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