Twig Stoves: Experiences, Opinions and Pictures

Unabashed stovaholic here.

My overall favorite twig stove is the Firebox G2 Titanium.

Light enough to pack every trip, big enough to warm up over and dry things out. Lots of versatility in fuel use, including charcoal, pellets, alcohol, and iso. You need a burner for alcohol and iso, but it works as a great stand and windbreaker.

I have a G2 in SS, it's a heavy kit. The Firebox Nano in Ti has been great to take for day trip tea or coffee. Really dont even notice it, my watch weighs about what the Nano does. My Solo sits in a box, I loan it to others who want to try different types of stoves without spending the cash. It's too bulky for me, I don't ever seem to have the right size items to fit down inside and take up all that wasted packing volume.

I parted ways with my modular twig stoves. I didn't care for how fiddly the tabs would get after some fire and travel, and setting them up would get frustrating and dirty. The Firebox folding system has been bulletproof and while not the absolute lightest, it has made up for its weight with ease-of-use.

I have a "Firebox" and like to use it to make potato pancakes outside ... it smokes and doesn't smell so bad in the kitchen.

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My grandmother (she grew up in Germany) used to make potato pancakes. I loved them and if I remember correctly we put powdered sugar on them and I think applesauce was also part of the meal. Is that what you do or heard of, I could be mis remembering. Now I might have to see if I can find her recipe. She passed in 1981 at the age of 91.
Jim

Kahel - cool looking firebox ... you had me at potato pancakes!

Boatman53 said:

My grandmother (she grew up in Germany) used to make potato pancakes. I loved them and if I remember correctly we put powdered sugar on them and I think applesauce was also part of the meal. Is that what you do or heard of, I could be mis remembering. Now I might have to see if I can find her recipe. She passed in 1981 at the age of 91.
Jim

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YES!

Ingredients for 4 people
Working time approx. 20 minutes | Cooking/baking time approx. 15 minutes | Total time approx. 35 minutes

7 / 8 potatos
1 / 2 onions
1 / 2 egg(s), size L
100 g breadcrumbs ore 3 tbsp flour
salt, pepper
oil
apple sauce

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Preparation

Step 1
Peel the potatoes and chop using a grater or food processor. Peel and grate the onion too.

Step 2
Mix the potatoes and onions with the egg and flour and season with plenty of salt and pepper.

Step 3
Heat a deep frying pan with oil to 3/4 of the heat. Pour 2-3 tablespoons of the batter into the hot oil and fry the potato pancakes for 3-4 minutes on each side until golden brown.

Step 4
Drain the potato pancakes on kitchen paper or a cake rack and serve with apple sauce.


Enjoy your meal!


Tip:
potato pancakes in advance

Potato pancakes are easy to prepare and can even be frozen. To do this, fry them on both sides until they are lightly colored. Drain and leave to cool. Place in the freezer in portions. Remove as required and finish frying in the pan.

Glenn,

Could not find the pics I was looking for so I took 3 off my deck today. This is a 1 quart pot, and a solo stove - the smallest one. It is great, but most of my trips I take the next size up. It does a much better job - cooks faster, makes coffee way faster so when I cant decide between now and right away, the larger stove is my choice. It does not fit in the pot pictured. It does fit in my slightly larger pot - but that is tucked away with my winter camp stuff. First 3 pics are of the smallest solo stove and my pot.











The last one has my large stove nested in the put. Had just made some bacon and and a cup of coffee looking out over the lake before moving on.



Bob.

We have both of the larger Solo Stove twig stoves, the Titan and Campfire, along with the pots and lids that were paired with them. The Titan nests into a 1.8L pot while the Campfire nests into a 4L(?) pot. The stoves and pots each have their own carry sack and the bagged stove nests into the pot so the soot on the pot is pretty well contained. As already mentioned the stoves don't knock down but we store the stove related items in them so that's not an issue.

Here's a picture of the Campfire Solo Stove with the kit that stows in it. The Nalgene bottles hold dish soap, bleach and ghee. There are a few folded squares of chamois towel for dish towels and a patch of Scotch-Brite pad. The mesh screen discs were cut from hardware cloth to allow the use of wood pellets when wood isn't available.

The can lid thing is a pair of tuna can lids that were removed with a side cutting can opener so there are no sharp edges that are bolted together with short 1/4-20 bolts and nuts. The bolt heads on one side and the stub of the bolt on the other side give two different heights over the diffuser so it makes simmering easy even if the fire is quite hot. Add in a couple of fire starters, a waterproof match safe and a small bag of fatwood chips and it all fits into the stove.

The same kind of kit is used with the Titan but a few of the items don't fit into the stove.




We also have the Deluxe kit forms of both the stainless steel and titanium Firebox G2 5" stoves.


I did a major purge of photos recently and seem to have axed any action shots of any of the twig stoves so I'll try to take some soon.

Each type of stove has it's pros and cons. Overall, I prefer the Firebox stoves as they are easier to feed in use and I can feed in longer sticks a few inches at a time as they burn down. It has an ash pan under the fire grate but what's under it can still get pretty hot so it must be used with some caution if not on a heatproof surface. I can't yet speak to how well the titanium one will hold up as it's only around 7 months old and has only been used a few times but the stainless steel one and the Solo Stoves are pretty near bulletproof.

On the other hand, the Solo Stove bottom stays cool and fully contains any ashes and coals so it can be set right on a wooden table or on flammable ground cover such as pine duff without worry. It is more of a chore to feed and seems to need fuel more often than the Firebox partly because it's easier to put bigger diameter stuff into the Firebox.

Both have ways to use an alcohol stove. I have a Trangia alcohol stove setup for the Firebox but haven't used it yet. Heck, I'm not sure I ever will as I have a WhisperLite Universal, a pair of Coleman single burner stoves and a pair of MSR Pocket Rockets so if I ever feel the need to burn anything other than twigs or a regular wood fire I'd reach for one of them first.

Lance

Thanks for your recipe Michael. I did look a bit through my grandmother’s recipes (I hadn’t looked in years) boy there must have been 15 different cheese cake recipes.
I did pull out a meatloaf recipe she wrote down in 1942 that I’ll have to make.
Jim

Excellent post LanceR!

Bob.

I've said it before, "I like Kelley Kettles."

In addition to the above comments, they are fast, and if you have kids on the trip you don't have to worry about fueling it.

kahel said:

Potato pancakes

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My mother's side is all German, I lived with my German grandparents every summer in Maine, and hence grew up with German food. Love potato pancakes with apple sauce. My German grandfather was a baker.

Interesting thread. I've been playing around with a Solo Stove. Once it really gets going, appears to work as advertised. But undecided if I would take it on a trip.

sweeper said:

I've said it before, "I like Kelley Kettles."

In addition to the above comments, they are fast, and if you have kids on the trip you don't have to worry about fueling it.
View attachment 140793

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love that rocking chair

Pseudonym said:

love that rocking chair

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Yes, me too ...

it looks to me that the table and chair are made from old staves of wine barrels.
Very nice work!

by the way ... long time ago I had a idea to build a multi use THING out of an canteen cup ...

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in aktion ...
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in use ..

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I've had to build a lot of these things for my companions ... and we had used them a lot.
It was easy to burn wood, ore the Trangia Burner inside to make coffee, tea, soup, small lunches ore only to watch it burning.

A lid for the canteen cup was also build by me ... of course - Every pot needs a lid.

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@kahel, that is pretty slick! well done

inside the pouch ... a complete small kitchen ...



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kahel said:

Yes, me too ...

it looks to me that the table and chair are made from old staves of wine barrels.
Very nice work!

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You can make a lot of things with Quartersawn White Oak Wine Barrels

Very nice kit there Kahel.
Jim

Sweeper,

I have always been a little curious about the Kelly Kettle, and not until I looked again at your pictures did I realize they did more than boil water. Do you use the "hobo stove" or the pot stand often to cook meals, or primarily just use the kettle to boil water.

I guess there was much more to the kettle than I originally assumed. Lastly, in your opinion is the smaller version adequate for solo use or is it not really large enough?

Thanks for posting your info and pics.

Bob.