I was under the impression that people avoided them because they were quite unstable, limited capacity and limited use (no method of hanging over a fire etc) when compared to a Swedish Army stove for example.
Having said that I’ve never seen one
! Just read about them on this forum
!
That's interesting.
I can't see that it is anymore unstable than a hobo stove (and I have made a few of those) and nothing that a bit of care won't solve. I normally look for a suitable site to rest a stove as I start thinking about lunch. It is surprising how many concrete slabs there are around the countryside. Bus shelters, lych gates and church porches are good, war memorials do at a pinch.
Limited capacity is true. It holds 500ml of water in the 'pot'. Luckily that is two and and a half times what's left of my stomach can hold, but I can see that may a problem for normal eaters.
There isn't any need to hang it over a fire; the fire burns within the outer casing. Still, there you go, different strokes for different folks and all that :0)
I conducted some further experiments this afternoon after making a mesh grate and a foil pot lid.
firstly, the device burns wood well with the mesh grate to help the draw, and using a blow tube to get the coals hot. I tried unidentified twigs first and then apple twigs. Either burnt, the second better for coals, and both left a residue on the bottom of the pot.
secondly, I tried a hexy tablet about half the size of a military one. Stunk and left a residue, as usual, but boiled ok and didn't consume all the tablet.
thirdly, I tried the burner from my Trangia. Four desert spoonfuls of meths and I had a rolling boil in very little time. it was powerful enough boil that it lifted my foil pot cover and the wind caught it and took it down the garden. I used my metal mug to hold it on after and it warmed the mug nicely.
I think that I shall keep the stove with its litre of water clipped to my cycle frame and have the meths burner in my saddle bag pocket. Without meths, or when I fancy an open flame, I'll burn twigs, and I'll keep a couple of hexy blocks in the bottom of the saddlebag for emergency back up. Meths is easy to find in the UK and I don't think I'll need to carry very much spare fuel for weekend rides beyond what is in the meths burner. I'm 'doing' a Shropshire Roman Road in a couple of days so I can try it in the field, as it were.