Gear

 Trevor, the german stove,Wilderness Cooker as they call looks a cracking stove. Three sides makes it lighter too.Briefly it says it is a wood burning stove which can also be converted to burn Esbit type fuels and alcohol. the design increases the oxygen flow to enable the wood to be reduced to ash. With wood a boil time for .5ltr.water was 4to7mins.  When using Esbit  type rolling boil was 4to 5 mins. not much difference. No time for alcohol.  Made from alimin and rustfree steel,strong ,stable, packs flat with in a carry pouch. Another pouch can be bought extra which will hold Esbit fuel .Thats it really. Cheers

> Three sides makes it lighter too

But with a much reduced 'burner chamber' area (i.e. 43.3% (sin(60)/2) of the area of a four-sided burner of identical side panel size)...

3 sides - 43%
4 sides - 100%
6 sides - 260%

So, for a given burner area/weight ratio, six sides is best (of those three options).

I'm not sure if this is significant, but I suspect there's a fairly linear relationship between burner area and heat output of the stove...

 CP, area must be significant but if this boils .5ltr water in 4to 7mins. how much more quickly would a six sided stove boil?. Surely not six times ie. 3sides-43%  6sides-260%. I shall have to try the two out. There must be an optimum area like pan heights obove the jets on stoves have a specific heights for optimum performance.What do you think?.Cheers

> how much more quickly would a six sided stove boil?.

It's not a case of speed; it's a case of weight efficiency.  I can optimise my stove weight for a given burner area (to provide a given heat output, or to mate optimally with a pan).

The optimal arrangement is an infinite number of sides, also known as a circle.  This shape gives the maximum surface area coverage for a given perimeter (i.e wall length, and thus weight).  Coincidentally, most pans are circular, so one might expect the heat transfer from stove to pan to be optimal, too...

 Thanks for a very succinct explanation CP will try to relate this to my stove purchases and new builds.Cheers

I used my honey stove for the first time at the weekend during a cold, wet and windy trip.  It was brilliant and not only cooks but provides a lovely fire to warm you.  My only gripe is the severly blacken pots which are so messy.  Also tried it with a Trangia meths burner and it was great.

 Thanks Bob for a great stove.  Oh and all cooking was done under one of your 3m tarps!  Couldnt have lived without the tarp.