I just got one of these stoves from France today and I have a question .. Well one question now as I figured out the other... First... Here is the stove as I opened it and took it apart. Very much like the Primus/Optimus/Monitor stoves other than the way the pump leather is held on the pump rod. I like the cotter pin idea... Pretty easy. Question one. The lipstick had this ring on it. It looks like it is to keep the burner from getting stuck on the lipstick as it makes it sit like a millimeter or two higher...so cool idea. Is this original or something the previous owner came up with? Next question but I think I answered it already... But this stove sits really squat and wide... Like a sumo wrestler haha. I guess that's normal as the others in the gallery are the same. Here's some pictures...took a whole 15 minutes haha...I need a new hobby. It's a running stove now...smells unlike kerosene... Maybe it's paraffin? Interesting smell... doesn't smell like 1-K kero. Lastly... It looks like it says "36/5" on the bottom... Curious what that means? Comparing Primus 96, Optimus 96, Veritas mark 1, Monitor Touring
I have a couple, if I recall, these have quite a bit of thermal feedback to the fount. Much older now, much less interest in firing a couple stoves up each day. Disappointing. Duane
@Tony Press I never heard of them before this forum....i like the size of it. The Brits had some good ideas @hikerduane I tried it out on a big pot of coffee.... It seems ok but the legs seem short and the burner close to the pot like a Vesta. I try to light up one a day to make coffee for work. Kind of fun that way
I need to make sure next time that I fill the fount enough to act as its own heat sink so it doesn't get too warm if it was only partially filled. Duane
@hikerduane supposed to make some soup tomorrow... something called goulash which basically tastes just like Yankee beef stew but has paprika in it (warm not hot spicy type) so that's a good hour of cooking. I'll use the thermometer and see how it's doing. Seems ok though... Nice that it came apart so easy. Someone used it and kept it up as everything even the nrv broke free without a fuss. Lucky
The ring fitted to the vaporiser is an original feature. I agree with Tony that the numbers on the underside of the tin are a price. These stoves were sold in the UK to fill the gap in the market caused by post-WW2 import restrictions on Swedish stoves, how it eventually ended up in France is a mystery!
Someone took it on holiday to France, found those little blue gas jobbies with pierceable cartridges, realised how easy, clean and reliable they were, with no more paraffin spills on their luggage or soot on their cookware and threw it out! Meanwhile some enterprising Frenchman found it, thought "Je l'aurai, je le garderai pendant cinquante ans et je le vendrai à un Américain sans méfiance."(I'll have that and save it for fifty years and sell it to some unsuspecting American). The rest is history and no more a mystery! They are a nice stove but, as noted, a bit short on the upstand and the tanks do get rather hot. Also branded as Falks or Duo Burn. My thought on the Duo Burn name is that the stove burns your food while you burn your fingers trying to adjust the flame!!
Could be, could be... And the Frenchman gets the last laugh as the little blue thingy won't sell even for £3 at a car boot sale... My Duo Burn came with a piece of rag in the tin, rather than the usual cleaning/spill mopper I reckon this was to prevent burnt fingers when releasing pressure via the filler cap.
@Blackdog I've never really heard of them before as I said and it came up in searching in French for stoves haha... It was just called an "old brass cooker" in French. I'm also curious as to how it got to France (Antran to be exact) Thank you for confirming the little ring on it as being original to it. It's a good idea actually but the ring gets stuck on too after cooking on it. I think I'm going to leave it as it is and not polish it... Just clean it up @Dean very interesting though... It smells unlike anything else I owned except for the British army cooker I have. Maybe it's paraffin if that smells differently than kerosene but I can smell it in the tin and for me reminds me of the smell that old military surplus smells like... Hard to explain. This one is also marked "duo burn" and had a laugh at the "burns your food and your hands" hahahaha I think whomever had it took care of it though. All the seals were ok except for the pump leather which was really soft and fell apart but was not dry... The nrv came out with very little effort and looked to me that it was out a few times as the lead ring was there but on the mashed and thin side and the pip was ok and just starting to get hard...I was surprised it was not made from cork on such an old stove. Everything else was pretty easy to move and loosen up.... Tank was clean after a rinse the fuel came out clear... It just needed a pip, new leather cup, gaskets for the cap and burner plug... burner was black but not sooted up. Pretty easy to bring back to life
A very vague answer, but cork seems to have given way to rubber-like compounds in the 1930s, and before in the case of some manufacturers.
Take a look at the pointed steel shuttle NRV in the post I referenced earlier. After that, nothing would surprise me!
@Blackdog @Dean haha the cork reference is from my only other experience with anything from France... Both Vesta stoves I had were fitted with dried out cork SRV pips in the cap.... figured it must be a French thing.. And @Dean hahahaha.... Like the name you have for your stove. I too noticed the length of the legs... I'm thinking about longer ones but I'm lazy and may just leave it. Regarding the knob I use a tool I got from work.. We call it a BNC connector wrench... But it's a pair of curved pliers with rubber grips to turn things that are circular and you don't want to damage.
@hikerduane @Dean interesting...I cannot replicate the hot tank you described. Running on Kingsford BBQ lighter fluid I set a pot on to boil. Did this indoor to prevent draft but ventilation for fumes Once the pot boiled I ran it for exactly 10 minutes and took temps. Nothing bad at all... Slightly warm to touch but not scalding hot in the tank anywhere. Celsius Fahrenheit Also... Not cold here. Today is warm enough to wear t shirt outside... Like a spring day.
Very good, it's been months if not a couple years since I fired mine up, will have to look at my tag on them. So many stoves, so little time. Duane
Very nice stove! I have a Primus 96 that I bought from @hikerduane couple years or so ago and burns nice. Wonder where you get the rope for the preheating cup
@Pancholoco1911 I actually stole the idea from @z1ulike for wicks on Vesta stoves. I cut the wick and use the soft wire from twist ties (like on bread from the grocery store) to keep it from unraveling. I then connect it by wrapping the whole thing like a donut. Here is where I bought it... I bought 1/4" kevlar rope with fiberglass core. K1 Braided KEVLAR Rope Wick I bought like 20 feet of it so every stove I have gets a wick haha