How to make a lightweight and efficient wood-burning stove for hiking

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

A ready-made wood-burning stove on Amazon costs $ 70-80. We offer you to do the same for free.

If you are fond of hiking, then you know how important it is on the road to be able to provide yourself with an effective and reliable source of fire. Without it, you can neither cook food, nor boil water for drinking, nor keep warm in bad weather.

Since ancient times, people have solved this problem by making a fire. However, this method requires a fairly large amount of firewood, the presence of some skills and is not very good from the point of view of ecology and safety. Therefore, they were replaced by modern gas and gasoline burners, which make it possible to solve all problems with cooking as comfortably as possible. However, this solution also has its drawbacks. For example, if you have a multi-day hike, then the weight of gas cylinders or containers of gasoline can be quite significant, and no one wants to carry the extra weight. Or, for example, you have a flight on an airplane, where, as you know, you cannot carry such things, so there is a need to purchase gas and gasoline already on the spot, which is not always possible.

Therefore, an increasing number of tourists are turning to wood stoves.

They combine all the advantages of a fire with the utmost simplicity and comfort of a burner. To use such a stove, you will need a minimum amount of fuel of almost any kind: firewood, branches, cones, leaves, and even dry grass. Therefore, you can use a wood-burning stove in any area, with the possible exception of desert and ice hummocks. And most importantly, it has excellent efficiency, which allows you to boil a liter of water on just a few dry chips. This is due to the special design of such a stove, which uses the phenomenon of wood pyrolysis.

If you are interested in such a device, then you can buy one of the finished products, for example this. Or you can spend one hour making a wood-burning tourist stove yourself, because you only need three cans of different sizes and our instructions.

So, the first thing you need to do is get three different sized cans. The first, the largest, will serve as a shell. The second can is smaller because it should fit freely in the first. And the last, the smallest, is useful as a burner. In addition, we need a marker, a drill, metal scissors and a small wooden block.

1. Making an auxiliary device

This wooden block is not part of the stove, but is used to make it. It will make it easier for you to drill holes and perform other operations. Insert the block into the jar and draw two lines with a marker approximately at the level of the lid.

The distance between the lines should be approximately 7-8 millimeters.

Carefully cut out a rectangular notch. The upper edge of the can should fit freely into this recess.

We will position the wooden block in such a way that it provides a reliable support for the can. At the same time, the top edge should fit comfortably in the recess we made.

2. Make holes in the bottom of the large can

First, draw a line along the bottom edge of the can. This line is used to mark the points for the vents. In this case, a special dye is used for marking, but nothing will happen if you do it with a simple marker.

Drill holes along the line we marked. Their number and size are of great importance for the operation of the stove. If there are too few of them, then there will be no traction, if there are too many, then the firewood will burn very quickly. Therefore, it is better not to overdo it here in order to be able to drill more holes after testing.

3. Drill a row of holes in the upper part of the middle can

We do about the same manipulations with the second jar (smaller in size). Note that here the row of holes is located at the top, not near the bottom as in the previous case.

4. We drill the bottom of the middle can

We make a lot of holes in the bottom of the jar. Their size and number must be such that firewood cannot fall out through them.

The result should be something like this.

5. Assembling the structure

We insert the middle jar into the large one.

As a result, our stove consists of two cans, rigidly inserted into one another. At the same time, a small gap remains between their walls, which is necessary for air movement.

6. Making a hotplate

The type of burner may differ slightly in different designs. In this case, the version with round holes in the side wall is used. You have already learned how to do them well from previous operations.

Cut the bottom of a small can with scissors for metal.

The edges can be leveled with a hammer and filed.

7. We carry out tests

The main part of the wood-burning stove consists of two tin cans, inserted one into the other. We load combustible material into an average jar, which can be used as chips, branches, cones. It is best to use dry twigs on trees, because branches lying on the ground can be damp to varying degrees.

We set fire to and wait until it flares up. At first, this can cause some difficulties, but after several workouts it will be obtained from one match.

When a confident intense burning has begun, put the burner on top, which we made from a small jar.

And already on top we hoist a kettle or a saucepan.

If you watched the manufacturing process to the end and did not understand anything or it seemed too complicated to you, then check out another option. The video below demonstrates how to make such a stove without any tools other than a regular knife. It turns out, perhaps, not so neatly, but no less practical.

And to all our readers who have already used such stoves in the field, we invite you to share their impressions and advice with us.