Cookswell Kenyan Ceramic Jiko (Africa)

THIS post in the Fettling Forum was prompted by the video on the manufacturing of the Kenyan Ceramic Jiko:




I bought one from the Dutch outlet for Cookswell products.








The air control door - serves to scoop out accumulations of ash during a long cooking session




The inside surface of the base is coated with a 1-part cement, 4-parts vermiculite dust mixture to offer some protection from hot ash. It’s the same mortar that’s used to bed the ceramic liner into the top part of the stove.

Reflecting available materials, the mixture is 2:3:1 lime:china clay:cement in Rwanda and 3:1:1 wood ash:cement:sand in the Sudan (source, ‘The Kenya Ceramic Jiko - a manual for stovemakers’ by Hugh Allen - Intermediate Technology Publications, 1991)






Scrap steel from bitumen drums (0.5mm thick) is the source for most metal parts, with thinner stock (from tin cans) for the base and thicker material (1mm, from 200 litre oil drums) for the legs/pot rest mounts. Rivets are made from 3-inch nails, cut off close to the head. Some interesting textures remain from the source material on my example. Beautiful.








The base.




A robust grill is provided with the stove.




Same characteristics as the stove, plenty of hand-made charm.








To be continued with a firing and cooking session ...

John

 

That is absolutly irressistable......you are going to have so much fun...

 

I really enjoyed the posted video thank you @presscall , so it will be great to follow you experience with one.

Cheers
Barrett

 

Sweet...now I want one...

 

Wonderful, John. Looking forward to an after action report.

 

And beware of imitations

 

Amazing John @presscall

Cheers

Enrique

 

Thank you all very much for your great feedback on our stoves!

We finally are bulking up our jiko museum a bit more Cookswell Energy Saving Jikos as well

Also looking forward to an after action report from you as well @presscall

All the best!

Teddy Kinyanjui
Cookswell Jikos
Kenya

 

Loved the museum Teddy and yes, I’m ready any day now to try out my Cookswell Jiko. We’re just coming out of a wet and windy Winter here in the UK and a warm, dry Spring day is what I’ve been waiting for. I’ll be sure to feature the cooking session here in this thread. Worth waiting for I’m sure!

John

 

Hi ya! Did you get to use your jiko over the summer?

 

I certainly did! Very effective, enjoyable to use and holding up well to a lot of use.

I seem not to have taken photos of it in use but here it is now.






I cut down the blade of an ash scraper I had to fit the ash pan opening ...






... and used the offcuts to braze onto the blade to make a spike to clear out debris from the fuel bowl holes - not really necessary I agree.

 

Awesome!!! thats fantastic! i like that little ash poker tool you have there as well. very smart.


glad you are using it! does it work as a small outdoor space heater where you are? i've always wondered how they do in the snow

 

No snow yet here in Lancashire UK but it would make an excellent and warming spot to gather round when it does.

John

 

Here is an old video from Unseco about building stoves.
I watch it every so often o remind me that things don't have to be complicated!

 

Nice! Thats very cool!

 

I can make a video of me building the rocket stove if you like Alan. @salan3

For insomniacs only probably.

 

Why not! Sounds like fun! lol.

 

@salan3
Thanks for the video Alan. Stoves made in Haiti. The gravity-fed paraffin stove is particularly interesting.

 

Simple but effective!

 

@salan3
It surely is! Ingenious, and the way there’s no conventional regulator valve, but raising and lowering the paraffin cistern does the job. Respect!

John