Could the best wood burning stove just be a 3’x3′ chunk of wire cloth?

[Kevin Burton]

I've had the Emberlit UL Mini for about 1.5 years now and while the stove build is high quality I have issues with the entire theory of wood burning stoves (after making a LOT of them).

Mostly these center around the amount of time it takes to maintain the fire. Either you're feeding the fire or breaking sticks into 3" chunks for it to burn OR hunting for wood.

Traditional fires are sort of a no brainer though. Every time I have a fire pit I'm in HEAVEN because all I have to do is throw a bunch of large logs on the fire and I'm done.

I was thinking that it might be easier to just build it with a large base of wire cloth at the bottom. The small ash particles will just fall through (which is fine).

If you made the mesh all interlocking it would pack away pretty easily.

One issue though is what do you do about a wind shield. I think some aluminum flashing would work well for this purpose.

Thoughts? Has anyone built anything like this before?

[USA Duane Hall]

I think fire will be its worst enemy. The heat will weaken the material and it will start flaking off, leaving a mess in your pack. I'm thinking of regular hardware cloth, maybe other material will be ok.
Duane

[Kevin Burton]

huh.. I've seen other people make stoves out of hardware cloth.

You have to put the gear in a plastic bag anyway. The soot builds up even after the first use and otherwise your pack would be all black.

[todd]

Courtesy of Zelph:

http://www.woodgaz-stove.com/woodgaz-folding-backpacking-stove.php

[Ken Thompson]

nm

[rmeurant]

Evernew in Japan used to make a folding fireplace that was just wire cloth and a tetrapod of four folding legs to elevate it off the ground. Rather elegant, I always regretted not getting one.

[Kevin Burton]

that's basically exactly what I want.

[peter vacco]

"Mostly these center around the amount of time it takes to maintain the fire. Either you're feeding the fire or breaking sticks into 3" chunks for it to burn OR hunting for wood. "

but … these issues, and their mastery, are the core essential GOODNESS of a wood stove.
add to them the virtues of an occasional hole in your clothing, and you have "arrived".

it is indeed a fine and pleasant misery, is it not ?

cheers,
v.

[Tom D.]

You get something like a Firemug and maintaining the fire is almost a non issue. 3 minutes to gather a handful of twigs and load it, light it from the top so the coals drop down and ignite the wood under it. Once you light it, , theres no need to keep adding wood and it burns long and hot enough to boil about a liter of water, depending on the size of the stove.

[Dan Yeruski]

Listen to the firemedic, me :-))))) and cadyak(firemug)

[Miguel Arboleda]

http://www.vargooutdoors.com/titanium-fire-box-grill.html#.UcI7OBb_QrQ

http://www.snowpeak.com/grills/fire-places.html

[Kevin Burton]

This one looks like the design I want…

http://www.snowpeak.com/grills/fire-places/pack-and-carry-l-fire-place-st-032.html

but it's 12 lbs!!!

Did they make it out of iron?!

[rmeurant]

Somewhere along the way, (in my opinion), Snow Peak forgot what light weight solo equipment should be like (ok, a broad generalization, but I have noticed this trend in their solo tents, for example).

[James Crowley]

Is there any difference between Hardware Cloth and Wire Cloth? I am pretty sure – according to sites around the net – http://www.bwire.com/index.html – they are the same exact thing? What are you guys considering to be the difference between these?

Anyways – Wire Cloth should be able to last near the fire for quite some time. This material comes in different alloys, and some of these metals are considered to be "high temperature resistant".

[Author]

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