I thought it was called the "Palco Metal Match", but can't find any references to that on the web.

I have a red plastic one--probably marketed by Coughlan's. It's pretty reliable, but I don't think the o-ring keeps the lighter fluid from evaporating indefinitely.

I'll try to find mine tonight, or over the weekend, & check. It came with a half dozen pieces of waxed fiber tinder, which was about as useful at the time I bought it (many years ago) as was the match itself.

David

They don’t even bother to tell you that it can be filled with fuel and used as a metal match. Their instructions would lead you to believe that it’s strictly a sparker to be used with their tinder cubes.

Presumed

I carry a 20 year old brass Svea 123. How do you light it with a match? I pour a bit of feul (benzine) over the head and light that, otherwise the the fuel doesn't vaporize. is there a trick that i am missing?

"They don’t even bother to tell you that it can be filled with fuel and used as a metal match."

Thanks for sharing that. I saw these in my local Galyan's the other day but didn't get it because they didn't mention that. Oh great, another reason to go back, darn. <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

--Chris

WOFT,

I'll be a lot of people here have tricks for this; this stove was very popular, and everyone had their own favorite techniques.

The goal, as you say, is to get the stem area hot enough to start vaporizing the fuel, and that requires some priming.

I've seen a lot of people use an eydropper to take a little fuel from the tank, insert it onto the depression in the tank around the base of the stem (that's what the depression is for), and light it there. Some even carry alcohol or kerosene just for this.

Most of us, however, use some variation of warming the tank to cause a little bit of pressure, just enough to cause fuel to well out of the jet, run down the stem, and into this depression on the tank. This way, you do not have to remove the windscreen to get at the filler cap.

First, you have to know that no technique will work unless you have equalized the pressure inside the tank with the pressure outside while the stove is COLD.

If it's cold out, you can do it with your hands, so I'll use that to describe the process...

1. Pull the stove out of your pack, and, while it's COLD, open the valve. One of two things will happen. Depending on the temperature and air pressure the last time the valve was opened, maybe 5 percent of the time, a little fuel will start to well up out of the jet. If it does, go to step 3. The other 95 percent of the time...

2. Wait a few seconds for the pressure to equalize, then close the valve. Wrap your warm hands snugly around the tank for 30 seconds or so, so that you feel it warm up a little. Set the stove down, open the valve again, and, if you're lucky...

3. A little fuel will come out of the jet, maybe hard enough to hit the flame spreader, but usually not. It will run down the stem and start to fill up that depression in the tank around the base of the stem. When that depression is almost overflowing, turn the valve off, and light the fuel at the base of the stem with a match (through the wind screen). When the flames start to die down, open the valve again, and the burner should catch. If you wait too long, you will have to use another match... not important.

If it's warm out, the heat from your hands may not be enough, and you may need to warm the tank further. I've used a butane lighter, or very small, brief fires made from bits of scrap paper. The idea is just to get it a little warmer than it was the last time the valve was open, never hot... just enough to cause a little pressure to get the fuel to rise up the stem and start the process.

It takes a little getitng used to, but if you've been using the Svea, you already know it takes a little getting used to. <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Hope this helps- let me know if this works out for you.

I used all the methods you outlined for the Svea. The genie method only worked for me once. Mostly I used the eyedropper or the small scrap of paper method. I still have my original Svea and use it every-once-and-a-while. It is a great stove.

Colin Fletcher's Complete Walker got me started with this stove and he outlined the various starting methods in the versions of this book.

Back on the little match-lighter. Looked over at Ebay and they are there under Metal Match but expensive compared to the list price for the Coghlan's Emergency Tinder Kit.

I had one of these as a kid and it worked well for my budding pyro needs. Only thing was holding the match part got a bit warm after a while. I will have to look for my old one....my guess is the striker bar is probably shot.

I'm surprised to hear it- the "genie method" as you call it- took me a second- worked for me frequently, especially in cold weather. Not infrequently, if mornings were cold and I'd equalized the presure then, the thing would just prime itself in the evening when I opened the valve. Maybe it's just variations in stoves.. mine probably dates from 1969 or so, the pre-"self cleaning" version. Or maybe I just have hot hands. :-)

I also have a blue-box Optimus that's basically the same stove with a larger tank and a different windscreen, and it is even easier to prime- but I seldom carried it.

I only used the eydropper bit when I was first learning how to use the stove. It was convenient on the Optimus version, but it was a real hassle on the Svea, where you pretty much had to remove the windscreen.

All credit to Colin Fletcher- his book started me backpacking way back when, and I'm sure he's the reason I bought the Svea in the first place (well, it was the lightest, at the time). I have all four editions here on the shelf.

I think my problem with the Genie was that I almost never equalized the pressure after use. I shut it off, let it cool packed it. Then in the evening, I would pull it out and remember the trick, but the stove was running too much vacuum to work. The eyedropper bit is a little annoying with the wind screen but it at least equalized the pressue <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I had a friend who used some sort of upside down genie method. Cannot remember what his exact method was but it got fuel out most of the time. He also used the scrap paper method when his inverted genie failed.

Funny this and my other stoves have generated almost a script (mantra) for unpacking, prep, refueling, lighting, use, etc. Once in the groove I vary not.

I have not used my Svea for many years....I need to pull it out and see if I can genie it up. A test of hand hotness. Mine is also pre-internal picker....about 1974 or so. Faithful service until semi-retired when replaced by a MSR.

I too have all four Fletcher's I like to read all of them at once and see how things have and have not changed.

Most of my initial good gear was Fletcher inspired. Still have most of it and it still serves the bill in some way or another.

I was a bit retarded until about 1971 - IIRC, I bought mine in the spring of 1972 - probably from EMS, as I bought a fair bit of gear from them through about 1975 or so. Not sure my recollection on those dates is accurate, but close enough. Didn't know they are self cleaning now - I still have the pick that came with mine.

I made a lot of trail meals in Alaska with mine, but winter use drove me to put the Optimus conversion fuel cap on mine. About three strokes of the pump, open the valve to fill the spirit cup, etc. Grasping the fuel tank of a stove that has normalized at -30F or colder is NOT a good idea... I also carried a little circular piece of 1/8" plywood about 2" larger in radius than the stove. I had three tiny roundhead screws in the plywood just *so* - the rim of the fuel tank would snap in and make the base one with the stove. Glued to the bottom of the plywood was a scrap of 3/8" ensolite. All this to 1) try to keep the tank warm enough to stay pressurized 2) retard the sinking of the stove when placed in a depression in the snow made by stomping snow down with either my skis or snowshoes. At about -35F and colder it was usually a losing battle on the tank pressure... the Optimus pump helped a LOT then, but what I did with it was specifically forbidden by the instructions, LoL - I actually stroked some pressure into the tank.

As you wrote, I had a real ritual down... pack snow, remove ruck, set up stove and preheat it (sub ritual), put seed water in pot and put pot on stove, sit on pack, add snow to seed water while laying out my meal, etc. Unless I needed to attend some wax issues on my skis, I rarely even took off my skis or snowshoes. Make water, make soup (thawing meat and cheese in soup), make coffee in soup residue (more water making), drink coffee with frozen Snickers, wipe pot with one tissue, make a little replacement seed water, refuel stove, pack, and go. Whole thing was usually 20 minutes. Sometimes I had to make a fire instead (too cold for the stove to work well) and then it took about twice as long.

Then there was a Coleman Sportster - still sell them (this was pre-Peak I). Single Mantle lantern body with a burner on top. Ugly big thing that I hated to pack, but it never failed to work and was VERY popular with many natives at the time for that reason. Leather pump cup; often had to take the pump out and flex the cup, which makes me suspect that the modern synthetic cups probably suck in those temps.

And then I bought an MSR XGK - one of the first ones to hit Fairbanks. I don't love that stove but it was revolutionary to me. I still use that, but it's just a water boiling demon that works all the time - nothing quirky about it. I think it is (still) a PITA to pack, even tho I made up a couple of special sleeves or pouches for the parts. Used Sig fuel bottles with it until just a year ago, which is a no-no, but I got away with it (use the MSR bottles - they are more robust!). I've carried a rebuild kit for, uh, 20 years (?more or less) and think all I've used has been one o-ring that I nerfed. Even still use the original windscreen. Didn't use the sparker after the first season - it sucks in really low temps. No asbestos pad since ages ago. In deep snow it was never as handy as the Svea with base plate ( I carried a scrap of playwood with the MSR, too) BUT it always boils water pronto.

Nowadays I use an original Peak I (steel tank) most of the time - at least, here in the MidWest. The MSR goes about 1/2 the time on more serious trips.

I have some affection for the Peak I, but my Svea will always be my "first love" in stoves. A real fond memory maker. <wipes tear away>

BTW, the only thing I ever found the Svea pot good for was making a small package of Jello - an every-other-day noon sub-ritual in the winter back in those days for me.

Tom

Still got mine, still fire it up for something-or-other every few years (I've used to to forge small (very) iron/steel parts, and to melt lead) and it's a good stove... but...

Though nothing ever happened, I can't help but recall that the reality was that I always half-expected the thing to incinerate me, especailly when I was forced to use it inside a vestibule, or, once or twice, actually inside a tent. That little pot was useless- I didn't even pack it- nd it was less stable than one could have wished, so there was always a chance of losing dinner with one false move... and it was godawful noisy. In typical tourist areas I didn't care that much, but in real wilderness, the noise was so out-of-keeping with the rest of the experience, I always felt that I was setting off a sort of audio beacon for anyone or anything with curiosity for miles around.... and felt half-deaf when I turned it off and returned to the silence.

Bottom line, I appreciate the stove's qualities, and all that it did for me, but planning another backpacking trip today, I think I'd be looking for something else. I have a multi-fuel Whisperlite in the emergency gear, but that's not "it" either. Maybe a Kelly Kettle or Sierra stove, or one of the homemade alcohol stoves from the wings archive.