TC--i put the canteen in a vise with an old hunk of leather around it.i did not bear down on it to much as i did not want to push it out of shape.i went easy on the cutting and used a hacksaw with a carbide blade because that's what came to hand out of the tool box.i have one with a regular blade but the carbide was there and worked fine even if it made a heavy cut.i put duct tape around the canteen just a bit below the shoulder to mark the cut line and went slow.i held the bottle to steady it as i did not want to close the vise up too much and maybe crush it but it was held firmly in the vise.it was not like blasting thru a 2x4 with a hand saw,i took my time and watched what i was doing.the canteen is fairly thick aluminum and it took about 10 minutes.burning out the coating on the inside of just the cut off top with a propane torch took longer.when i burn out the main part of the canteen for the kit i'll just put it in my back yard fire ring.if it will take the blast of a torch it should take the heat from a wood fire that it will be used over anyway---

I'm adding a small pot, metal cup or water bottle to my various kits for cooking or water boiling.

Here is the best deal I have found on stainless kit boxes
(go to page 3, there are round and oval):

http://pearlriver.com/v2/FramesCat.asp?iGroup=333

BASE..i got the oval rice box.very nice,solid with a good lid and clamp down handle,the only problem for me was that it did not fit my PFD zip pocket.so there's the hassle,get a new PFD with bigger pockets to fit the containers or keep looking for a box/pot to fit into the existing PFD.the open water season is just about over up here so i have all winter to play around with this.

FWIW here's a link to the page with the articles on the aluminum foil failing as an improvised water container and using the aluminum foil pans in your PSK.

http://www.bepreparedtosurvive.com/Tips%20&%20Ideas%20for%20Survival%20Kits.htm

Just copy and paste into your browser. Enjoy

Mark, is this in response to the general discussion about aluminum foil in kits or about the link to the flat cup? In general , aluminum foil will leak when creased and straightened, at some point. The link you posted was written by the same person who responded first to my linked article. New ideas emerge. That flat cup/pot hasn't failed yet, but it was not meant for long term.

That is normally done by the writers for dramatic effect, not meant as a lesson in survival.

I say this as an amateur dramatic writer.

Jeanette Isabelle

i always like the squeezing the water skin bit..

Re-thinking a bit: The trouble with pots is they won't be there when you don't bring your full gear. Why not just put a small PSK into a wide mouth stainless steel water bottle? The wide version of the Klean Kanteen comes to mind, find the appropriate size here:
Klean Kanteen dimensions


For boiling you need to add some suspension method, a wire loop should do the trick. The budget version is to cut off the outer shell of an old thermos, just below the threads.


The perfect PSK container would for me be a square stainless steel "lunch box" shape that is thin enough to slip into a pocket. Much better volume/size ratio than a cylinder.


I am also testing the less reliable method of folding a flat cup that fits into your PSK. With my current setup, I can make one about 4 by 5 inches that holds about 14 cups (a bit more than 4 dl). You need the thick aluminium baking pans for this to work - and you make the cup at home, not in the field. Far from perfect, but leaps ahead of the aluminium foil trick that is included in some PSK's.

Any photo reference for this one? Sounds like a great capacity.