This Little Lamp of Mine: A Review of UCO's Collapsible Lantern

Last week we wrapped our candle selection video and I said that we would be reviewing another candle lantern that I purchased this week. This lantern is light, compact, super tough, and the candles themselves are very powerful. I am of course talking about UCO's collapsible candle lantern. This lantern is 6" tall, 4" when collapsed, and there are two main parts to it. There is the candle chamber and the lantern body itself. The lantern's body has a 3" long, 1.5" wide glass globe, the body of the lantern which is just a bit bigger than the globe that has a peep hole in it so you can see how much candle you have left, and the top of the candle which fits into the grooves of the body, a cap to protect against weather, a bell, and a chain. The chain is a bit annoying because it gets caught on everything. When assembling the body of the lantern make sure you line up the fingers of the lid with the grooves of the body and slowly slide it into place. Once it is fully collapsed you want to make sure you get each finger around the glass globe at the bottom. If you go too quickly you could scratch the globe or break one of the fingers of the lid.

Now let's move on to the candle chamber.  This is made up of the candle shell, a spring and a plug. There is also a cover plate for the spring to protect it from melting wax. To assemble, insert the candle into the candle chamber wick first. Then you are going to find the cover plate and insert it concave side first. Next take the spring and the plug and carefully put it behind the candle. You don't want it to spring back on you. Once everything is fit together you will take the candle chamber and insert it into the body of the lantern and twist to lock it. Now, you can light the candle in the candle chamber prior to putting it in the lantern, or, you can slide the globe down, light the candle, and slide the globe back up into place and lock it.

We will be repeating the same tests from last week with this candle. First we will try to light this candle with a spark, with charcloth, and the candle itself. This was the first candle I was ever able to catch with a spark. Let me explain what happened. So I lit the charcloth and had my ember going and I held the candle over the embers and some of the wax melted into the charcloth. When I noticed this I started to blow harder to get the ember to melt that wax and get it to release the gas that keeps the candle burning. Once I got that to happen and it started to create a flame, it was as easy as holding the candle to it and lighting it. Honestly, now that I know what I'm doing I think I could light any candle this way, but I have to give it to the survival candle for being the first.

Next is the illumination test. This candle claims to have 20 lumens, but I am mainly going to see how well it lights up my area and we will take it down to the track and see how well we can read the signs. This lantern is very similar to the electric lantern in its ability to light up my work area. I estimate it to have about a 5 foot area of illumination. I could very easily be doing something at night at my camp with this lantern on hand. On the track I had to get about 1 ft away from the sign to be able to read it, however, I didn't have to be right up on it like I did with the other candles, so I'll give it props for that. I will say that it has done much better than the other candle lanterns I've made, but I do think I can improve them. Since I haven't yet I'll give it to this candle. The only problem I have is that it didn't do as well as I wanted it to on the track, however, UCO makes a cup that looks like it may be for this lantern that covers the back and makes the light more concentrated in one spot. Honestly, I always carry a flashlight with me, but it may be something  you're more interested in for your kit.

Now we will be doing a burnout of this candle. It claims to burn for 9 hours. This candle burned for 13 hours and 40 minutes. I lit the candle at 3 pm and it didn't go out until 4:40 am. It was a long night. This is more than double the time its competitor the squat candle burned.

On to field repair. The only concerns I have are with the glass globe or the fingers of the lantern body. If the globe were to crack, I'm not sure how well this lantern would work. The globe puts pressure on the fingers and the fingers put pressure on the body to hold everything in place. With the globe gone, it's uncertain how well your lantern will actually work. The second thing I worry about are the fingers. If one finger breaks the whole system will be unbalance and will likely not work. Now I don't think they are so flimsy that they will just snap, but I do think you could easily break one if you are being careless while inserting your globe. This lantern is made out of stainless steel and is pretty sturdy. As long as you keep maintenance on it, it should last you a long time. This is another point I want to make. It's not necessarily about field repair, but it is a relevant point. The only candles that will work with your UCO lantern, is a UCO candle. Surprising right? You MIGHT be able to get by with a stick candle, but no other candle will fit.

Now onto our price point. Before telling you the price, I will say that this lantern has been so much fun to work with and use. I highly recommend you get one and try it out if you have the scratch. The lantern itself is about $17 and comes with one candle. I also purchased a set of $3 candles for about $8 so I spent about $25-26 total. There is a combo pack with these items that I've seen for between $21-23 on Amazon (it changes daily). In hindsight I should have done that, but, oh well. For $8 you get 3 candles which equals out to about $2.66 per candle. If you subtract $2.66 from the $17 for the lantern you get the base price for the lantern which is $14.33. For $14.33 I could make 3, maybe 4 of my candle lanterns including the tools I need to make them. This is if you are going for quantity, not quality. You could also make my candle lanterns a lot brighter by adding more holes, I just don't like to do that. Now for $2.66 I could buy 5 squat candle that give me 30 hours of lighting. for a full $8 which will give me 3 UCO candles, I could buy 15-16 squat candles and get 90-96 hours of lighting. Now that is a lot more candles I will have to carry with me. And yes, I understand that the UCO candles are more expensive because they are smaller and more powerful, I'm just playing devil's advocate to show you what options you have.

In the end I don't think I will be packing this in my bush kit, mostly because of the fears I have with field repair. I do think this would be good for an ultra light backpacking kit (which I am going to make eventually), maybe a hunting kit, and definitely an EDC kit. This won't be going into my EDC kit because as you know, mine is filled to the brim and cannot accommodate it. But another point I want to make is that my bush kit is designed around higher quantity and not higher quality. That's just a sacrifice I'm willing to make. But that'll do it for this year. We will have a Christmas special next week, though. You won't want to miss it! As always feel free to comment by clicking the comment link at the end of the blog, hit the follow button in the top right corner, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one on Sunday 10pm (est). If you want to keep up with me and what I’m doing, Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Lastly if video is more your style check out my YouTube Channel backpack bushcraft where there is a video version of this with the same title. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.

Wax & Wick: Choosing A Candle For the Tin Can Lantern

Last week we talked about electric illumination devices and chose one for my pack. This week we're going to be talking about the candle lantern, or specifically the candle inside them.  Now if you want to know the ins and outs of how a candle works, go to YouTube and search "how does a candle work," there is a lot of great information there. I am just going to give you the overview.. A candle is made of a wick and a hydrocarbon wax; that is, hydrogen connecting to carbon. When you light the wick, the wax begins to melt releasing a gas which is what keeps the flame burning. You can prove this by lighting the gas above the candle.

What we have today is a contest between three candles. We have a stick candle, what I call a squat
candle, and a tea candle. They will be competing in four different categories: being lit from a spark, how bright they burn, how long they burn, and overall cost effectiveness.

For the first test we must first char all the wicks of the candles. I then got some ferro rod  shavings on a board and was then going to try to use those shavings to ignite a spark from the candle. The only candle that was able to participate in this test was the stick candle and it did not cast a spark. The next test was to get some charcloth in a char tin and cast a spark. This gave us a nice hot ember to try to light our candles on. This time the stick candle and the squat candle got to participate however both failed. I was able to get an ember on

the squat candle, but was not able to light the wick.

For the second test of illumination, we are going to go back to the same track that we tested out our electronic illumination devices. First up is the tea candle which we have to get right up on the sign to see. The same with the squat candle. The stick candle performed slightly better than these other two due to the fact that it has a larger flame. Now none of these did well in comparison to the electronic devices, but this is what we are working with.

For the third test we are going to take a fresh version of each candle, put it into a lantern and burn them until they go out by themselves. For the stick candle we will be using and open top lantern due to the height of the candle. The tea candle burned for 3 hours and 50 minutes, the stick candle for 4 hours and 6 minutes, and squat candle for 6 hours and 15 minutes. I really thought the stick candle would burn the longest since it appears to have the most wax and there fore the most fuel to burn. However, I think where it was in an open top lantern a lot of the gasses that keep the flame burning simply escaped out of the top. Also the squat and tea candles have a metal base that pulls their wicks down. I think for the stick candle there was a moment where the wax was lighter than the wick and it nose dived.

Now looking at cost effectiveness. The tea candles come in a pack of 50 for about $3-5 so individually they are between five and ten cents. Next is the squat candles which are 50 cents a piece and can be purchased individually. The stick candles are 88 cents a piece and are purchased individually. Two tea candles can burn longer than on squat candle, so if you are looking for over all cost effectiveness, the tea candle is the way to go.

Before we talk about which candle I will be using, let's talk about why each candle got the ranking it did. In third place was the stick candle, which technically got a disqualification simply because it does not fit in the lantern. It's not the candle's fault, it's not the lantern's fault, it's just reality. The tea candle is ranked second because it was always playing second fiddle to either the squat or stick candle. It only really excelled at being cost effective, however, I'm not just looking for a cheap candle, I'm looking for a powerful one. The clear winner to me is the squat candle. I almost lit it with a spark, it was only average in illumination, but it burned for an entire 6 hours. Plus, to me there isn't much of a difference in 5 cents and 50 cents.

You may be wondering why we put so much into working with these candles. Next week we will be reviewing a candle and candle lantern that can supposedly burn for 9 hours and I wanted the best candle I could find to contend with it. This will also be the last blog of the year aside from our Christmas special so you definitely don't want to miss it. As always feel free to comment by clicking the comment link at the end of the blog, hit the follow button in the top right corner, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one on Sunday 10pm (est). If you want to keep up with me and what I’m doing, Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Lastly if video is more your style check out my YouTube Channel backpack bushcraft where there is a video version of this with the same title. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.

Cordage in a Bottle: Container and Cordage Options for Your EDC Kit

Last week we started talking about EDC Kits, what they are, what they should be comprised of, the problems with bad EDC kits and how to avoid them, and good EDC kits and how to get one. I also talked about three characteristics your EDC kit should have. Last week we talked about the first characteristic, familiarity. I then added some gear to the kit and valued it with the current gear to be about $25. I would also like to reiterate from last week’s blog how important it is NOT TTO BUY FIOR YOUR EDC KIT. You are better off building your kit out gear you already have. Buying new gear takes away from the familiarity of your tools. If you were to recreate the kit that I am using, then yes, you will be out about $50, but I cannot stress enough what a bad idea this is. You likely have similar cutting and combustion option of your own to use that you are more familiar with. This is also effective for keeping costs down.

This week we will be adding another characteristic and two more items to our already growing EDC Kit, The next characteristic we are going to talk about is compactibility, which will give us two distinct advantages over non compactible gear. Number one is the obvious: compactible gear takes up less space. The Camillus Seize in my EDC kit is about half the size of the Camillus Bushcrafter in my full size pack, likewise my combustion kit is about a sixth of the size of the one in my bag. Having lightweight and smaller gear is going to make it easier for you to pack it, as well as make it easier for you to take with you every day.

The second advantage is that most compact gear or at least true compact gear will be just as good as a larger counterpart. My Camillus Seize can do a lot of the same things my Camillus Bushcrafter can do. It can baton wood a bit, strike a ferro rod and carve wood. The same goes for my combustion kit. I can set sure fire, spark fire, and solar fire. I’m sure you are wondering now what the point is in having a bigger option if the compactible gear can do all of the same things. Well the answer is that you have more options with the bigger gear. While my Seize can baton, carve and strike a ferro rod, my Bushcrafter can baton more efficiently, is made of better steel so it casts sparks easier, and it has a bigger belly for carving and even skinning. The same goes for my combustion kit. My larger fire kit can create sure fire, spark fire, and solar fire, the difference is that I have more options and more ways to start a fire. It has two lighters, a large ferro rod, and a very powerful magnifying glass. When you are putting together your EDC kit you will likely notice that the bigger and better gear is harder to pack and you will have to use the compact option. This is okay! Remember, our goal is not to go camping with this gear, but to have it in case of an emergency.

This week’s gear is going to be a container and some cordage. Our container is a 17 oz. stainless steel water bottle. I like this bottle because it is metal, it is single walled, and the plastic cap can be completely removed so the bottle is completely metal at the time we are going to boil it. Being a metal bottle means that I can boil my water. If you can’t boil water in your bottle, you don’t need it. Boiling water is the most simple and easy way of purifying your drinking water. Chemicals can be used to purify water, however, you need precise measurements and any variation can result in unsafe drinking water. I prefer to place the bottle of water into the fire, wait for it to boil, boil for two minutes, and my drinking water is now safe. Some people prefer to go with plastic bottles. I think that is a horrible idea. You might be able to boil water in it, but it is extremely difficult and I wouldn’t recommend it. Chemicals may also break down part of the plastic in the bottle and it will end up in your drinking water which is simply no good. The only problem I have with this water bottle I that it is only 17 oz. My larger water bottle is 32 oz. which is closer to the recommended 64 oz. that it is recommended that we drink daily. I believe this is debatable because we outdoorsmen should probably be drinking more than that. At any rate, to get that 64 oz. of water I will have to make more trips and boil more water to achieve this. It is the sacrifice I have made for a lighter and more compact water bottle. You may not want to do this, it is your own personal preference.

My next gear item is 60 ft, of bank line. I am choosing to use
bank line because it can set up just as well as paracord, and you can make a net with it. This type of cord can store easily, but I will be saving even more space by storing it in my water bottle. Now bank line is not my only option so I thought I would talk about some other choices that are worth a mention. You could wear an 8 in. paracord bracelet. I believe the rule of thumb is that there is 1 ft. of paracord for every inch of bracelet which equals out to about 8 ft. of paracord. This is plenty enough to construct a shelter and with bright colors, you could even signal with it. If you would like an option with more paracord, I’ve made a one ring belt out of 6 strands of paracord that are each 16 ft. The single ring belt is super easy to wear, and yes, the colors I used are very flamboyant, but you can use browns or blacks to make it more discreet.

If you want to make your own paracord belt, you will need a 2 ½” metal ring, 6 sections of 16 ft. of paracord, four strands being the same color, and two being a different color. You will also need a knife to cut paracord to determined length and a lighter to melt the mantle so the cordage will not unravel. Next, you will want to place your ring on something at chest level or higher so that you can work. You will first begin by draping one piece of paracord over the ring with a lark’s head knot. You will want to do this for all 6 strands of paracord. I recommend for beginners a single color, followed by four of the primary color, and the last strand being the color you started with. Now to begin the weaving. Begin by taking the far left piece of cordage, and weave it in front of or behind the cordage directly to its right. You will then alternate weaving over and under until you reach the end and there is nothing else for you to weave against. It is at this point where it is recommended for you to place your line that you have weaved all the way through somewhere to rest so that you can begin weaving the next line. It’s brother line will follow the opposite path that the first line took all the way to the end, for example, if you started weaving over with the first line, then you will start weaving under with the second line. The resting line will then be treated as the last line being weaved and will either come over or under depending on how you are weaving your current line. You will continue this way until you get to the end of the project; you will know you are at the end when you do not have enough cordage to weave through again. I recommend tying them off in pairs so it will all stay together; tying it in any way possible so that it doesn’t come loose, or cannot be undone until  you want it to.

Now let’s talk cost. The paracord bracelet should you choose to pack it is about $5. The paracord belt ran me about $15 to make. These two items are not going to factor into the value of my kit. Y water bottle I bought for $10, but you could easily find it on sale for less. The bank line came from a spool of about 120 ft. that I purchased for $20. I used about half the spool so I will value what is in my kit at about $5. This brings the value of my EDC kit to $40, the equivalent of two of the plastic survival water bottle kits.

Next week we will be discussing the last characteristic, our cover option, and what we will be packing our gear in and why I made these decisions. As always feel free to comment, hit the follow button in the top right corner, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one on Sunday 10pm (est). If you want to keep up with me and what I’m doing, Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Lastly if video is more your style check out my YouTube Channel backpack bushcraft where there is a video version of this with the same title. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.

Bet You Never “SAW” it Coming: Which Saws to Take Into the Woods

When it comes to working with lumber no tool is handier than a saw. With a saw you get precision and ease when compared to knives and axes. A saw is a series of serrated or offset material that cuts when being drawn back and forth over a softer material. The offset or serrated part of the saw is called the teeth. Modern saws are made by sectioning part of the blade off and making a series of cuts in the blade which become the teeth. To make the teeth sharp, they use a triangle file to turn the material into triangles offset from each other which allow them to cut. However, the one big drawback to saws is that the larger they are, the harder they are to take with you on excursions into the woods. However, as with most things in this day and time, items have become smaller, so now you can have the perfect size saw to take with you to accomplish any task at hand.

I’ll be going over four different sizes of saws that I believe are simple and easy enough to use that any bushcrafter will be able to take them along. The first one I will be going over is a pocket saw. With the ever changing Swiss Army Knife and other knock offs being produced, it was inevitable that eventually in the list of small tools that they would add a pocket saw. The one that I own and my knockoff SAK is 2 ½” long. It’s perfect when trying to make small notches or cuts into wood. It allows me to be more precise than trying to whittle a notch into the wood. This is perfect for smaller pieces of wood. However anything much bigger than fuel for your fire and you will need to move up to the next size of saw.

Next we have a folding camp saw with an 8” blade. For this one I am unsure of the brand as it was gifted to me, but you can find these or at least something similar at Walmart in the camp section. This saw has the power to cut wood with a larger diameter, and in the hand of the bushcrafter can accomplish the finer tasks of the pocket saw. It’s also really nice to use to get those overhead branches because it provides a better reach. Even though it can do very well at cutting down saplings and some things bigger, the next saw can cut down the bigger saplings and small trees.

The next one is the UST Chainsaw. Basically it is a chainsaw blade attached to two handgrips.  To use this saw, you place the chain around the back side of what you are cutting and drawing the chain across the back side of it by pulling on the hand grips back and forth. This couldn’t be used in any other process except for cutting down trees. Notch making and precision cuts sort of go out the window due to the process which is used to saw the wood. However the next saw can make notches if you are skilled enough, process wood, cut down saplings, and buck larger trees, and all you need to buy is the blade.

The next saw is called the bucksaw. Bushcrafters have for years knows the benefits of only carrying in pieces of an item, and manufacturing the rest from the land. Using this principle, the bucksaw really stands out. All it takes to begin this project is just a bow saw blade. The basics to making a takedown bucksaw, you will want a good, strong piece of wood, a little shorter than the length of your saw blade, and two uprights of the same size, recommended 16”. You’ll then want to drill, carve, and lash together, the three pieces of wood into an “H”. Next you want to have grooves in the bottom part of the H where your saw will fit in. You’ll want to make sure everything lines up. Finally, using some cordage, you will want to string up a piece of wood in the top portion in the center that can place tension on your upright pieces of wood and that can also be held by the center piece of wood. Once the uprights have been tightened, the saw will be able to cut your material and you now have a bucksaw. Many bushcrafters do this at home, with proper wood, and take all of the pieces into the bush. However, most of them place their bucksaw in PVC pipe to transport and protect the blade. I thought it would be a good idea to take this PVC pipe use for transportation and turn it into the parts for my takedown bucksaw.

I began with a 30” piece of PVC pipe 1” in diameter. I split it evenly into two 15” sections and drilled/carved a ½” hole in the middle of both, 7 ½” up. Next I decided which ends would hold the blade, and which ends would hold the rope. For the end that would hold the blade I split it in the middle along the diameter. I did this to both sides to make sure that the drilled holes would face inward toward each other when set up. I drilled holes perpendicular to the cuts to hold the saw blade. By placing correct sized bolts through then ends of the saw and tightening it down with wingnuts. For the uprights about an inch or two down below, same on both sides, I took out a small section of material so that my rope would have something to hang into. This is on the opposite side of the center hole. For the center hole I placed a ½” in diameter PVC pipe that was the same length as the saw blade. I took ½” sections of this off at a time until the length was to my liking. If you cut off too much you will have to start over with a longer piece. 

Finally after everything was assembled together, I took some paracord and a scrap piece of PVC pipe to windlass tension using the center beam as a hold. Now you have a functioning bucksaw that stows away in its various pieces. To stow away, you will need two 1” slip caps and a 1” coupler. To build the travel tube, disassemble the bucksaw. Take the slip caps and place them one on each upright. Take the coupler and place each end where the blade hold into the coupler. Next, opening one of the slip caps, place the blade and the center rod inside. On top of that you can place your paracord, bolts, and wingnuts. In mine, I am unable to place my tensioning windlass rod. However, this will be the easiest part to create off the landscape.

I hope you have enjoyed this blog about saws. To me they are a lot like a sweater. It’s better to have one and not need it than to need it and not have it. – Roger Smith (American Dad)  Next week we will be going over field maintenance. Your knife is only as good to you as you are to it. (That’s my own quote.) As always feel free to comment, hit the follow button in the top right corner, 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.

Fire Inside: A Review of UST Paratinder

As we go through the five C’s, I’ve unintentionally have been ranking them in order of importance. The next set will contain knives, which I believe is the most important. With a good knife you can do or make anything. But immediately after that, I’ve got to give it to cordage. Whether it’s putting up your shelter, lashing together a tripod for cooking, and can even be used in the fire making process if made from natural materials.

Unfortunately for us, most of our cordage is either paracord or bank line, and being synthetic, it melts instead of burns. In David Canterbury’s book Bushcraft 101 chapter 3, page 71 under rope, he says,

 “Unlike cord, I prefer my rope to be of a natural material such as hemp. The main reason for this is its flammability, which aids in fire-making and when creating a bird’s nest.”

You should have a synthetic cord at a diameter smaller than ¼” and a natural rope being bigger than ¼” for the fire making process. But, what if we have a ¼” cordage that would burn, yet have the strength of paracord or bank line? UST have made 550 paracord with one of the seven strands being flammable, unlike the others. Before we get into the review, I want to state as always, “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 get into the review!

So, it’s paracord with a flammable cord, big deal right? Just tell us, is it good or bad? End the blog there, right? Well I actually spent a little more time on it than just that. I wanted to make sure that the paracord I bought was just as good as or better than the paracord I already had. There would be no point in carrying paracord that would only be good for starting fires. I decided that I would first start off seeing how well it put up a ridge line. I used the Siberian Hitch and the Trucker’s Hitch and both knots held just as well as any other paracord. The ridge line itself held well, just like it always does, so no noticeable difference.

Next, while I was out there I wanted to try my lashings. I tied my Clove Hitch, wrapped it three times in the square formation, frapped three times, and tied off with a Clove Hitch on a bight. This also held just as well as the bank line lashing we did last week.

Next I wanted to cut open the paracord and see what I was getting inside. When broken down, I had the mantle in a bright orange and grey pattern, the customary seven strands slightly pinkened I assume from the fire starter, and last is the Firestarter itself which seemed slightly thicker than any of the other seven strands. Right out of the box you will notice while looking at the end of the cord, the seven fire starting strands surrounding the fire starting core.

The next three tests involved the seven strands more than any other part of the cord. First I tested feeding it through a needle for sewing purposes. It did fine with this and since it did fine at this, it means it would be fine to be used as fishing line in case of an emergency. Next, taking a fishing jighead, I fashioned a small end of the paracord into a fishing lure. This again made a very nice lure, especially with the bright orange.

After all of these tests, I concluded that this paracord was on par with any other 550 paracord purchased from UST. So with all that done, I decided to move on to the fire starting core. After trying all of the fire starting methods I could (ferro rod and magnifying glass) the only thing that actually got it to light was direct flame from a lighter. While lit, the flammable core worked more like a match than anything else. It was still susceptible to wind, water, and oxygen deprivation. But, it did give an extended burn. Adding this to part of a bird’s nest would greatly improve your success in producing a flame. Once the flame was out, the cord was reduced to ash and could not be used as char-cloth.

Overall, if you were buying paracord, it couldn’t hurt to pick up this product to try for yourself. Having your items multitask for you is what every bushcrafter needs to look for when purchasing gear. Next week we will be having two pieces of equipment battling it out for your primary cutting tool position. One will be a fixed blade knife, and the other, I’ll let you guess. Comment below before 11 pm EST July 22^nd, 2017. The first person with the correct answer will get a shoutout in the next blog!  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.