Titanium Pots For Bushcraft Camping

With the season rapidly approaching, its time to visit with mother nature and stay the night. Obs this is an anti-materialist impulse that can be accomplished with little or no expense, or the enterprise can be conducted as a test lab for the latest in space-age materials.
When hunting, fishing or bushcrafting we seek to reinvent ourselves as we were; full of wonder at the natural world, eyes bright with the first sights of its unknown details. From our desks somehow the ingenuity that once tied a pin to a strand of bootlace, or saw the whole world in a jam jar full of muddy water, is now spent looking for 30 bucks off a $100 cooking pot that saves half an ounce on the one we already have.

That having been said here’s a round-up for those of you who, on revisiting their gear-pile, find themselves feeling a little under titanium-ised.

The absolute classic of titanium pots is the MSR kettle: very popular – so easier to find second hand, at one time the only option.

EverNew from Japan have the biggest selection of any titanium pot maker with a massive range of sizes; from espresso cup right up to 5.8l (12.25 US Pints) presumably for cooking shellfish while coastal foraging. They make a ‘me too’ of the MSR kettle and their own rather sweet design of  ’tea kettle’ in two sizes, which being wider at the base is more stable – so good for in-tents cooking.

Vargo have some new ideas – the BOT is both bottle and pot, which is both way-cool and annoyingly handle-less. But looks just the thing to eat nuts out of at your desk to remind yourself you really are an adventure dude rather than a slave in a cube farm as the evidence suggests. Proper want one!

They’ve recently brought out the Fire Box Grill – halfway between a stove and a grill. It’s never going to be as fuel efficient as those little stoves that recapture woodgas, but they are not much fun to sit around, I can see it being pretty handy.

This 750ml pot from Dave Canterbury’s Pathfinder School, with its hanging handle, is probably the most versatile choice if you want to heat more than water. The hanging handle could be replaced with a length of brake cable making the pot slightly more packable. Lets hope he brings out some more sizes. This would be my choice.

When as mother nature’s ambassador/marketing director you need to entice people outside, it may serve you well to be able to offer refreshments to the requisite standard. With this in mind Snow-Peak have added a Cafetiere and milk frother to their titanium kitchenware line-up. I know Glamping is the devils work, but just think of the Brownie-Points these puppys’ll get you.

Alpkit are worth a mention as their gear is very good value, in a way they are the UK’s equivalent of an online-only REI. When its in stock buy one, or face a long wait for the next batch. Cheapest on this list.

For true Vagabond-ness this canteen, lid and cup set from Heavy Cover has to be the main contender. They even do a titanium screwcap for an extra $10.
There are a couple of companies that make little fire-box stands for this size of canteen, and dozens who make pouches that would fit the whole kit and kaboodle, which would then be colour-matched to the rest of your kit.

For the super inventive [or even pious], you could always make your own stove and pot rig with the stainless steel storage pots from IKEA for a fraction of the cost. But that’s a different kind of fun for another day.

Be good to yourselves out there, take your rubbish home with you, and please grab and bag a couple of bits of other people’s crap while you’re passing.

More soon
SBW