Old stove?

[USA Duane Hall]

Anyone have an old stove they used to use or still use on occasion? Just curious what you have evolved to using if any change at all. I collect older bp/camping stoves so wondering what is still out there.

Duane

[Ken Thompson]

Did I start something selling you that old Svea and Sigg Tourist cookset?
I still use a Svea 123 and an Optimus 99 on occasion.

[USA Duane Hall]

Yes you did. Send a few hundred to me. Money that is. I'm up to 50 stoves now, some oldies too, MSR with Coleman, Prentiss Wabers stoves from the 20's or so. It pays to dig around a little, just looking to get old stoves back into action on a limited basis. Hoping to get or see some more of the early bp/camping/mountaineering stoves and the pumps if they required them. I have three different 123's now, two early ones that are of different ages and a newer used "R" which works the worst of the lot.

Duane

[larry savage]

The last Svea 123 I saw was flying out of a tent flap at Camp 4, to hot to dig in the garage attic for you but I'll take a look when the evenings cool down, you need to collect old fuel bottles too, the stuff before Sigg showed always provided some seasoning to everything in your pack.
I know I have a couple of pump retrofits for Optimus up there.

[USA Duane Hall]

Larry, I have enough 123's. Looking for vintage MSR and their prototype stoves, along with a white pump. Optimus did make the external pump for the 8R and other small stoves.

Duane

[Hammock Hanger]

I still have my first stove ever, a 1973 Svea 123 ordered from LL Bean back when they were a serious source for camping gear. Sooty and prone to fouling even when new but I am fond of it still. This thread makes me want to go dig it out of the back of the closet.

[USA Duane Hall]

I have three Svea 123's. A early model that has the spindle pointed down and has no rings/ribs on the vaporizer, whereas the second one I have, has those rings. The third has the spindle horizontal and is of the newer style, but still vintage, actually a 123R, also because it has the cleaning needle that clears the jet/nipple by turning the spindle all the way to the left. Would love to pick up a prototype MSR stove from the '70's. Have I mentioned I started collecting stoves recently?:)

Duane

[Bob Gross]

A friend brought along his Svea 123 with a mini-pump and was going to start it up. First, he pumped it a time or two, primed it with a couple of drops of fuel, then lit it. It died out. Then he pumped it several times and primed it with a good squirt of fuel, then lit it. It died out. Then he pumped it a lot and primed it with a couple of spoons of fuel, then lit it. It started up, overheated the safety valve in the mini-pump, and then we had something that looked like a Saturn V rocket launch. The pressurized flame was shooting out diagonally, and another flame was shooting up past the top plate. The friend didn't quite know what to do since we had no water or anything to smother it with. So, I just kicked it over into the sand and gravel, and it was extinguished in no time. Needless to say, we got our excitement on that trip, but the Svea 123 was never seen again. As it turned out, probably all he had to do was to replace the cap with the safety valve.

–B.G.–

[Bob Gross]

"Would love to pick up a prototype MSR stove from the '70's."

I think that would have to be from the early 1970s. By the late 1970s, Model G was well established. Maybe GK also. My garage is still littered with their bones.

–B.G.–

[Martha S.]

…it was a great little stove in its day — wish I could find canisters for it.

[Hikin’ Jim]

Nice photo, Martha. ;)

Yes, those are nice stoves. I just had mine out on Wednesday. They don't make the canisters anymore, but I have occasionally seen the old canisters in "mom & pop" surplus stores and the like.

You can also run them with a modern canister if you can find someone who can make an adapter.

HJ

[James Marco]

I still use the SVEA 123R. It works every time. I note that I did have a problem with the saftey valve when I ran out of white gas and used acetone, instead. The safety valve popped after boiling water and would not re-seal. I tapped it on a rock several times and all sorts of grit and rust came out. It started working again.

[USA Duane Hall]

Bob, that stove probable needed a good cleaning, sounds like a few things and I just got a few of these the last year. Carbon in the vaporizer part, stove ran out of fuel a few times and burned the wick inside the tank so the wick would not perform properly and with the pump pressurizing the tank, over pressurized it and caused the safety valve in the cap to do its job. Be sure and keep the cap pointed at someone besides oneself.:)
HJ can help with info on the Roberts stove.

I have all the "X" line of MSR stoves except a few of the newer versions which I'm fine without. The newest is the X-GK II with the shaker jet that has seen a few miles I picked up. I'm waiting for a few stoves or stove pieces from a climbing friend (mtnsteve) to get some stoves with Everest experience to me. Not sure what he has.

Duane

[Martha S.]

Thanks for the compliment, Jim.

Oh, and the photo too, btw! ;-) But seriously, why try to improve on perfection?!

[Hikin’ Jim]

lol

[Rick Dreher]

Still have my Optimus 8R. $11 at REI. Svea wasn't "manly" enough for some reason, and I instead went for the hearty steel box and internal cleaning needle. I confess it never once failed me and importantly, I never had the Optimus/Svea flamethrower (which has to be seen to be appreciated) with the 8R. Have a rebuild kit somewhere, too. Collectible!

FWIW at that time the more mountaineering types tended to use larger kerosene burners converted to white gas. Better for melting snow and cooking for groups. I think that's why the MSR stove came about, because that was a lot of brass to haul up this or that mountain.

Cheers,

Rick

[Bob Gross]

"Collectible!"

You are such an old stovie that you probably have collected issues of the Mountain Safety Research newsletter.

For the old stoves, all I got was a Taiwan-knockoff of an Optimus box stove. Real quickly, the MSR Model G and GK were purchased. At one time, I think I managed a fleet of six of them. One or two would be coming in from the last trip, one or two were being fueled and checked out for the next trip, at at least one was being cannibalized for spare parts.

–B.G.–

[Rick Dreher]

You're scaring me here, Bob. :-) I don't have the collection but I have at least one MSR newsletter stashed somewhere. IIRC it includes a rant against the NPS burning down all the backcountry shelters.

The Thunderbird axe lives! (Nope, don't have one but who didn't like orange?)

Cheers,

Rick

[Bob Gross]

An old friend of mine had a subscription to the MSR newsletter and had a stack of them. He loaned them to me for reading even though they were probably ten years old at the time.

–B.G.–

[USA Duane Hall]

I have a dozen or more vintage MSR stoves, and 6-7 yeller pumps, two need parts for two of the pumps. I still would like to get a white pump. I have a bunch of different stoves, the brass kerosene ones used mostly in Europe for indoor cooking, some small enough for brewing up tea for lunch, a few Coleman type suitcase stoves and some of the small cased ones like the 8R and 111's. Summer is the time for me to gather them and winter to work on them when I can't do anything outside.

Duane

[Hikin’ Jim]

I've still got my T-Bird. Nice axe, really (albeit a tad on the heavy side). Don't wear light colored gloves; they'll be orange by the end of the day.

HJ

[Bob Gross]

Instead of a metal shaft, I still have my first ice axe with a wooden shaft. Oddly enough, even after all of these decades, there is no trace of wood rot, weakening, or looseness.

Let's see, we had early MSR and Optimus stoves. We had Goldline rope. Heavy leather boots.

–B.G.–

[USA Duane Hall]

Bob, can you get ahold of the MSR newsletters? I know a few of us stove collectors would love to check out those newsletters if they are no longer wanted and I could get them. It might help with the dating of some of the models and changes.
Duane

[USA Duane Hall]

I would love to get any old literature or instructions on the old stoves also. Especially the MSR lineup. At a recent stovie meetup in Oregon, an avid stove collector showed all of the old MSR stove lineup to us. I mentioned I knew someone who had some newsletters. Bob, can you get ahold of any still? More than willing to make it worth your while to mail them to me. I just picked up an old Optimus embossed model 8. Great shape, just need to check out the pump cup and cap gasket.
Duane

[Bob Gross]

I don't think that it is practical to try to reproduce the ones that I have.

–B.G.–

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