Kick the Old Bucket: Review of the Collapsible Bucket

Conveyance or the ease of portability is one of the key facts when traveling in the great outdoors. Most of us would love to take everything from the house, but it is just too hard to fit into a backpack. However, every now and again a piece of gear comes out to make the impossible possible to pack.

In Dave Canterbury’s book, “Advanced BushCraft” in chapter 12 in the first paragraph on page 208 he says,

“I grouped containers and conveyances together in one chapter because they both relate to transportation: one to the transportation of goods and the other to the transportation of food.”

One of the biggest concerns that containers solve is the gathering, purifying, and storing of potable water. While our stainless steel water bottles can do a lot, a downfall they encounter is the capacity of water they can gather at one time or store after purifying. But I think I might have found a solution.

I purchased the 1.3 Gallon collapsible bucket by Ozark trail at Walmart for about $8 – 10. I wanted something that I could take fishing and ended up with so much more. Before I break down my experiments with this gear I must state the following.

“I am not being paid to endorse this item. I paid for it with my own money under my own volition. My review is genuine and accounts are from my, and mine alone, experiences with this item.” And with that, let us get on with it.

Out of the box you get a blue silicone bucket with a hard plastic rim and base to improve stability. 8 1/2 inches in diameter and 2 inches tall collapsed and 8 expanded. Attached to the plastic rim is a handle that can rest on a plastic tab with a hole in it that allows the bucket to be hung during storage. Also on the rim is a spout that allows for better pouring and a hand grip indent in the base to aid with the pouring. These features make this item a smart investment.

For my test I wanted to see if this bucket could function at least on par with a standard plastic 1 gallon bucket. I will be testing the following:

• How much it will actually hold while being carried?
• Ease of carrying, Ease of unfolding, Ease of storing?
• Holding of water and other materials?
• How does it handle the extreme temperatures?

As the name implies the bucket should hold about 1.3 gallons or 5 liters. I figured this would be a good starting test. After pouring in a gallon of water it came up to the plastic rim. Where the silicone meets hard plastic. Knowing another quart would bring it to 1.25 gallons, I proceeded to add this to the bucket. It came about a 1/3 of an inch from the lip.

This did make the bucket a little too full and caused some water to slosh out. Instead, of filling it to the brim, I would stop at the hard plastic lip this would give you the most water and with the best conveyance. The collapsible bucket weighs 12 ¾ oz. With a gallon of water inside  it weighs 9 lbs. This compared to a typical bucket which is 7 ½ ounces. and 8 ¾ lbs.

Compared to a standard plastic 1 gallon bucket, they both perform similarly. Not much could be noted differently. The biggest difference was that the standard plastic 1 gallon bucket sloshed out more water when filled than the collapsible bucket.

After all of my first measurements I decided to take it out fishing. The bucket was simple enough to carry out with the rest of my gear. A normal bucket would’ve been simple too, however with this I was able to have it folded up and tucked under my arm. Next I opened the bucket. By holding the handle in my left, then making my right hand into a fits and placing it against the base I applied force until the silicone unfolded itself. A common bucket would not have needed this step. Next I filled it up with water just like a normal bucket. After a time fishing I poured out the water using the special hand grips on the base of the collapsible bucket. A feature not found on a common bucket.

Later, I returned home and filled the bucket back up and left it there overnight. In the morning I checked the water level and nothing had changed. I would expect a common bucket would also do the same. A few weeks later I used the bucket in making clay cups and bowls. I ended up with about a cup of clay left in the bucket. Accidentally, I left it out in the elements for about 10 months. I am happy to report the bucket received no damage whatsoever during this time. The water even froze and thawed during this time and still work just fine. I have had common buckets crack under these circumstances. It even had developed rust stains from having metal in it. All was later cleaned using only water and a toothbrush.

The only real way a common bucket could beat this collapsible bucket is in the use as a seat. This bucket being collapsible makes it unable to hold up weight at all. Using weighted plates, only 5 lb could be support and I would guess not for very long. However, a common plastic bucket can hold my weight 250+.

In summary, the collapsible bucket gives the user the ability to move a gallon or more of water for some distance. It can be stored on or in a backpack easily and would not add much weight. I even got the bucket to hold water at 195 degrees F without damage to the container. It could even be used as a latrine, like Dave Canterbury suggest in Journal of the Yurt video 2 at 0:44.

“I’ll empty this bucket out tonight and use it as a urinal.”

It could hold items, obviously after washed out, or even used to mix dough for cooking. Apply a little wood ash and you have a hillbilly washing machine, plus you clean the bucket. And while you may think this last idea is silly, it could be used to keep the rain off of your head should you need that. The only ability it lacks when compared to a common bucket is being used as a stand. Make sure you keep one to cross off your bucket list, and so the old plastic one can finally kick the bucket. Next week I’ll be taking a typical Walmart rectangle tarp and improving it, you won’t want to miss it. As always feel free to comment, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one. Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.

Bake, Boil, and Fry. Oh My!: Testing Mess Kits for Bush Cooking Needs

Now that I’ve shown you my homemade kit, Click Here if you missed it, it needs to be tested. Now typically I would just record its bare stats and that would be enough to know which of my packs it would be going into, or would allow me to know what capabilities it would have before entering the field. However, to give more of a balanced review we will be measuring it alongside others that you could easily purchase at Walmart or Amazon on the cheap. Now, why these: Well not only are they the only other type of kits I currently own, they vary enough to allow me to see where my custom kit will fall into place. Before I break down my experiments with this gear I must state the following:

“I am not being paid to endorse this item. I paid for it with my own money under my own volition. My review is genuine and accounts are from my, and mine alone, experiences with this item.”

 And with that, let’s look at some questions.

As with any good test we decided the best course would be to question what we are looking for in a cooking kit. Besides the common baking, boiling, and frying, we were also concerned with volume. No more and no less than a quart is preferred. Stability; it’s important that it is able to cook on a fire without falling over and spilling water onto said fire. This eliminated round-bottomed bowls from the test. Speed; we were hoping to find an ideal configuration to optimize processing (baking/boiling/frying) time. Serve-ability; sometimes it’s nice to be able to serve your meal as opposed to eating it out of the pot that it was cooked in. This isn’t very important, but we are trying to see what all we can get out of each kit. Compact-ability; we really want the best gear we can get and store it in the smallest space possible. Storage-ability; we want to be able to add other items into the kit so we can store more things. This may be confused with compact-ability, however with this we are looking to see what we can store inside the kit rather than storing the kit itself. We will be conducting the test comparing only the materials used here without any base to compare them to. This means that only the pots in question will be compared only to each other. We will be using a 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd system and finding the average for statistics for each pot.

 Let us get to the lineup:

Mess Kit A                           

Ozark Trail 3 Piece Stainless Steel Cookware Set

5 3/4 inch wide   5     inch deep pot holding 5 cups

4 7/8 inch wide   4 ¾ inch deep pot holding 7 cups

A lid that fits both pots with a folding knob

Folding handles

Included by me -- A plastic cup with measurement

Initial impressions: Likely not good for baking or frying, but the optimal choice for boiling. Contents appear to be even or greater to Kit B, but there is not really anything to serve up food with. It appears that it would be stable in a cooking environment. There is opportunities for Storage-ability, however, not much in the way of Compact-ability.

Mess Kit B                                           

Coleman 5 piece aluminum mess kit:

One plate measuring 5 ¾ inch bottom with 1 ½ inch walls

Securing handle to lock all the pieces together

Another plate the same size except it can turn the securing handle in to a frying pan handle

Small pot that holds close to 2 cups more like 1 ¾

Metal cup with measurement markers

Initial impressions: This kit appears to be optimal for frying and baking, however, at first glance does not appear that it could do much in the way of boiling. Its volume appears to be adequate and it appears sturdy enough to stand up in a cooking environment. There are dishes to serve up the food with all stored within the kit itself. It is also compact so it could slide right into your pack.

Mess Kit C        

My custom kit:

9 inch wide 2 inch walls round cake pan

8 ¾ inch wide and 3 inch walls that hold 60oz (6 cups is better than full pot)

4 ½ inch wide and 1 ½ inch wall cup that is 7oz (close enough to a cup to be used for measuring)

Vice grip pliers

Initial impressions: This kit seems adequate for baking and boiling, but with no apparent handle frying appears to be difficult. It is similar, but a bit larger than B so it likely has a higher volume. With its larger size it may be a bit more unstable in a cooking environment, however this presents more opportunities for Storage-ability. It is slightly larger than pot B, but is still flat so Compact-ability still does not appear to present an issue.

To test these, I have decided to use the camp stove “Peak 1” made by Coleman. The test would be better if I could’ve used a campfire for each, however I wanted to make sure the performance was as equal across all the different kits and tests. The Stove will allow me to keep the heat source an independent variable from the different mess kits which will be my dependent variables. That’s science son, now let’s start the test.

Boiling Test

For the first test we timed how long it took to boil water. For the test we filled each pot with 2 cups of water then placed it on the burner and timed it till the water came to a rolling boil.

Mess Kit A: The kit had two different pots so both were boiled. About 7:05 minutes for both. The time came back a couple seconds apart. I chalked this up to human error with the stop watch. Some problematic elements that we discovered were that the lid began to shake the closer the pot got to boiling, there is no way to hang this pot up unlike Pot B, and also during this test both pots seemed to have balance issues, however nothing came of it.

Mess Kit B: The pot in this kit was made closer to what a typical pot looks like, however it’s smaller size limits the amount of water that can be boiled. We went with 1 ¾ cups over 2. I was afraid of over boiling and made this call. It came to a boil in 5:49 minutes. Beside it small size no other problems we noted during the test.

Mess Kit C:  Since the boiling apparatus in this kit is large dog bowl with a flat bottom gave this pot the most stability. However during the test it took 8:50 minutes to achieve a rolling boil. This was about 2 minutes longer than Mess Kit A and 3 minutes longer than Mess Kit B. Other problems were that the lid (round cake tin) was hard to remove during the boiling process as I checked and releasing the vice grips from the pot during the test made me nervous.

Overall: we found that Mess Kit B’s pot even though it was smaller worked the best. Followed by Mess Kit A and then Mess Kit C.

Frying Test

After completing the first test, we wanted to look at each kit’s ability to fry. For our testing medium, we used a slice of bologna and a ½’ cube of Crisco. For all three kits we allowed the Crisco to melt before adding the bologna and spread it around the frying surface. We then timed it to see how long it took to get a nice seared crust without overly burning the bologna slice.

Mess Kit A: We had to improvise with this kit and use the larger of the two pots as a frying pan. The pot was deep which made it challenging to flip the bologna and the actual surface which we fried on was so small the bologna barely fit, overall it took about 3:15 minutes. We wanted to experiment with the lid, however it has no walls to be used as a frying device.

Mess Kit B: This kit took 4:38 minutes to cook the bologna due to the issues we encountered while frying. The handle of the pan offset the balance on the burner of the Peak 1. I would like to add that this problem would be eliminated by cooking with it cooking irons or over a bed of coals or using a heavier food to counterbalance the handle.

Mess Kit C:  This kit continued to balance well and using vice grips as a removable handle made flipping the bologna a breeze. I did note that I did not use enough Crisco to account for the larger frying surface so there were issues with sticking in spots. The cook time was 4:00 even, a bit longer than Kit A, but a drastically better experience.

Overall: We found that Mess Kit C was best suited for frying due to its balance and manageability. Plus more space means more room for food. We believe Mess Kit A was at its limit with frying and were surprised that it could even do what it did. Kit B surprised us by being more difficult than expected to work with, however this is likely do to our experiments being done on the Peak 1.

(P.S. my wife ate all of the bologna.)

Baking Test

For the final test we wanted to see how well each kit could bake. Baking in the field allows you to produce food without having to expend any other energy in search of other local nutrients. Every ¼ cup of flour has 100 calories in it. Our bread mixture used during this experiment used one cup of self-rising flour and half a cup of water. This recipe could be altered as long as it maintained the two to one ratio. In addition, we added a pinch or two of flour, just enough to be able to work with the dough. It was not kneaded and all of the baking surfaces were greased with Crisco, about the same amount as before, but spread around the pan this time. We also flip the bread every 2-3 minutes to try and prevent sticking.

Mess Kit A: We used the larger pot to bake our bread in. There came an issue when flipping as we had to flip the bread into the smaller pot and then back again. Fortunately there was no sticking and the bread was finished in 12:53 minutes.

Mess Kit B: The biggest issue encountered with this kit was the handle slipping loose and removing the lid while flipping the container. There was also an issue with sticking as the bread became burnt on to one side of the pan and had to be scraped off. The cook time was 15:04 minutes.

Mess Kit C: In the future I would remember to include gloves with this kit as the only way to flip it was to use my fingertips to lift it off of the heat source and turn it over. Other than that the only problem was that we would find oil spots on the outside of the pan which is a potential fire hazard, however it was not an issue during testing. The bread finished baking in 12:35 minutes.

Overall: Kit C was the best choice for baking due to its faster cooking time, no sticking, and ease of flipping. Kit A surprised me once again, but due to the issue with flipping it came up short. Kit B could have done better, but there are some issues needing to be corrected which could set it apart significantly.

 

Other Test

Before we call a victor, there are a few other additional notes we are using to evaluate the

kits by. Volume: We chose Mess Kit A as number one because it has two pots, which each held a significant amount of liquid, followed by Mess Kit C, and lastly B.

Stability: Mess Kit C won out in stability as it never had a problem with wobbling or balance. B was next because it was reasonable stable when boiling, even though its handle when frying impacted its balance greatly. Mess Kit A had a constant wobble that could not be corrected.

Speed: Mess Kit A was overall the fastest when it came to cooking time. This could be because the metal was thinner allowing it to heat up easier. Next was Kit C which is made of a thicker metal, and Kit B typically took the longest or was neck and neck with Kit A.

Serve-ability: Kit B takes first place by leaps and bounds as it has an actual plate as part of the kit as well as a cup. Kit C followed behind due to the fact that you could serve with one pan while cooking with the other and there is room for a cup as well. Kit A comes in dead last as there is nothing to serve with, as well as little room to add a serving dish or a cup.

Compact-ability: We chose Kit B due to the fact that it lays flat and can just simply be placed in the bottom of your pack. Next was Kit C. Once again, it does lay flat, however it has more girth than Kit B. Kit A is very tall and wide and cannot lay flat causing it to take up a significant amount of room in your pack.

Storage-ability: We chose Kit C as being able to hold the most items due to the large area inside with only small tools currently occupying that space. Next we chose Kit B which is in some ways a smaller version of Kit C, Kind of where I got the idea from. Finally we found Kit A had the least amount of storage due to the fact that it is very tall and everything has to fit together like Russian nesting dolls.

FINALE

We find that Kit C either took first or second in all tests. It may not have always been the best choice, but it was always close enough to being the best without being unable to perform in any of the tests. It did not have a tendency to excel at one feature like Kit A with boiling or Kit B with frying, and then perform poorly in other tests like Kit A with baking and Kit B with boiling.

In closing, all of these kits can be the best kit for you depending on what you are looking

for. In starting this, I believed that Kit C would be the best overall and after these tests my hypothesis is now plausible. Does this mean the other kits are trash? NO! It just means that Kit C is the best kit for what I’m looking for. I like to bake, I like to fry, and I like to boil. So I want a kit that is going to be more versatile. I’m not looking for a kit that is going to be the best at boiling if it isn’t going to be able to do anything else. I would rather use the kit that is half way decent at boiling, but can be used for multiple purposes. This way I am not carrying around a different kit for every aspect of cooking in the bush. I also would like to point out that this is not a review of any of these kits, this was only a series of tests. To me a review is very in depth in revealing its pros and cons while focusing only on the subject matter. These tests focuses more on comparing the kits which gave me less time to spend with each kit which in turn makes me less comfortable saying whether a kit is good or not. That is why I can only give you the results of these tests. However, if you’re dying for a review, you won’t want to miss next week! As always feel free to comment, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one. Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.

No Pots, No Pans, No Problems: Making Your Own Mess Kit with Common Items

Last week I discussed the reason why I always carry stainless steel, 1 quart, single-walled, no plastic parts, removable strap, high heat painted; bottle into the Great Outdoors. Check it out Here. With this in your possession you can increase your survival duration by about 2 to 3 week. Where am I getting that number? From, Wilderness Survival Rules of 3, this rule states that a human can commonly go, 3 minutes without air, 3 hours without shelter (meaning escape from the elements), 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food. Using this idea and assuming I have made it past both the air and shelter stages, my next priority would be water gathering.  

Often we see movies where the character(s) will make some crazy fort, then dust of their hands to find food. Wrong. You leave your camp as soon as it is done to boil some water, then you can find food. However, that was last week’s blog. This week we will be exploring the cooking side.

Now as you can imagine we have be cooking for… ever? I mean, honestly that is kind of how we got here. On the other hand, most camp kitchen gear was only made in the last 30-40 years. What were we doing in the meantime? Well I can’t really go over the entire period, but maybe a highlight reel versus what we still use today. Primitive methods include making clay pots and firing them. These could then be used to boil water with heated stones. You can cook your meat in boiling water killing off any bacteria. Actually in Dave Canterbury’s book “Bushcraft 101” on page 100, the first tip is:

“When you’re cooking any type of meat, boiling will save the most nutritional value from the animal. Drink the broth as well; it contains critical fats.”

Keeping with traditional methods you could use flat stones or planks to fry on, like griddles. And of ‘course we have the option of roasting the meat over the fire on wooden spits.  With these three methods, primitive cooking can get you fed pretty easily. The biggest problems are the lack of durability and conveyance.

With this in mind we move to more traditional methods. Not a lot changes except the clay pots, wooden spits and stone griddles are made out of cast iron. This solves the durability problem however kind of doubles down on the conveyance, because of the weight. What most traditional campers’ use are simple metal skillets that are lightweight, cooking irons which can be used as a roasting spit or placed over a pit of coals to give space between the Dutch Oven (both used for baking breads and making soups) or the skillets. This still isn’t the lightest cooking set, but pretty good for the time being.

Now we get to more modern hikers and campers. We currently use army surplus mess kits or ultra-light camp gear. These can cost anywhere from 5 bucks to 25 some even 50. With the more modern kits the weight and size problems found in traditional kits have been solved. Using stainless steel, aluminum, or titanium to save on weight without giving up much of the durability. Another big success that came out of the modern kits is the smaller size. This helps reduce the bulky nature which makes it easier to pack and move around.

Going back to the price, you may be wondering, “Which should I get?” Well, unfortunately they aren’t all

made equally with the same parts. Some focus more on boiling/baking; others on frying. Some kits can give you the best of both but they get more and more expensive. Fortunately, I have a cheaper option for you. Make it yourself.

Okay so before we even start buying stuff lets see what we will need. From my personal experience a good kit needs to be able to boil water, H. Kephart is sited to have said,

“A pot no bigger than one quart (32oz) is necessary and that it should fit easily into a knapsack.”

With this in mind there are many different metal mixing bowls and even dog bowls made out of stainless steel that you can add flames to and get a boil. Another key factor is it needs to be able to fry meats or batters. Now they make frying pans with folding handle or allow for a handle to be made in the bush. The problem is they can be costly. A cheaper alternative I like is using round baking pans. Lastly it should be able to bake. Not a lot of people I know consider this, but to me it is very important. ¼ cup of flour has about 100 calories. Plus after cooking it can be saved to eat in the morning or at lunch while on the trail. Now to make an oven you only need a container similar to a bowl and a top to hold the heat in, which if you have a round baking pan it could fit over your metal dog bowl. You now have a baking container.

So with these in mind let’s start shopping.  All the parts I got came from Walmart. I would prefer to get the components in person. The reason is the round cake pan must fit OVER the steel bowl. For me it was a 60 oz dog bowl and a 9 inch round cake pan. With this I add a vice grip pliers. They can be found cheap and can be used as a removable handle. Instead you could use a pair of pliers you just couldn’t keep them attached to the container. Up to you. Now like all of my cooking implements that go into the fire I like to blacken them. This time though instead of the camping or rocket stove method, I choose to bake them in the oven at 500 degrees for about 30 minutes to an hour. Make sure you have a fan on because it did cause some funky odors,


but I used my fan to shoot them out the window.


Now this is just the base kit. It still has lots of room on the inside to store stuff. Remember they are still containers even while not being cooked in. To this I would add something for a cup. Now camp cups are easy to come by, the blue enamel metal ones are my favorite, however they can cost more JUST because they are for camping. Without this needless up charge I got a 7 oz steel pet bowl. It can be used as a measuring device and to drink from with the pliers. And instead of the fork and knives sets you can get a set of 4 spoons and 4 forks for about a 1.76, or get one of each out of the drawer. Just ask first. Now a problem I had was that they were too big for my container so, I measured the bottom and taped up the area that was to be removed. Now I could’ve cut it off with a dremel or angle grinder, however the metal was thin enough to just break it off where I wanted it. Then I hammered out the end to prevent it from cutting up my hand. They could even be used as a flat-head screwdriver.Lastly, adding a cooking stand isn’t necessary and could be added to any other cooking set. However, it is the most expensive part. All you need is 3 strap hinges. You see them on outdoor gates maybe barn doors. The ones I purchased where 4 inch. They can fold almost flat and the other way they can kind of lock forming a 90 degree (or 270 degree). This makes it very stable.

To join them together I place one screw through the end hole near what I call the nose on each of them and then place a nut on the other end. Wing nuts are preferred but you just want it hand tight either way.  It the screw is too long you could cut it with a dremel or just ignore it.

Now as shown on the list. You can sort of add to the kit slowly or not at all.  One star will give you almost everything you’ll need. Two stars just gives you more tools to work with, like a measuring device and eating utensils that you won’t have to make. However notice you can’t use the 2 stars items without the one star items. Same with 3 stars items, the cooking stand can be used with other cooking kits but not just by itself. But for the one star kit, if you have to buy all the supplies it will only cost you $5.71. less than most other kits. Even adding the utensils and cup only brings the entire kit to $8.44 by only adding $2.73.

Still less than most other. Finally, adding the cooking stand for $6.98, you get to the grand total of $15.99.  I hope you can see the value in making your own kit. It allows you to free yourself from depending on someone else making it for you. Next week we will be comparing all three of the kits I own and that you find commonly. It’s gonna be enlightening, you won’t want to miss it! As always feel free to comment, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one. Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.

Getting Your Eight Glasses in the Great Outdoors:Finding and Purifying Water through Boiling

Last week we reviewed the folding stove and made a spot of tea with my stainless steel kettle. Well this week we will be exploring more about collecting, purifying, and storing water. It is commonly accepted the human body needs 8 (8oz.) glasses of water a day. Now if you are in a home with running water this is not a very difficult task to achieve day to day. However, if you are trekking through the woods or setting up a camp for the weekend. This task that we take for granted becomes somewhat problematic. So knowing that each day a human needs ½ a gallon of water (64oz) you have to plan how you are going to obtain that.

So, ideas? Well, obviously you could carry it in your pack; or could you? Water weighs, according to Wikipedia, 8.34 lbs. per gallon. That would be 4.17 lbs. (1/2 gallon) for a day and 12.51 lbs. (1 ½ gallons) for a 3 day stay. Also let’s say that you will not have a vehicular conveyance, so between 26 and 36 lbs. will be all you can carry. Imagine taking your typical pack weighing about 30lbs plus the 12.51 for adding a gallon and a half of water to that you couldn’t spill one drop of to get you a total of 42 and ½ lbs. And I hate to mention, but some people don’t agree with the half gallon. Some say it is more like a gallon a day, some even suggest more.

I know, you want another option. Well the only other option is finding and purifying water to obtain that half gallon. Now you can do this in different fashions. You could draw moisture into a cup using a solar still. You could desalinate the water (boil the water out of the solution and collect the pure water vapors in a different container.) The problem with both of these is they can take some time and they don’t provide nearly enough. But if you have a source of fresh running water your best bet is to

collect some and boil it. Boiling water for about 1 minute will kill 99% of diseases you could find in it. Other than boiling this water you could also use water purification pellets or bleach to cleanse it. However the problem with the purification pellets or bleach is that it will eventually they will run out. So better make sure you can still boil water in whatever you are using.

When boiling water for purification there are a few different materials you could use. Most common and what I recommend is a stainless steel bottle. Aluminum or titanium are also modern favorites, while tin or copper are more traditional kit items. Clay pots or wooden containers can even be used if you are going along the primitive route. However using the latter material will require hot stones, but that’s another blog. For this week we will be looking at stainless steel bottles.

Now, I’m a cheap man, I like to save a buck or two when I can, and with that I always do these blogs with that in mind. So this bottle, like most of mine was discounted. For only $5, I had a perfect bottle for my Bushcraft-antics. Now not all bottles are made the same. Anything plastic is basically useless. Only a few people know how to boil water in a plastic

bottle. Dave Canterbury has a video on YouTube doing it. However, most metal bottle you find will work, however I look for these characteristics. 

• Stainless steel
• Single walled
• Completely metal when broken down
• Able to tie a strap to for carrying
• (extra) Dave Canterbury recommends it hold 32 oz. or a quart 

My bottle meets all of these criteria. You can see that it says stainless steel directly on the bottle, however you can also tell this by noting that it is cheaper and lighter than titanium and will not dent as easily as aluminum.

Second, this bottle is indeed single-walled. If you see terms like “temperature control,” “double wall,” “thermos,” or “insulated,” this is not a bottle you would want to boil water in. A thermos has two walls because it is designed to retain the temperature of whatever it is holding inside. Therefore, you will expend more energy heating the bottle hot enough to boil water. If you are

unsure, hold the inside of the bottle, tap the outside and listen for a ringing noise. Remember, “If it rings, pass it up. With double walls you’ll have no luck.”

Third, my bottle is all metal aside from the plastic cap, however, the plastic cap comes completely off of the bottle so I can still boil it. Rubber grips can be cut off of the bottle if need be as well. I also think it’s important that there is some way to put a strap on the bottle so I can carry it easily and access it easily. 

In regards to the extra this canteen holds around 1.1 Quart or 4.5 cups, this is ideal since most purification tabs or bleach methods work with 1 quart at a time. Also 2-4 quarts (1 gallon) is what most people recommend you need a day. Any smaller container requires you boil more water a day, thus expending more energy.

Now since this is going to be spending a lot of time in the fire I am going to need something to coat the outside. Most people don’t care a lot about the soot and ash that gets on it however it does bother

me so I take steps prevent this with a little special spray paint. Rust-oleum high heat paint prevents rusting of the outside of the bottle, plus it allows the outside to be wiped clean with little effort. It is not necessary, however I do prefer it. QUICK NOTE: Some people have said it can make you sick if the paint gets of the cooking surface and you cook on it. This seems obvious, however if you are worried don't proceed further.

To start I begin by sanding the bottle all over. This will help the spray paint to stick on to the bottle. The sand paper doesn't really matter. I am using 220 grit but it could be anything. The next step is important. Take masking tape and place it over the cover. Doing this will prevent the spray paint from getting into the water chamber, ensuring it won’t get contaminated. After all that it is ready to spray paint. I start by placing the bottle on its bottom and spraying the top. Afterward I flip it over so I can get the bottom. I want as even of a coat as I can get. After the first round I let it sit and dry for about an

hour then repeat the process. Any spots where it looks too built up I just sand back down and even it out.

 Once I’m happy with it about 3 coats later I remove the tape and place it in the fire to cure the paint upon it. Instead this time I decided to use my rocket stove. We will talk more about the rocket stove in future posts. The goal is to get the bottle to the temperature of future fires it will be in. Some may call this a burnout. Doing this over a camp fire is preferred however that is only 1 of 3 ways I know how to cure. The rocket stove is the 2nd and also the closest to the campfire. Now while doing this you need to get the temperature up as high as possible so that the paint can set in.

I spend quite a bit of time feeding the fuel and fanning the flames, but, after the flames start licking at it I let it start to die down and let the bottle cool. I think it is important to allow the opening to face down toward the fire. After the bottle cools I take it back inside and clean it up a bit. After that I used some bank line to make a strap, though any cordage could've worked. 

I choose bank line because I have a lot of it and I wanted to spend more time working with it. The knots I used were simple bowline on one carbineer and just an overhand knot on the other side. This allows me to adjust my canteen whenever I want with just a move of the cord.  The carbineers are great for easy removal of the canteen and gets it to the fire more quickly. Could I have done it without them?  Yes.

  Instead of tying the knot to the carbineers, I could tie them to the canteen itself. This would decrease on weight slightly and less parts to fool with. Also if the carbineers are needed to be used somewhere else I could do that.

Well I hope this blog has helped you all in a big way on finding a good bottle. This is vital for cooking and drinking water in the bush. While the primitive way can be done, with the water bottle it is just too simple, too quick, and too durable to look for alternatives. Trust me.  Next week I will be showing you more about containers, specifically problems with pre-made mess kit, and how to build what I believe is the best and cheapest you could do. Remember it’s one of the 5 C's and you don't want to miss it. See you then! As always feel free to comment, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one. Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.