How Long Have You Been Collecting Stoves?

I am not sure I even am collecting stoves. At least I do not know when I started. What I know is that I got my first stove I didn't need, back in 2002. Maybe that was a start in something of a collection.

This is a really difficult question, because what is _one_ stove. I have many stoves that is not complete, so some parts are floating around. Even if one incomplete stove is 0,8 stoves, two stoves with the same incompleteness doesn't count up as 1.6 stoves, not even up to 1.0 stove. I have some 0.8 and 0.9 stoves. I can use many of these, but not at the same time, because I can use parts from other stoves.

 

I have collect stoves more or less since 2002! My start was a Primus no.41, when I discovered how fantastic it was for cooking on my trips in "the forest"
I have not to many, but do have a couple more than I could take on my trips for fishing and so on.
BR. Skauvill

 

My first stove (and I hardly dare say ) was a Campingaz (if I don't count the Esbit stove and tablets that followed me home when I was doing my service...) followed by a Simon stove (alky burner).
When I started an interest in old military stuff that also included tools and general useful objects, including.....stoves! Searching Tinternet for info on these got me here and, as they say, the rest is history!
I stopped wasting time on shaving when I was like 18 years old or thereabouts. Length usually was somewhere between 1/4" and long enough to put braids in 'em. Had a complete shave some 30 years ago (just wanted to do something silly ) and another one in 2018. This was for a special reason. We took part in "The Liberation Tour" commemorating the liberation of Belgium in 1918, so to be historically correct (no beards because of the use of gasmasks!) my beard had to go. By the end of that week I had a nice stubbly beard . The tour consisted of 130 men, 50 horses, a load of horse drawn wagons and 3 motor cars. Some of the men were on horseback, some on bicycles (me ) and some on foot. All good fun!

 

Getting on for 40 years since I shelled out for the first of the stoves that I still have.
Can't call it a collection though. Purely because if it was a collection I'd have to look after them a tad better!
Regards
John

 

Like Wim, it was my militaria collecting that lead me astray. Well over 40 years ago I bought a Turner 1111, a single burner that had been advertised by a well known militaria dealer as military. I later found out the dealer had a dodgy reputation and Turner's were never military. The khaki-ish color that Turner, Prentiss Wabers and AGM used a lot in the '30s has caused many a folk to think they are military stoves. None were. From the Turner I started picking up legitimate military stoves and lanterns and learning more about them. That plus recreational camping led to an interest in general GPAs and now here I am, waist deep in stoves and lanterns.

 

I began in 1966 with a Phoebus No. 1, acquired from my grandfather, which he used for his boot--making shop. I was nine at the time..

 

I caught the stove pox when I stumbled on this website. I've been a member here since Mar 6, 2010. So about 10 years.

Ben

 

I got my first stove (Svea 123 in a Sigg Tourist kit) in 1969, earning the money for it by endless slave labor digging post holes for my parents. In the early '80s, a climbing trip to Mexico dictated that I have a stove that was not limited to white gas. My wife gave me an MSR XGK for Christmas. (Still not really a collection.) Shortly thereafter, I got interested in the question of how camping and climbing was done in the past. This proved to be the "slippery slope". I first acquired an Optimus 00 and an M-1950, then several more stoves, and I was completely lost. Found CCS at about that time -- both an enabler and a support group for my addiction.

....Arch

 

In THIS post four years ago on a similar theme I said:

John

 

And we established awhile back that Arch is the longest 'still-posting' member of CCS. February 2001, as I recall...

Obviously, excluding our founder and esteemed leader!

 

For me it started 10 years ago with some diy alcohol tin stoves. Moved via TLUD wood gas stove to kerosene, gasoline and classic alcohol stoves.

And yes, i have a beard too.

 

Awesome guys. Some of you have been collecting/accumulating stoves for quite some time now.

 

Hi.
I bought my first stove (Coleman picnic stove) in 1972 but I was not collecting at this time.In 1974 I joined the Canadian army and I began to be addicted by stoves.In 1981 as a scout leader I did the maintenance on all the stoves and lanterns we had in our group.I bought items at a flea market for parts and alas I got the stove pox.I tought it was crazy to collect stoves but one day I discovered that I was not alone when I found this site,now I have around 150 stoves.

Longue vie à Classic camp stove.Long life to Classic camp stove

Réjean

P.S I have a white beard too

 

150, dang!

 

I have only been collecting stoves since 2013, but I grew up with Primus-type stoves, and in the late 1970s I used my parents’ old Primus No. 5 for cooking when I was doing field work on the beautiful Gloucester Tops on Australia’s Great Dividing Range. I also used two Tilley X246s for lighting.

Cheers

Tony

 

I actually don’t consider myself a collector, just an enthusiastic user who has a few stoves.

 

I started with stoves in the 70's.
I have always been an engineer of some sort( usually electronic but always had a love of mechanical).
I was really in love with Traction engines but
a) couldn't afford
b) too damn big to store many lol
So opted for stoves lol I love the design of them and how/why they are designed differently to do the same thing.

 

I would guess I've been a collector for about 6 or 7 years. I've noticed that I have recurring stove pox that can strike with little to no warning and then disappear for an extended time. I am very content with my collection as I've checked off all my grails for the most part, but I'm still open to the occasional addition if it peaks my interest.

My latest addition is actually not a classic stove but a modern multi fuel stove: Primus Omnifuel.

 

I've been "collecting" since just over double digit ages. Still have my first stove, a single burner Primus propane gassie. I haven't used it in years, don't care for the burner being perched precariously on top of a 1lb propane cylinder.

 

Awesome guys, thanks for posting.

Perhaps I should have had the title read, How Long Have You Been Using Classic Stoves.