Hal
A place for me to review the various rugged, nifty and needful kit that I've accumulated, for every-day preparedness in the event of accident, disaster or world-shifting end-times Apocalypse, be it zombies, triffids or Mayan divide-by-zero errors.
Friday, February 16, 2024
Review: Back Country cusine Beef Terriyaki
Thursday, January 4, 2024
Review: Campmaster single burner stove
Tuesday, August 1, 2023
Review: Titaner titanium Bento Box
Perfect size for 2-minute instant noodles ( shown here with spring onion, ginger chunks, lap cheung sausage and chilli paste. All of which fit nicely in the box for easy transport.
Thursday, April 20, 2023
Review: portable Campmaster dual-range stove
Having a campfire cookout is a glorious thing: open flames, glowing coals, smokey flavors, but some times you want the surety and stability of a gas range, especially if feeding a family or in adverse conditions, something like this can really make a potentially miserable situation cheery again.
The Campmaster Double Burner range is a collapsible unit that folds up into a 11cm (4 1/3" H) x 26cm (10 1/4" W) x 21cm (8 1/4"D) box weighing 3.1kg ( 4lbs 10 oz).It unfolds, with silver retention band folding underneath it to form legs. The adjustment knobs sit outside the frame, so you'll need to be careful of that when packing and transporting.
When unfolded, the "lid" forms the splash-back and two wings fold up and "tab A into slot B" to secure the lid and form a windshield. The unit comes equipped with a detachable hose with a recessed port on the right hand side. the cylinder end of the hose fits 3/8" LHT gas cylinders, without requiring a regulator.
Unfolded and hooked up to a gas cylinder, the range has two burners each with independent control knobs, which throttle the fire from roaring fast-boil to gentle simmering. The burners are guarded by stainless steel wire grills much like the retention bands/ legs. The base of the unit has a cut-out which serves as a drain spot for spills when in use, or as a handle to carry it when folded up. These are hefty enough to bear up under my biggest cast iron pots, though the wings and splash-back need to be folded back to make room, but certainly enough room for a good size skillet and a pot for full meal cooking.
The unit can be used with Universal LPG from cylinders complying with AS2030.1 (or equivalent), which means it is compatible with Swap and Go cylinders
The stove doesn't feature a pizo-electric starter, so to ignite it you'd need a match, lighter or ferro-rod type system, that's not an issue for me as I carry multiple fire-starting options as part of my EDC.
The wings and back form an effective wind-shield keeping the burners from blowing out and heat staying where you need, the blue enamel finish makes wiping down any cooking splatters or trail dust an easy task. Needing an LPG tank for fuel sort of restricts it to back-yard or tail-gate type events, unless you fancy hauling a cylinder about, but its reliable, powerful and super simple to use.
My parents gifted me this one, as they used it to cook on whilst having their kitchen renovated and are not big campers.
One final thing, the standard BBQ cylinders available to me don't have a 3/8ths" fitting, so an after market adapter is required but these are easy to come by.
I keep mine on the top shelf of my tucker-box / chuck box which we built around this unit, where it not only stows nicely but can cook on, right in place.
Wednesday, June 2, 2021
Review: Gerber - spork set
The spork has longer tines than im used to on a spork which is a nice change, making it easy to stab food and not drop it and loose it. They aren't yet so long as to be loose stiffness.
The spoon has a nice straight edged tup, allowing it to scrape the bottom of a bowl or mug to get the last skeriks of food. The dish was deep enough to eat soup with and shovel food into my mouth without bulging out too much when nested.
Thursday, April 2, 2020
Review: Heavy Cover canteen and mug set
Each have their benefits and drawbacks. Nalgene bottles are made from the sturdy Tritan plastic. Light and shatterproof, with a high capacity and easy-fill wide-mouth. They aren't fireproof so cant be used to boil water or cook in. The SIGG bottles are aluminium with an internal plastic coating and a finely threaded cap I've found to be delicate and prone to thread stripping. The Aluminium bottles are sturdy but ding and damage easily. They also do not support cooking or boiling due to the lining.
A solution I found is the Heavy Cover US GI Style Titanium Canteen Mess Kit. Over the last hundred years or so the US GI style canteen mess kit has served millions of military service members as well as millions of outdoor enthusiasts. Originally made from tin, aluminium or stainless steel or plastic, the Heavy Cover model replaces this with titanium. The kit is comprised of a 37oz (1.1L) canteen with Tritan Plastic and Titanium Canteen Cap options and a nested Canteen Cup 23.7 oz (0.7L) and lid, also titanium.
Combining time tested design with the high-strength to weight ratio material results in a light weight yet durable mess–kit. Perfect for those counting grams on the trail and people who break gear, like me. Both Canteen and cup can be heated and used to boil water or cook food.
Made from 0.5 mm thick titanium, the Canteen with Tritan Cap weighs a slight 6 ounces (172 grams) and the titanium Cup Lid weighs a mere 4.8 ounces (132 grams). As well as being exceptionally light, titanium has the advantage of being biocompatible (BPA Free, nontoxic to the human body) provides a non-porous, non-stick material for easy clean up when cooking. being thin walled and a rapid heat conductor , less gas/fuel is needed and you get a faster boil time than with steel or other pot materials. It is anti-corrosive and will not rust. The mug has folding wire handles to assist in cooking and handling when hot.
The titanium cap of the canteen features a wide, thick thread to ensure ease of opening and removal as well as maintaining a tight seal and resistance to incidental damage. The lid itself features a titanium D-loop for clipping to a belt or pack, dummy-cording or perhaps even suspending over fire to boil water (beware steam and pressure build ups!) The canteen neck and mouth are quite wide which make for easy filling and drinking. The titanium cap sits quite high above the lip of the opening, I don't know why. It is hollow and floats, unlike the tritan lid which sinks like a rock. The titanium lid has a flat-folding wire lid loop for retention or for use as a float.
The canteen has a jutting rib around its mid-line which corresponds to the lip of the cup, to seat it. when nesting the cup lid is obviously left out, but I found that any pouch i could fit the canteen and cup in will also fit the lid in the bottom, ready to deploy to be a lid your cup for bean or noodle cooking. I don't know wat purpose that rib serves, except to possibly prevent rattle between mug and canteen on maneuvers.
I found the canteen had an off-flavor from manufacturing so I needed to give it a good wash and rinse out. Kraken rum worked nicely. The mug didn't have any such problem and cooked several meals without issue, and relatively non-stick and was easily cleaned.
Over-all I am really happy with this set, they're light, rugged as all get up, cook well and not bulky at all. I really like the traditional form factor and compact design for considerable volume capacity.
Sunday, March 15, 2020
HomeFront: Ordning hobostove hack
I like fire, almost as much as I like blades and lights.. but I do not like being on fire. Which is why I like fireplaces and stoves. Whilst it is easy enough to dig a hole or set up a ring of rocks, sometimes a purpose built tool suits the purpose even better. there are times when the full-blown BBQ is overkill, especially if I hiking and camping.
Sunday, March 8, 2020
Home Front: COVID-19 bug-in cache
Friday, March 6, 2020
Review: Red Feather Brand canned butter
The can itself comes with a plastic cap which allows you to re-seal the can after opening with a can-opener. The conveniently stackable cans have one lip larger than the other. One thing I found is one end of the can opens better than the other. The bottom end of the can has a better lip for engaging the can-opener and once open, the plastic cap closes the can up to maintain freshness. With regular butter I tend to leave the pat out to stay room temp for ease of spreading. In an Australian summer this occasionally leads to a puddle but being in a lidded can I've avoided this with the Red Feather butter.
This also makes it camp-safe to keep bugs and crud out of the butter and also keeps it dry in you store it in an icy cooler.
As far as taste goes, I'd go as far as to say it's sweeter and creamier than the regular butter I buy from the grocery. It spreads nicely at room temperatures, it fries well and is excellent on pancakes, an essential attribute.