Swedish Firetorch

The Swedish Firetorch is, traditionally, a thick log split into 4 or more pieces using a chainsaw, or possibly an axe. This is a very useful way to cook food in the outdoors, the flat log provides a convenient method of supporting cookware as well as providing heat. Cooking with a regular campfire may require stands, supports, or other equipment to cook effectively, all of which add weight and bulk. A firetorch may be able to reduce that, but there is a problem that I have found with it: most people don't carry chainsaws or cut logs with them when they go outdoors!

After some research, I came up with an alternative way of making the fire torch, using several thicks sticks instead of a single log. These sticks can easily be cut to size and flattened with a small hand saw.

This is the first time I tried it, and it worked very well, I was able to boil a mug of water in just a few minutes, and it remained stable enough to mount cookware on for some time.

It then slowly burned down to a small pile of ash, very neat, and very clean.

The photos are more or less self-explanetary, but to make it, I took six logs, as thick and as straight as possible, and cut them so they were all the same size, and were as flat as possible. I then sharpened one end with an axe, and drove them a few inches into the ground. For extra stability, I tied some twine around the bottom of the sticks.

I then put some dry grass into the center of the logs, with some twigs on top of it, and some larger pieces of wood on top of that. I used a cotton ball dipped in vaseline as a firestarter, and inserted it into the log pile at the bottom. It is possiblet o light these from the top, but I find it's much easier from the bottom, since heat rises. Lighting it from the top wastes a lot of the heat, and the tinder can burn out before the fire takes hold.

The fire lit quickly, and burned all of the tinder and small sticks in minutes, leaving just the outer logs burning, a perfect stand for mounting pots, etc. It burned so hot that the water in the mug I placed on it boiled in just a minute or two.

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