Canteen Stove

[Nick Gatel]

There is a perception that in the 60's and 70's backpackers carried horrendous loads. That is not truly accurate. Although it was not uncommon for backpackers to carry enough food to last for 10 – 14 days, and that makes for a heavy pack. But there is something to be said about the wilderness experience that limits your exposure to town to just once every two weeks.

If one were to look at base weights "back in the day," it would not be uncommon to see sub 20 lbs kits, which by today's definition would be "light weight."

When I got out of the military in 1971 I went directly to the Sierras for 6 months. I bought some new gear, and also used some military stuff. One of the military items was a canteen stove, mostly because I did not know there was such a thing as a backpacking stove. In 1972 I bought a Svea 123, which pretty much was my main stove for a long time. However, I occassionally brought the canteen stove on some trips. The stove could use Esbit, Trioxane (military fuel similar to Esbit), wood, and even alcohol. In 1971 I found it nearly impossible to locate Esbit or Trioxane. Here are some pictures and explanations.

Stove, cup, and canteen fit into an insulated nylon cover that could be attached to the hip belt. There is also a little pouch that could store a bottle of iodine tablets, my main purification method until 2009. After about a month I sent the cover home.

Canteen, cup, and stove nest into a single package.

Canteen, cup and stove. The cup holds 20 oz. Normally I would boil 12 – 16 oz. There is not lid, and I used aluminum foil.

Canteen cup on stove, which is inverted from the nesting position. Notice the vent holes.

Back side showing cutout that can be used to feed wood twigs for wood burning mode.

My original cup is made from steel. Sometime in the early 70's the military switched to aluminum cups with a butterfly handle.

Something like a Succrets or Altoid tin can can be used to place an Esbit tab (the smaller one). If you fill it with dirt or sand, you can then fill it with alcohol to boil water. It burns too quickly without a filler. A Pepsi can is too high to work. If you keep both halves of the tin, you have a small storage unit for multiple use. But this is a nice "off the shelf" system, and you can probably buy a used set-up at a surplus store for under $20, maybe under $10.

Here are the weights:
Canteen = 5.5 oz
Stove = 1.75 oz
Steel Cup = 8.38 oz
Aluminum Cup = 8.00 oz

In 1971 I usually used this set-up for breakfast. Since I often had trout for dinner, I brought a military mess kit and spoon. Eventually I sent the top half of the kit home (plate) and then bought a larger pot to cook over fires.

One quart aluminum pot and military aluminum mess kit.

Pot and lid = 5.75 oz
Fry pan = 8.75 oz
Spoon 1.52 oz

[Bob Gross]

I also got out of the military in 1971, but most of my gear was a generation older than Nick's. Some of our canteens were all metal and some were all plastic. The canteen cover was made of canvas, not nylon. Oh, the photo of the one quart aluminum pot… I have one sitting right here.

In the last two photos, does anybody know why the metal plate handle was so long? Because you might be served the food from a mobile field kitchen (chow on wheels). As you moved forward in line for food, you wanted to get your metal plate sterilized a bit before the food hit it. There was a garbage can full of boiling hot water, and you could dunk your plate in it. The long handle allowed you to keep your hand a few inches above the hot water as the plate was swished around.

It kind of makes you wonder how wars were ever won.

–B.G.–

[Nick Gatel]

One thing about the military, they often keep using the old stuff until they run out of it :)

The cup is dated 1963 and the mess kit 1966.

I posted this because sometimes we think we have advanced so far with our gear, and there was some pretty good stuff back then that was fairly light. And the stuff was built to last. Anyway, it was fun to day dream about past trips and the gear.

[Jay Wilkerson]

Interesting stuff Nick! The evolution of gear is never ending.

[David Thomas]

Nick: thanks for the history lesson and the perspective.

I went to a 50th anniversary gathering of the UC Berkeley Hiking Club in 1998 and met founding members from the 1940's. They were going the same places, doing the same things we had in the 80's and 90's. They stitched zip-off long pants with cotton uppers and plastic-sheeting legs long before someone got a patent for that. They used army surplus gear when they could and sewed what they couldn't find. They were the generation that started so many of the equipment companies that equipped the "first backpackers" of the 1960's and 1970's.

My theory is it goes a lot further back than that. When the glaciers started to move, some people got up and moved. We're descended from them. The recalcitrant? They ended up as alluvium.

Archeologists were initially amazed when it appeared that Otzi "the Iceman" had a bronze axe 5,300 year ago, before the Bronze Age. And I thought, backpackers and mountaineers always get the cool toys first!

[Brian UL]

I am always envious of the older people I see on the trail with their old gear. Made me want to have durable gear that will last a lifetime like that. You have look hard to find good light gear that will stand the test of time.

[Nick Gatel]

Dave,

The history is fun. REI started because it was so difficult to find gear. That was in the 30's (I think) and it was a true co-operative.

Back in the 60's and 70's it was difficult to find quality gear unless you were luck enough to live near a good mountaineering store. Many people bought mail order, and they used what Colin Fletcher said was good. Interestingly, Fletcher used a Sierra Cup on his 1958 Thousand Mile Summer. I didn't know it went back that far.

I used to wait each year for the REI and Campmor catalogues, this is where I found out about new gear. Then REI built a store in Torrance, CA (sometime in the 70's I think) and sometimes I would drive 120 miles to the A-16 store near San Diego. Backpacker magazine came out in the mid 70's and at the time was an excellent source of information, with a lot of little ads in the back. Much has changed since then, and a lot hasn't. You still have to put one foot in front of the other to move forward.

[David Thomas]

Nick:

I want to say REI was 1938. Okay, Wikipedia confirms that. I was very impressed as a Scout on my first 50-miler in 1977, that they talked me into a LIGHTER, cheaper boot than I'd planned on.

In the late 70's and early 80's, between going to school at Berkeley and working in a BP shop, I'd get a catalog and recognize a lot of people.

I've got to stand up for Colin Fletcher. I never read "The Man Who Walked Through Time" and "The Complete Walker" until a few years ago. That was my severe oversight. I read all 3 editions of "The Complete Walker" and the dude was way ahead of his time. I really like the Outside Magazine article on him after he got run down (unintentionally) by a motorist. "In 2001, at the age of seventy-nine, Fletcher was struck and seriously injured by an SUV while walking to a town meeting near his home in Monterey County, California. His survival was attributed to his excellent physical condition. Within a year of the accident, he was back on his feet and walking daily." Apparently in the ER, they couldn't believe that this guy with the legs and health of a 25-year-old had the face and ID of an 80-year-old. I want to be that guy when I'm 80 (without the car accident) and my 92-year-old uncle is maybe showing me the way.

[Nick Gatel]

Fletcher is one of my favorite authors. Don't know if you can find it, but The Man from the Cave is excellent, and not about backpacking. This one is somewhat special because it takes place where I live, and I had found Chuckawalla Bill's house several years before he wrote the book. That is a hint :)

If you haven't read it, The Man Who Walked Through Time is mesmerizing, especially for someone like you who has hiked in the Grand Canyon. Then finish with River, Fletcher's account of rafting the Colorado River from source to end… especially his reflections on the River from past to present and the changes from when he first saw it on his 1958 trip. Actually, I love his writing style, wit, humor, and curmudgeonly attitude.

[Eugene Smith]

This is excellent Nick, thanks for sharing your collection. I admit my ignorance here in youth, vintage stoves and outdoor gear prior to the late 90's is completely foreign to me, so I learn quite a bit of gear history picking up things from the likes of you and Bob G.

[Bob Gross]

Eugene, don't blame it on me. Blame it on Nick, the old guy.

Wait a second (doing the math)…

–B.G.–

[W I S N E R !]

Cool stuff Nick.

My first backpacking kit consisted of a surplus rucksack (I think it was German) with the U.S. canteen stove you show. Good memories. Things were much simpler then…and I'm only 35.

[BlackHatGuy]

Ah, a blast from the not so distant past. Here's a pic Nick and Bob might appreciate – my LBE. This set was with me for most of my military career. As you can see, the belt's a bit upgraded from Bob's and Nick's time – it includes a plastic buckle instead of the metal buckle (which I had on my first set of LBE issued to me at Fort Bragg!).

.

[Anonymous]

A very good book. I read it when it was first published and am surprised how much I can remember of it. A true mystery and sad, especially the way the subject compartmentalized his life with total isolation of one compartment from another. Fascinating that Fletcher could discover so much with so little.

[Tim Zen]

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[Nick Gatel]

Timothy,

I know of the stove, but I have never seen it in use. I think it was mostly used for cold weather/mountain activities.

[James Winstead]

Nick, really cool. My first kit contained a surplus one of those aluminum cups.

Doug… Seeing that, I will be extremely dissapointed if you don't turn up at the next gathering with a brand new cuben LBE.

[Bob Gross]

"M1950 gas stove? Did you really boil water in them?"

In 1970 along the DMZ of Korea, we had one of these in a concrete bunker, and it was used to make hot coffee to be available all night long to guards. The coffee didn't have to be good. It just had to be hot.

–B.G.–

[Richard Brownkatz]

When I was a kid I found a canteen, cup and cover exactly like this at my grandfather's old place in PA.

Along with this stuff I found a canvas military pistol belt the canteen cover attached to. I used this gear in the scouts and on my own trips for about a decade. Don't know what happened to it and wish I still had it. On really cold nights I could heat up the metal canteen and tuck it in my sleeping bag.

I used more modern versions and a canteen stove when I got back into backpacking several years ago. I added a Trangia burner which, with just a little bending of the aluminum stove, worked very well. I added a cone shaped aluminum foil windscreen and an aluminum roasting pan cup lid. I used this setup for a few years until I discovered titanium.

I've used lots of other military gear and still often do. I heavily modified two ALICE packs for our first AT section hike and had to do some serious convincing to get my wife to give hers up for a Granite Gear Vapor Ki to save 2 lbs. We're in the Mountain Crossings store on the AT and she's yelling, "It better be as comfortable as my ALICE!"

[USA Duane Hall]

Nick, thank you for showing and explaining how the canteen stove works. I see some on evilbay, but thought they were missing the stove. :( I got out of HS in '71, introduced myself to bping around '72/'73. My current neighbor bped a month at a time with no trip to town, olive oil and pasta, heavy pack back in the late '70's and into the '80's. He is in his late 60's now.

Duane

[Nick Gatel]

Richard, that set up was used for decades. During the Vietnam era you often got what was in stock, so if the old stuff wasn't used up that is was you got. The canvass and aluminum canteen were pretty common, but heavier than what I shared here. Although military gear is often heavier than what we use, it is very well designed. We have to remember that it is designed to hold up under combat conditions. So as my budget allowed, I replaced things with civilian stuff.

When I got out, I had saved enough money to not need to work for at least a year. But I had to watch how I spent my money. I bought a Kelty pack, a pair of Italian made Pivetta boots, and a nylon covered down sleeping bag. I had a lot of my military stuff with me in a duffle bag. I kept some of the military stuff for backpacking and sent the rest home. My clothes were Levi pants and jacket plus my boonie hat. For cold I had my wool trousers, wool sweater, wool gloves & watch cap, and the lining from my field jacket. The field jacket, combat boots, and fatigues were sent home. I had a military flashlight, match safe, and of course the canteen stove. That was pretty much all my gear, other than a poncho/tarp. I did not use a sleeping pad, but used some plastic sheeting.

[Hikin’ Jim]

I still have my old US Army canteen that I bought while I was in ROTC around 1980 – 1982. I've got the same stove and cup. That stuff is seriously heavy stuff!! Haven't gotten it out in years.

I've got a 1 quart pot just like that. My 1 liter titanium pot sees more use these days, but really the weight's about the same. I use the Ti one since it has a fry pan lid that provides a little more height which allows me to store a windscreen inside.

HJ
Adventures In Stoving

[Nick Gatel]

"I've got a 1 quart pot just like that. My 1 liter titanium pot sees more use these days, but really the weight's about the same."

You are right about that. Pots haven't changed much in decades. Ti is a little lighter, but at 3 or 4 times the price it is a hard decision to make. I think aluminum is better for cooking anyway. I have several iterations of aluminum and Ti. Overall, I probably like the MSR Titan Kettle the best. But normally stick with a Fosters can. I am going to start going back to some cooking now that I doing the Paleo diet. So I'll be using the Giga Power stove a lot more.

[Noel Tavan]

Do you guys know if there is a titanium canteen cup and stove out there?

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