6. Campfire

Fire pits are devices for hanging or installing buckets of boilers, pans, baking sheets; These are also cooking utensils, camping axes, saws, etc.

The simplest device - a spear 70-80 cm high - is driven into the ground at a distance of about 1 m from the center of the fire. A pole is placed on the spear, one end of which is pressed down with a stone or driven into the ground, and a bucket or pan is hung on the other so that the flame of the fire covers the bottom of the dish and its side walls. No more than two cooking containers can be hung on such a device.

Rice. 13. Simple fire pits: a) crossbar on flyers; b) a rope stretched between trees; c) a special hook with a clip.

To prepare several dishes, the simplest and most “ancient” fireplace is this: two spears or racks with metal flyers driven or screwed into them are driven into the ground and a crossbar is placed on them. The dishes are hung from it on wire hooks (Fig. 13 a).

Folding or collapsible tags can be made from steel strips, tubes, and corners (Fig. 14 a, b).

Rice. 14. Fire equipment: a) crossbar on flyers made of metal tubes; b) collapsible hearth made of rods; c) bracket; d) folding crossbar; e) steel taganok; f) hooks for hanging dishes over the fire; g) metal flyers and holders. 1. Steel. 2. Duralumin. 3. Bushing. 4. Steel corner. 5. Limiter.

Improvised tagans can be built from stones, moving them closer to each other at a distance less than the diameter of the dish.

Fire equipment also includes cables stretched between trees for hanging buckets and cauldrons (Fig. 13 b), folding tags, light tripods, collapsible hearths made of metal rods, brackets (Fig. 14 c, d, e).

Metal hooks and chains are used to hang and adjust the height of dishes above the fireplace.

To prevent the dishes from rolling to the middle when the cable sags, metal muffs are placed on it every 15-20 cm, serving as stops for the hooks. Special clamps are also possible that hold the suspension anywhere on the cable (Fig. 13 c).

To make small fires, you can use a metal hammock (Fig. 15) - a thin, lightweight wire mesh (wire diameter 0.5-1 mm, cells 8-10 mm) measuring about 50 x 80 cm. The mesh is pulled above the ground between trees spaced 3-4 m apart, using cables 2, 3. Spacers 4 hold the mesh from folding. The hammock net protects the grass from burning in summer, and in winter it prevents the fire from melting into the snow.

For wooded areas, ropes and hammocks are convenient; for open fires - with marshy or rocky soil - collapsible hearths, folding tags, brackets.

Rice. 15. Fire net and rope with hooks 1. Nets. 2 and 5. Cable. 3 and 6. Cable or nylon cord. 4. Spacers. 7. Hooks.

The height of the suspended utensils is determined by the type of fuel, wind, and weather. With dry coniferous firewood in clear, calm weather, the height will be greater than for peat, coal, wet brushwood, rainy or windy weather.

For fire flyers, as well as for any other camping needs - for example, tent poles and pegs - you cannot cut down living trees or branches, even if they are fast-growing aspen or alder; Previously, when there were more forests and they were denser, and there were fewer people in them, it was possible to thin out the bushes, but now in populated areas this is no longer possible. Nature is suffering increasing damage from human activities. You can, however, use already cut down, fallen and even dry trees.

It is better if the fire set contains two short metal fliers (metal half-rings with a diameter of 7-8 cm) with sharp pins that can be driven or screwed into any stake. Even simpler are grappling hooks, made on the principle of electrician’s crampons for climbing onto wooden poles. Such hooks can be hung on any stake on which they will be fixed with their teeth, especially under the load of a crossbar with buckets.

The hearth or supports for the crossbar can also be built from large stones stacked on top of each other.

The most convenient is a metal cable for hanging boilers and buckets if there are trees between which it can be pulled. It is advisable to have a cable long enough (6-8 m) so that distant trees can be used. The cable is equipped with limiter sleeves that prevent the hooks from moving when the cable sag. If you use hooks with clamps, then muffs are not needed, since the crank hook itself is clamped on the cable. You can get by with a 3-4 m cable with two-meter pieces of nylon cord tied at its ends that do not fall into the fire zone. It is convenient to carry the cable wound on a special reel-spool.

Metal hooks are used to hang dishes over the fire. With their help, it is easy to remove or hang dishes and adjust their height above the fire.

If there is only one bucket above the fire, then you can, as already noted, stick a pole obliquely into the ground, support it with one flyer, stone, stump, etc. and hang a bucket on its end over the fire.

Cooking utensils are selected or manufactured taking into account the size of the group, ease of transportation, and minimizing weight. Group dishes are convenient in the form of a set of two or three flat buckets or oval-shaped pans put away into one. Each participant in the hike should have about one liter of dishes.

In Fig. 16 shows options for cooking utensils made of stainless steel, tin, titanium or aluminum with a thickness of 0.5-1 mm. A set of three containers (6.5, 7.5 and 8.5 l) will weigh from 1 to 1.7 kg depending on the material and its thickness.

Rice. 16. Cooking utensils

Flat buckets or cauldrons inserted into each other can be used (Fig. 16 a, 6). For cooking on primus stoves, aluminum pans are often used, also inserted one into the other (Fig. 16 c). There may be boilers of a more complex configuration (Fig. 16d), which, however, have a larger bottom area. Buckets, pots and cauldrons should have handles or chains (sometimes removable) that would not interfere with placing one container into another.

Galvanized or enameled utensils are not suitable for cooking over a fire.

For transportation, the dishes are first placed in a plastic bag, and then, for strength, in a fabric cover.

It is better to take a set of three pans with lids as utensils for cooking on a primus stove or gas, but it is more economical (in terms of time and fuel consumption) to use pressure cookers (autoclaves).

Rice. 17. Samovar pan

To shelter a stove or fireplace from the wind, it is convenient to use a piece of fiberglass or windproof heat-reflecting screens made of other materials.

The design of the pressure cooker shown here (Fig. 17) provides significant savings in gasoline when cooking with primus stoves. It uses the principle of a samovar: a round hole is cut out in the bottom of a large-diameter duralumin pan (for two or three stoves), to which a cone is welded, due to which the heating area almost doubles. This helps cook food faster and uses less gas. The rounded bottom of the upper pot fits snugly into the lower pot and creates a bit of a pressure cooker effect. It is necessary to make a hole in the lid of the upper pan into which the upper part of the cone would protrude. A small lid is mounted above this hole, on which a third small dish is placed for heating.

To ensure that the primus stoves stand steadily on the duralumin sheet, stops are made to fix their position.

The weight of two containers for 8-10 people does not exceed 1.2 kg.

Axes

The ax must be securely and firmly mounted on the ax handle and suitable for preparing firewood and possible carpentry work. In this case, the mass of the ax should be small. Industrially made axes can be divided according to their weight into small (0.7-0.8 kg), medium (0.8-1 kg) and large (up to 1.5 kg). Naturally, it is not advisable to take heavy large axes on a hike, but you can lighten them.

Rice. 18. Axes

The bladed shape of the ax is considered the most rational, in which the working edge is shifted back, the blade is rounded, and the tip is sharpened in a wedge shape. Such an ax can be made from a large ax by cutting it off (Fig. 18 a).

It is desirable that the ax has a beard - a protrusion at the lower edge of the eyelet, which increases the support area of ​​the handle. The steel of the ax should be moderately hard; when struck, the file should leave slight dents on the blade.

It is better to make the ax from the dried butt part of ash, elm, rowan, other fruit trees, and silver birch. Wedges are made of hard wood or metal with holes, thanks to which they are better held. Before attaching the axe, a cut is made under the wedge. The ax handle must be mounted so that its axis makes an angle less than 90° with the axis of the impact direction: when installing the ax with the blade on a plane (the line of impact is perpendicular to the plane), the end of the ax handle must touch the plane (Fig. 18 b). The ax handle ends in a mushroom-shaped thickening that fixes the hand. This shape allows you to relax your hand and increase the accuracy of your strike. After fitting, the ax handle is adjusted to the hand and sanded; It is advisable to soak it in drying oil. It is useful to make a hole in the ax handle for a lanyard, which will prevent the ax from accidentally jumping out of your hands. It is advisable to paint the ax handle in a bright color.

You need to make a cover for the ax blade from a dense material, held in place with an elastic band or ties (Fig. 18 c).

The ax head can be strengthened using two side steel plates measuring about 120 x 30 x 1.5-2 mm (Fig. 18 d). Plates 1 with bends at one end are secured to the ax handle with bolts or rivets 2. When the ax handle dries, an additional or thicker wedge 3 is driven into it. After attaching the ax to the ax handle, epoxy glue can be poured into the cracks between them.

The attachment of the ax, the eye of which is bored into a cone, is made from the side of the handle (Fig. 18 d). The ax handle here is straight and thickened towards the butt part. If the strength of the head weakens over time, then the ax is moved to the handle, after which it is again pushed onto the conical part of the ax.

For a group of 9-10 people, two or three axes are enough. On weekend hikes in the summer, you can only take light axes; in the fall and winter, a large ax and saw are advisable.

Camping saws

Rice. 19. Saws 1. Saw. 2. Handles. 3. Case. 4. Hooks. 5. Loops.

Two-handed saw. To make it easier and more convenient to transport, a conventional industrial saw should be reduced by shortening it to 0.7–0.8 m and narrowing it to 70–80 mm (Fig. 19 a). The handles can be made in the form of curved brackets, into which a hand in a mitten would fit freely, or in the form of rotating handles that are retractable during transportation. The saw is carried in a case 3 that covers the teeth. The cover is secured with elastic bands or ribbons with 4 hooks and 5 loops with fastening buttons. The cover can be made of tarpaulin or other dense material.

A bow saw can be lighter and more compact than a two-handed one. The blade should have large straight teeth and holes at the ends for fastening. One of the bow variants consists of three tubes with a diameter of 12-16 x 1 mm (Fig. 19 b). The tubes are connected to each other using liners made of short tubes of smaller diameter. The bending radius of the arcs is selected so that the assembled bow provides the necessary tension to the canvas. The ends of the outer arcs are reinforced with short bushings with slots facing the canvas. The ends of the blade with stop rivets are inserted into these slots, which hold the blade in a taut bow. The weight of such a saw is about 0.5 kg.

Hacksaws. On simple summer hikes and on winter hikes - in tundra areas, above the forest line - you need to have 1-2 hacksaws (Fig. 19 c). A hacksaw is used for preparing firewood, cutting snow bricks when building windproof walls around tents, igloos, caves and other snow structures. The saw is carried in a case 1.

One-handed saws with a removable handle are convenient.

It is advisable to sharpen saws using the Canadian method, when a deeper groove is made through the tooth.