Fire in your mid ??????

Sparks and smoke would be the biggest issue.

Seek Outside makes a silnylon mid with a stove jack which would work basically like you envision, but with any kind of small wood stove. I would not trust an open fire with a small mid and especially not with all the expensive outdoors gear we ULers like to use.

This is the size of one of those tipi :

I agree with Franco. I think you could only safely have a fire of a useful size (for cooking and heat) in a very large tipi. Also, I don't know if you're aware of the strength of the correlation between breathing air containing a lot of particulate matter (like smoke) and reduction in lifespan. Short life expectancy for women in some parts of S. America, Africa, and SE Asia is attributed in large part to cooking over indoor fires. You wouldn't be doing it every day, obviously, but the effect on your health might not be negligible.

If ground fires in your mid are impractical, and you don't want the weight and bulk of a Kifaru or TiGoat wood stove with a metal chimney, you could consider a small enclosed woodstove with no chimney. If you use something like a BushBuddy or a Caldera Cone in wood-burning mode, the smoke inside would be greatly reduced relative to a ground fire, but you'd still get a small amount of heat.

One "open fire" stove I would consider using (if I really had to) inside a large tipi is the Bio Lite.
It was designed to minimise smoke emission for the reasons Colin has already outlined.
http://www.biolitestove.com/products/campstove/

Yes, it will work. 2oz of split twigs top lit will boil 2 cups. Fourdogstove was the inspiration…….it worked for me also :-) Burned top down creates very little smoke.

Tipis are built with liners for a reason. The liner and outer covering act together to draw the air from the bottom and smoke out of the smoke flaps at the top keeping fresh air circulating into the main living area, kind of like a bushbuddy stove double wall. Also the direction of the smoke flaps at the top drew smoke out as the flaps were moved according to the changing wind direction. We lived in one for years. I seriously would not ever consider having an open fire in a mid. Even with all the proper arrangements with our tipi we still had a unique
"skin color" and knew we breathed some smoke when we had open fires. Eventually we got a sheepherders stove and that was really toasty in winter.

Can't say that i would recommend it. Something i've thought of working on, is a conical stove (think over sized Caldera Cone type wood stove), made with aluminum on the outside, some kind of lightweight insulation in the middle (fiber glass, kevlar fabric, aerogel, etc), and titanium foil on the inside. Then aluminium pipe, but with titanium foil inside on the first foot of the pipe.

The idea is relatively cheap and light. A mid combined with a Heat sheet inner and one of these small budget stoves theoretically could work great.

I have a Seek Outside Large titanium woodstove with one of their Tipi tents, but that's primarily for our bug out bag. I'm looking to make a solo combo i could use more meanwhile, and for if i need to leave Becky for periods of time under post collapse conditions.

Bad idea. Sparks travel upward, which would be your shelter fabric. Native American tipis were animal hides which are unaffected by sparks.

Now a fire in front of an open shelter… that works fine. My standard set up for winter in a forest is a lean-to flat tarp with a fire in front. I've kept a fire going all night this way quite a few times when I needed it.

Sparks would be the least of my concerns, i'd be more worried about carbon monoxide poisoning.

you could try it with an esbit cube. that way you'd get the heat, and the stench from those things is so pungent, that you'd know Right Now if any of the fumes were hanging around.

personally, i burn sterno in my tent all the time with no ill effects. it cures mild hypothermia in the wink of an eye too.

i have tons of bushbuddy time (worn out two of them) and i can't see lighting one off too close to home.
even outside with it between my legs, i end up with multiple holes in very spendy gear by the end of the trip.
sparks happen, twigs fall out, whatever.. eventually you light the ground on fire a little bit. is just the nature of the beast. i love the dear things, but in a tent .. not so much loving that idea.

cheers,
v.

Thanks for all the advise. So, it sounds like I would be better off spending my time building a little stove with a stove pipe. In the past, I just didn't like having to set up the stove/pipe when i got to camp. took too much time. At least now there are options for stoves that set up faster and easier.

Thanks
Ben

I tried burning a can of Sterno in a Megalight once – it didn't seem to heat up the tent at all. I don't think the heat output is enough to make a difference in a large pyramid tarp.

Ancient Native Americans made small fires in their huts made of small saplings and covered with rushes. I'll see if I can find a photo.

Ben, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Ben,

Is this for base camping or for backpacking use?

I'd be concerned not just about tent melting but sleeping bag/pad etc. I've also had a couple friends try propane "tent heaters". They ended up going through alot of fuel, and burning themselves in the dark.

Boy scouts taught us a very heavy style of camping/backpacking. They often brought extra rope and heavy duty walmart tarps to make a sheltered fire area separate from the sleeping tents. Much saf"er", though you need to be aware that if any tarp does catch and blows around its probably a big forest fire hazard.

> I know that silnylon is flammable,
I disagree. I tried the flammability test on some silnylon I have and the flame went out.

Sparky wood – not wise. A small fire using dry non-sparky wood in a large mid – it could work. Could be a bit smoky if you don't have and use good ventilation up top – like in a teepee. Yes, the native Indians did do that, although their teepees were bigger.

The suggestion of using a Bush Buddy or equivalent is much better. A small one of those would not be much different from a fuel stove. Just watch the smoke and sparks.

Cheers

Tipis (tepees) were peculiar to the plain tribes.
Apart from those tribes, the others used very different type shelters .
See here :
http://www.native-languages.org/houses.htm
However fires were lit inside those 20' something high shelters.
again MUCH larger than the types usually discussed here.

I lived in a tipi for 21 years in the mountains of NC and had a woodstove the whole time and would never consider using an open fire in such a structure if I had the option to get and use a good woodstove. A stove is much more efficient with no sparks and little if any smoke.

Living out in the winter is easy with such a setup as a good woodstove provides enough heat in subzero temps with no problem. The inverted cone of the tipi also provides great heat reflection back down to the ground, especially if using a winter ozan or canvas ceiling.

Winter backpacking and camping on the other hand requires an overkill down sleeping bag to compensate for living in a tent without a woodstove. I always equate a good down bag to being my "woodstove" and it allows me to deal with severe cold without needing a fire or a wood supply or a woodstove. And I'm much more mobile when substituting a good down bag for a woodstove.

Franco, this photo was taken inside a museum up in Madison, WI. I depicts what a fire pit looked like in a small, square hut that has a square hole in the roof for smoke to escape. Hut was large enough for 2 people.

This thread reminded me of a Wawhiker vid I saw a while back… he uses a Golite SL3… I wonder if Trail Designs would ever be interested in copying this or improving, it seems the caldera cone is not far away…

UltraLight Backpacking Hot Tent and Titan…: http://youtu.be/00-Um-yvTR8