Rocket stoves are easy to bring around while you’re camping, as a small camp stove. They are powerful and long burning, so you’ll need less fuel to keep the fire going.
The log rocket stove has limited uses, however makes it the simplest and faster way to make it.
First, we will need to get all the necessary items to make this:
- A piece of log (the diameter of the wood will determine for how long you can reuse it)
- A wax crayon
- A drill with a flat wood drill bit, size 35
- A stove grill or anything that is flat enough to sustain the pots (I will also use a piece of an old engine that I painted with heat-resistant spray paint.)
- Heat-resistant spray paint (optional)
Step One: Drilling Out the Inside of the Log
First, attach the drill bit to the drill and carve a hole on top of the log, drilling down as far as you can.
After the hole has been drilled, measure its depth and then drill a hole on the side of the log according to the depth. Remember, the two holes should meet, forming an L shape.
Step Two: Secure the stove grill
Based on the size of your stove’s burner grate, draw a circle onto the top of the log and hammer nails into the base, following the lines of the circle that were previously drawn. This will serve as our base for the grate.
Place it onto the nails, and your first rocket stove is done. I tried it with engine parts that I found around my house from an old rusty engine. I just spray painted it with heat-resistant spray paint.
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Step Three: Trying It Out and Tips on How to Light It
Log rocket stoves function by lighting the inside of the log with fire. This is initially very difficult but it will give it a steady but long-lasting burn once accomplished. Use something which burns quickly and with big flames. For this, woods which make resin are good. For this reason, I used pine needles and jammed them down both holes. Make sure you leave enough space to breathe on the flames.
After enough coals were collected in the middle of the log and it had a small but stable flame, I started adding small twigs and wood chips to the fire to help it burn even better.
The fire crawled up the log after a while, and began to burn better inside.
Really you can see exactly how the interior is engulfed in flames. The wood is not going to heat up outside, so you can keep it and bring it, but I wouldn’t suggest this because you might disrupt the fire and it would die down or you might burn yourself.
I put some water in a cup over the fire to show it’s working. A couple of minutes, and the water boiled.
You can, of course, cook up a whole meal for a family with this burner, that is, if you have enough time and patience. But if one’s too slow, why not go bigger and use four simultaneously?
With four of these, I was able to fry the bacon and the sausages faster than I actually thought I would be able to. They generate great amounts of heat and will burn for hours.
