anyone ever come across one of these?

[donredondo]

http://www.occuk.co.uk/outdoor/fire-spout-mini.htm

[Seeker]

i've not seen it before... looks like it works on the principle that if you mix damp wood with good ventilation and a flame, it will burn... and that if you put damp wood near it, it will dry out... i seem to recall learning about some similar techniques as a kid... i think they were called the teepee and log cabin fires.

seriously, why anyone would need one is beyond me... looks like a mini burn-barrel, sort of a windscreen to wrap around a small campfire, holding up the wood and giving it better ventilation... i'll stick with the old way... amazing what people will market these days... watching tv with my kids is a constant struggle to teach them 'here's what they're trying to sell you that you don't need'...

(sorry for the slight cynicism/sarcasm. well, sort of. if i were really sorry, i'd have deleted the post... in any case, it wasn't directed at anyone personally... i was a marketing major in college, sold cars for quite a while between 'normal jobs', and in general have a very dim veiw of advertisers trying to sell me something... this looks to me, initially, like one of those things designed to weigh down my pack and lighten my wallet.)

now you got me thinking though... wonder if i could make one with just a #10 can and a hole punch... wait... no, i did that already, and made a portable charcoal grill for canoing... burns wood too...

[Seeker]

don,

thought about something... i didn't notice right away that you're writing from wales...

could this device be used to make a campfire 'legal' in a place where an actual open fire might not be allowed? i'm not familiar with british laws, and this might actually be a way around that, to keep a fire from spreading...

if so, maybe it has a legitimate niche... (still not sure it would sell here in the states...)

[donredondo]

no, no laws against campfires, apart from garden bonfires in suburban areas..... most of our woods and forests are too damp most of the time, although we do get idiots setting fire to gorse and dry heath most summers usually by accident.... fires are often set on purpose to burn off old growth heather and bracken, so lessening the possible effects of an uncontrolled burn in old dry woodland and heath...promotes new growth too, something that the US took many years to come to terms with...fire is good.... when done properly.

[Seeker]

i agree with the benefits of a controlled burn... in my home state of NY, the adirondack park is nortorious for putting out every little spark of a forest fire that starts, and the deer in that area are known for their small size and a definite 'piney' taste (from lack of grass and feeding primarily on pine browse). the deer from the 'southern tier' region of ny, on the other hand, are known for their large size and tasty corn-fed meat (it's a dairy region, full of pastures and corn fields).

i don't know how the germans do it, as i never saw a burned off area, but they have probably the most beautiful woods in the world from a grooming standpoint... almost parklike... no underbrush, no ground clutter... just an amazing job of management and pruning...

the fire that 'ruined' yellowstone national park a few years back, while tragic, taught us a valuable lesson... wildlife rebounded at an incredible rate, surprising a lot of scientists... yet in the great smokey mountain NP, nothing is allowed to burn, with the result of incredibly thick underbrush. wonder if it would help the elk herds they're trying to reintroduce to the area...

here at fort polk and in the surrounding national forest, fires are routinely set to burn off brush, and while not pretty at first, the result is a wide open savannah-like landscape under huge pine trees, with 300-400 meter (yard) views, pleasant hiking, and a growth of grass that our local deer and wild horses love.

on a side note, due to the large amounts of timber company land, there is the phenomenon of 'woods arson'... boudreaux or thibodeaux (cajun version of billy bob and cousin/uncle bubba) get fired from a job, they go set fire to the company's land to get back at the company...

so, how's that for hijacking a thread!? i think we were originally talking about a new stove...