In this episode of the Primitive Camping and Bushcraft Podcast, Chris Speir emphasizes the critical importance of carrying a single-wall metal container while exploring the outdoors. He discusses how metal containers are essential for boiling water, cooking food, and even digging, offering practical advice on what types of metal containers work best and what to avoid, such as double-walled insulated bottles that can explode when exposed to high heat.
Overview:
In this episode, Chris delves into the significance of metal containers in outdoor survival. He highlights why single-wall metal containers are essential for boiling water, cooking, and other bushcraft tasks, while cautioning against the dangers of using double-walled insulated bottles over an open flame. Chris also shares his personal experience with various metal containers like the Pathfinder Cup and discusses the pros and cons of materials such as titanium, aluminum, and stainless steel. Additionally, he touches on their role in outdoor cooking and the impact of elevation on boiling points.
Key Points:
Resources Mentioned:
Call to Action: Join the Primitive Camping & Bushcraft Facebook group to connect with like-minded outdoor enthusiasts and engage in discussions about bushcraft techniques and gear. If you haven't picked up a copy of the book, it's available at a discounted rate on Chris's YouTube and Shopify stores.
Welcome back to the Primitive Camping in Bushcraft Podcast. My name is Chris Speir, and I am gonna be your guide to enjoying the great outdoors.
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Now we're still in the gear section of the Primitive Camping in Bushcraft book. And today we're gonna go over metal containers. I know we've talked about this, and I believe I started it off with this being, metal containers being one of the most important things that you can have with you when you go into the woods next to a good belt or a sheath knife.
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And so a metal container is amazing. So, you know, we're not gonna spend a long time. This episode is not gonna be the longest episode that we have out there, but this one is nonetheless extremely important when you head into the woods. So I'm gonna go ahead and read this passage, and then we're gonna break it down and talk about it. Okay, I'll give you my thought process behind it. It says a metal container such as a nesting canteen or a pot is an invaluable on a trek into the woods. One of the biggest trends in the outdoor world today is a metal water bottle.(...) They are everywhere from the dollar store to Bass Pro Shops. Do not carry a double insulated water bottle because it can explode if used to boil your water. So that right there is one of the biggest issues when it comes to metal containers in the woods because everybody thinks, hey, I just got me a killer, cool looking metal container so I can take out into the woods, hiking and camping and all that. And, but if it is double walled and you get in a position to where you have to boil your water to purify it so you could drink it,
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it's gonna explode. It's gonna crack. It's going to, it's not gonna be good because those double walled are insulated. They have some insulation in between there. And what happens when you put it into the fire, the contents in the middle of the jar is cold. The contents on the outside of the jar, which is the insulation is gonna get hot and it's gonna start melting and it will expand and explode inside that jug and the whole thing could blow up. And I'm actually, I'm actually thinking about doing a video.
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I don't know how to do it like relatively safely. I would have to put the fire in the camera and hit record, put it in there and then walk away from it and hope it don't blow up my camera. But I'm actually thinking about doing a video saying this is why you don't boil water in a double insulated metal container. And that would actually be a pretty good video idea, I believe.
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So, but anyway, getting back on track is always carry a single wall metal container with you when you head out into the woods(...) and know what your boiling points are, where you are located. If you're down here in South Mississippi, closer to sea level, your boiling point is gonna be lower than if you're in the,
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let me rephrase that now. You come down here to South Mississippi, your boiling point's gonna be 212 degrees. You go up into the mountains, it may be lower. And so you're going to actually have to boil your water longer when you're at higher elevations than you are if you're at lower elevations. That's what I was trying to say. So I apologize. Don't be eating me up in the comments, guys.
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So, you know, boiling your water is one of the most critical aspects of primitive camping survival and bushcraft. The vast majority of the time, you will collect, boil and drink water you have fetched from a stream, river or lake. And so boiling your water will ensure that all the biological contaminants, but unfortunately not all the chemical contaminants, and we know there's a lot of them out there, will have been neutralized and rendered safe to drink.(...) And this is almost like wash, rinse, repeat, wash, rinse, repeat through the whole book, you know, is like we talk about it a little bit, we break it down, why? And we talk about it a little bit, we break it down, why? And we keep on moving throughout the whole book, you know, gear, you know, and then all the way down through water and stuff like that. And so, and once again, right here in the metal container section, we're talking about boiling your water. And we've already went over this. We did a 30,000 foot fly over about it in the beginning of the book here.
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And when we went all the way through, we did the whole chapter of water, discussed it and everything, several episodes back.
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Before I became comfortable doing podcasts, I was nervous, I don't know why I was nervous, that was crazy. How you doing? I said, talking to the microphone or in the camera.
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But anyway, so a metal container will also allow you to cook your food, it will allow you to make charred material for a fire, it will allow you to carry water and to store food or other items.(...) So metal containers are pretty much invaluable when you get into the woods. A metal container is gonna be the thing that you need to have with you when you head out into the woods. I cannot stress that enough. And people don't, people, some people don't get it, you know, they'll bring these plastic Nalgene bottles and you, I mean, you could boil water in it, but who wants to drink that? You know, it's gonna release all these chemicals and cancer causing stuff in it. And I know a lot of you is gonna be like, well, if you're drinking rainwater, you're gonna have the forever chemicals anyway.(...) Whatever, you know, it is what it is. And if forever chemicals are in the rainwater, they're in all the water on the planet. Not just being honest, they're everywhere.(...) So,(...) and I covered that in here too as well. But I use a relatively small 27 ounce stainless steel pot with a lid when I venture into the woods. It's very lightweight, it's very robust. And it's actually one of those,
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Pathfinder Survival is what it's a Pathfinder Cup.(...) And it's a neat cup, you know. A lot of people have their personal opinions and everything. I stay out of people's personal stuff. I go off of the equipment, it works, and it's there for what I need it to be there for.
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It is something to boil water in and to drink out of. (coughing)
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Now I've used that Pathfinder Cup, the 27 ounce stainless steel pot with a lid when I ventured into the woods. And I've used it with Dakota Fireholes. I've used it hanging it over the fire. I have stuck it in the fire to boil on the edge of the fire. I've done all kinds of stuff with that thing. And it is an amazing thing.(...) I've actually dug holes with that cup. I've dug latrines with that cup. I've dug all kinds of stuff. I've dug an entire gypsy well, or coyote well, whatever you wanna call it. Do not, do not leave comments saying, you can't say gypsy.
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I'll block you and ban you.
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Kill me, politically correct, nevermind.(...) So anyway, I have dug latrines and I've cooked dinner.(...) But ultimately all in all guys, and we're gonna be wrapping this one up. This was a relatively short conversation or a short topic.(...) But having a metal container with you when you head out into the woods is a very important item to have with you.
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I can't stress it enough. Have some sort of metal container with you. Now, one of the, like the Pathfinder cup is ideal because you can find you an equivalent. You can find, it don't have to be a name brand or anything like that. It can be something just as long as you can boil some water in it, cook some food in it, something like that. A 27 ounce cup is good enough to where you can cook food in that cup and eat it and drink water and boil water and collect stuff and you know, just like I mentioned here.(...) So that's good stuff right there. And if you have a metal container, no matter how nasty the water source is, you will always be able to make drinkable water. And that is the truth. That is the honest truth.
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So let's venture over here a little bit more when it comes to cooking gear in this book.(...) And the reason why I'm venturing over into the cooking gear is because it's all metal containers. And we'll start, we'll touch on that a little bit. You know,(...) I'll go to the cooking section here. I'm sorry, not the food section, the cooking section.
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So cooking is, you know, is one of my favorite things to do when I head out into the woods. I absolutely love whenever I get to the camp or everybody likes when I come to the camp because I'm going to cook. I am a huge cooker.(...) I am, I'm an over cooker and I cook, you know, I was in the military, but whenever I cook, I cook for the entire Air Force, you know, and it is a great way to hold your skills and it brings a lot of joy to your entire day. It brings a lot of joy to your camping trip and it just brings a lot of like completion,(...) completion.
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So, you know, and here I do a lot of cooking stuff and talk about it, but pots and pans, as we discussed, as I discussed in here is, you know,
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I've mentioned it several times and water and gear sections, one of the most essential items that you can carry in the woods is a metal container. As long as you choose the best type of metal for your needs,(...) carrying pots and pans for your camping trip will pay dividends in your campsite kitchen. Not only that, it'll pay dividends in your camp site,
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in your backpack, in your camping backpack and your gear.
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So before we wrap this up, we'll go over to the different types of metal containers and, you know, there's titanium. Titanium is the lightest. Titanium are incredibly lightweight and they are extremely awesome.(...) They are capable of boiling your water faster than all the other metals. You know, we're talking a couple of seconds, I'm sorry, you know, faster because a metal's a metal and it gets hot, it's hot, and it's gonna cause it to burn. But, you know, but the titanium, the problem with titanium is whenever you start to cook on it, it does have hot spots and it will cause you to burn your food because it's gonna get hotter in certain spots and it will, you know, aluminum does the same thing. But titanium is great, it's lightweight, it has a great strength to it and that's one of the great draws that titanium has, is lightweight and it's very strong and durable.(...) Now the next one, runner up after that will be aluminum. You know, you can do cups, you can do pots, you can do, I got Dutch ovens, you know, I've got all kinds of utensils, you know, these little mess kits that they sell everywhere are usually made out of aluminum and the cheaper versions are, they're made out of aluminum but they're lightweight, you know, they're gonna last you a couple of trips, they're not gonna last you a lot through a lot of heavy use but they will actually get you by and if you're gonna go on a trip,(...) you're not worried about the durability of these things and you're not gonna use them multiple times, then the aluminum mess kits is the way to go. I mean, you can buy, you can buy a mess kit
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from Bass Pro or Walmart or something like that for cheap. I mean, they got them at Walmart for real cheap and you can get those and they come, you got your plates, your bowls, your cups, your pot and you know, everything in there.(...) So aluminum is pretty good but then you're gonna get into your stainless steel and that's how I like what I mentioned a while ago, your stainless steel container in the woods and I use stainless steel constantly. It is my go-to.
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I bought the bush pot set from the
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PIEFiner store or whatever it is and I got the 10 inch stainless steel skillet and I got the couple different bush pots and stuff like that, it comes in handy. There's nothing special to it, it's just a pot and they serve their purpose and that's all it is.
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You could get comparable items elsewhere and I haven't really, I found that the durability of these last. The only thing is the bigger the pot, the more tendency it does have the warp if you lay it on its side and use it as an oven.
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But after stainless steel, you got cast iron and cast iron is gonna be extremely heavy. So it's not gonna be something that you wanna put in your backpack when you head out into the woods. So whenever I say you need a metal container(...) to head out into the woods, I'm not talking about a cast iron pot unless you're gonna be dropped off and you're gonna make a base camp. That's where you do your cast iron. But on the other hand, cast iron is the most amazing, the most amazing cooking item. You can use cast iron to cook like crazy. So I mean, that's good and then you got enamelware and enamelware is just some kind of metal that is dipped in enamel. And I covered those items there because that's the most common variations there.(...) But when it comes to metal containers in the woods, man, you're not gonna regret taking one with you. And it's gonna be one of the most important things compared to a knife or like in conjunction with a knife is gonna be one of the most important things that you can bring with you because you can cook and do your water. And I just, I ain't much else to say about it. That's what it is. That's what it's for. It's for boiling your water, cooking and digging.(...) You can dig all your holes with it. So, but that's about it for the metal containers today. And I know this one was relatively short. So we're gonna jump off of here and then we'll be back next week with a new episode.(...) And I hope to see every one of you there. If you don't mind, head over to Facebook and click like on the Facebook group Primitive Camping in Bushcraft. Now there, I just found out that there is one called Camping in Bushcraft.(...) I did not know that before I created the group Primitive Camping in Bushcraft, but I named the book. I mean, I named the group on Facebook after the book. And so if you haven't gotten a copy of the book, go ahead and pick it up. You pick it up on my YouTube store and for like 15 bucks right now. And that is like almost a quarter off,(...) 25% off. So you can pick it up on my YouTube store. You can pick it up on my Shopify store, stuff like that. So, all right guys, we'll see you next time. Thank you so much for joining me. I'll see you in the next video. I'll see you in the next podcast. God bless you.