Thought I'd pass along an item that an old Boy Scout leader tought me. He made a stove from a #10 can and a buddy burner. The can(stove) had the label removed and was polished with steel wool. It had one end cut out and a notch large enough to slide in a tuna fish can sized buddy burner cut into the side on the open end. I don't recall if it had any vent hole around the side of the closed end. This might take some experimenting.

The buddy burner was made from the tuna can filled with cardboard strips and the filled with melted parafin. Light the buddy burner and slide it under the can and you have a stove that can be cooked on directly or with items for the mess kit that every Boy Scout couldn't wait to get his hands on.

The leader always carried the stove in his trunk.

Has anyone else ever tried one of these?

well i hread some formiliar stuff and some unformilair things in you post... here a link for other homemade stove's: http://wings.interfree.it/html/main.html maybe that stove you discrived is right between those homemade stove's...

What you described sounds a lot like the classic hobo stove. The original was fed with regular sticks though.

Chris

The stove you describe is effective and I believe it is very widely used in the Gril Scout program. Probably anyone who has ever been a Girl Scout has made and used one or at least seen one used. I believe there are typically a number of vent holes ringing the top just below the cooking surface.

This is a great camping stove, but not so great for impromptu survival since making the buddy burners requires a fair amount of pre-preparation.