I follow several Bushcraft channels on Youtube and I decided it was time to splurge on a twig stove. Well actually two twig stoves if we’re counting and they finally arrived from Canadian Outdoor Equipment in Ontario so we decided to head out into the hills and give them a test run. I went with a very small Firebox Nano stove kit which is made in the USA and a much larger Bushcraft Essentials Bushbox XL combination kit that’s made in Germany. Both stoves are highly rated and very well made and are meant to provide totally different sizes of fires to cook on so I’m not testing one against the other but using them in much the same way as a large element and a small element on a stove top. The Nano just to boil water and the Bushbox XL to heat a frying pan to cook a meal. The reason people use twig stoves is that they are fast to get going, use very little fuel that can be any dry wood you find laying on the ground and the fires are well contained so there is little risk of burning down the forest. I will add comments to the photos to explain the story as it unfolded and I am including several images of Gallagher lake and Maclean’s lake finishing off with some shots of the Thompson river valley looking East and South. I hope you enjoy and be sure to comment if you have any questions about the stoves or the locations.
Here are the two stoves still in their packaging laying on a bed of cactus. For any photographers who may be thinking that a bed of cactus is a cool background for a product shot… oh contrare. I definitely don’t recommend this especially when it’s on a slope and you’re wearing sandals. If one of the boxes slides your natural reaction is to reach down to stop it.
The Bushbox XL comes with the black cordura case which has belt loops and the Firebox Nano comes in the very small metal Xbox which I sat on top to show the size difference. Please note: Cordura and cactus are fabulously attracted to each other and I spent several minutes separating them one very sharp spine at a time. The Firebox case had no such issues.
Here are the two stoves in a much better location which is the end of Gallagher lake.
Here are the stoves setup and ready to use which took about ten seconds for each stove, note the small carbon felt windscreen which is part of the Nano kit. The kettle is a 750ml. stainless steel gem from MEC that I’ve owned since the nineties.
Both stoves packed with dry twigs and I’m using the well known Dorito Nacho fire starter chips to line the bottoms. In front of the stoves are dry apple wood blocks that I split into quarters and will drop into the stoves once the twigs are burning which I hope can act in the same manner as a Swedish Torch fire to give a longer and even burn to the stoves.
Within seconds the Dorito chips ignited the twigs in both stoves and I placed the quartered apple wood so we could get the cooking started.
Both stoves took a few minutes to get the apple wood going but that is to be expected with larger pieces that I was trying to ignite and the goal was to only have to load the stoves a minimal number of times during the cooking process. The Nano having such a small fire box actually requires much more attention to maintain a good heat but the quartered blocks were definitely helpful in that regard.
Dinner was ham and eggs on toasted buns as the Bushbox XL kit comes with a grill plate that sits on top of the stove. Meghan also found some ten year old teabags in the mess kit to flavour the hot water.
After all the cooking was complete the quartered apple wood was still going strong and the fire lasted well over an hour without adding anymore wood so I think the Swedish torch idea was a success and I plan on quartering up the rest of the small blocks I have in the woodpile. The quartered wood worked well in the Nano stove but only lasted about twenty minutes which was enough to boil 700ml. of water.
An hour after starting the Bushbox XL the stove was ready for more wood but it was landscape photography time.
Welcome to Gallagher lake. Shot with Canon 24-105mm lens at f16 on a Canon 5Dmk3.
Gallagher lake. Shot with a Canon 7D using a Sigma 8-16mm ultra wide angle lens at f11.
Maclean’s lake. 5D mk3 lens 24-105mm.
Maclean’s lake oil paint. “Peeking Through The Brush”.
“Fire In The Sky” Maclean’s lake oil paint.
Looking East up the Thompson river valley.
Looking South towards Spences Bridge.