Swedish Torch Modification

Swedish Torch Modification:

After reading some comments to the original Swedish Torch Blog Post (Found Here) on Facebook I tried out a modification to the design using wrist to fist size sticks wrapped in a bundle as pictured below. As normal I will walk you through the process and give you my final thoughts on the subject at the conclusion. 

1) Gather the main section of your torch and tie them together (use bank line it will help with the durability). I utilized a hole with the earth packed back in around the torch to help keep it in place.

2) Place your tinder bundle on top of the torch to allow the coals to fall down in between the logs.

 3) Light your tinder bundle and allow it to burn adding small twigs until you have a coal base to create a sustained fire within your torch.

4) Get to cooking!

Thoughts on this method:
1) While it is easy to build with just a Bacho Laplander I still don't believe this is more than novelty item
2) I personally believe the calories expended to build this would be much better when allocated to a traditional fire and a tripod  or some other traditional cooking method which could be used for many future fires.
3) Adjusting the length of the logs is quite difficult which makes it very difficult to cook with
4) This style of fire does last longer than a traditional fire but take a lot of work to keep it going and upright

Take two on a traditional Swedish Torch:

I had a section of pine left that I let dry out for a week to see how it effected the performance of the actual torch and here is what I came up with:

I must admit that this time the torch took off much easier and worked quite well for getting a fire going however, that said the length of cooking time available due to burn time was very limited (i.e. I was only able to get one boil with the pathfinder bottle before it started to tilt in a significant manner. I did leave with a much better feeling for this method given the performance of this torch but still believe it to me something for a camper who takes a chainsaw and not for a minimalist camper or someone in a survival situation.

I look forward to your comments and if you have any other variations you would like me to try just let me know in the comments!