Fire from Sunlight.

           Many dozens of years ago I read an extract from a survival manual. Much of the content was actually FM 21-76 repackaged with snippets of allegedly Native American bushcraft. One of the few ideas that seemed novel was to use ice or snow to make a lens to create fire by focusing sunlight. Sunlight tends to be rather diffuse when snow is on the ground, so I have no idea as to how practical this actually is.
           The reason I bring this up is that I have just come across some rather nice videos of ways to use focussed sunlight to create fires.
           In one he uses a quantity of water in kitchen wrap as a lens. Many clear plastic bags could be used instead.

           Similar is the use of a glass pot lid. Could a clear bottle of water be uses in a similar fashion? Possibly! Sadly I don’t have time to experiment today.

           An ingenious method is using the remains of a noodle pot and silver bag to create a concave mirror.

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Yugoslavian Mess Kit in More Detail.

             Recently on this blog I made a brief mention of the Yugoslavian Mess Kit. Since then I have the opportunity to examine a couple of examples so I can now provide some additional details.

             The first thing you notice about this mess kit is the pouch that it comes in. There is an old joke that an elephant is a horse designed to military specifications and there is an element of truth in such witticisms. I have a British ’58 pattern water bottle pouch that I suspect weighs more than many rucksacs I own! The pouch for the Yugoslav mess kit is therefore a pleasant surprise, being simple and made of a reasonable weight of robust canvas. It is provided with two closed loop attachment points on the back. These appear to be approximately 2” so will accommodate many types of belt you may want to use with it.
             I got to examine two examples, both of dull green but differing in shade. The mess kit slid easily out of the first one I examined but the second stubbornly refused to yield its contents at first! Mystified by this I discovered the slot moulding on the bowl was catching under the fastening for the pouch top. This just seems to be a variation in cut and once freed the problem has not reoccurred. 

             The lower, metal part of the mess kit I will call “the pot”. Construction is quite sturdy and the metal used is of a good thickness. Capacity is about 800mls. The pot lid fold upwards and holds the bowl in place when the kit is in the pouch.

             The “bowl” is rectangular in section and appears of similar size and shape to the pot. Capacity is actually about 700mls and wall thickness seems to be at least 3-4mm. The bowl fits over a lip on the top of the pan and is a good friction fit but is also secured by the pan handle. The bowl has no handle but a slot moulded on one side is designed to be hooked over the upturned end of the pot handle. In this manner both pot and bowl can be held in one hand, for example while queuing in a mess line. Like all other plastic parts of the kit it is marked “NE DRŽATI NA VATRI” (“Do not place in Fire”).

 

 

              Inside the bowl and pot is a water bottle. This is slightly unusual for a military water bottle in that it is rectangular in section to fit efficiently within the pot. Capacity is a splash over one litre. The plastic is a little softer than for the other items and has a degree of spring to it. It appears to be intelligently designed and constructed for its intended role. Fitting over the spout of the bottle is a rectangular section “beaker”. This fits over a raised lip on the top of the bottle and forms a secure friction fit. Capacity of the beaker is approximately 150mls.
             The Yugoslavian mess kit is often marketed as an “eight-piece kit”. The final three components are a Knife, Fork and Spoon set (KFS). This fits in the side of pouch in what appears to be an internal pocket but is in fact just two flat loops of cloth. It is easier to fit the kit back in the pouch if the KFS is replaced after the eating and drinking vessels.

             The KFS is somewhat different to the camping KFS I grew up with. The grip of the knife is formed into a sleeve into which the handles of the spoon and fork are inserted. An inscription inside the knife handle includes the word “ROSTFREI” which I know is German for “rust-free” aka “stainless steel”. Odd that, since two tiny specks that appear to be rust are near the inscription. A quick check with a magnet reveals the fork and spoon are not magnetic, but the knife is!

             The knife blade has both a serrated section and a straight, apparently chisel-edged, part. As I reported in a previous blog, the knife has a bottle opener cut-out. I now discover it is provided with a can-opener beak as well. The spoon is quite generously sized. Fork and spoon are both “full-sized” implements which might disappoint the “ultra-light” travellers but be welcome to those with larger hands. Warning: The serrated part of the blade is surprisingly sharp!
             One of the kit’s virtues is also the chief objection. Everything fits neatly together in one package. It is, however, very difficult to access the water bottle without first removing the bowl and pot from the pouch, removing the bottle from within them removing the beaker. Admittedly it may be possible with some pouches to push the pot handle back far enough to remove the bowl while keeping the pot in the pouch, but this is fiddly and not something I would like to try when it is on a belt and I am on the move. Don’t use this as your primary water bottle. Use it to complement a system such as one with a drinking tube you can drink from while walking.
            The Yugoslavian mess kit on its own would not be my first choice for camping/ bushcraft needs. It does, however provide you with some very nice components to build a kit around at a very reasonable price. Many military water bottles or camping KFS kits on sale cost more than the entire Yugoslavian kit. In fact, many belt pouches on their own cost more!

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Emergency Kit for Action Heroes.

            As is the custom on Friday, today’s blog will be a little more diverse and light-hearted than usual. Regular readers will be familiar with my tendency to conduct “thought experiments”, often inspired by books or television that I am viewing. (Well, I like to think they are “thought experiments”. My girlfriend just considers them another of my eccentricities.) 

 

            The following occurred to me while watching an episode of “Supernatural” but it applies to many other examples of the action or horror genre. The scenario is the protagonists end up having to explore somewhere at short notice. Would it not be useful if they had beforehand assembled a small kit that contained useful items they might need?  In effect, a modern day “possibles bag”? We will assume that this kit is intended to fit is a small bag such as a messenger bag, but it could just as readily be distributed in an equipment vest or in a daysac. It would be the sort of thing you can quickly grab from the car before you go to rescue this week’s female guest star. What might the contents be?

• Flashlight. Nearly everywhere in these movies seems to be dark and often underground so a flashlight would certainly be useful. Larger, more robust models can be used as clubs. Your flashlight will flicker and lose power when danger is near.
• Pistol. Danger is usually implied so better to have one and not use it that be without one and need it. A compact high-capacity .45 with several loaded spare magazines would be desirable. If we are in an episode of Supernatural silver or other specialist ammunition will be needed!
• Knife. A good, robust fixed-blade knife. My choice would be a kukri for its versatility and considerable chopping ability. A MOD survival knife is also a good choice. The shorter bladed varieties of machete or the British Army Golok are other possibilities, although might be a bit long to fit in some of the suggested bags.

• Prybar. A small crowbar has various uses and can perform many of the jobs that a knife is not recommended for. As well opening doors and breaking locks it can also be used as a digging implement, a piton or a weapon. Cold iron is of course potent against certain supernatural creatures and a good lump of it works well on most natural creatures!
• Cordage. People always seem to be falling into holes or quicksand so a rope to throw to them will be handy. A hank of paracord bundled hojo-jitsu style. A hank of string or braided fishing is useful for more mundane uses, as communication cord or setting a tripwire to topple a sentry. A roll of duct tape serves to silence and bind captives. A handful of cable ties have a number of potential uses too.
• Shell dressings, plasters. If there are guns about it is only prudent to pack a few battle dressings. A handful of smaller plasters for the inevitable cuts and scrapes. Major characters always seem to get these on their foreheads!
• Fire. One or two disposable butane lighters to light fuses and torches. Of course, in action movies Zippo lighters are disposable! Characters light them and throw them away, particularly if there is a big volume of gasoline.
• Compass. Having a spare compass is never a bad thing and they are rather useful for orientating your treasure map.
• Water bottle. Heroes are often immune to many physical needs, sometimes setting off on arduous journeys with neither a packhorse nor pack. A small bottle of water is useful, however. You can use it to wash wounds or pour it on the floor to find the hidden trapdoor!

            This is just a bit of whimsy, of course, but the resulting list is not a bag nucleus to base an emergency kit around. I would certainly add foil emergency blanket to such a kit. Use a planning system such as Uncle-Phil’s List to judge what other components could be added depending on available capacity and situation.
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A Kephart Inspired Cooking Kit.

      As has become the tradition this week, today’s blog will start with a quote from Kephart:

“Cooking Kit.—It is easy to make up a good lightweight set of utensils for two or more men (see Vol. I. pp. 1 18-123), but a satisfactory one-man kit is another matter. The Boy Scout sets do fairly well for a short outing when baked bread is carried, but are inadequate for baking on the journey. A reflector is too cumbersome for a lone woods-cruiser. Let him bake his bread and cakes in a frying-pan (see Vol. I, pp. 344-345). This, calls for an 8 or 9-inch pan. Get one with folding handle (detachable ones are easily lost), or take a common one, cut off all of the handle but about 1½  inches, and rivet on this stub a semi-circular socket into which you fit your stick for a handle when you go to cooking. For general use I do not like aluminum frying pans, but when traveling afoot they are satisfactory. A deep aluminum plate fits inside the pan in my kit, along with an aluminum fork, whitemetal dessert spoon, and a dish towel. When tied up tightly in a light bag they do not rattle around.
      You want two little kettles for cereals, dried fruit, tea or coffee, to mix dough in, and the like. A pot that is broad and shallow boils water much sooner than one that is deep and narrow, and it is easier to clean. The kettles must not be too big to stow in the knapsack. Anyway, when one is going afoot he does not want to bother with food that takes long boiling, and so has no use for a large kettle, 1 choose two 1-quart aluminum buckets, which can be bought through any dealer in kitchen ware, fill them with part of my foodstuffs, set them bottom to bottom, and tie them tightly in a bag so that the covers will not come off. So there is no waste space, for the food must go somewhere, anyway. The kettles are good protection for perishables. Thus no sooty vessel goes inside another, and you have a package of small diameter.
      A seamless tin cup is carried wherever convenient, generally outside the pack, where it can be got at when one is thirsty. Aluminum is much too hot for cup and spoon. The complete kit weighs just 2 lbs, 2 oz. including bags. No table knife is carried, as I wear a sheath knife.”

Camping and Woodcraft. Horace Kephart 1921 (Vol.2 p102)

      Elsewhere Kephart shows a frying pan with a folding handle with rings through which a stick extension can be inserted. The same feature was seen on the Swedish mess kit described a few days ago.

      Kephart's specifications are very logical, and based on decades of experience and experimentation. Producing a similar kit for my own use proved to be more problematic than one might expected!

      Billies are the main problem. Most items now sold by suppliers as “Billies” are nothing of the sort. They are saucepans with side handles. A true billy has a pail or bail handle like a bucket. This lets it be hung above a fire and then raised higher when you want the contents to simmer. You can use it as a bucket to carry water from a water source. It carries much more easily than a saucepan. You can even swing a billy back and forth by its handle, build up speed and then take it around in a full circle. This is the traditional Australian outback way to settle coffee grounds or tea leaves. You centrifuge them down!
      You can buy true billies as cooking vessels but the majority on offer are far too big. They are for feeding hungry scout troops, not solitary travellers. 

      Suitable frying pans often have the opposite problem. They are often too small. Some are designed to serve as lids for pots, but obviously they can only do one job at a time. Many have detachable handles, or to be more realistic, “losable” handles.

      So, twenty or more years ago the younger me put down his treasured and much read copy of “Camping and Woodcraft” and attempted to solve the conundrum of the camping cooking kit. 

      The frying pan was the easier problem to solve. I brought a lightweight frying pan from a local budget store. I cut off the handle, leaving a short stub. To this I attached a piece of aluminium bent into a not quite complete square section piece of tube. Attachment was by cold riveting with aluminium rivets (the only time since school I have used a technique learnt in metalwork class!) Holes were drilled in the sides of the fitting for the attachment of a wire handle. The handle folds by squeezing it slightly to pass through the channel in the top of the handle fitting. It can also be removed if desired. The square section tube also acts as a socket for the insertion of a suitable stick to act as a longer handle if needed. 

      To create the billies I brought two “milk pans” from a budget store. The handles were sawn off and the rivets where they had been attached were drilled out. Using these holes I attached a piece of aluminium plate, cut and filed to shape. Opposite this plate more holes were drilled and a similar plate fitted. These are the “bail ears”. I think these look rather crude but an engineer friend of mine was quite impressed by them. I used my cold riveting skills to attach these but pop-rivets would probably work just as well. Pop-rivets are sometimes hollow but this will allow a little bit of steam to escape when the lid is on, so this should not be a problem. 

      Word of warning here. Aluminium is a very reactive metal so don’t, for example, use copper rivets with aluminium plate. They will react together and corrode. Read up on this topic and when in doubt ensure you use “like with like”.

      Using aluminium rod a bail handle was made and fitted to the bail ears. Note how the handle and bail ears are shaped so that the handle locks in an upright position when desired. This was the suggestion of the friend I was scrounging the plate and rod from and is rather neat!

      A good camping billy needs a lid. The lids for mine were made from the bottoms of catering-size food tins. Yes, I had mates in the kitchens as well as the workshops! You will come across articles where cooking vessels are entirely made from tin cans. This is not actually recommended since modern tins tend to have a plastic coating inside. This is not designed for prolonged use as a cooking vessel. The tins I used are only used as lids, so don’t get the heat a cooking vessel does. As you can see, each lid has a tab with a folding ring riveted in its centre. I can use this to lift the lid with a stick or similar implement.
      Since they have tapered sides the two billies can be nested even though they have the same capacity. In practice, I do as Kephart suggests: I fill them with foods, put the lids on and place them in a bag, base to base.

      The final part of the kit is the plate. I wanted the plate to also serve as a cover for the frying pan when needed, which eliminated plastics. The plate is an enamelled tin plate. Using a ceramic cutting bit and a fine drill bit I drilled small paired holes in the rim of the plate and used paperclips to create two loops that could be used to lift the plate when it is used as a cover. When travelling the plate fits inside the frying pan and both are carried in a stuff sac I had that was just the right size. This may be accompanied by a spatula, nylon, pan scourer, plastic spork and plastic tubes of washing up liquid and cooking oil. I had planned to add a lightweight plastic cutting board to fit over the plate but never got around to it.

      I used this simple but versatile cooking kit when I hiked in Iceland. Some of my travelling companions regarded it as unusual, but unarguably effective. I was obviously eating better meals than them while carrying less weight.

      Having cooked with a few alternate cooking kits over the years I find my homemade kit still holds its own. While it is quite light for a kitchen item the frying pan is a much heavier duty item than is found in many camping kits. It has the advantage of a cheap non-stick coating too. The milk pans also had a non-stick coating which is still in a very nice state, even though I scratched some measuring marks into it.

      It has been a while since I have had a chance to use these, so they do look a little dusty in the photos. My modifications were never going to win any beauty contests but they have certainly proved themselves up to the tasks asked of them!
         If you have enjoyed this article or it has been helpful to you please feel free to show your appreciation. Thank you.
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