Based in Aberdeen, Scotland.
Reached 200 within 72hrs
CLOSED at 2,017
APRES CLOSE: 2,021
Printing site, CafePress.com is now in the UK. Which means that UK readers can buy themselves an AktoMug for under a tenner, and have lower-postage.
The ideal Christmas present for other people. There’s also a cap. Mine is khaki.
If I ever receive money from sales, it goes into the Mountain Rescue charity collection tin.
Mike came round with the Japanese release of Stirton Production’s “The Planet”. It was strange hearing the dubs. It gave the film a different feel for me, as I knew some of the chaps in real life.
There is a trailer on the Japanese site.
Also, the YouTube channel has “The Making of…” parts one and two. As this was filmed at Balmedie beach, it might have a historic context after the Trump development gets underway.
Would the MiniBullDesign Blackfly4 stove boil one pint of cold water before it used up its measly one fluid ounce (30ml) of meths fuel? All set up in the Honey Stove as a pot support.
That should be enough for a brew and 300ml left over to rehydrate a main meal. Well, that’s what the Reiter pouch recommends. Will it suffice inside a pot-cosy, I will find out next weekend, as I am not wasting food just to test a pot. It isn’t a field test as this is indoors instead of outdoors.
Of course, knowing it is probably not going to do this means that one can just have a brew first and then pour more meths into the stove (dowsing the flame first), to bring the required 300ml to a boil.
The newly arrived Blackfly4 stove from Mini Bull Design – fresh out of the box. I had left the wicks too long just to burn off the excess. It resulted in a 6-minute boil time (1/2 pint of cold tapwater). I was using the Honey Stove from BackPackingLight.co.uk and the Alpkit Mytimug titanium mug.
I can fit two meths containers inside the Alpkit mug, totalling 160ml of fuel (5 fluid ounces). I reckon 30ml for a hot meal (see previously), so that is 5 hot meals, all stored inside the cookset. I like having the fuel wrapped in titanium. It feels more secure that way.
Using the Honey Stove from BackPackingLight.co.uk with Mini Bull Design’s Blackfly3 meths stove, and the Alpkit Mytimug titanium mug.
Following on from the first mixing of the Honey Stove with the Blackfly3 (link), I thought then that there was some heat absorption/dissipation when I used the ‘top grill’. So, I swapped out the ‘top grill’ with the ‘middle grill’, as this grill does not have the central support. In about the same time it took the first attempt to come to a boil, the water was now at a rolling boil.
Fair question Duncan and you are not the first to ask it.
I had started on the design some 12 months ago long before I saw the Makaira video. At that stage I had a hexagon shape linked by lugs exactly as they had - pure coincidence. The holes in mine were still being calculated at the time to allow the correct airflow through the pot, so I saw their design as inferior and allowing far too much air flow to be much use, which it still is by the looks of it.
Mine also had versatility with the moving grill arrangement already in place, so the multi use of mine is far superior to their set up. Plus use of different materials and slicker design, different measurements and application.
Ultimately, at first glance I can be accused of copying the design, based purely on the side lugs and a hexagonal shape alone, and that's it! After that there's nothing similar about the two stoves, so I very much doubt I will be getting any calls from the legal people ;-))
Put it this way, if I had designed the stove as a circle, or a square, what other stoves would it be compared to? There are loads around the world if you look hard enough, and I have been looking very hard for the last year to see what home made designs people have tried.
I hope that answers your question. Not offended by you asking it, as far as I'm concerned 20% coincidence and 80% brilliance!
Cheers
Bob
Hi Bob,
How can I broach this ...
It started with a comment on my blog:
http://aktoman.blogspot.com/2008/11/relax-its-honey-stove.html
and then I saw what Roman had written
http://lighthiker.wordpress.com/2008/11/06/towels-more-stoves-more-sales/
and followed the links to the Makaira site, where I saw the photos and video of the stove.
http://www.makairametal.com/outdoorgear.htm
http://www.backpackgeartest.org/reviews/Cook%20Gear/Stoves/WildWood%201%20Stove/
I saw the comments that you had given Roman there, the Honey being lighter and bigger with more flexibility. But I watched the Makaira video and noticed the lugs and notches, and assembly. And the nagging voice started.
You're a smart cookie, and I'm sure that you have looked into this issue, worked with designs that are in the public domain, etc etc. But, the voice is nagging at me to ask you about this issue - will the Makaira designers come knocking?
Using the Honey Stove from BackPackingLight.co.uk with HiGear fuel tablet. I had used one in the past – if you wondered where some of the scorch-marks on the mdf board came from, this link will provide the answer.
Remembering the problem last year, I slotted the ashtray under the Honey Stove. George/LBP had got me thinking more about alternative arrangements of the grills, and sitting the mug inside the Honey Stove.
The movie is in realtime except for a section in the middle, where the camera locked out due to memory card reaching capacity. It took under a minute to get rolling again. And later, I repositioned the tripod, which sounded horrible, so cut that out.
As a treat for those who just want to watch the stove in action; less talk, less coffee, more fire. Kick back and press “play”.
Using the Honey Stove from BackPackingLight.co.uk with driftwood provided by Aberdeen beach.
I didn’t have a spare hand to take a video of the assembly process, but I’m definitely getting quicker. Being 11 days after Guy Fawkes night, there were still enough rocket stems to burn without starting on the ‘real’ driftwood. Timber is a limited resource too, so I wasn’t keen to waste it.
Being a cautious soul, I lightly kicked over any material that I was going to pick up. Just in case of ‘sharps’.
I decided not to edit out the trouble that I had with the fire-starting matches at the beginning of the clip. I feel that these things need saying too. It took around 10 minutes to get brew made. I hadn’t finished drinking it when the unit was cool enough to enable me to rake the ashes out and dismantle it.
Unused wood was left on the beach and I used the plastic bag to store the soot-coated Alpkit Mytimug titanium mug. The makings was held in the GSI nesting cup/bowl that I got from Sarah/”Freezer-Bag Cooking”, and I used the outer bowl as a cup. Fresh water was held in my oval Sigg bottle. Lighter was a 3-jet gas lighter that I got from my youngest brother earlier in the year.
Using the Honey Stove from BackPackingLight.co.uk with Primus Micron gas stove.
I have had the Micron for two years now, and I’d just use a thin foil windshield instead of the Honey Stove. So don’t take the above video seriously.
I am more interested in being able to eke out a gas canister by using alternative fuel (mainly woody material). To sit outside, by the light of a safe open fire, leaving no trace, harming no living creatures (excluding ticks and midges and the occasional moth that gets eaten by accident). It goes beyond convenience cooking, where some of the superfast stoves just miss a ‘ping’ sound effect when the food is ready or water boiled.
If the outdoors is only about being fast paced, then why not just take the car and be done with it? We all hike our own hikes. Not like the song.
Using the Honey Stove from BackPackingLight.co.uk with the Trangia spirit burner, and the Alpkit Mytimug titanium mug.
I only used the Trangia a few times years ago, but it is in my small stove collection, so I thought I’d give it a go. As Bob demonstrated in the official video, it sits nicely in the circle cut in the middle grill. At room temperature, a 1/2 pint of cold tap water came to a rolling boil in 5 minutes, using 1 fluid ounce (20 ml) of methylated spirits.
Using the Honey Stove from BackPackingLight.co.uk with Mini Bull Design’s Blackfly3 meths stove, and the Alpkit Mytimug titanium mug.
In summary. Maybe if I lift the stove up towards the base of the mug, then it will heat up quicker? Also, if I can use the “middle grill”, then heat will pass through the empty central space directly to the underside of the pan. Some heat must be getting lost from the pan by sitting on these ‘spokes’ of the “top grill”.
Only three grills, and yet lots of possibilities.
My Honey Stove arrived from BackPackingLight.co.uk
Video shot in real-time, so you can see the time counting by. No point in rushing this, as it could fall apart if you fail to hold it correctly. To be honest, this was my 4th time assembling the stove, and I think I am developing the knack for it already.
Make sure that you know where you want to place the grills, and keep an eye on the tabless (front) sides of the grills.
The Honey Stove flexible cooking system. Video from Bob Cartwright at BackPackingLight.co.uk and TheOutdoorsStation.co.uk
Excellent starting point for the FCS. I really can’t just call it as stove, as it is much more than that. A windshield, a support, a stove, a chimney.
I am become D…arren.
Finally treated myself to the new Blackfly stove from Tinny at MiniBullDesign. Smaller than the aus3, it should mean a lower centre of gravity. I normally only use an ounce of fuel to boil enough water for a brew and/or enough water to rehydrate a meal, so the smaller capacity won’t be an issue.
Hopefully it won’t “disappear” en route across the Atlantic like the last one did. Or the two orders of wargames figures from separate suppliers that went missing in the last year.
Question was:
Just wondered if the SnowPeak 900 set was any good - interested in fact it has small frying pan, and lightweight - does pan burn and could you use pan as mug.
My answer is:
Although there was some sticking of the potato scone to the frying pan (lid), the lid cleaned up fine for me afterwards.
As to using the pan as a drinking mug – yes, but it isn’t as good as drinking from a separate mug (eg a plastic one).
Although I have used the SnowPeak 900 as my cookset of choice for a couple of years now, this is the first time I used it in this way. I never have anything along to fry, and I always carry a separate mug. As with any hollow solid object in my pack, things can get packed inside.
I awoke at 6am on my morning off. I chucked on the radio. I texted darren a cheeky message. Inspired by the news, i grabbed warm socks, old trail shoes, filo jacket and new possum fur gloves to accompany my dSLR rig. With fully-charged car battery in arm, i head out. Once car is working again, i'm off down to the beach.
--
The website I was checking is a useful listing of sunrise/sunset times.
In the early hours of Wednesday morning (UK time), Senator Barack Obama won the election to become the 44th President of the USA, as Senator John McCain admitted defeat in an honourable and dignified manner.
Inaccurate at time of posting. Accurate news on the BBC website. I’m off to bed. If it doesn’t happen, I can always re-write this. Just like the online newspapers do. Good night and good luck.
Tonight I watched these couple of videos. I’ll need to try it in the lid of my SnowPeak 900. I suppose I should be interested in world politics, but this is much more fun. Well done to GrinchMT, I’ll need to watch some more. I’m already thinking of how I can make a lid (as I’d be using the cookset’s lid as a frying pan) – maybe use metal foil.
Part 1
Part 2
I found them off the ‘related’ list from Tinny’s new design. I have been mentioning him as an example of Web2.0 at its finest. Just watch his view numbers.
