Wool Covered Canteens

[Mike Suri]

For those of us who carry a canteen on a trek, scout or hunt, I was just wondering if other members cover there canteen with a removable cover, such as wool, so the canteen could be used to warm or boil water for use to make tea and or keeping your feet warm at night!
I have a copper canteen with a wool cover which have the four tabs on the sides for attaching the strap.
I'm having trouble figuring out just how I might put on a removable cover without having to remove the hemp rope strap everytime. Any thoughts??

 

[awcanis]

My wool cover is as much a carrier as cover. It is open topped, with straps, you slide the canteen in or out as you wish. There is an easy way to have a top that opens, but without pictures my description might be confusing more than helpful.

 

[JohnN]

Might work with a copper canteen but not sure if you should boil water in a tin one lined with pitch.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Nope. Wouldn't work to boil water.

 

[Luke MacGillie]

I have a slightly different take on my gear, and because of that, I don't use a wool cover.

I use a canteen made of hot dipped tin, unlined and without a cover, as that is what my research has led me to believe is the most common documented way to go. I have not seen convincing proof of tin lined copper canteens being correct for the 2d half of the 18th Century.

With that being said, I know that in the late 20th century getting actual hot dipped tin, as opposed to electroplated tin was quite hard to find, and certain craftsmen choose to go with copper.

It is a well documented fact that wool covers on canteens work quite well, by the middle to late 19th Century that became the standard military issue cover for a canteen, but during the 18th Century there is just one reference, and that is just for one unit, in one year, in one particular campaign, and I don't do that impression, campaign or anything close to that theater of operations.

the same could be said for haversacks being waterproofed, but Im not going to joust that windmill here.

So no, even though I know it would make my quality of life in the woods better, I don't use a wool cover, just like I don't use down sleeping bags or goretex bivy covers.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I have a copper canteen... probably wrong and tin lined, so I could use it to boil water for disinfection in an emergency. Otherwise I mostly carry a pitch lined tin canteen..., no boiling.

For making tea I use my trade kettle. Keeping my feet warm I use a hot rock.

Have you ever made hot water in a metal canteen, put the stopper in, and then placed it at your feet under the blankets? Once on a trek a companion of mine did so..., but when the water cooled it caused suction, and the stopper sealed the canteen well. So the next morning he couldn't get the canteen open..., had to wait until he was home and then had to drill a small hole from top to bottom of the stopper to release the vacuum to get the stopper out. :shocked2:

LD

 

[Mike Suri]

Good advice and good to know !

 

[Rifleman1776]

Might scorch the outside but water can be boiled in containers made of materials that will burn.
I happen to be reading a story now, ca. 1850, set in the NW coastal region which depicts the indians boiling water and fat in wood boxes.

 

[tenngun]

Tiss true. I've cooked in green skin and rawhide.

 

[Carl Fowler III]

I believe those indians used hot rocks to cook with and boil water...Ishi's people would cook in weaved baskets with these stones, the stones were handed down from generation to generation as they were more preious than gold! :v

 

[DUSTY 14]

yes on the heated rocks but i am amazed at the ability to weave watertight baskets. they wove hats and raincapes as well

 

[Poor Private]

A trick I learned about canteens covered with wool. When fill the canteen wet the wool exterior. The evaporation of the water helps keep the interior drinking water cooler longer.

 

[AZbpBurner]

... Once on a trek a companion of mine did so..., but when the water cooled it caused suction, and the stopper sealed the canteen well. So the next morning he couldn't get the canteen open..., had to wait until he was home and then had to drill a small hole from top to bottom of the stopper to release the vacuum to get the stopper out. :shocked2:

LD

Would have been smarter and simpler to just warm it up again to relieve the vacuum

 

[tom deinek]

"Would have been smarter and simpler to just warm it up again to relieve the vacuum"

Excuse me, I mean no disrespect but it amazes me the number of folk here & elsewhere at rendezvous who never took elementary physics in high school.
:>

 

[Sean Gadhar]

"Would have been smarter and simpler to just warm it up again to relieve the vacuum"

Excuse me, I mean no disrespect but it amazes me the number of folk here & elsewhere at rendezvous who never took elementary physics in high school.
:>

Guess I'm one :idunno: I would have thought there would be SOME air inside, and as air expands with heating, and expansion in an enclosed sealed (vacuum) space should result in + pressure. Would not the pressure, as it neared external atmospheric pressure, ease the vacuum?

 

[BobKrohn]

RE: boiling in combustible containers.

The water absorbs the heat energy. Cools the container.
I have boiled water over a fire using a paper cup.
The areas not in contact with water WILL burn however.

Doubt that metal canteen solder would melt.
Don't want to experiment though.

 

[Poor Private]

If the solder joints of a canteen would melt due to the heat and fire. We should have a ton of tin cups in fire pits around the country from people heating up their coffee/water in them. I heat my tin cup at all the events I have ever attended and still am using it today. Just not sure I would heat up a canteen thats lined with beeswax though.

 

[tenngun]

Will bees wax melt at the same temp as boiling water? Or brewes pitch? My tin pot is soldered I cant fry in it but can brown in my frying pan and add to pot of boling water. A waxed or pitched canteen should boil ok but above the water line the wax or pitch might melt.

 

[Black Hand]

Will bees wax melt at the same temp as boiling water? Or brewes pitch?

Yes.
Beeswax 62-64C.
Pitch 100-120C (Varies - approximation, since it is a natural product).

Water boils at 100C at sea level.

 

[tenngun]

62-64, about 170 or so f. That would make a mess of your seal,and give you a big glob on the top of your water.I have b-w in my canteen so i keep it off the fire