On this trip I decided to cook on my favorite "pot" - an 8" wok, heavier than any ultra-lighter would ever put up with, but I like the variety of foods that can be cooked - from soup to steak. The wok fit nicely on top of the WildWood I, and held it well while stir frying.

The amount of "fuel" needed to cook lunch was minimal, a few twigs, two pinecones, and a handful of acorns. To start the fire I went back to my old-time favorites: alcohol soaked cotton balls and a blast-match to start things up with. It was a cold day, just about 48°F (8.9°C) at lunch time, so we warmed ourselves over the fire after I was done cooking - a nice side-treat to cooking over a fire.

Clean-up was a breeze, it took about 10 minutes to cool down (less time than it took to clean up the wok). Afterwards I broke down the WildWood I, stuffed it into my backpack, and continued on the trail.

For dinner on Saturday I cooked up a delicious batch of Ramen Noodle Soup with Salmon, along with bean sprouts and a few other veggies. For desert we roasted some chestnuts (picked from the trail). I used a small branch (not touching the ground, so it was dry) from a dead tree as fuel, and had no problem cooking everything.

The WildWood I performed perfectly on every meal this weekend, even Sunday breakfast (pancakes), which I thought might cook too quickly. By utilizing the opening in the "front" of the stove to stoke the fire, I have been able to control the size of the flame, and thus the amount of heat reaching the bottom of the pan. By doing this I was able to keep the heat down while cooking the pancakes, thus keeping them from burning from too hot of a pan.

After the trial completed, I did a few experiments to satisfy some of my own curiosities. The first of these tests was to see how well the WildWood I performed against my other wood burning stove. I wanted to see how long each would take to boil a pot of water (1 qt / 1 L), since this is a common task on most of my backpacking trips. I will usually boil a small pot of water for tea, possibly soup, and for cleaning the pots and utensils afterwards. The Sunday I chose for the test was cold (34°F / 1°C), but such are the fortunes of the outdoors.

I started with a similar amount of wood for each stove, a 1 lb (454 g) mixture of branches, pine cones, and nuts (acorn, walnut shells, etc.). I stoked both stoves, and lit the alcohol-soaked cotton balls in each at the same time, doing nothing additional to either to get the fires going. I did my best to assure that the fires remained going, stoking each with additional fuel as the flames lessened.

I continued stoking until a rolling boil was achieved in the first pot, as can be seen by the photo the pot on the left achieved this point far sooner than the pot on the left. By my stopwatch the difference was significant. The WildWood I pot reached a full boil in ten minutes, while the other stove did not reach a full boil until fifteen minutes had passed, also requiring more wood to boil the water. A note here, at the ten minute point both stoves had used a similar amount of wood, close to half of that alloted (by piece, not necessarily by weight).

The one major issue I had with the WildWood I stove was that each time I went to use it the stove parts had accumulated additional rust. The continued accumulation of rust poses two areas of concern:

1. Eventually, sufficient rust will accumulate so as to begin eating a hole through the metal, thus compromising the WildWood I.
2. Rusty metal is a possible source of tetanus, and thus something I prefer to avoid whenever possible.

To try to resolve this issue I decided to apply a high-temperature spray paint to the surfaces of the WildWood I stove. Again, this was done after the testing period was completed, and simply as personal attempt to resolve the rust issue. The photo on the right shows the WildWood I after the application of a high-temperature paint, and after several additional test burns. I have found this to be an adequate, though not perfect, solution to the problem. The reason I state that this is not a perfect solution is that a home-applied paint will eventually scratch, and require recoating. However, I still believe this to be better than the alternative of having to deal with the rust problems mentioned above.

• Burns anything I can find on the trail.
• Easily stows inside my cookpot.
• Cools down fast so I don't have to wait around after eating.
• Open front make stoking the fire easy.
• Easy to control the cooking temperature by adjusting the amount of wood in the chamber.

• Rusting continued to get worse after each usage.
• Slow to get going when fuel is wet.

• I live in the Alleghenies of Pennsylvania, pine cones, nuts, and twigs on the ground tend to be wet. Unlike with a campfire, a stove will not get hot enough to fully dry out wet wood. When the weather is, or has been, wet, I will plan accordingly:
  • As I walk along I will collect pine cones and nuts into a mesh bag as plastic bags will just keep the moisture inside. If it is not actively raining I will hang the bag on the back of my pack and allow it to dry out some. If it is still raining I will put it inside my pack so that it does not get any wetter.
  • Open pine cones are usually drier, and dry out faster, than the closed cones. Examples of open and closed cones are shown on the right. Also, hard cones (such as the one to the left) tend to be drier even in wet conditions.
  • I will collect twigs from dead branches or trees, making sure the branches are not touching the ground. If the wood is not in direct contact with the ground chances are good that the wood under the bark will be suitably dry.
  • While I am cooking I will lay the wet wood out around the perimeter of the stove, the heat from the stove will help to dry it out some.
  • I do woodworking as a hobby so I always have some kiln-dried scraps around. If it has, or will be, raining hard and long I will take along some of the scraps to assure that I have some dry wood to get a fire going. Should I ever be out of my own kiln-dried scraps, I can count on my local home center to have scraps around from when they cut boards to length for customers - they have always been happy to give it away at no charge.
  
  
• Firestarters abound at outfitters these days, usually paraffin-impregnated wood shavings at a couple bucks for a nice handful. I have found these to be over-kill for a fire as small as that in a wood stove. I have a few homemade favorites that work well with fires this size:
  • First, to store them I will use film canisters (the kind where the lid fits inside the can, not on top - Fuji or Panasonic, photo places will usually give this away for free); prescription pill bottles; Bayer Aspirin bottles; or mini-M&M canisters. All of these are fairly water-tight.
  • Cotton balls soaked in isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol will burn for up to a minute.
  • Cotton balls, or cotton lint from a dryer, rubbed in petroleum jelly. If using lint make sure there is no polyester or other synthetic fibers mixed in, the best lint comes from t-shirts or bath towels. I don't coat the entire ball, I will just wipe one side with the jelly then stuff it into the container. These will burn longer than the alcohol balls, and work even in rainy conditions.
  • I will stick the end of the cotton ball onto a chopstick (I get them free from my local Chinese take-out), light the ball, then shove it into the tinder and pull the chopstick back out.
  
  
• Don't lift the pan from the top of the stove, doing so will cool down the pan; the colder it is outside, the quicker the pan will cool down. This is what I like about the WildWood, I can stoke the fire from the "door". To cool the fire down, should it get too hot, I will stick the chopstick in and move the fuel around.
  
  
• Cooking with wood will blacken the bottom of pans, this is a good thing. Blackened pans will heat faster, so I usually just wipe the loose soot from the bottom. For a clean bottom I would coat the bottom with liquid soap just prior to cooking, this will keep the soot from adhering to the bottom of the pan; the soot will then come off easily.
  
  
• I spoke with rangers in my area about the WildWood I and its usage during times when the risk of wild fires is high. They felt comfortable with its containment, but did suggest making sure the area under the stove was clear of all burnables. As an alternative, heavy-duty aluminum foil (kind used for baking) under the stove, with the ends rolled up to form a barrier, was suggested in areas where clearing wasn't feasible. Additionally, I was reminded to make sure all unburned fuel was properly doused with water to prevent re-kindling a fire.