Why are there so many of these mil kits on the market ?? & why are they so cheap ?? .. And getting more expensive annually .. I bought used at£4.99 & new at £5.99 way back ( OK 3 yrs ago)....& still felt that i'd had my fingers burnt ( Probably worth the coin for the burner & the fuel bottle). Poor Swedish Mil supply ... They could have equipped their lads with proper Trangias .. Grump can do... Still, it wasn't my tax money .. My rebate came this week on Mil tent canvas 5 man arctic ....NOS but needs poles . Mornin.. Nick
This has got me to thinking about the possible origin of the whole bit of kit and why they didn't just issue something more along the lines of,say, a Trangia 27. The following is all purely speculation on my part, albeit educated speculation: I believe that the pot (bottom portion) and the pan (lid portion) were possibly the beginnings of everything just by themselves. I've seen quite a few military mess kits of eastern european origin that could be, for all intents, copies of the military Trangias without the windscreen and burner. Most of these mess kits were from the former DDR (East Germany). Could it be that the Swedes issued a similar two piece mess kit long ago, with the windscreen and burner developed and issued at a much later date as a product improvement? If that's the case, the Swedish govt. was just improving and extending the life of an old mess kit with a stove upgrade, at a fraction of the cost of a shiny new Trangia. It's just my hypothesis, but then again I'm no stove anthropologist. Regards, Ridge
Hello all, To get back to the original topic. This is a Swedish one-man-kichen also popularly known as "Snuskburk" ("Filthy pot" - based on the solders keen intrest in doing the washing up properly). I had a friend who had a roll of plastic bags in his kit. When using the pot he inserted a plastic bag and after the meal he threw away the bag - no need for cleaning... It was general issue to all military personel as their "serving-pot" for field use. When no canteen it could be used with the additional wind-shield and spirit burner for personal meals, but this was rarely the case. As the Swedish military is downsizing, a lot of surplus have found it's way into the market why there is quite a lot of them around. They sell for 40 SEK, about $5 at the local army-surplus here in Sweden. Maybe I should bunker up.. Best regards, Rickard S
Nap??? Naaaa i think it's time for some meds lad> The nurse will be right along, just lay back and watch the flashing light. lance
Lance, the wife is Senior Nurse for Theraputic Care for about half of South Wales (and I'm proud to say she has been nominated for a 2009 National award in Mental Health Nursing), me, I'm just a bog standard Nurse, trust me, it was nap time
Well, the advantage of these kits is they're designed to switch to use over wood fairly easily. Compared to the sort of high performance dream machines we're used to these have a lot of drawbacks as Richard pointed out. I've picked a few of them up over the last couple years and handed them out as presents to a couple of friends who, let's face it, probably won't ever buy a proper campstove. If they have an emergency, it will work well enough. These are the sort of people who think flatpack sterno stoves are a keen idea. (oh my what a nasty thing to say)
My closing thoughts on the Swedish contraptions: If gotten on the cheap, or in my case free, they do make a nice stove for "just in case". Good enough to warm some soup when the power is out without fuming up the place, and sturdy enough to haul around in the back of the 4-wheel drive. Also a great little stove for the young ones to use without submitting a better more collectable stove to the abuse that kids dish out on everything. Secondly, whether you think they are crap or not, they are a part of our stove history! As a Trangia fan, I can't think of being without one, as my Trangia collection would be painfully incomplete. And last of all, for me it was the stove that got me into stoves, the one that lead me to this wonderful place on the web in search of answers, and eventually lead me to better stoves, and more of them! I guess I'll always love mine just for that! Warmest Regards, Ridge
Not only that, but you can throw all your Svea 123 and Optimus 8r parts in them for a good soaking in carb cleaner! Didn't think of that now did you Rik ? Ridge
ROFLMAO! I still like mine, and thanks Paul! (111T). It's a trangia burner with a larger reservoir... what's bad about that? The rest is what it is. I built a Trangia type set around one and it will burn long enough to make Macaroni and Cheese from a box. That's not bad. Now, if you want to "cook" that's another thing. If you are NOT really cooking, but making "mountain house" or some other concoction on a fancy stove, well... It's like someone I saw today wearing a jacket that said "Polo Society" or some such crap... I asked him if he played polo a lot... HE DIDN"T EVEN KNOW WHAT "POLO" was... he's a recent immigrant with a nice suede coat....I explained about the horses and the mallets.... So, if you don't REALLY cook, how do you get away with being critical of a water boiler??? Ok, that's my two cents, and I still like 'em. They are a wonderful little magic trick of partial self-pressurization!
Matukat, Mac 'n Cheese was the last thing I made in mine, just to see if it could be done. Got the whole box in there, but had a heck of a time controlling the temp so it wouldn't boil over and extinguish the burner. Had to put on an old leather glove and pull the pot out, stir down the foam, put back on burner, and repeat as necessary for about 8 minutes. My wife looked at me like I was from Mars when I interrupted her TV program to show her my latest achievement. Personally, I thought it was a minor triumph. Regards, Ridge
Assuming we're still talking about those oval Swedish milsurp stoves, I've got one you can have, Gary - Trangia burner, used once (Sykeside 2005) to heat some hot-dog sausages. They got hot - what more can I say... For about the same (or less) money, I reckon you'd be better off with the Lidl offering. At least it has a half-way decent set of pans.
Hi Sorry for misleading everyone I was talking about Nick finding the army surplus 5 man arctic tent. Something I have been looking for. The army surplus shop in Darlington have the Swedish cook sets for £4.50 I think. I also use them for the kids, each has their own and I'm happy to let them learn for themselves about outdoor cooking with them. On another topic in a discussion with my brother the other day it dawned on me that some young adults (like my nephew) have never lit anything in their lives. Microwaves, electric hobs, fan ovens etc. mean they never have to.
I was playing with my Swedish Military "Trangia" kit over the weekend. This is the stainless steel version. One litre of cold water - about 8C in the Garage, water straight from the cold tap (didn't measure the temp of the water): Got to a rolling boil in just over six minutes (could probably reduce this if I put the lid on the pot): I then turned it down to a gentle simmer: It would appear from some of the other posts that others have not achieved this level of performance and control from their kits? Of course, I cheated - I stuck a Borde up it's bottom: I've been thinking of a way to utilise my Borde and I quite like this set up. I can get the Borde, the original fuel bottle, my trusty old enamel mug, with room for a lighter and some eating irons all packed in the kit: With Richard's (Rik_uk3) dislike of the Swedish kit, and his distrust of the Borde (from a post in antoher thread) it would appear this combination could be his perfect storm! Note on my enamel mug - this was purchased for my first ever camping trip with my Junior School aged 10 at Cuffley Camp in Hertfordshire. The mug has been in use on and off for over 40 years, and still has my initials painted on the bottom. Cuffley Camp
Nice one Graham Looks peachy as. Are you using the bottle for panel wipe? I reckon Rik will love your new toy wouldn't surprise me if he realises that he is misguided in his loathing of the Swedish milkit and buys a Borde to go with it Btw, better with a decent burner in aren't they? 8)
Hi Bill, Yep, works well. I've never run my Borde to empty - I need to do a burn test on it to see how long it'll last compared to the supplied meths burners. Ran the meths burners (one stamped trangia, the other SVEA) side by side last night and got about 25 minutes out of each of them. Also, I suspect I can get some slightly better performance by getting the burner closer to the pan bottom as it's about a third again higher than than the recommended optimum gap in the Borde instructions. I'm using the supplied fuel bottle for Aspen 4T (my fuel of choice for "petrol" stoves). Currently got it full and lying on it's side wrapped in a rag to see if there is any leakage - so far so good, the bottle seems fine, but I might still stick a nitrile washer in the lid just to be sure.
Hi Graham I had the same thought as you about the nitrile washer. But when I looked at the lid of mine, it seals by a "plug" in the lid being pushed into the neck of the bottle.
