Originally Posted By: Byrd_Huntr
This story, as with several others by Jack London, really had an affect on me as a boy. http://www.jacklondons.net/buildafire.html

I prefer a Coleman white gas one burner stove in really cold weather. I carry fire paste to put on the generator to get it to fire up. I do have an Esbit stove and a pot to melt snow in my trunk, but Esbit smells bad. Bic lighters are problematic in the cold, so matches and a ferro rod are a must.


Build a Fire is one of my all-time favourites, Byrd. My grandparents had a copy on their shelf, along with more London and other classics, and they really fired my imagination as a kid.

I do use a gas stove for camping - especially during the winter. We have dug out the camp stoves at home during power failures before. It's seems like the best solution - but I just can't see carrying one around on a daily basis, for just in case.

This bag is for urban-suburban adventures. It is used for quick planned lunches and snack breaks on local trails, emergency snow melting, etc. This isn't a middle of nowhere bag, unless I throw it in the trunk for a long road trip, but I'd update a lot more than just my stove if that was the case. wink

I started using a simple alcohol stove a year or two ago, and I do like it, but I think I'm going to stick to ESBIT for my primary stove in this kit. Honestly, as silly as it sounded until I read John's reminder above about the risk of a spill freezing your skin, carrying liquid or gas fuel has always made me nervous. Personally, I think the convenience and cost are outweighed by the weight, the hassel of keeping the fuel warm, and risks of leakage, frostbite, tipovers, etc.

I've used my ESBIT and US GI canteen stoves almost exclusively for the last few years. With a windscreen, the only problems I've ever had were stubborn old fuel tabs that weren't sealed well and wouldn't burn well, and frozen hands that couldn't work a BIC lighter. (FYI - You can light hexi/triox cubes with a ferro rod if you break them up a bit. Adding a little dab of hand sanitizer will help speed up the process if you're really cold.)

So, I've decided to ditch the alchy stove in this kit. An alcohol stove is so easy to improvise in an urban emergency, if we really needed one. Instead, I'm working on a little mod to turn my ESBIT stove into a little firebox-type stove, so it'll work better with wood if we do get caught on the trail.

Thanks for all your help and advice on this guys. I appreciate the guidance!
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