Here is a more scientific answer from a Physics standpoint: Q. Which will normally warm faster-a black pot of cold water or a silvered pot of warm water? A. A black pot of cold water. Blackened things are a better absorber and emitter of infrared than silvered things.
Well, thanks for schooling me on that. But, if you’re REALLY interested in a “more scientific” explanation, the property you describe applies primarily to the absorbing of radiant energy from LIGHT. However, when an object such as a metal pot is in direct contact with fire (as opposed to sunlight) the mechanism of heat transfer is quite different. So, “from a physics standpoint” [sic]: Q. If you park a white car and a black car outside on a sunny day, which will warm faster? A. The black car because it will absorb more of the radiant energy (LIGHT) coming from the sun. - - - BUT - - - Q. If you have a white car and a black car and set them both on fire, which will warm faster? A. There won’t be a significant difference.
Right, because you're talking about conduction rather than radiation. So a blackened pot won't absorb any more thermal radiation sitting on a fire than a silvered one, from the bottom. However, hanging over a fire or next to a fire or even on the sides, a blackened pot will absorb more thermal radiation than a silvered pot. So if you're using it over a stove, like an alcohol stove, there won't be any real difference in the thermal transfer. However, the advantage to a blackened pot is that it will melt snow more efficiently in the sunlight. And after you boil water in a blackened pot, the water will also cool down quicker than a silver pot because it emits infrared more efficiently. Also there are significant differences between stainless steel, cast iron and aluminum etc. because of the difference in the conductivity of the metals themselves. In an ideal world, a pot made of actual silver would be the best conductor but it has more to do with the efficiency of the metal itself as a conductor of heat rather than the color of the pot. So, a blackened silver pot would be the best of both worlds IMHO. Thank you so much for your dialogue on this!
Mors Kochanski had probably forgotten more about wilderness survival than most of us will ever know. Because to him, wilderness survival was just life. What a loss when he went under. 😞
When wood fueled cookstoves were in use, there was a thing called stove black. It was used to rub onto the outside of your cooking pots. Now I understand why that was important.
Stove black is a black coating that is applied to a cooking stove , not the pot! It was designed to stop the stove rusting, and keep it smart. Designed for the type of cast iron stove that had a solid fuel fire one side, an oven beside it, and hot or warming plates and the chimney on top. Modern stove versions like Aga, use heat proof enamel and don't need blacking.
That move you made at 1:41.....If I tried to split anything with ANY of my knives that way it would've split my thumb to the bone. Great video just the same.
I was taught many years ago from a ranger to take Murphys Oil Soap with me. Before you put your stuff on the flame you wipe a bit of the Oil Soap on the areas on the pot that normally collect the char. Once you are done cooking you can wash the pot with just water as the cooked on Soap is already incorporated in the process. It has never failed me and I'm 65.
Not necessarily "half the fuel", but certainly less fuel and less time. Fact is, from an engineering standpoint, you and Mors are correct, and it works both ways - black absorbs heat and it also radiates heat. Back to the cook kit, buff the outside with steel wool and give it a couple coats of hi-temp black spray paint to "get a head start on the blacking process". Second tip, for times when you are forced to cook over "dirty" fires (like pine), rub the outside of the cookpot with dish soap (I carry some Camp Suds in a small Nalgene bottle (2 oz/4 oz?), do you cooking, then scrub down the outside with water, or leaves or sand, and the soap and pine tar will come loose easily.
Its not vastly different, and realistically doesn't matter. Black paint can't take the heat of a direct fire contact for more than a few moments, and will just burn and flake off.. where it will most likely be replaced by the soot and tar. Black paint helps the most when your using a lower temperature flame like a gas stove. a copper bottomed pan made black by chemical oxidation would absorb heat better than the same pan that is not black, provided the coating itself was not insulative. (you get this talk alot when discussing nano coatings and DLC's. ). Generally speaking chemical oxidation and nano coatings are signfiicantly thinner than paint.
Interesting. Not sure why, but maybe they just wanted to make sure the scouts were learning to clean up. Because a blackened pot is definitely more efficient.
I never really thought about whether to use shiny or black cookware since your going to cook over a fire or propane or some source of heat. Good information to have. Again, if the sooty black bothers people, they can always spray high temperature paint on the outside and make them whatever color they want or a nice attractive black so they cook more efficiently. Now that I watched your video, I am going to choose black or at least darker color cookware.
I know this is an opinion video but it really works! So whether or not you want to wash your pots thoroughly on the outside is up to you. Of course you should strive for overall cleanliness when you're in the back country. And, if you're in a survival situation, you should take special care of the surfaces that touch your food. However, this will give you another option for accelerating the cooking and boiling time when you're in the woods. Thank you for watching and please leave your comments in the comment section below.
Four years late but I learned this trick from BLACKIE THOMAS. Use black barbecue paint On the bottom of your cookware and cup. Leave an inch or so around the rim unpainted it may even allow it to cool faster and you not put your lips on paint. Then you can wipe the soot of and not smell up Your bag.
I spray paint all of my outdoor cookware with high temp black bbq spray paint. It's only about $3.00 per can. I put 2 or 3 coats on the outside of each pot and skillet. When I first started bushcrafting, I wanted my cookware to be shiny but I soon learned that black absorbs heat better. Even at home, my pots and pans are black on the outside.
My wife (may she rest in peace) would never eat anything i cooked in my cast iron skillet because it had been used over a camp fire & bilt up black on de outside,, now de inside was perfectly clean,, she said she ain't eating nothing cooked in a dirty skillet,,,,, well it was more 4 me....
My OH is funny about firefood too lol, I'll whip up a bacon butty over the firekeg whilst sat in the garden and she won't eat one, kinda mars the evening for me if you go in the kitchen to make food to go back out and sit near the fire and eat it...
I agree 100 percent with you about the outside of my outdoor cookware. I just wipe off any soot and clean the inside very good. If it was good for Mors it's good for me.
That’s good to know, and makes perfect sense. Mine are all black on the outside lol, either from laziness or it’s just burnt on so much I can’t scrub it off lol. Excellent video brother!
Thank you, James, for the great advice. Besides, you are out in nature, who gives a rats a** what your cooking equipment looks like. It's not supposed to look new and shiny! Those of you who are bothered by blackened cooking utensils, you're not true camping/bushcraft people...
Learned something new again. My pots are not polished to a high gloss either. I think the resulting patina gives them something like character. I really like your videos, especially the 1790's series and the Hobo series. Look forward to more videos. Greetings from Germany
I've got stained stainless steel cups and pots. I'll wipe ashes and soot off soap not to get it in my rucksack but I don't scrub them to a shine. Never thought about it making it more efficient...pretty cool! Thanks for teaching me something new!
Nice video, James. I have read all the comments and I am not going to enter into the debate over clean vs dirty. But 🤔 there one certain way to increase the efficiency of your cooking and that's to put a LID on the cook pot. 🙄
I do believe the black is faster myth has been busted a long time ago. It's a personal choice but as you say if resources are scarce and time of the essence then external cleaning isn't a priority. The ash from a fire mixed with a few drops of water makes an amazing cleaning paste in many countries where water is precious pots are always cleaned this way.
@@WayPointSurvival Mark Young did a sooty/shiny test once with Alcohol stove and also on a wood fire. No clear winner and may even be in favour of the shiny pot. th-cam.com/video/alKYPFvdXlM/w-d-xo.html
I've tested this (unscientifically) many times. Boil times aren't significantly different either way. That being said, mine are sooty most of the time, but cleaning them up once in a while is a good thing too.
Right, because you're talking about conduction rather than radiation. So a blackened pot won't absorb any more thermal radiation sitting on a fire than a silvered one, from the bottom. However, hanging over a fire or next to a fire or even on the sides, a blackened pot will absorb more thermal radiation than a silvered pot. So if you're using it over a stove, like an alcohol stove, there won't be any real difference in the thermal transfer. However, the advantage to a blackened pot is that it will melt snow more efficiently in the sunlight. And after you boil water in a blackened pot, the water will also cool down quicker than a silver pot because it emits infrared more efficiently. Also there are significant differences between stainless steel, cast iron and aluminum etc. because of the difference in the conductivity of the metals themselves. In an ideal world, a pot made of actual silver would be the best conductor but it has more to do with the efficiency of the metal itself as a conductor of heat rather than the color of the pot. So, a blackened silver pot would be the best of both worlds IMHO. Thank you so much for your dialogue on this!
I live in rural VA , and have 1200 acres of woods and streams behind my house, it's amazing how much resources u can find in such environments, I love to look for springs , stealth campsites , metal detecting old home places (there are a few) just go for walks looking for wild eddibles, mushrooms, and this place u shown in this video reminds me of my backyard, love it , great video , I go to the mountains and hike alot on known trails , but have just as much fun in my backyard as well , great 👍tip on these pots , I always try to shine them up , gonna try it your way for a bit
I'd also like like add, if you have a ss skillet like the wwII mess kits, I don't scrub the inside either. You can season them like a cast iron skillet so they become nonstick. It doesn't work as well for something mostly used for boiling of heating up liquids, but if you have something you use to cook meat, season it so you won't have to bring any oil
Does this apply to my home too? yayyy ! Yes, RIP grandfather Bushcraft. : ( Whoever whined about your Black cookware has NO idea what they are talking about. I have been out in Canadian winters. (Do NOT make your cookware all nice and shiny !!!)
Agreed. But some folks seem to be more about being pretty in the back country than in being practical and functional. Also, there are a lot of armchair Survival and Bushcraft folks who only spend their time reading books and watching videos and not much time actually practicing what they preach.
Hello my outdoors friend, thank you for sharing this informative video. You continue to be a wealth of information. Always the best of good things for you and your family. 🤗
I am never clean outside my pots, i love it to protect with this patina. But I didn't even know that reason for boiling fast.Thanks for sharing this great info and video. Thumb up
You are so correct on the darkened pots and don't forget Anny or most pots for backpacking are a dark gray better heart absorbing thank you for the video James
As a student of physics...this ole camp tale, I vote to disagree. If you were heating primarily with light (especially IR light) then shiny vs black makes a difference. However you are heating with conductive heat transfer. Shiny or black has much less to do with anything as the thickness and type of metal. In fact a shiny new Stanley cup will heat to boil a few seconds faster than one coated in carbon soot and pitch due to the insulation factor of the coating. For that same reason the sooted pot will hold in the hot maybe 10 seconds longer after it does boil. Not cleaning the outside and keeping it in a tar rag is more a thought to..., why bother as it soots up every time you use it, and you waste water and time cleaning the outside. However if you use gas stoves, the cleaner the pot bottom inside and out, the faster direct flame will heat it.
@@WayPointSurvival wood doesn't matter, as you're putting the pot on the fire in direct contact with the combustion. test it yourself. Exactly the same two tin cans and cool water with no lid. One heavily, heavily sooted, one fresh. Put them side by side in an already hot fire. You'll find that one will boil no more than a few seconds after the other. Most likely the dirty, dark one will follow. Repeat the test three or four times, switching positions in case the fire is unbalanced (all are) but scour the clean one each time. Test it again with a gas jet burner. Same burner, same setting, two trials and a stopwatch. Test it again with a weak new cook fire...say a dry pine cone under each. Your video is old camp hand legend...but it doesn't typically hold up in exactly equivalent testing. All in all with campfire cooking it doesn't matter enough to merit anything. 5 seconds at most either way. More likely a misplaced coal, elevation, air flow or punky wood has more effect on your fast cup.
Excellent point about leaving the outside black. Regarding the keeping the inside clean, you're right about that too. I got dysentery eating off a fork I hadn't cleaned well enough.
Hello my friend, it sounds good but I clean off my cookware so that it does not get on my other gear. But it doesn’t come completely clean. Take Care and Keep Exploring The Outdoors.
I've never noticed shiny, new pots or cups taking longer to boil water. But now I'm curious. I'd like you or someone to do a side-by-side comparison. My prediction is no noticeable difference between the shiny new pot and the blackened one. So, nice job. Thank you for an interesting video.
Great video brother James. Makes perfect sense that the black would heat up faster. To illustrate the point, this August lay your hand on the hood of a black car. No don't cause you'll get burned. Black draws heat. I never wear a black shirt in the summer for that reason. Like you said brother it's a matter of preference. Thanks for sharing that info. God Bless.
Totally agree. My wife always freaked out because I've done the same thing 😅. She has this shiny metal obsession. Been doing it for a long time .and it only took about 20 years for her to finally give up trying to scrub my outdoor cookware
I personally prefer the more weathered patina, anyway. Makes you look like you know what you're doing. As the saying goes, "a knight in shining armor has never truly had his mettle tested." As a plus, the heat transfer science seems to back up this idea, and it's less cleaning... So I don't really see a downside to this.
I sharpened up the back of my katanaboy for the same scraping, your the first I Have seen elsewhere do this. I found it better to sharpen at a 95 degree angle or there abouts, putting a slight cant on it then rolled the edge slightly like you would do a carpenters scraper. Cuts pretty amazing even though it's technically softer than the edge, it's still hard enough to scapre really good shavings. I keep my ti cup pretty dark already for the same reasons but the soot getting everywhere is still a pain in the ass, and though you can starch it with potato juice I never ever remember to take a few slices of potato for it or go digging for bulrush roots either...meh.
Right? You can also rub bar soap around the bottom and the outside of your cup or cookware and this will keep the soup from sticking as well. also, it makes it a lot easier to wash off all you need then is water.
The cup is beautiful and well loved/used as it should be! 🤗🤗 PS Look how well cast iron cooks and it's black! Yes a old person talking. keep up the good work!
I've done a couple tests because I've heard the same thing and I've also seen several videos of other people testing that theory and my conclusions and theirs were all pretty much that the difference is negligible and that the sooty pot sometimes was somewhat slower to boil. With that info it really comes down to a preference of what the user finds more ascetically pleasing to them.
@@WayPointSurvival lol alright, you do you bro. I was just making a simple statement based on my own tests as well as tests I've seen by others. Mors got his info from "an old manual, used by plumbers." Which isn't really "Data" to back up the theory. Most people most of the time these days have their cookware on direct heat. At the very least, state that you are referring to radiant and not conductive heat and how a dark pot may absorb heat from a distance quicker than a shiny one and there isn't really a difference on a direct heat source. Especially when your video is showing the pots on a direct heat source. I honestly get where you are coming from but it is not clear in your video. I'm just saying it would be good to differentiate between the two as well as probably state "so in my opinion," that way the people watching will fully understand what is being discussed. Perhaps it would help to do a follow up video showing identical pots, one new and one seasoned, on direct heat as well as indirect heat and so forth with thermometers and timers so everyone can actually see what works best in each situation. Then they can decide what they like the best for their personal style of camping/bushcrafting. Because for me I like a cleaner looking pot and use direct heat when I cook as I'm sure others do as well.
Love to hear that 😂 Great Video 👍 U may triggered out a Revolution under the dishwasher worldwide 😂 In Gourmet Restaurants the cooks often Just put salt in the dirty pans and wipe it out with a piece of paper from a kitchen roll...works great but waste Salt..(had to learn that too....Long Time ago)
I've eaten out of the same little dutch oven for 5 years and have never done more than place it upside down in the fire when I'm done and scrap it clean with a stick.
I used my issued canteen cup for many things from shaving and washing up in the field to cooking with the Boy Scouts. It got blackened and never was able to get it clean enough to turn in. I still have it and occasionally use it still use it depending on what I am doing. The inside was always clean.
🤓Great...great...GREAT... 🤔This is probably the best TIP/DIY outdoors channel... 😉You even include Mors Kochansky's quotes giving that way the credits instead of taking them for your own...👍💁🏻♂️👏
Matthew 23:25 “ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. ; )-
Great view. Yep. Well used equals black. Gramma only wiped out her iron skillet...never washed it. Occasionally used salt or clean sand on inside. That's it.
I paint everything black. EVERYTHING. I'll give you another example of this principle: A black cat will live twice as long as other colors of cat. Polar bears - dying off. Black bears - most numerous bear Space is black. Way more of it. I bet you could boil space twice as fast as you could boil not-space.
👍👍👍 I watched this some time ago and perhaps added my two cents worth .. I forget. It popped up again on my feed and was well worth a re-watch. Black pots. I only remove the 'loose stuff' off the outside of my cookware so as to not dirty-up anything else that comes into contact with it. My understanding of physics has me believing that a black surface absorbs most, radiant heat / heat in the visible light spectrum, making Mors' contention regarding black pots over a fire believable. Knife technique .. I have been 'trimming / whittling' towards my thumb for 60+ years and still have to cut myself .. yet .. 😏. If one know what one is doing, stays focused, the most important digit on one's hand 'should' be safe. There is always a first time though. One assesses the risk and accepts the consequences.
Naw I clean it. I rarely put my pots on the fire. And when I do I usually clean it with gravel and water or a green scrubber and dish soap. I'm in California so having a fire is pretty limited. The soot doesn't transfer so bad. I also use my pots to reflect heat from sunlight on occasion. Use it to UV food (fruits, veggies, leftovers) and water pretty important. UV is. A good way to sanitize your bottles and winter is typically when I carry a small dropper bottle of bleach because the lack of sun.
Another good trick I saw on a Blackie Thomas video is to forgo the waiting and just spray the outside of your bushpots with black high-heat BBQ spray paint. It does the job for less than 10 bucks and still looks "clean" after countless uses with the even coating.
The back side of a blade does scrape well as a scraper. especially if honed to perfectly 90° Thing is though ! A sharp scraper even at 90 degrees is still sharp and you can get cut wide open ! Sharp is sharp ! I will say this about cleaning your cooking gear ! A fella ought to at least scald everything with boiling water ! Matters not if your gear shiney or not. Scalding water will make you safe from germs ! TU U :)
Why not pre-anodize the cookware? Also, take one of those cups and make a mini hobo stove out of it. Your cooking cup can sit just into the hobocup and you get more heat up the sides. Heating faster. A bit less wind cooling. Less fuel needed too. You can still nest it and it will work better than an open fire. If you did it right, you might even be able to use an alcohol stove in it if desired. Outside of the hobocup should remain relatively carbon free so less worry about transferring carbon to your sack. Cooking cup nests inside where the carbon is anyway and no worries about carbon dirtying anything when nested. Or just have the wife clean it for you? You can make a mini alcohol stove out of the aluminum butt end of a AAA flashlight - runs about 3-5 min on a fill. I made one! Just need needle nose pliers, something to cut the tube with, a little sandpaper, a US quarter, (two preferably) and some high heat epoxy. Carbon felt is a plus.
Up my way Bogging means dirty, unkempt/unclean, maybe a similar thing lol... I gleaned the ht paint tip from comments here so that may be a move I make but no rush...
Im not sure why kind of metal my Aunty Helen's pot is but its outside has a crusty black coating I wire scrubbed down to a pale yellow outer coat (from dark yellow with blacked "crust") back when I was 10 or 11,and the inside is a silver grey metal with black and dark grey speckels Its now 42 years later but it only took 6 months for the pot to turn Dark Yellow and regain its black crust Acording to my Mom Aunty Helen's pot, which she inhereted, is over 100 years old
I've noticed that, not only do you have fabulous content and helpful advice, you sorta look like Steve Howey. If you watched Reba on TNN or Shameless on HBO, you'll see it as well. He was pretty clean in Reba, but his language in Shameless was less than saintly. Both programs were most entertaining. I've watched about ten of your videos, and with all I've seen from other channels and what I've experienced, you do a really good job. I'm a recent (two days ago) sub but have tried to take in as much of your content as I can. You and Jon Townsend need to get together, and throw Dan Wowack into the mix as well. If Dave Canterbury will join in, it would be the trifecta. I know there are a lot of people out there who have outstanding content, but you can't get them all together unless it's a Rabbitstick style gathering. But you never know. Keep up the good work, sir. Thank you for what you do. I'll keep watching.
If you go into any commercial kitchen that's been around for a while you will see the bottom of all the aluminum pans have been blackened. When I was in the biz we never scrubbed them down to bare metal. We put them through the dishwasher and scrape off anything sticky or chunky like you said. But the bottom were often blackened
Yep, thanks for explaining this in simple common man terms AND with a good quote from a great woods wise guy. Being a mechanical engineer, I can give ya lots of geeky heat transfer formulas if you have trouble sleeping and need some boredom. It would be super cool for you to do a head to head competition of shiny vs sooty!!! 👍
Thank you! I have had several comments disagreeing with the blackened pot idea. The problem seems to be in misunderstanding the difference between the transfer of heat mechanisms ie. Radiation vs. Conduction. This was my answer: You're talking about conduction rather than radiation. So a blackened pot won't absorb any more thermal radiation sitting on a fire than a silvered one, from the bottom. However, hanging over a fire or next to a fire or even on the sides, a blackened pot will absorb more thermal radiation than a silvered pot. So if you're using it over a stove, like an alcohol stove, there won't be any real difference in the thermal transfer. However, the advantage to a blackened pot is that it will melt snow more efficiently in the sunlight. And after you boil water in a blackened pot, the water will also cool down quicker than a silver pot because it emits infrared more efficiently. Also there are significant differences between stainless steel, cast iron and aluminum etc. because of the difference in the conductivity of the metals themselves. In an ideal world, a pot made of actual silver would be the best conductor but it has more to do with the efficiency of the metal itself as a conductor of heat rather than the color of the pot. So, a blackened silver pot would be the best of both worlds IMHO.
A cheap or improvised lid will reduce the amount of cook time and prevent stuff from falling or flying into your cook pot. That is why the GI cup with lid and BCB crusader with lid are so popular. That lid will save cook time and keep the nasties out.
This happens to everything I cook with because I cook on a fireplace and also outside , it makes sense, black absorbs heat , I scrub with leaves and sand too.
This theroy needs to be Time Tested, Is the difference in time worth having Soot stains (Creosote) on everything it touches... Creosote does have preserving & waterproof qualities as well as Medical uses.
I've heard of folks painting their cookware with the high temp paint to blacken the outsides, and that is a good idea. But, I think the cookware looks more used and sorta, to me, looks like you have had more fun cooking over an open fire and spent less time in the shoppe painting stuff...I've also heard, and I don't know how reliable it is but wearing a black WayPoint Survival tee-shirt will also make the water boil faster and use less fuel. Since I got mine yesterday I'll do a test this weekend......LOL
I would have thought that all the soot forms an insulated layer and would have to be washed off for more efficiency. That's why economizers have soot blowers on ships (although they're not scrubbed to a polish, just has the soot blasted off, some abrasion with walnut shells occasionally), but maybe you're school of thought is really the better one. I'm going to have to try this out and do some of my own testing! I've never heard of this before, and if it does work, it will definitely be useful. Thanks for the video!
It would depend on the thickness of the layer. Depending on the ship and mechanism, they can produce quite a bit of carbon fouling that can gunk up critical surfaces if not cleaned regularly. Not only impeding heat transfer, but causing blockages and binding up moving parts. Conversely, consider the thickness of the carbon patina on a cast iron skillet, for example. Not a problem, in most cooks' opinions, despite being thick enough to form a cohesive film over the iron. And you're not building up a huge layer of grunge on your pot, just allowing a little soot and oxide to blacken it so it's not reflecting heat like, say, a mylar blanket would.
the parthanon was built with not one single straight line in it... perfection is acheived by intentional imperfection... if it is shiny, it was never used... or never used by anyone who knew what they were doing...
If you use cast iron, you probably don't scrub the inside either - you scrape it out, but the oils and carbon build up to an amazingly non-stick surface. I suspect the "burn out, not scrub out" works with other metals too. They arent as porous and probably wont make as nice a surface, but I suspect its safe.
For me its all about using as little resources as possible. I can't start a fire with a single spark right now. Tie a tripod above your fire with skinny trees. It takes seconds, and drop your canteen above the fire. Heat rises and you gain efficiency if you use efficiency.You might find you need less fuel, and time to gather tinder and main fuel. Try it.
Drop a roll of jute into a can of hot wax. Let it sit for a couple of minutes. Pull it, let it drain and cool. As needed, strip a six inches of this jute into the fuzzies to catch your spark. I hold this in hand with the Ferro rod. Careful, it will light immediately. Drop it quickly into your kindling.
Enjoyed the video. I'll wipe off the loose residue but i hardly wash them, i like the blackened look, adds character. The black is soot and soot is a dirty carbon, carbon has the highest thermal conductivity, much more than stainless steel, so it stands to reason that to whatever degree soot (carbon) would aid in the transfer of heat through the metal and into the food allowing a person to use less wood in the process.
I have an old scout trick you can use... before you use cookware, take ivory dish soap andrub over the outside, the outside only, of cup or pan. Allow to dry. Then use as usual. Later when cooking is done, the cleanup is easy. No black to get on everything later.
I like my pots shiny, but it's a lot of work. after watching this I think I will give it a try. however, I won't be doing this to my AUSSIE mess kit. that one will stay shiny and off the fire.
Cleaning the outside of a campfire pot is something I have never done. It's going to get black again and you are going to get black. Clean it when your bored with nothing to do.
Hiram Cook tested this in one of his many video on alcohol stoves. He was wondering if the black increased the time to boil due to insulating the pot or if it sped it up due to black absorbing more heat. The blackened pots did boil faster but it did require more than half of the usual fuel to get there. Great video!
My grandma cooked on a wood stove, inside of cookware spotless outside not so much she was born in 1880's. I learned from her and grandad. And my dad also.
Being a woman I’m used to keeping all my good stainless steel cooking pots shiny clean. As well as my stove. I hate to cook with dirty looking messy kitchen. Everything has its place and cleanliness
Half the fuel? Nope.
Just quoting Mors Kochanski....
Here is a more scientific answer from a Physics standpoint:
Q. Which will normally warm faster-a black pot of cold water or a silvered pot of warm water?
A. A black pot of cold water. Blackened things are a better absorber and emitter of infrared than silvered things.
Well, thanks for schooling me on that. But, if you’re REALLY interested in a “more scientific” explanation, the property you describe applies primarily to the absorbing of radiant energy from LIGHT. However, when an object such as a metal pot is in direct contact with fire (as opposed to sunlight) the mechanism of heat transfer is quite different. So, “from a physics standpoint” [sic]:
Q. If you park a white car and a black car outside on a sunny day, which will warm faster?
A. The black car because it will absorb more of the radiant energy (LIGHT) coming from the sun.
- - - BUT - - -
Q. If you have a white car and a black car and set them both on fire, which will warm faster?
A. There won’t be a significant difference.
Right, because you're talking about conduction rather than radiation. So a blackened pot won't absorb any more thermal radiation sitting on a fire than a silvered one, from the bottom. However, hanging over a fire or next to a fire or even on the sides, a blackened pot will absorb more thermal radiation than a silvered pot. So if you're using it over a stove, like an alcohol stove, there won't be any real difference in the thermal transfer. However, the advantage to a blackened pot is that it will melt snow more efficiently in the sunlight. And after you boil water in a blackened pot, the water will also cool down quicker than a silver pot because it emits infrared more efficiently. Also there are significant differences between stainless steel, cast iron and aluminum etc. because of the difference in the conductivity of the metals themselves. In an ideal world, a pot made of actual silver would be the best conductor but it has more to do with the efficiency of the metal itself as a conductor of heat rather than the color of the pot. So, a blackened silver pot would be the best of both worlds IMHO. Thank you so much for your dialogue on this!
@@lapicker1010 Well you tried. And a good try at that, unfortunately you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.
Sounds like you raised the ire of a cooking Karen 😏 😂 Great video
Thank you, lol! There are a lot of cooking Karen's out there!
Mors Kochanski had probably forgotten more about wilderness survival than most of us will ever know. Because to him, wilderness survival was just life.
What a loss when he went under. 😞
So true... He will be greatly missed.
When wood fueled cookstoves were in use, there was a thing called stove black. It was used to rub onto the outside of your cooking pots. Now I understand why that was important.
Thank you so much for watching!
Stove black is a black coating that is applied to a cooking stove , not the pot! It was designed to stop the stove rusting, and keep it smart. Designed for the type of cast iron stove that had a solid fuel fire one side, an oven beside it, and hot or warming plates and the chimney on top. Modern stove versions like Aga, use heat proof enamel and don't need blacking.
That move you made at 1:41.....If I tried to split anything with ANY of my knives that way it would've split my thumb to the bone. Great video just the same.
That degree of control comes from many years of hand carving wood in multiple positions and holds. I definitely wouldn't suggest it for most people.
Agree, I wouldn't use this as an example, reminds me of Polish arm wrestling. Hopefully nobody tries this.
I only remove the excess of soot, that's all... Thanks James.
And that's all that's needed!
And the inside remnants lol...
I was taught many years ago from a ranger to take Murphys Oil Soap with me. Before you put your stuff on the flame you wipe a bit of the Oil Soap on the areas on the pot that normally collect the char. Once you are done cooking you can wash the pot with just water as the cooked on Soap is already incorporated in the process. It has never failed me and I'm 65.
Absolutely.
RIP Mors Kochanski! A true legend in the bushcraft family.
Yes. He is greatly missed!
Not necessarily "half the fuel", but certainly less fuel and less time. Fact is, from an engineering standpoint, you and Mors are correct, and it works both ways - black absorbs heat and it also radiates heat. Back to the cook kit, buff the outside with steel wool and give it a couple coats of hi-temp black spray paint to "get a head start on the blacking process". Second tip, for times when you are forced to cook over "dirty" fires (like pine), rub the outside of the cookpot with dish soap (I carry some Camp Suds in a small Nalgene bottle (2 oz/4 oz?), do you cooking, then scrub down the outside with water, or leaves or sand, and the soap and pine tar will come loose easily.
Thank you for watching and for the comment!
Its not vastly different, and realistically doesn't matter. Black paint can't take the heat of a direct fire contact for more than a few moments, and will just burn and flake off.. where it will most likely be replaced by the soot and tar. Black paint helps the most when your using a lower temperature flame like a gas stove. a copper bottomed pan made black by chemical oxidation would absorb heat better than the same pan that is not black, provided the coating itself was not insulative. (you get this talk alot when discussing nano coatings and DLC's. ). Generally speaking chemical oxidation and nano coatings are signfiicantly thinner than paint.
@@rickw4160you guys are really into it .
Where were you when I was a boy scout? The men would come around and inspect our cookware after a week of summer camp to make sure it shined!
Interesting. Not sure why, but maybe they just wanted to make sure the scouts were learning to clean up. Because a blackened pot is definitely more efficient.
that's to 'build character'
I never really thought about whether to use shiny or black cookware since your going to cook over a fire or propane or some source of heat. Good information to have. Again, if the sooty black bothers people, they can always spray high temperature paint on the outside and make them whatever color they want or a nice attractive black so they cook more efficiently.
Now that I watched your video, I am going to choose black or at least darker color cookware.
Thank you. Glad you found it helpful!
I know this is an opinion video but it really works! So whether or not you want to wash your pots thoroughly on the outside is up to you. Of course you should strive for overall cleanliness when you're in the back country. And, if you're in a survival situation, you should take special care of the surfaces that touch your food. However, this will give you another option for accelerating the cooking and boiling time when you're in the woods. Thank you for watching and please leave your comments in the comment section below.
I love watching your videos, because there so informative. Let's just hope i won't have to put all of them to use. I might miss Perry Mason.
Right? Lol. Thanks for watching!
Four years late but I learned this trick from BLACKIE THOMAS. Use black barbecue paint On the bottom of your cookware and cup. Leave an inch or so around the rim unpainted it may even allow it to cool faster and you not put your lips on paint. Then you can wipe the soot of and not smell up Your bag.
I adhere to Mors' teaching. Good vid.
Oh, I guess my cast iron cookware in the kitchen would be considered "boggen?"
Probably, lol!
OKBushcraft: AMEN, I have a kitchen full of “Boggenware” cast iron pots, pans, etc and they are way better than any of the fancy stuff we own.
As one boggen to another, "here's boggen at you!"
I spray paint all of my outdoor cookware with high temp black bbq spray paint. It's only about $3.00 per can. I put 2 or 3 coats on the outside of each pot and skillet. When I first started bushcrafting, I wanted my cookware to be shiny but I soon learned that black absorbs heat better. Even at home, my pots and pans are black on the outside.
That's a good idea. Thank you for sharing it! Maybe some folks will prefer that to the soot.
My wife (may she rest in peace) would never eat anything i cooked in my cast iron skillet because it had been used over a camp fire & bilt up black on de outside,, now de inside was perfectly clean,, she said she ain't eating nothing cooked in a dirty skillet,,,,, well it was more 4 me....
@@tomcatt1824 It's always good to have enough to eat! And, as long as the inside is clean, that's good enough for me!
My OH is funny about firefood too lol, I'll whip up a bacon butty over the firekeg whilst sat in the garden and she won't eat one, kinda mars the evening for me if you go in the kitchen to make food to go back out and sit near the fire and eat it...
@oddjobbob OH is a common acronym meaning other half, and butty is another name for a sandwich 👍
I agree 100 percent with you about the outside of my outdoor cookware. I just wipe off any soot and clean the inside very good. If it was good for Mors it's good for me.
Absolutely!
That’s good to know, and makes perfect sense. Mine are all black on the outside lol, either from laziness or it’s just burnt on so much I can’t scrub it off lol. Excellent video brother!
Thank you, my friend! Hope you have a great day and thank you for watching!
Thank you, James, for the great advice. Besides, you are out in nature, who gives a rats a** what your cooking equipment looks like. It's not supposed to look new and shiny! Those of you who are bothered by blackened cooking utensils, you're not true camping/bushcraft people...
Very true!
True to an extent. If you stack your cookware then you get soot from one in the other. Unless you scrub or line with rag or paper towel.
Learned something new again. My pots are not polished to a high gloss either. I think the resulting patina gives them something like character. I really like your videos, especially the 1790's series and the Hobo series. Look forward to more videos. Greetings from Germany
Thanks so much!
I've got stained stainless steel cups and pots. I'll wipe ashes and soot off soap not to get it in my rucksack but I don't scrub them to a shine. Never thought about it making it more efficient...pretty cool! Thanks for teaching me something new!
Thanks so very much for watching! I'm glad that you liked it.
Nice video, James. I have read all the comments and I am not going to enter into the debate over clean vs dirty. But 🤔 there one certain way to increase the efficiency of your cooking and that's to put a LID on the cook pot. 🙄
Absolutely! Thank you so much for watching and commenting!
Great video, I always like to have a valid excuse for NOT doing something.....👍
Right? Thanks for watching!
I do believe the black is faster myth has been busted a long time ago.
It's a personal choice but as you say if resources are scarce and time of the essence then external cleaning isn't a priority.
The ash from a fire mixed with a few drops of water makes an amazing cleaning paste in many countries where water is precious pots are always cleaned this way.
Yes, I have used ashes with water to wash my hands.
@@WayPointSurvival Mark Young did a sooty/shiny test once with Alcohol stove and also on a wood fire. No clear winner and may even be in favour of the shiny pot.
th-cam.com/video/alKYPFvdXlM/w-d-xo.html
I've tested this (unscientifically) many times. Boil times aren't significantly different either way. That being said, mine are sooty most of the time, but cleaning them up once in a while is a good thing too.
Right, because you're talking about conduction rather than radiation. So a blackened pot won't absorb any more thermal radiation sitting on a fire than a silvered one, from the bottom. However, hanging over a fire or next to a fire or even on the sides, a blackened pot will absorb more thermal radiation than a silvered pot. So if you're using it over a stove, like an alcohol stove, there won't be any real difference in the thermal transfer. However, the advantage to a blackened pot is that it will melt snow more efficiently in the sunlight. And after you boil water in a blackened pot, the water will also cool down quicker than a silver pot because it emits infrared more efficiently. Also there are significant differences between stainless steel, cast iron and aluminum etc. because of the difference in the conductivity of the metals themselves. In an ideal world, a pot made of actual silver would be the best conductor but it has more to do with the efficiency of the metal itself as a conductor of heat rather than the color of the pot. So, a blackened silver pot would be the best of both worlds IMHO. Thank you so much for your dialogue on this!
@@WayPointSurvival Melting snow not a common experience in UK but I can see that a black pot would be good for that.
Everything is better when we follow the laws of physics set out by our creator. Thanks for the video.
Very true, my friend!
Well said
God bless!
Jehovah
Excellent tip, thank you.
You're welcome!
Glad to hear you quoting Mors Kohanski. Used to watch his videos before he passed away.
Indeed, he was a great man. The Bushcraft world is not the same without him. Thank you for watching and commenting.
Except he was wrong on this one.
I live in rural VA , and have 1200 acres of woods and streams behind my house, it's amazing how much resources u can find in such environments, I love to look for springs , stealth campsites , metal detecting old home places (there are a few) just go for walks looking for wild eddibles, mushrooms, and this place u shown in this video reminds me of my backyard, love it , great video , I go to the mountains and hike alot on known trails , but have just as much fun in my backyard as well , great 👍tip on these pots , I always try to shine them up , gonna try it your way for a bit
Thank you so much, glad you enjoyed the video!
I'd also like like add, if you have a ss skillet like the wwII mess kits, I don't scrub the inside either. You can season them like a cast iron skillet so they become nonstick. It doesn't work as well for something mostly used for boiling of heating up liquids, but if you have something you use to cook meat, season it so you won't have to bring any oil
Interesting. Thanks for watching!
Does this apply to my home too? yayyy !
Yes, RIP grandfather Bushcraft. : (
Whoever whined about your Black cookware has NO idea what they are talking about.
I have been out in Canadian winters. (Do NOT make your cookware all nice and shiny !!!)
Agreed. But some folks seem to be more about being pretty in the back country than in being practical and functional. Also, there are a lot of armchair Survival and Bushcraft folks who only spend their time reading books and watching videos and not much time actually practicing what they preach.
@@WayPointSurvival true. they are out there ! Armchair Quarterback, armchair bushcrafter...
Hello my outdoors friend, thank you for sharing this informative video. You continue to be a wealth of information. Always the best of good things for you and your family. 🤗
Thank you, Ronald. Much appreciated!
I am never clean outside my pots, i love it to protect with this patina. But I didn't even know that reason for boiling fast.Thanks for sharing this great info and video. Thumb up
Thank you so much, my friend!
You are so correct on the darkened pots and don't forget Anny or most pots for backpacking are a dark gray better heart absorbing thank you for the video James
Thank you for watching!
As a student of physics...this ole camp tale, I vote to disagree.
If you were heating primarily with light (especially IR light) then shiny vs black makes a difference.
However you are heating with conductive heat transfer. Shiny or black has much less to do with anything as the thickness and type of metal.
In fact a shiny new Stanley cup will heat to boil a few seconds faster than one coated in carbon soot and pitch due to the insulation factor of the coating.
For that same reason the sooted pot will hold in the hot maybe 10 seconds longer after it does boil.
Not cleaning the outside and keeping it in a tar rag is more a thought to...,
why bother as it soots up every time you use it, and you waste water and time cleaning the outside.
However if you use gas stoves, the cleaner the pot bottom inside and out, the faster direct flame will heat it.
Wood is a terrible conductor of heat. That's why the color is important in the infrared spectrum.
@@WayPointSurvival wood doesn't matter, as you're putting the pot on the fire in direct contact with the combustion.
test it yourself. Exactly the same two tin cans and cool water with no lid. One heavily, heavily sooted, one fresh. Put them side by side in an already hot fire.
You'll find that one will boil no more than a few seconds after the other. Most likely the dirty, dark one will follow. Repeat the test three or four times, switching positions in case the fire is unbalanced (all are) but scour the clean one each time.
Test it again with a gas jet burner. Same burner, same setting, two trials and a stopwatch.
Test it again with a weak new cook fire...say a dry pine cone under each.
Your video is old camp hand legend...but it doesn't typically hold up in exactly equivalent testing.
All in all with campfire cooking it doesn't matter enough to merit anything. 5 seconds at most either way. More likely a misplaced coal, elevation, air flow or punky wood has more effect on your fast cup.
Silky saw tip was cool too.
Thanks!
Pure boggin'.... ;) On a similar note I haven't cleaned my frying pan in 14 years.
Excellent point about leaving the outside black. Regarding the keeping the inside clean, you're right about that too. I got dysentery eating off a fork I hadn't cleaned well enough.
Thanks for watching!
Excellent video. Thanks!😎
Hello my friend, it sounds good but I clean off my cookware so that it does not get on my other gear. But it doesn’t come completely clean. Take Care and Keep Exploring The Outdoors.
Thank you! I will wash off the loose soot but the more I use the pot, the blacker it gets. So, I just leave it that way.
I've never noticed shiny, new pots or cups taking longer to boil water. But now I'm curious. I'd like you or someone to do a side-by-side comparison. My prediction is no noticeable difference between the shiny new pot and the blackened one. So, nice job. Thank you for an interesting video.
Thanks for watching!
Always very interesting and informative
Thank you!
Great video brother James. Makes perfect sense that the black would heat up faster. To illustrate the point, this August lay your hand on the hood of a black car. No don't cause you'll get burned. Black draws heat. I never wear a black shirt in the summer for that reason. Like you said brother it's a matter of preference. Thanks for sharing that info. God Bless.
Thank you, Chief! God bless you too!
What or how do you store your cooking ware to keep all other gear clean.
Usually in a cloth or nylon bag of the appropriate size. You can buy a three pack at Walmart for around $5.
Totally agree. My wife always freaked out because I've done the same thing 😅. She has this shiny metal obsession. Been doing it for a long time .and it only took about 20 years for her to finally give up trying to scrub my outdoor cookware
It's interesting. Some folks really don't get it very well. I had one commenter that went on at length of how this could not possibly work.
I personally prefer the more weathered patina, anyway.
Makes you look like you know what you're doing.
As the saying goes, "a knight in shining armor has never truly had his mettle tested."
As a plus, the heat transfer science seems to back up this idea, and it's less cleaning... So I don't really see a downside to this.
Thank you!
Good to know !
Thanks for watching!
I sharpened up the back of my katanaboy for the same scraping, your the first I Have seen elsewhere do this. I found it better to sharpen at a 95 degree angle or there abouts, putting a slight cant on it then rolled the edge slightly like you would do a carpenters scraper. Cuts pretty amazing even though it's technically softer than the edge, it's still hard enough to scapre really good shavings.
I keep my ti cup pretty dark already for the same reasons but the soot getting everywhere is still a pain in the ass, and though you can starch it with potato juice I never ever remember to take a few slices of potato for it or go digging for bulrush roots either...meh.
Right? You can also rub bar soap around the bottom and the outside of your cup or cookware and this will keep the soup from sticking as well. also, it makes it a lot easier to wash off all you need then is water.
@@WayPointSurvival Never heard of the soap one, I'll try that.
The cup is beautiful and well loved/used as it should be! 🤗🤗 PS Look how well cast iron cooks and it's black! Yes a old person talking. keep up the good work!
Thanks so much!
I've done a couple tests because I've heard the same thing and I've also seen several videos of other people testing that theory and my conclusions and theirs were all pretty much that the difference is negligible and that the sooty pot sometimes was somewhat slower to boil. With that info it really comes down to a preference of what the user finds more ascetically pleasing to them.
Thank you for watching. I think I'll go with Mors kochanski on this one though.
@@WayPointSurvival lol alright, you do you bro. I was just making a simple statement based on my own tests as well as tests I've seen by others. Mors got his info from "an old manual, used by plumbers." Which isn't really "Data" to back up the theory. Most people most of the time these days have their cookware on direct heat. At the very least, state that you are referring to radiant and not conductive heat and how a dark pot may absorb heat from a distance quicker than a shiny one and there isn't really a difference on a direct heat source. Especially when your video is showing the pots on a direct heat source. I honestly get where you are coming from but it is not clear in your video. I'm just saying it would be good to differentiate between the two as well as probably state "so in my opinion," that way the people watching will fully understand what is being discussed. Perhaps it would help to do a follow up video showing identical pots, one new and one seasoned, on direct heat as well as indirect heat and so forth with thermometers and timers so everyone can actually see what works best in each situation. Then they can decide what they like the best for their personal style of camping/bushcrafting. Because for me I like a cleaner looking pot and use direct heat when I cook as I'm sure others do as well.
Love to hear that 😂
Great Video 👍
U may triggered out a Revolution under the dishwasher worldwide 😂
In Gourmet Restaurants the cooks often Just put salt in the dirty pans and wipe it out with a piece of paper from a kitchen roll...works great but waste Salt..(had to learn that too....Long Time ago)
Thanks for the tip! Good to know.
If sand is available it's great for scrubbing but have to rinse thoroughly
Thank you James for your video it was great but I bet it was cold out there god bless you and your family
Thank you for watching and God bless you too!
I've eaten out of the same little dutch oven for 5 years and have never done more than place it upside down in the fire when I'm done and scrap it clean with a stick.
Absolutely. All that's needed with a Dutch oven!
I used my issued canteen cup for many things from shaving and washing up in the field to cooking with the Boy Scouts. It got blackened and never was able to get it clean enough to turn in. I still have it and occasionally use it still use it depending on what I am doing. The inside was always clean.
Yes, for sure clean the inside! Thank you for watching and commenting!
Thank you for the great lesson brother in survival
Thank you for watching!
🤓Great...great...GREAT... 🤔This is probably the best TIP/DIY outdoors channel... 😉You even include Mors Kochansky's quotes giving that way the credits instead of taking them for your own...👍💁🏻♂️👏
Thanks so much!
Good job ,very good information , 👍🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸👍
Thank you so much!
Matthew 23:25 “ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. ; )-
Right!
Hahaha, when i started my hobby, my mother cleaned my blackened stuff till it blinked again...🤣
Right?
Dark pots are fine, don’t want to look like a Pilgrim. Beautiful, take care.
Thank you, my friend!
Great view. Yep. Well used equals black. Gramma only wiped out her iron skillet...never washed it. Occasionally used salt or clean sand on inside. That's it.
Yep, it works!
Thoroughly agree.
Clean off spilt food and drink.
Wipe off soot, so you and your gear stay clean.
Right on!
I paint everything black. EVERYTHING.
I'll give you another example of this principle:
A black cat will live twice as long as other colors of cat.
Polar bears - dying off.
Black bears - most numerous bear
Space is black. Way more of it.
I bet you could boil space twice as fast as you could boil not-space.
Lol. Thanks for the chuckle and for watching the video.
👍👍👍
I watched this some time ago and perhaps added my two cents worth .. I forget. It popped up again on my feed and was well worth a re-watch.
Black pots. I only remove the 'loose stuff' off the outside of my cookware so as to not dirty-up anything else that comes into contact with it.
My understanding of physics has me believing that a black surface absorbs most, radiant heat / heat in the visible light spectrum, making Mors' contention regarding black pots over a fire believable.
Knife technique .. I have been 'trimming / whittling' towards my thumb for 60+ years and still have to cut myself .. yet .. 😏. If one know what one is doing, stays focused, the most important digit on one's hand 'should' be safe. There is always a first time though. One assesses the risk and accepts the consequences.
Indeed. Thanks for watching again!
Naw I clean it.
I rarely put my pots on the fire. And when I do I usually clean it with gravel and water or a green scrubber and dish soap.
I'm in California so having a fire is pretty limited. The soot doesn't transfer so bad.
I also use my pots to reflect heat from sunlight on occasion. Use it to UV food (fruits, veggies, leftovers) and water pretty important. UV is. A good way to sanitize your bottles and winter is typically when I carry a small dropper bottle of bleach because the lack of sun.
Thanks for watching and for sharing your methods!
With you on this James. Hmmm....who should we listen to? Mors Kochanski or a random TH-camr comment. ;-) Love the scenery in this video as well.
Right? Thank you for watching!
Another good trick I saw on a Blackie Thomas video is to forgo the waiting and just spray the outside of your bushpots with black high-heat BBQ spray paint. It does the job for less than 10 bucks and still looks "clean" after countless uses with the even coating.
Yes, you can definitely do that!
The back side of a blade does scrape well as a scraper. especially if honed to perfectly 90°
Thing is though ! A sharp scraper even at 90 degrees is still sharp and you can get cut wide open ! Sharp is sharp !
I will say this about cleaning your cooking gear !
A fella ought to at least scald everything with boiling water !
Matters not if your gear shiney or not.
Scalding water will make you safe from germs !
TU U :)
Right on!
Why don't they make blackened cookware in the first place? I think you're onto something :)
Actually, there is cookware that you can buy that already has a blackened bottom.
Why not pre-anodize the cookware?
Also, take one of those cups and make a mini hobo stove out of it. Your cooking cup can sit just into the hobocup and you get more heat up the sides. Heating faster. A bit less wind cooling. Less fuel needed too.
You can still nest it and it will work better than an open fire.
If you did it right, you might even be able to use an alcohol stove in it if desired.
Outside of the hobocup should remain relatively carbon free so less worry about transferring carbon to your sack.
Cooking cup nests inside where the carbon is anyway and no worries about carbon dirtying anything when nested.
Or just have the wife clean it for you?
You can make a mini alcohol stove out of the aluminum butt end of a AAA flashlight - runs about 3-5 min on a fill. I made one!
Just need needle nose pliers, something to cut the tube with, a little sandpaper, a US quarter, (two preferably) and some high heat epoxy. Carbon felt is a plus.
Thanks for watching for the suggestions.
Up my way Bogging means dirty, unkempt/unclean, maybe a similar thing lol...
I gleaned the ht paint tip from comments here so that may be a move I make but no rush...
Thank you for watching.
Im not sure why kind of metal my Aunty Helen's pot is but its outside has a crusty black coating I wire scrubbed down to a pale yellow outer coat (from dark yellow with blacked "crust") back when I was 10 or 11,and the inside is a silver grey metal with black and dark grey speckels
Its now 42 years later but it only took 6 months for the pot to turn Dark Yellow and regain its black crust
Acording to my Mom Aunty Helen's pot, which she inhereted, is over 100 years old
Interesting. Thank you for watching.
I've noticed that, not only do you have fabulous content and helpful advice, you sorta look like Steve Howey. If you watched Reba on TNN or Shameless on HBO, you'll see it as well. He was pretty clean in Reba, but his language in Shameless was less than saintly. Both programs were most entertaining.
I've watched about ten of your videos, and with all I've seen from other channels and what I've experienced, you do a really good job. I'm a recent (two days ago) sub but have tried to take in as much of your content as I can. You and Jon Townsend need to get together, and throw Dan Wowack into the mix as well. If Dave Canterbury will join in, it would be the trifecta. I know there are a lot of people out there who have outstanding content, but you can't get them all together unless it's a Rabbitstick style gathering. But you never know.
Keep up the good work, sir. Thank you for what you do. I'll keep watching.
Thank you so much for watching and for all your kind words, much appreciated! Also, thank you for the sub and welcome aboard!
If you go into any commercial kitchen that's been around for a while you will see the bottom of all the aluminum pans have been blackened. When I was in the biz we never scrubbed them down to bare metal. We put them through the dishwasher and scrape off anything sticky or chunky like you said. But the bottom were often blackened
Indeed.
Blackened cook wear is like a bushcraft badge. Anyone with shinny stuff is a noob lol
That's true!
Yep, thanks for explaining this in simple common man terms AND with a good quote from a great woods wise guy. Being a mechanical engineer, I can give ya lots of geeky heat transfer formulas if you have trouble sleeping and need some boredom. It would be super cool for you to do a head to head competition of shiny vs sooty!!! 👍
Thank you! I have had several comments disagreeing with the blackened pot idea. The problem seems to be in misunderstanding the difference between the transfer of heat mechanisms ie. Radiation vs. Conduction. This was my answer: You're talking about conduction rather than radiation. So a blackened pot won't absorb any more thermal radiation sitting on a fire than a silvered one, from the bottom. However, hanging over a fire or next to a fire or even on the sides, a blackened pot will absorb more thermal radiation than a silvered pot. So if you're using it over a stove, like an alcohol stove, there won't be any real difference in the thermal transfer. However, the advantage to a blackened pot is that it will melt snow more efficiently in the sunlight. And after you boil water in a blackened pot, the water will also cool down quicker than a silver pot because it emits infrared more efficiently. Also there are significant differences between stainless steel, cast iron and aluminum etc. because of the difference in the conductivity of the metals themselves. In an ideal world, a pot made of actual silver would be the best conductor but it has more to do with the efficiency of the metal itself as a conductor of heat rather than the color of the pot. So, a blackened silver pot would be the best of both worlds IMHO.
It sounds like a load of rambling to me. You could have just given a 2 minute explanation about heat absorption. But thanks for the tip.
Thanks for watching.
Black will absorb heat faster, but also disapate heat in a hotter than surounding temp. That's why radiators are mostly black
True.
I thought you were going to cut yourself bad splitting that fatwood. Wheew! Tense moment.
Thank you for watching.
A cheap or improvised lid will reduce the amount of cook time and prevent stuff from falling or flying into your cook pot. That is why the GI cup with lid and BCB crusader with lid are so popular. That lid will save cook time and keep the nasties out.
Yes, I have many lids. However, when I'm making a video I often leave the lid off as it's easier to film it when it hits a rolling boil.
This happens to everything I cook with because I cook on a fireplace and also outside , it makes sense, black absorbs heat , I scrub with leaves and sand too.
Yep! Thanks for watching!
This theroy needs to be Time Tested, Is the difference in time worth having Soot stains (Creosote) on everything it touches... Creosote does have preserving & waterproof qualities as well as Medical uses.
I believe it has been pretty well tested and substantiated by Mors Kochanski. Of course, we wash the inside of the pot.
I've heard of folks painting their cookware with the high temp paint to blacken the outsides, and that is a good idea. But, I think the cookware looks more used and sorta, to me, looks like you have had more fun cooking over an open fire and spent less time in the shoppe painting stuff...I've also heard, and I don't know how reliable it is but wearing a black WayPoint Survival tee-shirt will also make the water boil faster and use less fuel. Since I got mine yesterday I'll do a test this weekend......LOL
Sounds great! And, you're right wearing the Waypoint Survival shirt does make things work better!
I would have thought that all the soot forms an insulated layer and would have to be washed off for more efficiency. That's why economizers have soot blowers on ships (although they're not scrubbed to a polish, just has the soot blasted off, some abrasion with walnut shells occasionally), but maybe you're school of thought is really the better one. I'm going to have to try this out and do some of my own testing!
I've never heard of this before, and if it does work, it will definitely be useful. Thanks for the video!
You're welcome. Thank you for watching and commenting!
It would depend on the thickness of the layer.
Depending on the ship and mechanism, they can produce quite a bit of carbon fouling that can gunk up critical surfaces if not cleaned regularly. Not only impeding heat transfer, but causing blockages and binding up moving parts.
Conversely, consider the thickness of the carbon patina on a cast iron skillet, for example. Not a problem, in most cooks' opinions, despite being thick enough to form a cohesive film over the iron.
And you're not building up a huge layer of grunge on your pot, just allowing a little soot and oxide to blacken it so it's not reflecting heat like, say, a mylar blanket would.
the parthanon was built with not one single straight line in it... perfection is acheived by intentional imperfection... if it is shiny, it was never used... or never used by anyone who knew what they were doing...
Indeed.
I've been using the same plate, glass and fork for the past two months without cleaning them and I'm not even camping.
Lol. Thanks for watching.
If you use cast iron, you probably don't scrub the inside either - you scrape it out, but the oils and carbon build up to an amazingly non-stick surface.
I suspect the "burn out, not scrub out" works with other metals too. They arent as porous and probably wont make as nice a surface, but I suspect its safe.
Indeed. Thanks for watching!
HAD AN UNCLE SAM HOUSTON OKIE HIGH IQ VALEDICTORIAN OK A&M 1920'S! GOT A DEAR JOHN AND BECAME A HOBO! HE'D LOVE YOUR SHOW! ME TOO!
Very cool! Thanks for watching!
For me its all about using as little resources as possible. I can't start a fire with a single spark right now. Tie a tripod above your fire with skinny trees. It takes seconds, and drop your canteen above the fire. Heat rises and you gain efficiency if you use efficiency.You might find you need less fuel, and time to gather tinder and main fuel. Try it.
Thanks for watching and for the suggestion!
Thanks for another great video. You should take up photography as beautiful as your property can be.
Thank you so much, it is a very pretty place.
Drop a roll of jute into a can of hot wax. Let it sit for a couple of minutes. Pull it, let it drain and cool. As needed, strip a six inches of this jute into the fuzzies to catch your spark. I hold this in hand with the Ferro rod. Careful, it will light immediately. Drop it quickly into your kindling.
Great idea. Thank you for watching.
Enjoyed the video. I'll wipe off the loose residue but i hardly wash them, i like the blackened look, adds character. The black is soot and soot is a dirty carbon, carbon has the highest thermal conductivity, much more than stainless steel, so it stands to reason that to whatever degree soot (carbon) would aid in the transfer of heat through the metal and into the food allowing a person to use less wood in the process.
Good point! It's always good to apply science!
I have an old scout trick you can use... before you use cookware, take ivory dish soap andrub over the outside, the outside only, of cup or pan. Allow to dry. Then use as usual. Later when cooking is done, the cleanup is easy. No black to get on everything later.
Thank you for watching and for sharing the tip!
I like my pots shiny, but it's a lot of work. after watching this I think I will give it a try. however, I won't be doing this to my AUSSIE mess kit. that one will stay shiny and off the fire.
It does work pretty well. Thank you for watching!
damn i learned something new every time i watch you ,,, thanks man ,, i really enjoy your content and insights
Glad you liked it!
Cleaning the outside of a campfire pot is something I have never done. It's going to get black again and you are going to get black. Clean it when your bored with nothing to do.
Thanks for watching!
Lol I just finished a cup of the exact same cider when I clicked on the video. Lol
What are the odds, lol!
Hiram Cook tested this in one of his many video on alcohol stoves. He was wondering if the black increased the time to boil due to insulating the pot or if it sped it up due to black absorbing more heat. The blackened pots did boil faster but it did require more than half of the usual fuel to get there. Great video!
Thanks so much!
My grandma cooked on a wood stove, inside of cookware spotless outside not so much she was born in 1880's. I learned from her and grandad. And my dad also.
Thanks for watching.
Hell that word bogging isn't he describing joke Biden
Thank you for watching.
Being a woman I’m used to keeping all my good stainless steel cooking pots shiny clean. As well as my stove. I hate to cook with dirty looking messy kitchen. Everything has its place and cleanliness
Thanks for watching.