BACKWOODS WOOD BURNING STOVE FOR THE TRAIL

Wood burning stoves are a popular alternative to modern stoves like propane stoves and liquid fuel stoves. They're lightweight, cheap and you don't need to carry any fuel because they burn wood. If there's wood around you can use this stove continuously for as long as you keep adding wood to it. This is a very efficient camping stove.

A wood burning stove is simply a piece of sheet metal that is cut and bent to form a chimney. It typically has small holes at the bottom and a large hole on top for the fire to vent when you put a pot on top. In some designs, the top holes are to one side only which causes the fire to burn unevenly. You also can't control the fire like you could in a propane stove or liquid fuel stove because there's no knob for you to control the fire.

Cooking with wood fire also means that you need to use a good hard wood that burn slower and hotter so you want have to feed it with wood frequently. Fires are also harder to start especially in the cold winds of winter. There will be a lot of smoke which some may find annoying if you don't use hard wood. Because wood burning stoves generate smoke and carbon dioxide cooking inside the tent in a fierce storm is out of the question. Another problem with wood burning stoves is that you can only use it where you are allowed to burn and collect wood.

In order to get a wood stove started you first need to have some kindling or you can whittle some wood with a knife to make some fine material which is very flammable. You can also use other stuff as long as it is flammable.

Once you have a sizeable amount of kindling ready, put the stove over the kindling and start to fill the stove with small pieces of wood. Twigs, branches or any wood that is less than a centimeter in diameter would work well. Try to lay your wood upright so that the smoke can move up the stove efficiently. Don't use too much wood at the beginning because it might hinder air circulation inside the stove. The fire won't burn well without the air.

Use a match or lighter to light the kinding to get the fire started. In a few moments you will have a fire ready for cooking. You might have to blow into the stove if you use wet wood. Once the stove gets going, it will continue to burn until you stop putting wood in.

Place your pot on top of the stove to start cooking. The fire and smoke will exhaust itself through the hole at the top of the stove. Add more wood if the fire starts to die out. With a good fire it takes about 10 minutes to get water to a rolling boil.