Out With the Svea 123, In With a Hobo Stove

I’ve used a Svea 123 camping stove (see above), off and on, for over 40 years, but I’ve just made a $3 hobo stove to see how that works.  

The stove is basically a tall can (it once held chicken stock) with can opener cuts on the bottom and bottom side for air, holes drilled up the barrel (more air), and a fist-sized cut-out to add small sticks for fuel (and for more air).  The whole thing operates as a kind of small rocket stove.

The top of the can has 6 small holes drilled about 1.5 inches from the top, through which three short pieces of coat-hanger wire are pushed to make a pot holder.

Three binder clips on the bottom (clips folded up against the can) lift the stove so air can be pulled from the holes at the bottom, and the tripod they create is surprisingly stable.

The stove holds my cooking kit, which is a Stanley Adventure Camp Cook Set, which consists of a 24-oz Kettle with lid, and 2 plastic cups (that stay cool when filled with hot stuff) that fit inside. 

The Stanley kettle, in turn, fits inside a GSI Outdoors Glacier Stainless Bottle Cup/Pot.

The coat-hanger wires used for pot support just fit inside the gap between the kettle and the can, and the 3 binder clips (along with a lighter and parafin-cotton starters) fit inside the plastic cups inside the Stanley cook set.

    

The whole thing is very neat and compact and fits in a small nylon stuff sack.

This stove should free me of fuel weight (and the containers for the same), as well as the fit-and-fiddle of nozzles and other breakable parts.