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Trekking Skillet?
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Factor
posted
Hey folks I was wondering how many have, or have thought about, packing a small skillet (say 7" in diameter) for cooking when trekking or in camp? I saw a basic, carbon steel skillet the other day, without a folding handle, about 7" in diameter, and I thought it rather nifty. I could modify the handle by cutting it off... leaving about 1", then drilling a hole in the 1" portion and also in the longer portion, and reattaching it with a bolt and wingnut if I wanted a "folding" skillet.

Any thoughts?

LD


It's not what you know, it's what you can prove
 
Posts: 3843 | Location: People's Republic of Maryland | Registered: 10 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Dave,

I have a small one that I take with me and it find it very useful. It has a folding handle and is easy to carry.

BC


"Better fare hard with good men than feast it with bad."
Thomas Paine
 
Posts: 649 | Location: Oregon | Registered: 27 June 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of Idaho Mountainneer
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When I'm packing stuff on my back I don't take a skillet but if I'm not packing anywhere or I have some other way to haul plunder, say a canoe, I have a 7 inch that I use.
When packing on my back I don't even bring my copper boiler, I just use my tin cup. Not as good as the boiler but it works and my shoulders thank me at the end of the day.
 
Posts: 330 | Location: Twin Falls ID | Registered: 29 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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I'm another who leaves the skillet at home. When I'm on the trail my entire cooking kit consists only of a one quart size pot with a bale, and a cup and spoon that is nested inside the pot with a pot holder to keep them from rattling around.
I roast meat or fish by skewering them on a stick and propping it over the hot coals of my fire.


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
 
Posts: 1296 | Location: Cherokee Land, Tenasi | Registered: 06 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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I don't trek but in ronny camp I use a small tin skillet for cooking and I eat from it also. Very lightweight and can be carried in my haversack when I go mooching food from other camps. The handle could be cut off about half way then opened up to accept a stick for a longer handle. These can be found in antique shops everywhere at very reasonable prices.
 
Posts: 1487 | Location: Mountain Home, Arkansas | Registered: 08 October 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
Picture of Swanny
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I frequently carry a pressed steel skillet, with the handle intact. Once you figure out how to pack it is isn't too much hassle.

Documentation for folding handles is pretty sketchy at best, but socket type handles seem to have been fairly common back in the day. It's no big deal to carve the end of a stick to fit the socket.


“A good dog is so much a nobler beast than an indifferent man that one sometimes gladly exchanges the society of one for that of the other.” (William Francis Butler)
 
Posts: 28 | Location: Two Rivers, Alaska | Registered: 23 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of NWTF Longhunter
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Here's my treking kit

 
Posts: 797 | Location: Michigan | Registered: 29 April 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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I too have one (with a full length handle that I had planned to make into a folder but never did). I thought I'd use it all the time and I did carry it on a few treks but then started leaving it at home. I found that I really only used it on the trail for parching corn. I've since started parching all my corn at home and carrying it all ready to eat, it's handier and I don't need the skillet. I've gone back to just carrying a 1 Qt. cook-pot while trekking. With that and some wood craft, you can cook almost anything without much trouble.

Rifleman1776 is right, the skillet IS really nice to eat out of but i carved a wooden noggin to eat/drink out of. The noggin holds much more, is definitely PC, and probably weighs less than the skillet (i also hang it on the outside of my pack, it doesn't "clank" like metal and it doesn't take up any pack space that way) .

LD, I'm guessin' that you're not really going for PC on this one (what with the wing-nut and all). For what it's worth, here's a photo of a skillet-handle idea I saw at the Adirondack Museum. This particular one is really large but the same idea would be just as good on a pack-sized one. The handle doesn't fold but it's much shorter than full-length and might be easier to make/adapt than a sturdy socket or folder. The two rings could be hand-forged for a more PC look (although there's probably no documentation for this thing way-back-then). Personally, I'd mount the rings on the under-side of the handle for better support...

Anyway, just a thought...

This message has been edited. Last edited by: LittleTurtle,

 
Posts: 15 | Registered: 25 March 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Actually the hinged bit does go back into the flintlock era, as I found out a reference:

"Here also, that indispensable-the frying pan, which by the way, should be made with a good strong hinge has its place, to wit on the top of the contents."[of a pack basket]
George Simpson 1828

So note that he mentions a "good strong hinge" so he has seen versions with weak hinges. He doesn't mention if it's a socket type, or if the handle folds at a joint.

As for a wing nut, that too isn't a modern invention though I'd have to get one that isn't covered with zinc or made of stainless steel. Diderot's Encyclopedia shows one used with a vice on a bench, and also used for tightening a hand vice [figure 3], when you scroll down to the cutlery shop tools.

LD


It's not what you know, it's what you can prove
 
Posts: 3843 | Location: People's Republic of Maryland | Registered: 10 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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if you run up on a fireplace skillet grab it up... they have built in legs on the bottom some models even have folding legs... some have longer legs than others too... those are great for cooking on the trail or at the camp... they were used for cooking in a fireplace above hot coals... I still cook in my fireplace in the winter even though we have a modern gas stove... heres a ebay link to something similar for reference...

This message has been edited. Last edited by: bugman9,

 
Posts: 12 | Registered: 16 April 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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Skillets with legs were often refered to as spiders.
 
Posts: 30 | Location: Floyd Co. Indiana | Registered: 29 July 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Lodge sells a square, iron skillet for around $10 - $12, but the thing is like 1.5 lbs. weight, and very shallow, with a very short handle. The nice things about the steel skillets is the light weight, and the handle is long enough to keep your hands away from the fire.

LD


It's not what you know, it's what you can prove
 
Posts: 3843 | Location: People's Republic of Maryland | Registered: 10 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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I used to leave the skillet home when I backpacked a lot. Most things you fry need some kind of grease. And that makes cleanup (and bear safety) a bit more difficult. Plus, you have to carry the grease.

Sparks


"I thought when you said you chased tornadoes, it was just a metaphor."
--soon to be ex-fiance in Twister
 
Posts: 247 | Location: Boise | Registered: 12 November 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Hivernant
Picture of Pare-
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I don't take a skillet when going to the woods and don't eat much fried food, even at home. I usually cook meat on a stick when I'm out.

As far as folding handled skillets, they don't appear to be common and not seen on any of the inventory lists I've looked at from the western fur trade. But then again, I haven't read everything neither. I've always liked the idea though.

Pare-
 
Posts: 104 | Location: Little River, I.T. | Registered: 06 February 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Yeah I think a skillet on a "scout" is a reenactor-ism, and I know that fried food was considered a "no no" for the British military, who wanted everything boiled (they probably had figured out there were less health problems from the sketchy rations when everything was boilded), so I think folks are more historic with a simple trade kettle.

However, some folks like a bit more when in a fixed camp, even when minimalist, and I have some folks who are avid canoeists, and weight is a big deal, but not as much. Some folks like their bacon and eggs, and they would like a small, lightweight skillet of traditional materials. I know a fellow who is delving into baking biscuits and/or bannock, using just a light skillet. A step above winding bread on a stick, but below using a reflector or Dutch oven. Hence the thread.

LD


It's not what you know, it's what you can prove
 
Posts: 3843 | Location: People's Republic of Maryland | Registered: 10 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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I agree that taking a skillet on a scout doesn't make sense. Light and fast would be the way to go.

I carry mine when I have more of a fixed location or if I am traveling by canoe.

BC


"Better fare hard with good men than feast it with bad."
Thomas Paine
 
Posts: 649 | Location: Oregon | Registered: 27 June 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of Deercop
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I occassionally carry a comal copied from one at the Kit Carson Museum. I made it from scrap metal. It's flat,relatively light, and packs well in a canvas bag to keep everything else from being covered in soot. Traditionally used for making torillas, but I use it like a griddle.

 
Posts: 649 | Location: Clovis, New Mexico | Registered: 21 March 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Free Trapper
Picture of Montour
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You should get the idea of a "Trekking" skillet out of your mind. If, like 98% of Trekkers you are wanting to be a longhunter, get a horse to ride and another one to carry your gear and all the red deer you have shot and trek that way.

I really, really dislike the whole kinda olde timey ultralight backpacking thing that brings a whole bunch of products not based on anything from the 1760's and 1770's to market.



Dug out of Squire Boone's blacksmith shop inside of Fort Boonesborough

William Caulk's cooking accouterments



 
Posts: 150 | Location: Right where Im standing | Registered: 07 September 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Hivernant
Picture of Pare-
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I agree, Montour. Do you happen to recall the dimensions of the skillet, or the one with the bail?

Here is a picture of a pan from the early 19th c. Just hope it shows up...

Pare-

 
Posts: 104 | Location: Little River, I.T. | Registered: 06 February 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Free Trapper
Picture of Montour
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Pare,

Here is the entry from the KHS website


http://kyhistory.pastperfect-o...19683718663;type=101
 
Posts: 150 | Location: Right where Im standing | Registered: 07 September 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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