Wood fire tar cleanup

[ateallthepies]

I have been using wood for fuel recently after a long time using gas and meths. Now I have sticky crusader mugs so was wondering the best way to keep things clean when out and about?
I tried baby wipes with little success so what do others use to keep their pots sparkly?

 

[Robson Valley]

Some people claim that you need to wipe the outside of the pot with liquid dish-washing detergent first.
Never done that so can't confirm.

I heat my house with a Harman PP38+ compressed wood pellet stove = very effective. It has a glass door.
That gets crapped up with some sort of greasy condensate which I clean off every 36-48 bags (40lbs each).
Gooey stuff in a small bottle called "wood stove glass door cleaner." Very effective and easy to use on a paper towel.
Just as effective for fire soot on the outside of a pot!

 

[DurhamBushcrafter]

one of those stainless steel pan scrubbers and ajax! i put mu crusader in a cotton stuff sack and clean the outside at home

 

[DurhamBushcrafter]

one of those stainless steel pan scrubbers and ajax! i put my crusader in a cotton stuff sack and clean the outside at home

 

[edr730]

Lye. Oven cleaner is lye and so is many drain openers such as draino or red devil lye. Same stuff that is used to make soap. Just be careful.

 

[sandsnakes]

Don't bother to clean the base until you get back a dull pot takes up more heat than a shinny pot. An easy way to clean it after is throw it in a bucket of water and old school washing soda, just let it soak for a couple of days and the tar falls off. Great thing about it is that it does not degrade alloy.

 

[bearbait]

I used to clean the glass door of my wood-burning stove by rubbing with dampened newspaper dipped into the wood ash in the stove. I believe this forms a basic sort of improvised lye. Then clean up the glass with dampened newspaper alone. May work for your pots.

 

[cranmere]

Lye. Oven cleaner is lye and so is many drain openers such as draino or red devil lye. Same stuff that is used to make soap. Just be careful.

But make sure that you don't ever put it onto aluminium because lye will eat through it in no time.

 

[Macaroon]

When you've finished cooking, clean the inside as usual and put the empty pot/billy on the fire and get it really hot; take it off and let it cool, then take a wedge-shaped piece of wood and just scrape it off. 99% of the black will just fall off really easily and the rest is easily got rid of with a bit of ash or sand. Works a treat

 

[crosslandkelly]

When you've finished cooking, clean the inside as usual and put the empty pot/billy on the fire and get it really hot; take it off and let it cool, then take a wedge-shaped piece of wood and just scrape it off. 99% of the black will just fall off really easily and the rest is easily got rid of with a bit of ash or sand. Works a treat

+ 1 to this.

 

[mountainm]

Ethanol (or probably even meths) will fetch it off easily, cleanly and quickly with very little fuss.