This is a little outing I did today solely to test a diy Wood Gas stove I made. Managed to escape during a small 3 hour break from the rain in the Rhondda Valleys after the the gales and wind we have experienced for the past week. This is mainly a test of trial and error, so mods, please feel free to move this to the correct location.
So leaving at 11:30 for a pit stop to ASDA to get a pot noodle due to optimism on getting a fire going in the Wood Gas Stove, I managed to arrive at Llyn-Y-Pia woods (think that's how you spell it).
A short hike up to a know location (about 2k) to stop and scavenge for tinder and wood.
Now, in my mind, I was going to bring a couple bits of kiln dried kindling, but completely forgot, but luckily brought my foraged fat wood and some birch bark which is always in my bag.
So, challenge one, find suitable dry wood..... Never going to happen. Had to make do with "dead standing" which even though there was plenty about, it was all pretty much soaked.
Next idea, (please bear in mind, this is a pine woodlands) look broken / dead branches at body height.
So off I proceeded to start bending thumb sized branches to check for an easy snap to determine whether the wood is dry or not.
Problem was, all the bark was sodden, so I knew what ever I harvested would be damp to say the least.
Once I had gathered what I deemed enough branches (no where near enough for an actual fire)
I started to strip carve the bark off the wood and crudely Feather stick a few pieces and process the wood to the correct size to fit in the stove.
Stinking hands and stinking Mora, I started to stack the stove with the wood with the order of large at the bottom, medium in the middle and feather sticks on the top.
Once all stacked, out comes the fatwood, create a few curls and dust and fuzzy stuff and pack it into the top and strike away with the fire steel.
Awesome, this is going to be easy, what's all the fuss about right?
Easy yeah???
Wrong!!!
The problem was, even though this Wood Gas Stove is a top down fire, it still needs to be able to create a hot enough ember to establish a fire, particularly in the wet.
So.... I create more fat wood curls and dust and fuzzy stuff and place a layer below the feather sticks and place an additional layer ontop of the feathers and strike away.
Result.
Water on in the GSi mug and makeshift lid and away we go.
Not quite. As this is an experiment, you will notice that my pot holder has no holes or tinder feeder. After testing this setup in the back garden with dry wood and optimum conditions etc, the fire would roar and I didn't see any need for holes. This image below explains why.
Out in the field with less than perfect conditions, the stove starved itself of oxygen and also cooled down fast due to damp wood. To get around this issue, I had to balance the mug so that it had an opening to allow oxygen into the top of the burner.
Anyhoo....
After babysitting the stove I had a coffee and a pot noodle. Was awesome as the rain had started back up and I was warm and playing with fire!
Time to test the stove.
So, after food and coffee, I had a good amount of embers left, so let's see what I can throw at it.
5 soaked pencil sized sticks, in they go.
They smoldered and gave off smoke, and then...
Let's add something thicker and just as wet....
And.....
There you go.
Wet wood is a pain to keep going, it embers pretty quickly, but is more than capable.
Now, the issue with the stove... Far to narrow for balance and the pot stand is too high for balance and has no air intake. My good friend Maxloud has a nice wide tin waiting for me, so that will be the next project and test.
If you made it this far guys, then thanks for reading.
So leaving at 11:30 for a pit stop to ASDA to get a pot noodle due to optimism on getting a fire going in the Wood Gas Stove, I managed to arrive at Llyn-Y-Pia woods (think that's how you spell it).
A short hike up to a know location (about 2k) to stop and scavenge for tinder and wood.
Now, in my mind, I was going to bring a couple bits of kiln dried kindling, but completely forgot, but luckily brought my foraged fat wood and some birch bark which is always in my bag.
So, challenge one, find suitable dry wood..... Never going to happen. Had to make do with "dead standing" which even though there was plenty about, it was all pretty much soaked.
Next idea, (please bear in mind, this is a pine woodlands) look broken / dead branches at body height.
So off I proceeded to start bending thumb sized branches to check for an easy snap to determine whether the wood is dry or not.
Problem was, all the bark was sodden, so I knew what ever I harvested would be damp to say the least.
Once I had gathered what I deemed enough branches (no where near enough for an actual fire)
I started to strip carve the bark off the wood and crudely Feather stick a few pieces and process the wood to the correct size to fit in the stove.
Stinking hands and stinking Mora, I started to stack the stove with the wood with the order of large at the bottom, medium in the middle and feather sticks on the top.
Once all stacked, out comes the fatwood, create a few curls and dust and fuzzy stuff and pack it into the top and strike away with the fire steel.
Awesome, this is going to be easy, what's all the fuss about right?
Easy yeah???
Wrong!!!
The problem was, even though this Wood Gas Stove is a top down fire, it still needs to be able to create a hot enough ember to establish a fire, particularly in the wet.
So.... I create more fat wood curls and dust and fuzzy stuff and place a layer below the feather sticks and place an additional layer ontop of the feathers and strike away.
Result.
Water on in the GSi mug and makeshift lid and away we go.
Not quite. As this is an experiment, you will notice that my pot holder has no holes or tinder feeder. After testing this setup in the back garden with dry wood and optimum conditions etc, the fire would roar and I didn't see any need for holes. This image below explains why.
Out in the field with less than perfect conditions, the stove starved itself of oxygen and also cooled down fast due to damp wood. To get around this issue, I had to balance the mug so that it had an opening to allow oxygen into the top of the burner.
Anyhoo....
After babysitting the stove I had a coffee and a pot noodle. Was awesome as the rain had started back up and I was warm and playing with fire!
Time to test the stove.
So, after food and coffee, I had a good amount of embers left, so let's see what I can throw at it.
5 soaked pencil sized sticks, in they go.
They smoldered and gave off smoke, and then...
Let's add something thicker and just as wet....
And.....
There you go.
Wet wood is a pain to keep going, it embers pretty quickly, but is more than capable.
Now, the issue with the stove... Far to narrow for balance and the pot stand is too high for balance and has no air intake. My good friend Maxloud has a nice wide tin waiting for me, so that will be the next project and test.
If you made it this far guys, then thanks for reading.
