Here is another Svea 123. I'll leave it to the experts to give it an approximate date, but it came as shown, without the burner plate or the brass windshield etc. It came with the filler cap that takes the "mini-pump". I bought a mini-pump to match the filler cap. Because of the generosity of @dday, I finally decided to match this little stove with a Sigg Tourist [Note: Sigg Tourists are as rare as hen's teeth in Australia!]. The burner plate is from Fogas. NOTE: I have set this stove up with carbon fibre wick that I didn't take off for the photo shoot. The burner bell has ""SVEA made in Sweden", but no marking on the packing box. And here it is with the Sigg Tourist: I've in anger used it a few times now (with a 123R as well as a 123), and I really like this set up. Cheers Tony
Nice kit Tony, Thanks for posting it. You share a Sievert Svea 123 matched to Sigg Tourist (a "best in class" combo). My impression the SIGG Tourist was designed for use with the Svea 123. It's just me but I wonder who came up with that idea ? (SIGG or did stove maker prompt Sigg to make it?) and approx. when? I post to add that OPTIMUS, at some point, marketed this as a kit: a Sigg Tourist and Optimus Svea 123 kit (Svea w/o it's little pot & w/s). I'm not sure where they were sold (US for sure) and during what time frame? (time frame did include c1973). A NOS example of that kit is here. That Optimus offering is discussed elsewhere (in addition to above link), I can't recall where (or I would also add the link(s)). [Fwiw, I don't "think" I've seen it in an ad or catalog(?), I think I maybe read it within a discussion but again can't recall exactly.] thx omc
@IvanN The pot lifter is not original to the Sigg Tourist. It was given to me with the kit by Dan ("dday"). It might not suit gram weenies. Cheers Tony
I like it . When I pack, it's the extra percs I bring that make the evening. I always bring more than I need. Whole tooth brush handles, treats, extra kit
Hi, I can't add anything definitive, but just for a single reference point, my father bought a Sigg Tourist which came with a Primus 71. Bare stove--no nice tin box--and I don't remember whether it was the short or taller tank model. He got it from REI some time between Spring and Fall of 1966 while active with the Boy Scout troop my brother was in. I don't know if REI packaged and sold the kit and stove themselves, or if it was a factory pairing. By the time I got my first Sigg Tourist kit, I'd seen them offered with Primus, Optimus and Svea stoves. Mine came minus a stove altogether, but, of course, the Svea 123 purchased earlier dropped right in. This was probably between 1975 and about 1980. Rick C
I would estimate your 123 is from the late '60s. The markings, right down to the "Svea Made in Sweden" on the burner bell and the unmarked packing box, are identical to the Svea I purchased new in 1969. Even the chain holding the key (that type is called "register chain") is the same. By about 1970 the chain had been changed to the more-familiar twisted wire chain. The pump-compatible fuel cap is likely a later addition. I never saw these pumps until about the mid-'70s. My estimates should be tempered by the fact that southern California was at the end of a very long supply chain from Sweden, with very small yet consistent demand for backpacking/mountaineering stoves in that market until the '70s. (We used to gather wood below treeline and pack it up to higher camps.) So the stove may have been manufactured a few years earlier. I purchased my Svea as a set with a Sigg Tourist set (i.e., it did not come with the brass windscreen, small pot, and handle.) I got it from an outfit in Redondo Beach, California, called "Pat's Ski and Sport" that was not connected to REI in any way. (In fact, the opening of the first LA-area (Carson) REI in the late-70s (I think) is what put Pat's and several other mom-and-pop's out of business. I have no idea if the two were marketed as a set by Sigg, or Sievert, or Pat's, or by some third party. As I recall the whole shebang set me back $25, which was a whole lot of holes dug for fence posts and trees. ....Arch
@ArchMc Thanks. Having read through the various threads on dating Svea 123s, I, too, thought it must be from the sixties (the key and chain), but I was unsure of the relevance of the absence of markings on the packing box. The filler cap/pump valve is obviously not original, and not necessary where I live and use these stoves... except if you want your tea in a hurry! Cheers Tony
I ran across this thread. I bought a Svea 123R in a Sigg Tourist set from either REI or Eastern Mountain Sports in 1978. It was described as a "naked Svea." However, my c. 1960 Sievert/Optimus 123 fits fine. I agree that the combination is a "Best in Show." Sigg had several models offering different wind screens for different stoves. I have another one apparently designed for a Coleman in the 400 series. Look for other threads on the subject of Sigg kits.
That may have been a reference to the 123U, a model that came without the windscreen. One does not need the SVEA windscreen when using the Sigg cook kit.
@Tony Press Tony, can you explain what a carbon fiber wick is, their benefit over cotton, and where you might get one? Thanks Rob McMillan
Welcome to CCS. If I may ... The carbon fiber wick Tony refers to here is in the priming dish, not the cotton mop thread wick in the vaporizer. You can barely see it in his photo above. The black bulge on the top of the tank. It works to 'wick' the spirit for a more efficient flame and prime. Ken in NC
Rob The “wick” I referred to above when I said “I have set this stove up with a carbon fibre wick that I didn’t take off for the photo shoot” is the pre-heater wadding (see pictures below). It isn’t the internal fuel wick, that is pure cotton. It’s the black ring around the bottom of the burner stem here: Side profile behind the filler cap. Cheers Tony @Rob McMillan Edit: crossed with @snwcmp
LOL. It is all terminology around here. All of the different members from all over the world, trying to say the same thing, but using different words. All good. If they tolerate me, anyone is good here.
In time, we do learn the international CCS dialect. We fettle ourselves a nice bit of kit, have a cuppa, and smile at the gram weenies. No expressions solely unique to CCS, but preferred, or enjoyed here. Maybe a CCS glossary is in order.
