| August 2016
Art,I purchased a stove in early 2012 and it has seen constant use since then, winter and summer.
The fabric folder is the only part of the stove that has shown any wear so far.
It works perfect every time using minimal wood to cook an entire meal. The ability to fry, simmer and BBQ a steak all on the same stove is a huge a advantage to most all other stoves.
Great product! Do you have any upgrades planned in the future for this stove? Titanium possibly?
Happy camping.John
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October 2015
Hi Art
I wanted to let you know that your firebox was a hit amongst my camping partners this year. It is likely that you will receive from them some orders for next season.
Moving up from a cookie sheet fire pan, I was impressed how much more efficient your fire box is: six litres of water (two 3L pots) quickly reached a boil so everyone could enjoy warm drinks. The elongated design permitted having a hot side and a warm side for cooking without burning the food. I especially liked how little wood was required to get the cooking done. We also had a white gas stove with us on most trips but very seldom did we use it. The fire box assembles quickly, channels the heat to the pots effectively and cooking is completed with only a few pieces of drift wood!
The included gloves were appreciated to keep my hands clean during assembly. However, they soon began to be used as wood-breaking gloves and were quickly shredded (which was my fault). They have been replaced by some leather work gloves.
Being a lightweight fire box, I expected some warpage and indeed there was some, but it was not bothersome and could be easily managed by assembling the fire box in reverse every few burns (i.e., swap left and right sides and turn the base plates over).
We never used the tent pegs to assemble the stove owing to rocky campsites and changing wind directions. My camping partners agreed that we would all probably always use the pins instead of pegs. After the first trip we left the pegs at home.
All in all, it is a great fire box. I am happy that I searched around a little longer and found it. Many of the other fire boxes I looked at were two to three times heavier, which is excessive for trips involving portages and aging bodies. I will happily accept some easily-managed, minor warpage for the weight savings.
All the best,
John. Yukon
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October 2012
Hi Art,
I thought I would give you some feedback on the firebox.
I've used on two 4 day canoe trips so far and it works very well. It does not scorch the ground at all. It has warped quite a bit, but despite that, it still works very well. It just takes more fidgeting and an extra 30 seconds to assemble once warped, you almost need a third hand or second person to help.
We've used it to cook full meals as well as get the charcoal started on top for our Dutch oven.
I like to keep the weight down, and I was wondering if a titanium model might be in the works. This might also reduce warping.
The bag works well, if it could also fit a dirty grill then it would be perfect.
All in all this is a good product and I'm sure you will improve it further.
Best Regards.
Mike
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November 2012
Hi Art
So, we haven't had a lot of opportunity to use the firebox, but this past weekend was the ultimate utilization! We did a three day trip in Killarney provincial park from Saturday to Monday. It started raining on Saturday afternoon and never relented...and at time with severe winds and cold changing to sleet and hail with temperatures near freezing. We were a group of eight and collaborativelly agreed that the fire pit on our site would have been impossible and the drenched conditions would make it extremely difficult to find wood. We pulled out our 5lb firebox and we were able to start a fire quickly with minimal wood/fuel and easily maintain it afterwards. We were able to 'bring the fire to us' and located it under our tarps to maximize it's usefulness and effectiveness. Even though it was small for 8 people to crowd around, everyone made use of it. We warmed hands and feet, we dried out sodden clothing, and we had some wonderful "fire box hot rocks" that we heated on the grill to stuff in our sleeping bags to warm our cold wet bodies at night. Thanks you for introducing us to this product. :)
Your fire unanimously box wins our 'Trip Award'.
Marcie B
All-weather canoe camper!
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June 2010
You sent two stoves back in April and asked for follow-up. I can tell you that the first one was used by my Son over the Memorial day weekend. He took canoe trip on the Willamette River in Oregon and reports that he is well pleased with the stove. I think his wife is too as she could be seen reading a book in the background of a picture he sent.
My stove, alas, is still not charred.
We are both wondering if you've given any thought to making the case big enough to accomodate the grill also?
Regards,
Peter. Oregon
Note: Rather than increase the size of the case we are now providing slightly smaller and better quality grills made in Canada. Art
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September 2010
Hi Art,
We got back from the Coppermine at the beginning of August and it's taken this long to sort through the photos so here's the ones of the firebox I said I'd send along.
At the outset I wasn't sure how much firewood would be available and how good it would be for burning. Turns out that there's plenty of driftwood for the first 2/3 of the trip from Point Lake down and much less after that. However the stuff burns really fast and very hot. Trying to control the heat of the fire in order to bake something was virtually impossible because a bed of coals burned away much too quickly.
However, the firebox was invaluable at concentrating the heat from the available wood and boiling large quantities of water very quickly. As you can see from one of the shots, fish fries were also readily possible.
It no longer looks like the gleaming bit of stainless steel technology that arrived in the mail, and various attempts at straightening the buckling sides with rocks have contributed to the patina that is now evident on the unit and says "I've been there and back".
Personally I don't have any gripes outside of the grill that became quite soft (perhaps due to the intense heat sometimes generated). Some of the others in the party would have preferred looser tolerances once things began to buckle but I think that might have made the item less sturdy than it was. The common peeve that everyone had was that the two front horizontal members would not stay put while in use. Not all the driftwood was straight or free from knots, branches, etc so jostling some of the bits of wood into the unit caused the upper, lower or both crossbraces to fall off making the unit less sturdy with the big water pot on it.
Overall, its a very well functioning unit, much better and lighter than any of the others I've used. The highlights are how well it can concentrate a lot of heat from a relatively small amount of wood and that there is no scarring because of the double bottom and yet the weight is kept to a minimum.
Everyone was really pleased to have it along since there had been some concern about how much fuel would be used just to heat water.
Congratulations on coming up with the design and execution of this firebox.
Cheers,
Hans
Note: Design tolerances were increased and we decided to manufacture our own grills in stainless steel due to this review. Art
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August 2010
Hi Art,
I was a bit premature. My wife found it set apart with some other gear when cleaning up after the trip so I don't need a new piece after all.
The trip was great, we started at Wardens Grove and paddled to Baker Lake in 25 days. We used the stove all the way down the river and it became especially important when we thought we were going to run out of fuel for our gas stoves. But, with a concerted search, we were able to find enough small twigs to reduce our fuel consumption enough that we ended up with 3 liters of fuel left over. It received high praise from anyone who was cooking on it.
We ran into a Blackfeather group who came down the Clarke and they said they thoroughly enjoyed it. Might make for an interesting encore! Will you be coming to the WCA symposium again?
Thanks,
Dave
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August 2011
Hi Arthur,
I bought one of your Black Spruce Gear grills last February at the WCA symposium and I wanted to thank you for selling such a great piece of gear. It was perfect for grilling our steaks this past weekend. I was hoping to get to use it this season ; I had hip surgery in April and was finally ready .
Thanks again.
Sincerely , Mike.
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May 2011
Hello,
I thought you'd like to see your stove in use during one of our Happy Camper videos. We are planning on doing a segment just on the stove itself soon. The product works great by the way.
http://www.kevincallan.com/
Kevin
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