Hi All, Methinks I should like to somehow blacken up the bottoms of my Trangia 27's alu/stainless pots in an effort to increase boil times. (This is what happens when you decide to "race" your stoves ) My Swedish army Trangia beats my 27 by a couple minutes, even though they seem to have identical flame output. It must be the black outer surface of the army stoves' pots. Anyway, any good ideas about how to do this, without getting soot on everything or poisoning myself while cooking? It certainly seems like a worthy pursuit, especially if it reduces fuel consumption. Regards, Ridge
I'm betting that you want to decrease boil times . Wouldn't black hi heat paint work? Or just cook over a campfire for a bit. Bob
I have heard black pots boil faster but I have never tested it. The idea seems right to me. Campfire seems like a good idea. or a poorly primed/running stove. Jeff
Camp fire is the way to go - sooty at first but after the first few uses & rinses the black is fixed. Trangia's are decidedly poor performers on the race track. Black pans help but so does quality fuel & correct use of the fry pan inverted as a lid - something I rarely do as I don't carry it. It's relaxed performance is something you adapt to by getting into the Trangia Zone, a deeper more relaxed way of being. The rewards will be be a peaceful state of stove bliss & the satisfaction that the stove will always just work & in a real storm that would have most people worrying about your sanity that you'd even contemplate lighting a stove the Trangia will amaze you as it brings water to the boil faster than it does on a still, calm day. A true Trangia Zen master knows how to light his Trangia in winter, adjust the flame & at the highest level never loses the pan grip. Many masters do not even own a watch.
I use the passive approach. Let them get sooty over a fire then wipe off what comes off easily. All my user pots seem to get dark on their own eventually.
Hi Ridge, why not take the easy route and send your Trangia to The Master Of The Blackened Trangia's? He has a whole series of them and is THE world renown expert (at least on this site 8) ). Just send them over to Ross, and he'll do the rest... Righto, where's me coat? Wim
I had the same idea lanevitt had. I remembered a product called "Aluminum Black" from years ago used in gunsmithing. http://www.birchwoodcasey.com/metal/lumiclad.html?gclid=CIrUrMaC36ACFQjxDAod2BzTBw
Yeah. That's what I was sourcing at my post above. They have that in 8 oz containers. Does it hold up under heat and flame? I didn't know about that part. G
Okay, here's what we did. Tried the Birchwood Casey Aluma-Hide on the bottom my Mini-Trangia's pot. Man, does that stuff stink! Rotten egg odor all through the house. Not sure how I'd feel about nesting the 27's pots together with that stuff on them. Gives me cramping flashbacks of unknowingly eating out of a highly Brasso'd mess tin when I was younger . Now that I think of it, this might be yet another good use for my Kelly Kettle! Couple sticks of fatwood in it and I should have a nice cuppa tea and some blackened Trangia-ware! (I'd send it to Ross, but the poor little stove has never been out of country before; she might not want to come home!) Regards, Ridge
Most (all) quality cookware is anodized to avoid scratches and the like. Alu black is intended for scratches ie untreated alu and therefore not wery suitable for this purpose Just tested my theory, and it went off like a wet fart in a diving helmet! I applied alu black as per the instructions to the square CG logo and look at the (missing) result:
As said by others, camp fires do the job for you and it does help the heating process IMHO if your pots are nice and black.
I've used gun blueing on brass before and it turned it a very dark blue/black. One thing though...the metal has to be perfectly clean with absolutely no residue of anything...especially soap. I'm suprised that Aluminum black did nothing. It's meant for touching up aluminum trigger guards and other gun hardware. Gun blueing will do nothing to steel unless it's prepared correctly...that's something I do have a lot of experience with. I'd think the Aluminum black would behave the same way. The fire is also a good way as others have said. Personally I like the fire soot as long as it's well fixed and doesn't rub off on other things.
FWIW I have tried hi temp stove black paint. Didn't help from what I could gather with burn times but made the pans a uniform colour that don't look as messy..if that means anything. Just use them for a week to boil a cuppa without doing anything else should fix them. Barra
Barra is absolutely correct. In the mid 1970s I used my Trangia setup extensively. I eventually went back to my paraffin pressure stoves because I was sick of dealing with black that formed on the outside of the pans when using the meths we use in the UK. If you were not careful, your hands and everything else became coated in black carbon when trying to deal with the pans. So . . . . . no need to paint the pans, they become coated in thick black in normal use.
you ought to treat your self to some pure methanol off ebay it burns clean as a whistle no soot what so ever and is much easier to light than meths i bought some duossal pans and the one i have been using still looks like it's new
Its the purple colouring in the meths that causes all the soot I use clear meths in trangias and for priming, and have less of a soot problem. Neil
