302 
FOREST AND STREAM 
March 8, 1913 
In Camping-Supplydom—II. 
Some More of the Little-Known Camping Conveniences and Travel-Foods of Other Nations 
WOOD VS. METAL CAMPING-KITS. 
OR many years the writer has been of the 
opinion that in camping outfits, wherever 
practicable, wooden ware was preferable to 
metal ware. The latter may be easier to clean, and 
may be rated more sanitary, but usually in out¬ 
door life you can get all the sanitation you want, 
and the extra “sanitariness” of a few plates and 
cups is a negligible factor. Besides, look at the 
lightness of wooden ware when carried; its float¬ 
ing property in a boat spill, or if accidentally 
dropped into the water, and in extremis, when 
at your wits’ end for a bit of fuel in zero 
weather, the utility of the wood ware as a pos¬ 
sibly life-saving fuel. Further, in winter camp¬ 
ing, metal ware is unbearably cold to the touch; 
in other words, the metal begins at once to ab¬ 
sorb the precious bodily heat of the digits, 
whereas wood robs the body of but little, hence 
we speak of wood as being more comfortable 
to the bare touch. The toughened camper bears 
all these things in mind. 
Wood plates, wood spoons, wood forks, 
wood cups, wood canteens, wood whistles, wood 
cots and a shoal of other things wood are al¬ 
ways obtainable on inquiry. Any skeptical per¬ 
son camping in cold weather should try for once 
at least an all-wood kit, and note the difference 
over metal. Of course, heating and cooking 
articles must be of metal, and the choice lies 
between aluminum and sheet-iron. The latter 
rusts; brass verdigrises, and aluminum effloresces 
out some of its salts (“pitting”) and gets full of 
pin holes. Salt, vinegar or souring products con¬ 
tained in aluminum vessels soon ruin the metal. 
Besides, while sheet-iron articles can be cleansed 
by firing, aluminum is liable to disappear in the 
heat, unless watched. 
JAPANESE COLLAPSIBLE WOOD CUP. 
FRENCH SOAP PAPER. 
By L. LODIAN 
The Russia black-iron camping utensils are 
perhaps the most satisfactory all-purpose vessels 
known. The color is really grayish-bluish. Oxi¬ 
dization, or rusting, is slow compared to our 
own common sheet-iron, and fire-cleansing of the 
used vessels can be done with impunity, pro¬ 
vided the heat is just sufficient to cleanse the 
objects. A cherry red is all-sufficient. I am a 
great believer in flame and fire for cleansing 
used (and oft too greasy) camping cook outfits. 
It is so simple and speedy, and after the flame- 
cleanse, you have only to drop the objects into 
hike warm water to free them of ash or gritty 
particles; and lo! your kit is swiftly and re¬ 
freshingly clean, and you heave an inspiration of 
satisfied relief. The necessarily fireless process 
of cleansing aluminum articles with sand, ashes, 
soap, etc.; the half-hour to hour of rubbing to 
remove the obstinate greasy black or soot (seri¬ 
ously abrading the metal, too)—may be with only 
cold water to wash the goods in on a cold, windy 
day. Oh, Lord! what a memory! But fire¬ 
cleansing black-iron ware makes all that un¬ 
pleasantly-prolonged washing-up work an in¬ 
teresting pleasure in comparison. Try it some 
time. 
HOLLOW-BORE CAMPING CANDLES (FRENCH CAMP¬ 
ING LIFE.) 
About three-quarters of a century ago there 
came out in France the tubular or perforated 
candles. They have been on sale in various of 
our foreign-grocery importing stores the past 
forty years, yet are scarce known ; certainly not 
at all among American campers. In Gallic tent 
life, in shooting shacks and lodges, in country 
homes, and family hotels lacking incandescent 
lighting, they are in uniform use. The object 
of the five vertical perforations surrounding the 
FRENCH PERFORATED CANDLES. 
wick is to prevent external "guttering” ; that is, 
in a draft, the melted grease does not ‘ gutter” 
or run over the edge on to the outside of the 
candle, but flows into one or more of the five 
perforations, and only trickles down a little way 
ere it hardens, and is in turn in due course all 
burned up in the economy of the candle. There 
is no waste. In a still room, the candle will 
burn to the end without a single hole filling; 
carried upstairs and meeting a draft, two or 
three holes may temporarily fill up to the depth 
of half an inch, but rarely are all blocked. 
French campers often show much ingenuity, 
and as these perforated candles are obtainable 
in pure wax—which of course is entirely taste¬ 
less—they will make use of the holey candles 
as a makeshift “filter” when drinking from a 
stagnant pool. Tie the end of a silk or linen 
kerchief over one end and “draw” through the 
other. (The Italian camper thus also extem¬ 
porizes into a pocket filter a short piece of 
macaroni.) 
These candles are hydraulic-pressed and 
come ten to the pound, costing twenty-five cents 
the package. The writer first used them in France 
nigh a quarter century ago, and has often pur¬ 
chased them in Manhattan for room use. One 
will last about four and a half hours—the aver¬ 
age evening’s light—and in a white-washed room, 
with no dark objects to absorb the light, the light 
of one candle is sufficient for one, or even two, 
persons. While reading, I have often—a la fran- 
gaise—economized on that single lighi to cook 
the evening meal—steak; boil the water for uvo 
big cups of tea, and bake a plump apple for 
dessert. The Gallics do this—so can a Yankee—■ 
or any other would-be camper. The trick is to 
cook in a fair-surfaced, but not too big, square 
sheet-iron dish, and to take care to keep the 
dish covered, to keep every possible bit of heat 
in. Usually I cover with a similar-sized metal 
vessel. W^hen reading, or doing other work, 
the rather long time necessary for reaching a 
boil—maybe a dozen or more minutes—is scarce 
noticed; in fact, you are surprised, as it seems, 
at the speedy “singing” of the arising steam, 
and are liable to pay attention with the remark: 
‘AVhy, is that heating up already?” Yet, if 
you were in a hurry, that candle-heating would 
never do. It has its limitations. Of course, the 
lighting of two candles, a couple of inches apart, 
under the vessel will hasten the boil, but then 
—especially in warm weather—the combined heat 
is liable to hasten the undue melting of the 
candles, and smoking from the wicks will result. 
A camper having bits of fat uselessly knock¬ 
ing around can always have a good enough make¬ 
shift light from them by trying-out the material. 
Then it is best burnt in a small square-shaped 
metal dish, with the aid of any bit of cotton 
rag as an extempore wick. A little experience 
will qualify in the production of a fair light; 
not so good, however, as candle light of equal 
flame dimension, because that tried-out fat of 
yours contains its inherent glycerin, which is a 
non-illuminant. 
