Originally Posted By: MostlyHarmless
A bigger stove could sustain itself for maybe a few hours, but probably not the entire night. But neither would most campfires...


Actually, a typical campfire will do quite well during the night with only modest tending. A lot depends upon the quality of the wood you are using, but even with pine, the typical material I have worked with, stoking the fire every four hours or so will keep it going quite nicely.

Years ago, I built campfires routinely for cooking and for warmth, but over time I, like most people using the outdoors, have tended to use various varieties of liquid or gas stoves for reasons of safety, environmental impact, utility in any kind of weather, and convenience.

The last time I used an all night campfire was about thirty years ago. We were in an open sided Baker tent with the fire just outside. We revived the fire about twice during the evening, a quick job that interfered minimally with sleeping.

The best fire I ever built was one made with desert ironwood. We built the fire in the evening, cooked our meal and let it die down. In the morning, I blew off a thin coat of ash which revealed a glowing bed of hot coals. Water was boiling in about five minutes without the addition of any fuel whatsoever. The biggest problem was being sure it was dead out when we left.
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Geezer in Chief