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---


Edited by CANOEDOGS (11/19/09 04:59 AM)