The Kelly Kettle: A great way to boil water

I was not paid to do this gear review.
Purifying water can be critical during an emergency. The Kelly Kettle combines an efficient design for boiling water with the ability to be fueled with biomass. It seemed like a great idea, so I ordered one for testing.
by Leon Pantenburg

In the aftermath of a disaster, finding pure water can be very, very difficult. Boiling may be the only practical method of purifying large amounts of it.

The Kelly Kettle is a simple, effective biomass-fueled container designed to boil water fast.

This leads to another potential problem: What will you use for fuel to create the heat source? I am a huge fan of biomass-fueled emergency stoves, so I was intrigued with the Kelly Kettle concept.
According to the parent company, the Kelly Kettle is a 100-year-old design that originated in Ireland. The tradition of using the kettle to boil water at lunchtime goes back to the 1890s on the west coast of Ireland and the design has changed little. The idea was to produce an easy-to-use, compact biomass-fueled vessel for boiling water.
Lough Conn is famous for its free rising brown trout and fresh run Salmon from the River Moy system. The lake provided (and still provides) ample fuel for use in the kettle, according to the website, where washed up twigs, sticks and dried grass were easily available. On wet and stormy days, the local angling guides would keep watch for the small pillar of smoke on the lake shore which indicated that a colleague already had a "brew" on! A hot cup of tea or soup awaited anyone who landed and the Kettle would be repeatedly boiled as additional boats laden with anglers arrived.
It seemed to me that such a kettle would have a valuable place in my emergency preparedness supplies, as well as being really useful for backpacking. I ordered the Kelly Base Camp Aluminum Kettle, which holds 54 ounces of water and weighs 2.1 pounds. My reasoning was that a kettle this size, if it worked as advertised, would be ideal for base and hunting camps and could supply several people with hot water quickly during emergency situations. Most importantly, it would never run out of fuel.
My first impression upon opening the box was that the kettle design is extremely well thought out and practical: A double-walled metal container, hollow in the middle, fits on a base that allows building a fire. The design creates a chimney effect, which makes for effective fuel use and rapid heating.
The workmanship and quality is great - I filled it with water and headed outside.
As is my wont, I test survival products in whatever circumstances are outside. In this case, the weather in Central Oregon was cold and damp, it had been raining for several days, and all the twigs and sticks were wet or damp. Starting them was not a problem and once the fire got going, the water boiled after about three to five minutes.
I was surprised at how rapidly the kettle worked, and with so little fuel. I had picked up a big handful of damp sticks off the damp forest floor, and didn't need all of them to boil the water.
There are accessories, a Pot-Support and Cook Set, that can be added to a Kelly Kettle to allow cooking over the chimney. All the components can be stored inside the kettle.
While the Base Camp might be too big for backpacking, there is another model, called the Trekker, that holds two mugs of water. Combined with the cooking rack, that seems like it would be an ideal combination of backpacking biomass stove and water purification system.
But that's something I don't intend to wonder about long. Christmas is coming, and I hope I find a Trekker and cook set under the tree for me.

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Propane or gas: How to choose a lantern and/or stove fuel

Propane or gas? What type of emergency implement fuel is the best choice for you?
by Leon Pantenburg

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Let's assume an emergency scenario where wood heat/light are not an option, you can't use a campfire and a biomass stove is out of the picture. Maybe there is extreme fire danger, open fires are prohibited, or there isn't a ready supply of fuel.
Should you have a propane or gas lantern or stove? Tank or canister? What are the advantages, disadvantages and what considerations should you be aware of?

My collection includes kerosene, gasoline and propane lanterns. The best choice will depend on the situation, weight, safety and availability of fuel. (Pantenburg photos)

I can't make up my mind which fuel is best. I currently have one propane and four Coleman gas lanterns. I own a dual-fuel campstove, gas backpacking stove, and one small stove that screws on top of a propane cylinder. My go-to stove for all off grid cooking is a double burner Camp Chef propane cooker that uses bulk propane. I have a propane space heater for emergency warmth.
Your emergency preparations should include some thoughts about lighting, heating and cooking implements over the long term. Basically, your choices will boil down to two main categories: propane or liquid fuel (gasoline).
Before you buy anything though, consider where the appliance will be used. Are you car camping, where weight is not an issue, or backpacking above the tree line, where weight will be a major consideration? What temperatures will the item most likely be used in? How important is long term use and the ability to replenish the fuel?
Here are some shopping considerations:

The propane cylinder has advantages over liquid fuel, but that

 

 doesn't make it the best choice.

• Convenience and ease of use:Does the fuel source affect how easily the implement can be used? There is no pouring, priming or pumping with propane. With gas, the implement must be filled, and sometimes primed and pumped. While the gas implement is operating, it will occasionally need to be pumped.
  Propane or gasoline? Check out the shopping considerations to decide.[/caption]
• Fuel availability: The dual-fuel gas implements can use unleaded gasoline, at a fraction of the cost of Coleman fuel or white gas. I've bought Coleman gas at tiny little stores in out-of-the-way areas of northern Minnesota, where the store inventory was sketchy at best. Conversely, I've also seen standard 16.4 oz disposable propane gas cylinders at many of these same stores. I'm guessing gas is still easier to find, but bulk propane is also very common and cheap.
• Cost: Last week at the local WalMart, the disposable propane cylinders were on sale for about $6 for two cylinders, versus almost $10 per gallon for Coleman fuel. The dual-fuel gas stoves and lanterns are the clear winners in the cost-effectiveness category, with unleaded gasoline from the pump costing about $4 per gallon. Not to mention, a dual-fuel implement can be re-fueled with a siphon hose from a vehicle gas tank.
• Safety: As a Boy scout volunteer, I see safety around fire as paramount. I've noticed that the propane lanterns and stoves are easier, and hence safer, for the boys to light and use. There is no priming, pouring or fuel to spill. The idea of a container of gasoline anywhere near an open fire, with kids around, makes my blood run cold.
• Implement design: My Coleman model 442 backpacking gas stove has a listed weigh of 24 ounces. That, in part, is due to the pump and generator required for a gas stove. My single burner propane stove that screws on top of a propane cylinder weighs less than half that.
• "Green" design: I don't like the disposable propane cylinders - they work great, but it seems to be a terrible waste to throw away the empties. For a long-term situation, such as a lengthy campout, though, a bulk propane tank can be filled for about $2-something a gallon, making that option an economic favorite.
• Temperature: Cold affects propane's effectiveness. In extreme cold, a propane cylinder may not work at all. Gasoline is not affected. That's one reason why I have so many gas-powered implements.

Like anything, the final decision on whether to invest in propane or gas appliances will depend on your individual needs and perceived usage. Good luck with picking a favorite - I haven't been able to come up with one yet!

The leadhead jig: The do-it-all survival fishing lure?

Is there a do-it-all lure for survival fishing? My money is on the plain lead head jig. Here's why.
by Leon Pantenburg

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After my first week on the Mississippi River, I sent three fishing rods and a large tackle box home. After seven days of fishing and catching many walleye, smallmouth bass, northern pike, crappie and bluegills, I didn't anticipate needing anything but a medium-action, fast-tip, seven-foot spinning rod, a Mitchell 300 reel

The basis of a very effective group of survival fishing lures is the simple, leadhead jig. From top is a quarter, eighth and sixteenth ounce jig (Pantenburg photos)

with six-pound line and a box of spinners and leadhead jigs.
This selection served me well the rest of the way down the 2,500 miles of the river. I never went hungry because I couldn't catch a fish and my go-to lure was a 1/8-ounce jig, tipped with a three-inch yellow Mr. Twister. (To read the story, click on my end-to-end Mississippi River canoe voyage.)
When putting together a survival kit, you must to carefully weigh the value of the components. A common question is about fishing lures: Is there one lure that can catch everything?
First, though, remember that survival fishing is not sport fishing. If you must catch fish to survive, use the most effective method available, legal or not.
Hook and line sport fishing techniques may not be particularly effective in a survival situation. In fact, it may be a waste of really valuable time if you're fishing when a better choice might be to gather firewood, improve a shelter, or set up signals.
You also need to figure out the return on your calorie investment. If you must expend 300 calories to catch a fish that can only supply 100 calories, you're going to end up with an energy deficit.
So the choice of the best survival lure depends on the situation, location and water conditions. Talk to several fisherpeople and you'll probably get that many opinions.
My best all-around nomination is for the leadhead jig, and here's why:
Inexpensive: The jig is nothing more than a hook with a gob of lead near the eyelet. I pour my own, ranging in weight

These 1/8-ounce jig lures were improvised from available materials. The bodies in both are composed of wool yarn. The top lure tail is a marabou feather, and the bottom tail a pheasant feather. Both these patterns are proven and effective.

from 1/32-ounce to 1/4-ounce, in several styles. Several years ago, the guys in the print shop at the newspaper gave me about 20 pounds of old linetype lead. My jigs cost the price of the hooks, and whatever electricity it takes to run my melting pot.
You can buy bulk leadheads at any sporting goods store, and the bodies are so inexpensive, you can stock up on different colors, styles and sizes.
Versatile: I tip jigs with virtually anything, from plastic twister tail grub bodies, to hair and feathers. Since I hunt, I have a lifetime supply of deer, elk and squirrel tails, and the feathers from a variety of game birds. Depending on the species of fish and circumstances, I can make just about any type of jig necessary. Part of the fun of fishing is catching something on a homemade lure!
Effectiveness: The jig is designed to mimic a minnow, or represent some other food source. Sometimes, a properly-fished jig will cause a reflexive strike for a game fish. While I have a tackle box full of various lures, I generally start out with a jig, and seldom have reason to switch.
Color: Start out with a basic selection of black, white and chartreuse, and those colors will probably do the job. My favorite color on the Mississippi River was yellow. My top producer color on Oregon's John Day River is motor oil or brown. Black is always a contender. Experiment in your area, and you'll be able to dial in your color preferences.

This pocket-sized box holds all the lures I need for a day of smallmouth bass fishing on Oregon's John Day River.

Fishing technique for a jig can depend on the circumstances. The most effective method, IMHO, is to cast the lure out, and bounce it off the bottom. You will lose a lot of jigs like this, but if you aren't hitting snags or rocks, you aren't prospecting where the fish are.
Another method is a steady retrieve, with periodic twitches. A favorite panfishing method that also works well for steelhead trout is to attach a jig a few feet under a bobber or float.
Like any survival technique, the more you practice, the more effective you will be. And to be required to practice fishing...well, worse things can happen!

Survival gear review: The Platypus collapsible water bottle

Carrying enough water to prevent dehydration should be a no-brainer. But suppose you don't want the bulk and weight of extra containers? One option might be the Platypus collapsible water bottle.
by Leon Pantenburg

Click here to buy survival kits

Many survival manuals devote space to improvising water containers. And if you haven't planned ahead, or get into an unexpected situation, that may be necessary.

This combination of water bottles works well. The rigid Nalgene in the middle is used for drinking and the Paltypus soft bottle are used to carry extra water. (Pantenburg photo

But one of the easiest way to carry extra water storage bottles is to get a collapsible Platypus. These range in size from a few ounces to multi-gallon sizes.
I've been carrying some variation of the Platypus bottle for several years. Here are some aspects I like about the collapsible containers:
Price: A Platypus will set you back about $12 for a 1.2 liter bottle. That's cheap for a water bottle that can last years with reasonable care.
Durability: I've been using a couple of Platypus bottles for several years, and they are holding up fine. In my case, a Platypus is generally carried rolled up as a backup in desert hiking. If there is a need to gather extra water, it will work well. You can break anything, of couse, but as long as you take reasonable care not to puncture it, the bottle should have an infinite lifespan.
Portability: With a collapsible, you can push the air out, and the bottle takes up only the space that the water needs. This

Add captionThe Frontier Pro water filter gravity system worked really well to filter some strong coffee! The filter fits on the Platypus collapsible and allows gravity water filtering. (Pantenburg photo)

means you can pack it in oddly-shaped empty places in your pack. A Platypus also has a flat bottom, so it will stand by itself.
Convenience: You can carry a rolled-up Platypus in a brief case or purse, and breeze right through an airport security station. Once past the Homeland Security people, you can fill the Platypus from a water fountain and carry water with you. I can carry a couple rolled-up Platypus bottles (weight: about an ounce or so) in my daypack or briefcase and never know they're there.
A Platypus is one of those unique survival items you'll never know you needed until you get one. A Platypus is a sound investment for your urban and wilderness survival kits.

Gear Review: Boy Scout Hot Spark ferro rod survival fire starter

The best survival gear doesn't have to be expensive. But it must be reliable and able to work under extreme conditions. One of the best ferrocerium rods for firemaking is the Boy Scout Hot Spark.

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by Leon Pantenburg
I like stuff that works. Some of these items include my Cold Steel SRK survival knife, Ruger 10/22, a Swiss Army Classic keychain knife, my Gerber folding saw and a 42-ounce enamelware cup. Included in this list is a Boy Scout Hot Spark ferrocerium rod.
Because of its reliability, a Hot Spark is included in my keyring and Altoid tin survival kits. Backup ferro rods are also scattered throughout my gear. They don't weigh anything, or take up any space, and the ferro rod firemaking technique, properly done is utterly reliable. (Check out the ferro rod firemaking video!)
The Boy Scout Hot Spark on my keyring survival kit costs about three dollars at any scout store. It has a good handle and the ferro rod is very effective. Because it is easily included and convenient, it will be taken along.
Here's why I carry a ferro rod:

• Extreme reliability: A ferrocerium rod, when scraped with a hardened steel striker, will produce sparks with temperatures of up to 5,500 degrees. These sparks will readily ignite many forms of tinder. (Check out the video on finding tinder under survival conditions) A ferro rod is also good for hundreds, if not thousands of fires. Matches, lighters and many other methods are finite.
• Compact and easy to carry: That means you can carry several as backups.
• Work under conditions that would disable other firemaking methods: This is one of the
  most important reasons to carry a ferro rod. Butane lighters are easily disabled by cold and moisture or a grain of sand. Matches are unreliable and degenerate over time. Every firemaking method has some disadvantage, but I believe a ferro rod has the fewest.

Your only survival tools are those you have along! Check out the Hot Spark video review!

The quest for a reliable, easy-to-use backpacking stove never ends, and I have the collection to prove it! But the Solo Stove is really impressive, and worth taking a look at.

(Disclaimer: This review is my opinion. I was not reimbursed for doing this review, nor does Solo Stove at the time of this review, advertise on SurvivalCommonSense.com or any of its affiliates.)

by Leon Pantenburg
I'm caught in the baby-boomer backpacker quandary. On one hand, I like gear that works, and proven items are hard to leave behind. But my aging, abused knees make going light mandatory. I've had to replace effective, proven gear strictly on the basis of weight.

The Solo Stove biomass backpacking stove

But some things you can't lighten up and one of those is stove fuel. It is heavy and if you run out in the wilderness, your stove becomes dead weight.
Here's my stove philosophy: You don't need much. Probably 90 percent of the time, all a backpacker requires is boiling water to brew tea or coffee or rehydrate food.
So the idea of a lightweight backpacking stove, with no moving parts, that burns twigs, pine cones, sticks etc is very attractive. So, I contacted Solo Stove to do a test and review. (Check out my Solo Stove test video below!)
My stove arrived in the mail a few days later, and first impressions were very positive. The stove fits perfectly inside my standard carry 42-ounce enamelware cup, and nesting the Solo Stove inside was a no-brainer.
Workmanship is superb. The Solo Stove is well-built and made of heavy gauge stainless steel with no seams, but it only weighs nine ounces. There are no parts to break or ports or vents to clog.
The Solo Stove is a natural convection inverted downgas gasifer stove, according to the company website, that incorporates a secondary combustion for a more efficient and cleaner burn. The bottom vents allow air to enter and flow up the bottom of the grate to feed the primary combustion, a top down smolder. In addition, air entering from the bottom vents heats up within the inner wall and rises up and out the top firebox vents causing a secondary combustion at the top of the stove.
The Solo Stove doesn't just burn wood, according to the website, but actually cooks the smoke out of the wood and then burns the smoke twice. This technique makes for a cleaner burn, the company claims, which means less smoke. This would also allow the stove to burn more efficiently which means it requires less fuel.
Anyway, all this hyperbole is shinola unless the stove works, so I set out to do some testing.

It takes very little fuel to boil water. (Pantenburg photo)

The first item was fuel. I took a stroll in the pine forest behind my house and gathered biomass stuff. This included damp and decaying sticks and twigs and a few pine cones. I grabbed a big handful.
I lighted the stove with a cotton ball and petroleum jelly, ignited with a ferro rod. The stove lighted very easily, and all it took was a few twigs to get a blaze going. I broke the twigs into small pieces and loaded the stove, and in no time, I had a blaze going. The top was just right to put that 42-ounce cup on, and everything balanced well.
I fed the fire through the slot in the side of the top, and in a few minutes, had boiling water. A Jetboil could have done the job a few minutes faster, but so what?
The only downside I can see is the inevitable wood soot buildup on cooking utensils. But you know that going in. The best idea is to make a separate bag or container for the cooking utensil, and segregate it from the rest of your gear. Or, you can cover the utensil bottom with aluminum foil before cooking.
Based on my testing so far, I really like the Solo Stove. With Coleman gas hitting over $8 per gallon here at the Walmart, fuel cost savings could be considerable. And the fuel is never going to get any lighter.
A biomass stove that can take advantage of easily-obtainable fuel is something all of us backpackers should be looking at. I've got a backpack trip scheduled for the middle of July, and the Solo Stove will be going along.

The top five reasons to put a ferro rod in your survival kit

The ability to make a fire during an emergency situation can save your life. But what is the best survival firestarting method? My money is on the ferrocerium (also commonly referred to as a flint or magnesium stick) rod. Here are five reasons you need one.

Check out these custom ferro rods!

by Leon Pantenburg
Several years, the late Dr. Jim Grenfell and I set out to research the most effective practical firemaking method. After extensive research, the ferro rod, combined with cotton balls and petroleum jelly, came out the winner. (To read the rest of the story, click on the top survival firemaking methods.)
Ferro rods are easy to come by and cheap. The Boy Scout Hot Spark on my keyring survival kit costs about three dollars at any scout store. It has a good handle and the ferro rod is very effective.
Ferro rods are also available at most sporting goods stores. But I'm surprised more outdoorspeople don't include them as part of their survival gear. Here are some things to consider:

• Extreme reliability: A ferrocerium rod, when scraped with a hardened steel striker, will produce sparks with temperatures of up to 5,500 degrees. These sparks will readily ignite many forms of tinder. (Check out the video on finding tinder under survival conditions) A ferro rod is also good for hundreds, if not thousands of fires. Matches, lighters and many other methods are finite.
• Compact and easy to carry: I carry a tiny ferro rod in my wallet, another on my keychain, and a third in my survival gear. (Some people might say I obsess about firemaking tools, since I also carry a BIC mini lighter in my pants pocket, my jacket pocket and my pack!) If a survival tool is not compact and easy to carry, it may get left behind. Your only survival tools are those you have along!
• Work under conditions that would disable other firemaking methods:This is one of the
  most important reasons to carry a ferro rod. Butane lighters are easily disabled by cold and moisture or a grain of sand. Matches are unreliable and degenerate over time. Every firemaking method has some disadvantage, but I believe a ferro rod has the fewest.
• Easy to learn: Every survival technique should be practiced before you rely on it. Making sparks with a ferro stick is easy, but you have to use the correct technique to get a fire started. Check out the video on starting a fire with a ferro stick.
• Wide range of uses: I use my ferro rod as a survival tool, of course, but also use one to light my propane Camp Chef double burner stove, my barbeque grill, backpacking stoves and wood stoves.