A good friend of mine always brings his. Two years ago I showed him my new "Pepsi Can" stove. He was impressed, but still brought his old Svea 123. Last year I showed him my brand new Supercat stove and he was even more impressed, but still insisted on bringing his brass.

Before we left he told me he cleaned it and I know he spent as much or more time doing that than I did making my first Supercat. I have to admit though, and I've never owned one, or even saw one before I saw his, there is something about his old stove that does feel like an old friend. He's had it since it was new. Got it on his first real backpacking trip back in the mid 70s. There is a certain comfort you get just looking at it and watching and listening to it while it burns. It must be an air of quality and dependability that it exudes somehow. You can tell it will last a lifetime just by looking at it.

For me, I really fell in love with the simplicity of the Supercat, and I'm growing pretty fond of using it too. I've been tinkering with some simple add-ons and thinking about some modifications, but I haven't really tried them out yet. The great thing is, there is a lot of headroom for mods and add-ons and tinkering and no matter what I do it will still weigh far less than my Coleman eXtreme stove, which I thought was pretty darn snazzy and lightweight when I first got it.

Even though I don't think I'd ever bring it backpacking, if I ever found an old Svea 123 at a secondhand store for a decent price I'd have to snatch it up just to have one. I'd set it on my shelf and look at it and I'm sure it would warm my soul