Those with a penchant for lightweight, UK-made, titanium stoves are in luck with week – and it's not often you can say that – with the launch of three new stoves from backpackinglight.co.uk. One brand new model and two updated ones.
The new Pocket Stove does what it says on the box. Available in both stainless steel and 0.5mm titanium, it's a neat little cooking solution that can burn wood, solid fuel tablets from Esbit or Hexamine and, with a standard Trangia burner slotted in, meths.
Its compact size means it can be stored inside other objects, it says here. A pot or mug for example. The stainless steel version weighs in at 141g and retails for £21.99, but you can slash the weight to just 90g by option for the £34.99 titanium variant.
That titanium, by the way, is a first. Sourced by backpackinglight.co.uk's Bob Cartwright, it's used in the Formula One motor-racing world and at 0.5mm thick, is thinner than most available ti. It's the first time it's been used for a stove.
The stainless version of the Pocket Stove is available right now with the ti model due in shortly.
Honey and Hive Uprated
Also tweaked for this year are the existing Honey and Hive stoves. The Honey, 'hasa smaller lighter slimmed down Trangia plate, inclusion of a square base plate and completed with a food grade 6 inch square Stainless Steel cooking grill' it says here.
It'll burn wood and other organic fuels, works with a Trangia burner, Esbit/Hexamine tablets, Gas Converter kits, and multi-fuel Trangia converters or, if you want to show off, it'll also cook on night light candles.
Again designed and made in the UK, the stainless version weighs 342g and retails at £38.99 and it's joined by a new titanium model, made from the same ti as the Pocket Ti, with a weight of just 200g and a price tag of £69.99.
Finally the Hive, an expansion pack for the Honey Stove consisting of two extra sides, and larger base plate and a 7 inch square food grade Stainless Steel top grill. Essentially it transforms the single-person Honey stove into a larger unit suitable for groups.
The basic version costs £23.99 and weighs 239g with details of the ti model to follow.
Interesting Stuff...
Interesting stuff. Bear in mind that the Honey stove actually weighs less than a standard camping gas cylinder and is arguably a lot more versatile.
Bob Cartwright, who designed all three models, says that their UK origins make them 'superior and relate better to the intended end user' than foreign designs, while he also reckons that the increasing cost of conventional fuels and the growing hassle of flying with stoves, means that people are starting to look at alternative cooking options.
Makes sense to us and great to see a small UK outfit coming up with its own UK-made designs. More details at www.backpackinglight.co.uk.
