Originally Posted By chimpac
I am really sorry you can't burn wood where you want to go, so you have to make the best of it and use what you can for cooking.
This thread is really about making a gassifier stove, are you saying forget it, you will never use it because there is no place to burn it?
It is good to be informed about where a woodstove on a chimney in a tent is legal and I would be interested in a thread devoted to the subject.


Let me squeeze a comment in here. I don't believe the Bushbuddy and other double-walled stoves are gassifiers. The double wall design simply adds a secondary air inlet of warmed-up air, for more efficient burning.

I was playing with my variation of this type stove yesterday, and the wood was wet, but i used birch bark like paper, twigs, and then big chunks of wood. After 5 minutes of smoking, the fire got going and lasted about ten minutes. Almost got 2 cups of water boiling. I think the trick is in selecting wood that will get hot and burn long. I have no idea what kind of wood I was burning yesterday, but it wasn't pine. Another trick is to load BIG chunks in the thing, sort of like we do with a home wood stove. After the first 5 minutes, when the thing was trying to get going, there was NO smoke at all. Next time I'll use bigger diameter chunks on top, to see if I can get a boil out of one load of wood. The diameter I was using yesterday was about an inch, an inch and a quarter, for the big stuff. I load the stove with peeled and crumpled birch bark, and then make a hatchwork pile with teensy twigs on top of the birch, and bigger twigs, up to pencil diameter, in the criss-cross pattern half way up the can, then the chunks on top.

With my stove design, there are separate inlets for combustion air for the fire itself, and for the secondary combustion area at the top. Also, if the bottom fills up with combustion debris, I can remove the cook pot, and using a couple longish twigs, pick the stove up while it's burning and move it over, leaving the ashes behind. The bottom is open. Of course it has to be used on a flat rock. I can also add birch bark below the fire to help it out a little, by stuffing it through the primary inlets with a little twig. That's helpful when adding more fuel to keep a fire going. I removed the primary and secondary air adjustment mechanisms for now, because they were getting hard to operate due to the cans being outside all this time and getting a little rusty. woops. I've got a dozen prototypes outside laying around.

For me, here in the east, the wood stove is fun, mystical, my connection to my neanderthal brothers (not you guys), and it's something I do for me. My wanting to mess with it outweighs my concerns for saving 2 ounces. Also, I am happy to not use fossil fuel whenever I can. I know it's different out west, thanks to all the emails describing the situation there. Bummer for you westerners! The thrill of camping for me has always been defined by "the campfire" and things I could put in one. Somemores, marshmallows, hot dogs, my camping buddy... not to mention all the lies and tall tales told boldly. Just kidding about the buddy. Fire is sort of magical out in the woods.

It's interesting that just this week Hillary Clinton was talking about clean-burning stoves for undeveloped countries. The gassifier is just such a stove. It was designed for that kind of use. It's really complicated, clean-burning, and it does convert wood into gases that are then burned. I think it's also a downdraft type of combustion. I don't know of a true downdraft gassifier that is functional for a backpacker. Does anyone know of one? Do we have an expert who knows about this stuff?

Well, if it's a gassifier, or just an efficient burner, I like the idea of a smoke-free fire. I haven't really learned all the nuances of how to use mine yet, but it's a cool way to burn some time, pun intended. Better than sitting in front of the monitor (the new TV, complete with advertisements on every freakin webpage). I know that the Bushbuddy instructions say to "practice, practice, practice!" To use it well probably involves learning about the different kinds of trees, and the burning characteristics of each kind. Every kind of tree burns differently from all the others, and moisture affects them differently, as well. Also, being green or cured makes a difference. I may NEVER learn how to use this thing completely!

On a different note, I was awarded disability (yay!), but the gov't decided to change the date of onset a couple years, thereby screwing me out of 36 grand. I said screw that and am presenting more evidence. If I have to, I'll appeal to the federal courts. I was hoping to get my backpay this month. It's been six years now since I've worked gainfully.
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