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A4 checklist with all illustrated steps. Tick the boxes on paper as you go.

FeatherSticks · Cooking

Hobo Stove & Camp Stoves: Build One, Run It, Choose the Right Type

A tin can, a handful of twigs and ten minutes: that is a working stove.

Quick facts

Build time
30–45 minutes for a tin-can stove
Difficulty
Easy (sharp metal: gloves)
Best for
Boiling water, one-pot meals
You need
Tin can, punch, tin snips, file, gloves

What you need

  • Hobo stove (home-made tin can or folding twig stove)
  • Pot of 0.75–1 L with lid, plus pot grip
  • Leather or work gloves
  • Lighter, matches and a ferro rod as backup
  • Foldable windscreen
  • One litre of water for dousing
  • Cloth bags for stove and pot
  • Backup fuel: small spirit burner or a few fuel tablets

Step by step

  1. Check the fire rules, pick the stove

    1 Check the fire rules, pick the stove

    A twig stove usually counts as an open fire. Check local rules and the fire danger level; where fires are banned, take gas or eat cold.

  2. Build it: holes, door, exhaust

    2 Build it: holes, door, exhaust

    Punch air holes near the base of a clean tin, cut a feed door, add exhaust holes below the rim. Wear gloves and file every edge.

  3. Level bare ground, block the wind

    3 Level bare ground, block the wind

    Set the stove on rock or bare soil, cleared one metre around, with water within reach. Put a windscreen or your pack on the windward side.

  4. Prepare dry fuel first

    4 Prepare dry fuel first

    Collect dead twigs that snap with a crack. Break them to 8–10 cm and sort them into tinder, pencil-thin and finger-thick piles.

  5. Light it, feed little and often

    5 Light it, feed little and often

    Light the tinder through the door, wait for steady flames, then put the pot on. Add two or three twigs at a time before the flames drop.

  6. Burn down, douse, cool, pack

    6 Burn down, douse, cool, pack

    Stop feeding, let the fuel burn to ash, douse and stir until it is cold to the touch. Pack the cooled stove in its own bag.

Common mistakes

  • Using a twig stove during a fire ban because "it is only a stove".
  • Forgetting exhaust holes, so the pot smothers the fire.
  • Leaving cut edges sharp instead of filing them smooth.
  • Stuffing the can full of wood – it smokes instead of burning.
  • Setting the stove on dry grass, peat or forest duff.
  • Wrapping a windscreen tightly around a gas canister.
  • Refilling an alcohol burner that is still hot or burning.
  • Cooking in a closed tent or vestibule.