Ghillie kettle is going to get on the telly.

  • Hey Guest, Early bird pricing on the Summer Moot (29th July - 10th August) available until April 6th, we'd love you to come. PLEASE CLICK HERE to early bird price and get more information.

daveO

Native
Jun 22, 2009
1,453
513
South Wales
Mmmm not sure how old is it

Sorry I missed this. It was the Easter 2016 group buy I think. It's a pin hole leak in the base seam I think but it only really shows when it gets hot and water starts to bubble out of it. It's never affected the function but if there was an easy way to fix it I might have a go.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sandbag47

Janne

Sent off - Not allowed to play
Feb 10, 2016
12,330
2,293
Grand Cayman, Norway, Sweden
Hard soldering?

Are those kettles not 'decontructed' Samovars in fact?

Brilliant idea, to enclose the flame on all sides with well conducting metal. Very high efficiency coefficient.

I read somewhere the idea comes from the Nomads roaming the Asiatic plains. Dried goat and sheeps poo was used ( sparingly) to boil water in similar designs.
 

sandbag47

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jun 12, 2007
2,087
130
56
northampton
Hard soldering?

Are those kettles not 'decontructed' Samovars in fact?

Brilliant idea, to enclose the flame on all sides with well conducting metal. Very high efficiency coefficient.

I read somewhere the idea comes from the Nomads roaming the Asiatic plains. Dried goat and sheeps poo was used ( sparingly) to boil water in similar designs.

Just copied this from the Ghillie sight.

The chimney or volcano kettle design was refined by John Ashley Hart of New Zealand who may have been inspired by traditional Mongolian and Chinese hot-pots which had a central chimney. His "Thermette" kettle was first manufactured in 1929 and was standard issue for the New Zealand Army during World War II where it became known as the "Benghazi Boiler".

The George Marris & Co. of Birmingham, England began making iron bedsteads and brass/copper fern pots in the 1800's. Marris began diversifying into other products in about 1906, when the brand name "Sirram" (Marris spelled backwards) appeared first on their picnic sers.

There's a record of a meeting between one of the Marris family members and John Ashley Hart after which the first "Sirram Volcano Kettle" appeared. These early copper models carried an inscribed plate which included "Registered Design No 731794". The records of the British Public Records Office show that this design number was issued in 1928. So that gives us the earliest definitedate for the "Sirram Volcano Kettle". Marris eventually changed the production of the kettles from copper to spun aluminium.

We know that "Sirram Volcano Kettles" were still in production in the late 1960's as the book "Modern Camping 1968", by Jack Cox quotes a UK Consumers Association test of 21 camp stoves which concluded " for boiling water quickly or washing up, there is nothing to beat a Sirram Volcano Kettle, either at home or abroad". Production of the kettles ended around 1970 when the company was sold. Similar versions began to be produced by a number of companies, with some even claiming to be the original design.

I had spoken with Steve at Ghillie kettles before about the above before when I was trying to work out copyrights on the Mkettle when I was doing a group buy years ago
 
Last edited:

Janne

Sent off - Not allowed to play
Feb 10, 2016
12,330
2,293
Grand Cayman, Norway, Sweden
Interesting, Sandbag!
Thr Samovar has been made and used since late 1700, and archeological evidence point to roots around 3000 years old I would think maybe the Brits encountered it and realized the ingenious principle.

I wonder if somebody is making pots with this heating principle.
 
Last edited:

Hammock_man

Full Member
May 15, 2008
1,450
526
kent
You can get cake tins for making round cakes with a central hole in them ( think 8 inch donut)..... might be worth a few pound to try.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Janne

Laurentius

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Aug 13, 2009
2,422
614
Knowhere
Interesting history, I bought mine from the Kelly Kettle company when they were still based in Southam, they were popular around the shows. So is the "ghillie" connection just an urban (or should that be rural) myth used for marketing?
 

sandbag47

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jun 12, 2007
2,087
130
56
northampton
Interesting history, I bought mine from the Kelly Kettle company when they were still based in Southam, they were popular around the shows. So is the "ghillie" connection just an urban (or should that be rural) myth used for marketing?

There is only one aluminium spinning company in Britain.... Guess who that might be....yep Spinform (as was) now renamed Ghillie kettles.
All kettles are made there a few years ago. But now a number are made in China.
Spinform (now called ghillie) lost one of its clients, So it started to make its own kettles. It named it's kettle, Ghillie kettle and is the only kettle to use a whistle.

Kelly as you can see are still going very strong but now sell steel kettles which are made in China.
 

BCUK Shop

We have a a number of knives, T-Shirts and other items for sale.

SHOP HERE