Gear: Swedish Army "Trangia" Mess Kit

  

Sturdy, heavy and well-designed piece of equipment, with good reputation and a large number of fans in bushcraft/survival society, it is commonly named "Trangia" set, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't the only producer manufacturing it over the years. I've had sets with two different stamps myself (see below).

 

It comes in two basic variations: stainless steel (heavy) and aluminum (lighter, but still weighting around 1kg / 2 lbs empty). However, this is a full mess set rather than just a mess tin - beside the two-piece mess tin itself it contains a surprisingly heavy alcohol stove, fuel bottle and a sturdy windshield / stand.

It is a solid design, with few interesting solutions.

Pot handle has two folding loops to feed the stick through to get some reach. They are bigger than in Polish and German counterparts and provide two points of support so the final effect is more substantial.

The loop doesn't lock in vertical position, but it unlike Middle-European mess tins, it has an additional hook to hang over fire. The loop itself has two small curves for specific hook positions. One is located on the very top of the loop and its function is pretty straightforward - it holds a hook in the middle when hanging over the fire.

 

The second curve is located slightly to the side and it role is often puzzling. When hook is located in that curve (and only then), it's end can be feed through a slot on the side of the pot (the one where webbing goes in packed set). The hook locks there, and along with the loop creates an improvised, vertical handle, which doesn't heat up that much when pot is placed on the stove and allows it's safe handling.

 

 

Included brass alcohol stove is excellent quality and almost bombproof, however it is also quite heavy despite it's minute size.

  
Windshield is quite high and functional. Thanks to the circular opening in it's bottom you can put it over an already burning stove. Folding support legs inside allows you to use the windshield with either main pot or the lid pan.





Overall it is a great set, with well deserved reputation in bushcraft society. It's biggest disadvantage is it's weight - you could easily kill someone with it (perhaps it was a point - after all, it is military set). As a result, despite all of it's benefits I personally favour lighter sets, leaving this one at home most of the time.

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SPECIFICATIONS:
Weight (aluminum version):
- mess tin only: 528g
- total: 979g (incl. 223g windshield, 182g stove and 46g bottle).
Capacity: 1.4l main pot, 0.6l lid
Weight to capacity ratio: 377.1

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