I’ve been striving to create lighter, better stoves for at least three years. I co-designed the Ed T stove, getting my feet wet on what is now the commonplace “cylinder” stove approach. I held out for a truly flat cooking surface; Ed was ready to go to market with the design we had at that time, and so that’s what he did. I kept working on cylinder versions that were true “flat tops”. Meanwhile I developed extremely lightweight box stoves as well. All these prototypes were crafted of Titanium. I concluded that the box stoves just had too many parts—complicated to build and risky as regards lost parts. And I concluded that even though I could make horizontal cylinder stoves with admirable cooking surfaces it was often possible to “sag” the top with enough pot weight and a very hot fire. Still not good enough. I insist on BOTH warming heat and real cooking ability with my stoves. So I went an entirely new direction. You’ll see the images as soon as I can build the final versions…in a few days. (I think at some point I’ll also attempt to show images of the extensive assortment of “in between” stoves I’ve built the last few years. There is quite a pile of them.) Like all things Kifaru the final versions are released only after immense testing and rejection.
So. I finally hit on a “cylinder” design that does what I want. The cylinder is vertical, not horizontal. It is not round, it is elongated…for perfect feeding and cooking. The sidewall rolls up with the stovepipe. There are very, very, few loose “parts”. The stovepipe and stove assemble in a breakthrough way that we are patenting. The stoves are the lightest ever, especially for their combustion chamber cubic inches—you can justify carrying a very large stove for dramatically less weight than anything existing. The smallest versions are true featherweights. Cooking surfaces are excellent. They are modular…use a “short” sidewall height for summer and early fall and switch to an optional “tall” sidewall height for late season and winter, from the same stove top/bottom and pipe. They also just look good! The appearance is brand new to the stove scene.
There will be more specifics when we can get final images taken. Thank you for your interest! I hope you all like these new stoves as much as I do. I think all this effort has been worth it.
Hope to hear more about burn times and how well it generates heat, compared to the cylinder and box designs. Thanks for sharing photos.
