spokewrench
Active Member
- Region
- USA
In grade school I took Sterno on hikes. There was plenty of heat for soup or a hot drink, and I'd put it out by putting the cover back on the can.
At 12 I spent $1.57 for a 5" Schrade H15 and sheath. The quality impressed me. Sixty years later I found out that that it's the no-frills version of the survival knife issued to Navy pilots.
On the first day of vacation after 11th grade, a classmate and I took our English bikes on an overnight hike. We pedaled 20 miles on gravel roads and pushed a couple of miles up a trail to a shelter. In the morning the woods were wet. I had plenty of food, but it had to be cooked. I was used to starting cooking fires in rainy conditions. There was plenty of birch bark, thin enough to light when wet and with oil to produce enough heat to ignite damp kindling. I failed. I was used to rain, but we'd had a night of fog, and those drifting droplets had soaked everything deeply. Fortunately, it had not dampened my cardboard matches.
I picked up a pine log about 4" in diameter. There was bound to be dry wood if I went deep enough, and the shavings would have resin. I went to work with the knife, griping the handle with one hand and pushing the back of the blade with the other. That kept both hands out of the way, and I set the log up so my legs wouldn't be in the path of a violent slip. Before I planed halfway through the log, I was getting dry shavings. They provided abundant heat to ignite wet kindling and the rest was easy. If you see a $1.57 hunting knife, buy it and you'll never to hungry.
In Vietnam I could light a domino-sized heat tab to get a supersize cup of hot coffee or cocoa. I didn't like it because the flame was very hot and nearly invisible, and the invisible fumes were very acrid. I switched to plastic explosive, C-4 as I recall.
Nowadays I'd look into "solid fuel tablets." Sterno is another option. The fumes aren't toxic, and you can save the rest when your drink is hot. Nowadays, some Sterno cans are to warm chafing dishes. I don't know if they produce less heat than camping sterno.
At 12 I spent $1.57 for a 5" Schrade H15 and sheath. The quality impressed me. Sixty years later I found out that that it's the no-frills version of the survival knife issued to Navy pilots.
On the first day of vacation after 11th grade, a classmate and I took our English bikes on an overnight hike. We pedaled 20 miles on gravel roads and pushed a couple of miles up a trail to a shelter. In the morning the woods were wet. I had plenty of food, but it had to be cooked. I was used to starting cooking fires in rainy conditions. There was plenty of birch bark, thin enough to light when wet and with oil to produce enough heat to ignite damp kindling. I failed. I was used to rain, but we'd had a night of fog, and those drifting droplets had soaked everything deeply. Fortunately, it had not dampened my cardboard matches.
I picked up a pine log about 4" in diameter. There was bound to be dry wood if I went deep enough, and the shavings would have resin. I went to work with the knife, griping the handle with one hand and pushing the back of the blade with the other. That kept both hands out of the way, and I set the log up so my legs wouldn't be in the path of a violent slip. Before I planed halfway through the log, I was getting dry shavings. They provided abundant heat to ignite wet kindling and the rest was easy. If you see a $1.57 hunting knife, buy it and you'll never to hungry.
In Vietnam I could light a domino-sized heat tab to get a supersize cup of hot coffee or cocoa. I didn't like it because the flame was very hot and nearly invisible, and the invisible fumes were very acrid. I switched to plastic explosive, C-4 as I recall.
Nowadays I'd look into "solid fuel tablets." Sterno is another option. The fumes aren't toxic, and you can save the rest when your drink is hot. Nowadays, some Sterno cans are to warm chafing dishes. I don't know if they produce less heat than camping sterno.
