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.