Well, I got out my stack of stoves from a recent Sportsmans Guide order. Ten stoves, alcohol bottles and windbreak stands, listed as new, but no mess kit, from the Swedish surplus. Also, the stoves turned out to be Svea instead of Trangia (some say they've gotten Trangia). And these stoves have obviously seen some use, although the stands and bottles could almost be new.
I decided to break out the Brasso (thanks to a suggestion here) and clean up the stoves. It lightens and shines quickly, but the stains that are on them are really stubborn, and it takes a lot of elbow grease to get them to fade (some haven't gone away yet).
As I was cleaning it up, I noticed a hairline crack.
And then I started looking closely at all of them, and noticed most have at least that size of crack, others with a more spiderwebbed crack.
Are these par for the course? I'm not upset at the stains on the stoves, because that's not a functional problem, but are these cracks a problem? Would anyone else be concerned by these? I was going to call Sportsman's Guide immediately, but thought I'd try for some feedback from the experts first.
Thanks all
Dave