Stoving 2

...I left off talking about alcohol stoves, and in particular, knock-offs of the old brass Trangia burner. These burners need to be married to some sort of pot stand or holder.While it's easy to fabricate something (3 nails inserted into the burner in tripod-fashion work ok), I have a nice set from Esbit that comes with the entire burner assembly, a pot stand, and 2 pots. It's a versatile little setup:

Esbit Spirit Stove Set

As you can deduce from the picture above, this set also comes with a little stand to allow it to burn solid fuel tablets. This is another source of fuel that deserves mention. Anyone who had a steam engine as a kid might remember these. They are white tablets, round or rectangular, and made of HEXAMINE. Each one burns for a few minutes, but the heat is not easily regulated and they are pretty susceptible to wind. Good for emergency or backup use in case your real stove packs it in. The infamous Coghlans folk sell a folding metal stove that comes with the round tablets. Replacement tablets are a bit pricey, but the local Dollarama sells a knockoff complete with 12 tablets, all for $2...hard to beat.

What else is in the old Stove Arsenal I wonder? Let's switch to the Canister Stoves. I have some of them too. My first is an imported model, readily available on Ebay for less than $20. It has an ignitor, works well, and boils water very quickly:

Next up is my Brunton Talon. I have not really used it yet, but it seems to be a well-made unit:

Finally, in the canister stove department, I wanted one with a slightly larger burner, worthy of a frying pan so to speak. Another cheapo from Ebay:

All of the canister stoves above are a bit costly to operate. I get around that with a series of adapter gizmos that allow it to burn the cheaper aerosol styled butane gas.
More on that in Stoving 3...