I don't know if this idea has merit for the forum or not but, here goes. Growing up in Indiana my Step Dad Carl taught me to make hiking stoves out of tuna cans, cardboard and wax
you first get the can clean it well, cut the cardboard into strips deep enough to fit inside the can pack it tight, then melt the wax and pour it over the cardboard completly covering it
then set it outside to cool. when it is dry you can pack it away for emergencies or use it on a hike.
to light it just hold a match near the edge of the cardboard and as the wax melts the cardboard will ignite!!
Any comments??

Yep, this came up recently. Thread's here

One word of warning - don't try to pour water on the wax burner to put it out! Snuf it out instead.

One of the boys in my son's troop brought one of these to summer camp a few weeks back. It stayed lit for a looooong time. He used it to boil some water. He put the small can inside a large can (with holes punched top & bottom) and the pot sat on the top of the larger can.

When finished another boy tried to put it out by pouring water on it (before I could stop him) and the wax spattered everywhere. Lesson learned. By the way, after the drenching it dried overnight and they were able to relight it the next day for even more burn time.

I made a few of these a looooong time ago. They burn forever.

The only problem I couldn't overcome was the messy, sticky, impossible to remove soot that coated the cookware. Anyone know any tricks?

thseng,

Coat the outside of the cookware with a thin layer of liquid dishsoap before placing it over the fire. The soot will come right off when you wash the pot.

-Blast

Ah Ha! Thanks - I think I read about that trick 20 years ago and promptly forgot about it! Thanks!

I took an empty tuna can to the thrift shop and found a small can with a lid that is slightly larger than the tuna can. It fits perfectly as a snuffer.

Sue