...one's cooking pots. Usually I just dust the soot off and leave the pots black until I return home whereupon I scrub the blacking off until it reveals a shiny metallic surface. Am I being a bit OCD? Should I leave them black, or should I dutifully scrub them clean?
To shine or to blacken...
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Do what you like. 
More or less all the time I try not to get mine sooty in the first place, by using a clean burning stove (usually pressurized petrol or similar, but occasinoally alcohol). My main bother is getting soot on the rest of my kit so I always carry a few polythene bags etc. to keep dirty things away from clean things.
Welcome to the forum!
More or less all the time I try not to get mine sooty in the first place, by using a clean burning stove (usually pressurized petrol or similar, but occasinoally alcohol). My main bother is getting soot on the rest of my kit so I always carry a few polythene bags etc. to keep dirty things away from clean things.Welcome to the forum!
I always clean mine well afterwards too. Like ged I also carry bags to wrap up the dirty stuff until I get home.
I give all my pots a proper wash when I get home but most of the soot stays on the outside, can't see much point trying to scrub it off if it's gonna get blackened a few weeks later. If you cook over a fire regularly then the pots will go black eventually anyway. If I'm just out for a weekend I'll wash the pots out in the stream/river/loch/sea depending on where we are, trying to do it straight after the meal and it saves some scrubbing in the morning.
For packing I use the little mesh bags or DIY nylon ones depending on what I'm carrying.
For packing I use the little mesh bags or DIY nylon ones depending on what I'm carrying.
I leave mine black...but when I leave them in the kitchen the "kitchen fairies" turn them all shiney!
Soot is endemic over fires so why waste effort shining them between meals on camp when they will only go black again?
And - there is the heat transfer thing black = quicker heat transfer. Shiney = heat reflection...
Soot is endemic over fires so why waste effort shining them between meals on camp when they will only go black again?
And - there is the heat transfer thing black = quicker heat transfer. Shiney = heat reflection...
I don't shine 'em up while I'm out, it's just that when I reach home I turn into the kitchen fairy. Well, more of a scrubber really ;-)
Thanks everyone, I shall cultivate a carbon layer in future to account for the heat transfer thingy.
Thanks everyone, I shall cultivate a carbon layer in future to account for the heat transfer thingy.
rancid badger
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
I normally wash the outside to remove any soot that would otherwise make my bag dirty, but i don't scrub until shiny. I actually think they look better when blackened.
The black would attract heat better but carbon is a pretty good insulator too, both pretty negligible though when it's sat over a good fire.
I tend to give them a quick once over to get the loose stuff off when I clean the inside, I never eat off the outside of the pot so I leave the patina
I tend to give them a quick once over to get the loose stuff off when I clean the inside, I never eat off the outside of the pot so I leave the patina
well i rub the soot in the wild them when i get home i clean it... then burn it again......shouldnt be a prob just rub of what ever coem of them leav it.... make it look WELL used and old ^^
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Skipp
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Skipp
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