Suluk46 TDW: Any Users?

Every time I hop back to his site something surprises me…I hadn’t seen the TDW wood stove but it looks amazing.  3 ounces?  My Woodlore wood stove (which, granted, only cost me $26.99) weighs in at 6.74 ounces.  The other reason to consider this is that titanium doesn’t rust – after just a couple of uses my other wood stove has a bunch of rust, specifically on the wire mesh bottom.

Something else to add to my “To Buy Someday” list…

Edited to add:  I bought his Napsiktok Ti stove on Massdrop for $42.74 (including shipping) in October and haven’t used it yet.  I’m thinking of taking it on my next trip (April) and seeing how it does.  It only weighs .8 ounces but needs a windscreen bringing the weight up to around 1.5 ounces.

It’s neat, isn’t it? Albeit very expensive, but neat.

I’ve wanted to try a gasifier stove for their efficiency and minimized cleanup, and there isn’t a lot of semi-decent quality options out there. The cheapest and heaviest option is a Solo Stove ($70, 9 oz.), but you can get some substantial weight loss by spending a little bit extra and going with a Bushbuddy ($100-110, 6.4-5.2 oz.).

The cost gap between a .004 Bushbuddy and a TDW is not insignificant, and it’s difficult to judge if it’s worth it because there’s little information about the TDW. John Abela has used one and stated that he liked it quite a bit, but that’s the extent of the feedback I know of. The distinct advantages to me that the TDW stove has over the others is that it seems to be slightly smaller (i.e., will nest into pots better) and is made of titanium (for the reasons you already stated). I’d like a gasifier I could nest into a Titan Kettle, and I think that the TDW is the only one that will nest completely within one; I think the others are too tall.

There are quite a few videos of people in Asia unboxing them, but as I did not speak the language or text of the videos, it’s difficult to know if they like them or not. :)

Jonathon,
I sent you an email answering some questions. I actually stated that it wouldn’t fit in the Titan Kettle, but wasn’t sure, so maybe I was wrong. It’s been a few years since I had the kettle and was going off memory.

Anyway, I thought I would shed some light on the expense of the stove, as I completely understand that it isn’t an economic option. I had a bushbuddy many years ago and approached Fritz to make me  titanium version. To make a long story short, he had tried working on one and for a variety of reasons, it didn’t work out. So I set out to make my own. I spent an incredible amount of time and money testing and manufacturing the dies required to form the titanium top and bottom portions. Then I played with thicknesses of material to get the thinnest I could go without the material failing while it was being stretched. I was able to weld 0.005″ thick ti walls to the top and bottom, but not the 0.003″ thick ti for the walls it currently has. I did this by developing a custom welder with my university and have the same one to this day – if it ever broke, I think that would be the end of the TDW stove :(. After all that, the formed titanium need to be machined on a rotary table mounted using a mill for the slots and to cut the bottom 2 pieces, and manually making all the parts and welding them together takes me hours…I almost cringe every time I sell one because I know it means my evening is shot. I’ve actually pulled it off my website a couple of times only to get  bunch of people asking to buy it, so I put it back up. In the end, i would want nothing more than to offer it for a competitive price, but I just cannot, as the costs to make it are astronomical.

As for the Japanese market, they are very popular there. They really dig their wood burning stoves, so many of them go over seas.

I’ll try my best to answer questions so any of you have, so that you have the confidence that it is the right purchase for you. I don’t want people to buy something that doesn’t work for them, so ask anything you want.

Kevin,
My primary fuel is esbit and my go-to stove is the Napsiktok so you made a good choice. Super tiny, light, and it’s great to have a wood option in the event that I use up my esbit on a trip.

Steve

Steven,

Thanks for the feedback! You’ve been especially helpful. :) And thank you for responding to this thread (and my emails). I’m sure it’ll serve as a decent base for future inquiries by others; the only reason why I posted here is that there didn’t seem to be much discussed concerning the TDW here on BPL. Seems like making the stove seem a bit of a hassle! That being said, I’m glad you offer it. It’s really one-of-a-kind.

I really want to like Esbit, but it really isn’t economical for me. I drink what is probably considered an absurd amount of tea. Wood is probably the only reasonable, economical option for me to heat up water. And, to be honest, I readily admit that I’m leaning towards a TDW. It looks to be an awesome product. I’m just a bit skittish before I spend large-ish amounts of money.

I have to ruminate on it a bit. ;)

Jonathon – Go ahead and ruin one of Steve’s nights and pull the trigger.  If you’re unhappy with it I’ll buy it off you for what you paid.  You’d only have to ship it to me…

This way, if I end up with it, I can honestly say:  “But honey – it wasn’t my fault…”

PM Sent…

This way, if I end up with it, I can honestly say:  “But honey – it wasn’t my fault…”

I often use the line “I bought it used,” which seems to take the sting out of it. She thinks it’s more than a little weird to buy underwear that way but she doesn’t truly appreciate stuff like good Patagooch longjohns that can last for decades.

As for wood stoves, I’ve tried to embrace wood stoves because I love the smell and the ambiance of the glowing embers and the free, weightless fuel. However in the morning I always end up with the sooty pot, and while I am not at all offended by the smoky fragrance I don’t want everything to smell like that and it takes a fair amount of bagging to prevent it.

Still, it is sometimes fun to carry the Emberlit Mini on a long day hike and stop to make coffee in the early afternoon.

Very cool to hear from Steve Evans and get the story behind this product. Looks as if I might get to see one of these in April? ;^)

However in the morning I always end up with the sooty pot, and while I am not at all offended by the smoky fragrance I don’t want everything to smell like that and it takes a fair amount of bagging to prevent it.

I love it! But, then again, I could bathe myself in a good Lagavulin or Mezcal.

Kevin, I think you made up my mind! Responding to your PM shortly.

Full Disclosure – Steve Evans and I have no business relationship other than that of vendor-customer.

Bob – I believe you’ll be seeing the Napsiktok stove on our April trip because I can’t imagine that Jonathon will have decided it’s not the stove for him that quickly (but I could be wrong).

Jonathon – I received your PM…I’m glad you accepted my offer.  If I don’t hear from you within the next six months I may have to ruin another one of Steve’s evenings…but I’ll give you that much time to decide.