cool Japanese stoves

D.W.
Those alcan stoves remind me of a commercial model I have only seen in Japan, with three L shaped legs; but I think all the stoves in those blogs are one-off homebuilts, and I have not seen exactly those at OD box nor the usual sports stores.
Like so many handbuilt products here in Japan, the quality of craftsmanship is high. But, for ease of use, simplicity, and cost, an open cat stove is hard to beat.

D.W., those are very cool stoves, especially the pot stand and simple windscreen. In fact the stove looks like an ordinary but very polished soda can stove. However the combination of the pot stand and windscreen would seem to give it the same efficiency as the Caldera system. I would sure like to get a diagram to make similar stand for my homemade stoves.

Just read the alucan site information. These are all homemade stoves made of stainless steel sheeting. Not sure if they are available to purchase, though. I think the author has connections with O.D. Box and that’s why you sometimes see different and unusual stoves available there. There are actually four different kinds of stoves being: a conventional, but tiny one, and open jet one, a “twin-jet”,”tornado” effect one (some of you may remember the Japanese tornado stoves that everyone raved about a little more than a year ago), and “chimney” effect one (open in the middle). Each has its advantages and disadvantages.

The most intriguing (and hard to find and rather heavy) alcohol stove I’ve seen in Japan is the Pitorch Alcohol Stove that I’ve only seen available in Kamoshika in Takadanobaba.

Brett – yes some of the stoves look a lot like the Simon stoves, with the three swivelling legs.

Miguel – if you follow this link

http://ulgoods.exblog.jp/m2007-04-01

and scroll down past the dolls (??!!) you'll find a review of the T-z_Stove Twin Jet Alcohol stove – which seems to be for sale, to judge from the photo of the boxes further down. I'm guessing these may be at OD Box.

Pitorch – I actually have one of them. They are/were available at Sakaiya in Jimbocho, so I bought one just before I left Japan. The maker (who I think was down in Osaka) went out of business a couple of years ago so any stock that are around are the last ones. These were bit of a hot item a couple of years ago on TLB – Areality had one, if I remember correctly.

And I really like the black kirin stove at the bottom of this page:

http://alcanstove.exblog.jp/i2

p.s. I noticed that some of the comments on the sites are from JSB – i.e., Yukio Yamakawa.

p.p.s. I used to live in Takadanobaba, but found that Kamoshika were partial to "henken" – on one occasion they flat out denied that they had a members card when the woman next to me was using one – I put the stuff I was buying back on the shelves and walked out.

Watch it in action here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8bKfMoufhY

Check out the simmer(?) control.

The Pitorch Alcohol stove double coil looks very similar to the very old White Spirit Handy Campers stove which one can be seen on Roger Caffin's FAQ site.

http://www.bushwalking.org.au/FAQ/FAQ_StovesTech.htm#Faqs

Tony

Yes. And it turned out that the Pitorch was nearly identical to spirit burners that some laboratory equipment suppliers had available.

Bimberi's a nice part of the world – I used to spend a lot of time in Kingston.

Hi Damian,

Not many people know that the Australian Capital Territory where Canberra is located is 2/3 National Park.The Bimberi Wilderness is one of Australia’s best kept secrets for walking. I took a battering after the 2003 bushfires, the bush is recovering but is becoming quite thick and hard to walk through. The peak that I am on in the picture is Mt Kelly. How long ago where you in Kingston.

Tony

Dear all,
Thank you for your interests in T_z stove.
T_z stove, with his originality, craft man ship and inquiring mind for his inventory, will be one of cottage gear manufacturers for alcohol stoves and woods stoves.( First cottage stove manufacturer in Japan.)

I had chance to test a couple of prototype models and gave him some feedbacks. See the review in my web site.

After introducing the stoves to a chief buyer of OD BOX; a outdoor retailer in Tokyo, he likes them and decides to sell them in the store. You can get’em at OD BOX and T_z Stove website in weeks.

As some of you guys noteiced, T_z stove, ULGoods, JSB, OD BOX know well each other. We are seeking the way of SUL in Japan. Keep eyes on our activities and our friends.
Feel free to give your comments to T_z stove’s blog in English. He will be happy about it.

Thanks a lot!

皆様、T_zストーブに関心を持ってくれてありがとう。

T_zストーブは日本で初の商用空き缶ストーブを目指し、現在は販売準備中です。
私は（http://ulgoods.exblog.jp/）彼から試作品を託され、テストと改良の助言を行っています。商用になると判断したのでODBoxのチーフバイヤーに紹介したところ、とても気に入ってくれたので、数週間中にはODBoxとT_zStoveのWebサイトで購入が可能になる予定です。

T_z Stoveさんは豊かな独創性と妥協のない探求心を持ち、高度な加工技術を兼ね備えたてアルコールストーブと薪ストーブのガレージメーカーを目指しています。
ご察しの通り、T_z Stove, ULGoods, JSB, OdBoxはお互いに顔見知りであり、日本に於ける超軽量ハイキングのあり方を模索しています。
これからも彼や周辺の人々の動向を注視して下さい。
英文で結構ですので、関心があればBLOGにコメントをお寄せ下さい。

Damien, don't want to step on your toes, but I have always found Kamoshika to be wonderful and never treated me with disrespect. In fact on occasion one of the staff members has gone out of their way to help me out with orders or repairing hard-to-fix items. I've been going there since 1984. And just to let you know if you think you might reconsider, Kamoshika doesn't have a members card. You have to buy a membership (as I recall it was ¥500) and then you get a nylon tote bag and duffel bag to bring in whenever you purchase something. When you show them one of the bags you get a discount. It's a kind of camaraderie symbol among mountain walkers in Japan to use a Kamoshika bag both for purchasing and for an extras bag (usually to carry your heavy leather boots on the trains) up in the mountains. I don't often buy things at Kamoshika any more simply because their items are so conservative, but it's a great store and the people there are really knowledgeable. All of them are serious mountain walkers. I especially love the Espace tent series and am still undecided whether or not to buy one.

Sorry to divert the thread.

"…don't want to step on your toes, but I have always found Kamoshika to be wonderful and never treated me with disrespect."

With regard to Kamoshika, as is always the case people's experiences can vary. I have points cards from Sakaiya, OD Box, ICI Ishi Sports, Elk and probably some others too. I was in Kamoshika and asked about their points card and they denied that they had one. From what you're saying above, they do at least have memberships, which presumably they could have then mentioned. While I was there a woman also being served gave them a card – identical in shape and size to the Sakaiya et al cards, they stuck it in a reader and then gave it back to her with a bow. I asked what the card was and they just looked at me blankly. Maybe it was something like the Sakura-Shinmachi Cherry card (which is a points promotion run by local shops) … I don't know but membership card seemed a fair presumption. In any case I first visited that shop in 1991 when they were in Waseda-dori (and I was living around the corner) and in contrast to most other Tokyo gear shops I've had dealings with they were never particularly friendly.

BTW, have you seen their UL windstopper tops?

"Not many people know that the Australian Capital Territory where Canberra is located is 2/3 National Park … How long ago where you in Kingston. Tony"

Good question … I was a regular visitor to Kingston from 1995 to 1997 …. I used to go out to Namadgi quite a bit.

Terasawa-san

Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.

SUL gambatte!

Welcome

SUL gambatte (do your best/try hard/fight on)!