within the uk bushcraft website scene.
     
  12. as chief Brody said, your gonna need a bigger bike.
     
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  13. @finm I know your taking the piss & for the gullible the bonfire is an ornate peice of technology 'to sip beers & relive past adventures around. While its goobling down long dried out piles of wood. I'd accept the token label of been mad if I ever turn up too a bikers meet with one on the duke.

    @noobie I'm only taking the solo-titan kit with me touring. A back up gas-burner is always well worth taking but I'm not a fan of them. Noobie I've a ex-removals lorry that I brought in 2011 with 10'6" high by 8'x26' interior as a long-term mobile home/workshop/race-transporter conversion. However plans of mice & men do come undone from time too time. Van's are nice for weekenders but I certainly couldn't travel for long in one. I need space & creature comforts.
     
    #15 GunZenBomZ, Aug 10, 2017
    Last edited: Aug 12, 2017
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  14. me? taking the piss? never. :innocent:.
    i am in to my outdoor stuff. i have been following this thread. interesting stuff. :upyeah:
     
  15. @GunZenBomZ, I use a Trangia meths stove haven't found anything to beat it yet even though it's quite a few years old.
     
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  16. MSR for stoves. Had my whisperlite 25 years (fuck I'm getting old)

    Sog do decent knives. As above check out Heinnie Heynes. Great site
     
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  17. @broke I've got a dual fuel colemans that covers me in emergencies.
    [​IMG]
    The kelly-kettle (right side) is still the fastest boiling kit & if all you might be doing is rehydrating meals on the go its perfect. It's quite large but protects the fire with its tubular design & you just feed more wood down throught the top nozzel. A single handed cooking glove is recommended when pouring unless you have chef's fingers.

    Argh; spicy caramelized onions & sweet potatoes, beans & steaks...solostoves christened!
    The small titan was a slow burner which needed monitoring quite abit, the campfire was awesome fast cooker & with a tripod you could modify the masses of heat easily. Finally the bonfire was beautiful & created wispy undulating flames, quite majestic like a turkish belly dancer.

    I'm going to get a V3 pocket-bellows for the titan kit as it would of helped reignite wood embers. Onward to more barbecue cooking gear!
     
    #19 GunZenBomZ, Aug 11, 2017
    Last edited: Aug 12, 2017
  18. I use a JetBoil it cooks my rations in two minutes and it's compact compared to the thing I the pictures above.
     
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