US Marine here (1977-1983). I’ve been using the GI Canteen Cup for over 45 years. I cook in it, eat from it drink from it, make charcloth in it, dig with it, transfer hot coals with it, captured mice in it, and even baked biscuits in it. It’s a very versatile piece of kit. I have both handle styles but prefer the batwing handles. They have lids too. One piece of gear I never go without. 👍🏼👍🏼🇺🇸
The WWII one with the stamped steel handle is great. I don’t like the wire handle one - they rattle like crazy and heat up very quickly. Nests with water bottle. I normally carry three of them - three bottles and the three cups are useful as you can have one for food, one for boiling water, one for other stuff - normally drinking out of to not burn my lips on the one I was boiling the water in. I need lots of water so might as well carry the very useful cups that are nested in them. Very versatile.
I was in the Canadian army, and in the Belgian army. In both, we had the best of all worlds by having the kidney canteen, with our gourd, and the canteen as yours. Today, 30 years later, despite having a LOT of civi and others army canteen, I still return to my old canteen that I brought back from the army, for nostalgia and functionality.
3 nails will work better than four, in the same way a 3-legged stool will be more stable on uneven surfaces than a 4-legged stool. Great video as always. Watching from Toronto, Canada.
U.S. Army Infantry veteran here. That canteen cup was with me always. We shaved, brushed our teeth, and if we were lucky we had a hot cup of Joe in it every morning in the field. The coffee was definitely optional, though. The idea is that we don’t keep our mess kits on our fighting gear. We keep it in our ruck if we have it at all. If we’re on a shorter patrol we leave it all back at the COP or ORP and take only our assault packs. Our assault packs will carry enough MRE’s (stripped) for the mission or patrol but nothing for cooking. Camp fires give away your position and even the smell of used mess kits can give away your position in the field. We don’t even take our MRE heaters. We eat the MRE cold. On our fighting kit we might have an emergency MRE and a Cliff bar. We do always have our canteen cups on us, but it’s for personal hygiene. Not for cooking.
I have no military / combat experience, but I hunt in wilderness locations in the PNW for 2-4 days at a time and so I have a bit of knowledge on remote cooking and camping. The game has evolved, and titanium is now king. There are US style GI canteens + cooking pots which are a system. (My go to for hiking / hunting). There is also a massive range of Ti pots and pans and I now never use anything else due to strength / weight and ruggedness. For fuel, I use a pumped fuel system, very light and you can use anything to fuel it. (Fun fact :it will even burn Canadian Club at a pinch if you run out of regular fuel.) The back up is the hexamine kit, but I also use a Solo stove if I have room in the pack as the last resort. Great video, and thanks.
I am a. US army veteran. I have drank many got cups of coffee out of the canteen cup. Also bathed in it. Yeah it can be a pain, but "comfort is sinful" this sayeth the army.
German mess kit is in service. My opinion is mix of pros and cons. It`s very easy to carry due its shape. It can hang over the fire. It`s not confy in eating due its shape, but in hungry it is least in mind. Silicon soft spatula help get all food out for easy washing. Extra pliers handle help too.
Excellent presentation dear EM.! Another advantage of the hexamine stove is that if you run out of hexamine you can easily use small pieces of wood/sticks or even a candle to warm/prepare your meal.
I prefer the German style mess kit, and stove. I hate short sporks! Your fingers get into the food.. messy and likely filth transfer. I prefer Ice Tea Spoons, they reach to the bottom of a 1 gallon can if needs be.
For 6 years in the Australian Army I used 2 cups canteen and definitely drunk out of it hot. Cutting a 3rd one around the base and handle off drill some holes in the third one you can invert it to cook instead of a heximine stove
Good stuff. 1) You sure as shit can eat and drink out of a USGI cup. I have turned two of them black from instant coffee. I carried two of 'em 1 for eating and 1 for cleaning. That being said, there are better options. 2) as of now I use a German mess kit in my pack, and a Pathfinder steel cup w/lid & metal water bottle in my kit.
Very well explained and demonstrated. Much appreciated. Edit: after watching this vid, I took a look at your other ones. To make a long story short, I subbed. 👍
Snow Peak makes "hot lips" a pair of silicone lip protectors the slide over the edge metal cups or pots. Those might help someone drinking from a hot canteen cup or small pot.
Ive mixed old and new. I have a lc2 alice rig and my buttpack contains raingear/extra socks and my messkit/firestarting kit as well as 2 stripped dehydrated meals to save on volume and a 4" folding stainless steel stove that literally fits inside my messkit and is the best 20$ ive ever spent (the brand is LIXADA for those who wanna know). I have a secondary canteen cup with my canteen that i use with the "stove" when i just want something hot to drink and have some instant coffee/tea/Hot Choc in a bag with it
Great video. Just be aware the fuel canisters in below freezing conditions have a hard time burning. Little tip is to warm them inside your clothing in winter conditions .
I have the Dutch set plus the Pathfinder stainless canteen and cup set. The Canteen doubles has a kettle. And for quick and dirty I use my jet boil zip.
As of 1st of October 2023 the possession of Hexamine in ANY concentration is an offence in the UK. I'd better get rid of my stash 😉 I melt candles for Buddy Burners. Pack a cardboard tube with paper etc pour in the melted wax. When solid you can burn the whole thing or cut of what you need. But I mainly use my Jetboil but eat out of my mess tins.
Mess tins, the Dutch roll top stainless ones are a lot better than our old aluminium ones 👌🏻, the old Hexamin blocks are no longer available here in the UK, they have been ridiculously classed as a bomb making ingredient and are now illegal here.
I have a bcb mess tins/fire dragon stove set but I also have a crusader mk1 kit and a 750ml bushpot/1 ltr steel bottle set which are my favourites and use regularly 👍
I have that Snowpeak kettle and the loose lid used to annoy me, but I fixed it up a bit by giving it a tap with a punch along the rim and now it sits in much better and stays on when tipped.
As a Yank who's never been in the military, I personally prefer the British cook set. You can do all what you said, plus they're deep enough to boil yet shallow enough to fry in, and you can do one of each, or both if needed. I agree with the canteen cup bit, it's ok and serviceable but not the be-all-end-all. Have you looked at the Pathfinder cook pots? International shipping might be a thing though.
Hexamine is now illegal in the uk to own, so we (backpackers and campers) have to use the fire dragon tablets now or liquid alcohol stoves like the trangia stoves
While I concede the point that the British mess tin offers more utility than a canteen cup, I think you've really sold the canteen cup short. I've had hot coffee out of a canteen cup many, many times and haven't encountered any issues with burning my lips on the metal. It's fairly thin sheet metal. Only the parts of the metal that your hot drink is touching will be hot. The upper rim, where your lips would touch, doesn't really retain much heat. Also, you make the point that there's no way to cover up the top of the canteen cup, but like many people, I have a lid for mine. The lid has the same footprint as the canteen, so it fits conveniently in my canteen pouch with the canteen and cup. As far as cooking goes, the mess tin definitely gives you a lot more options than the canteen cup, but I have no issues making ramen, rice, oatmeal, etc. in my canteen cup, and the canteen cup has the major advantage that it takes up no extra space, since your canteen nests inside of it and you'll need to carry water anyways, while the mess tin seems comparatively bulky and cumbersome to carry.
You have your British mess kit. What about the USGI mess kit for those of us who are "old school?" Also, I have used my canteen cup for cooking as well.
Do you breakdown your belt kit in any video? Haven’t seen it if you do. Would be interesting to see what you carry in your traditionally British belt kit. Everybody in America knows what Americans put on belt but Brits have a different approach that is interesting.
@@vikingmitch4049 Well dutch steel mess tins with aluminium lids would be a more acurate description. Also a better combination in my humbol opinion....
Good stuff Mike. Surprised you didn't go with the trangia. Sweds have been using them for decades. They take any liquid that burns, you can use the "meths" to help start a fire, also nice a quiet and cheap to run. Nate
The British army mess tin set is available in stainless steel, and since studies have shown aluminum contributing to dementia in older people, you may want to switch . My apologies, but I thought that the UK passed a law against hexamine and no longer permits its use because of the toxicity.
Check out Snow Peak Hot Lips if you haven't heard of them already, it's basically silicone lips that go on your canteen cups or bushpots etc allowing you to drink without being burned by the metal. They're not expensive and do work really well, I don't think they'll penalize your weight much at all either 🤣.
Mike, You don’t like the canteen cup…but yet you carry one in your web gear? I love the Fire Maple, I have the Antarctic 1.2 liter nesting kit as well as the French M52 stainless steel mess kit, I find the M52 to be superior to the British style aluminum kit.
EM, what water bottles are you using, if British osprey try getting hold of the Austrian stainless Steel mug fit's on top of the bottle..also the us canteen stove stand fit's on the mug also..100 mph tape on mug rim to stop burning your mouth.. Keep up the great work atb from the UK 🇬🇧..
Seeing the British mess kit, I wonder what your experience with the Crusader MK1 is. I love it in combination with an alcohol safety burner (x-boil), but I’ll also give the British/Dutch mess kit a try.
In the US we plug it into the forearm of our AR 15. Most people can only allow powering it because the toaster oven and coffee pot are taking up all the mounting area. If you want to mount your microwave you'll need to upgrade to an AR10 but keep in mind the extra weight of the heavier ammo. I thought everyone knew this
Unfortunately hexi is now a controlled substance in the UK now and possession could lead to a jail sentence, the government passed a new legislation last year, as for the dragon fuel , the new cooker has a container on it which holds it once liquified after lighting.
I prefer the German style mess kit, and stove. I hate short sporks! Your fingers get into the food.. messy and likely filth transfer. I prefer Ice Tea Spoons, they reach to the bottom of a 1 gallon can if needs be.
US Marine here (1977-1983).
I’ve been using the GI Canteen Cup for over 45 years. I cook in it, eat from it drink from it, make charcloth in it, dig with it, transfer hot coals with it, captured mice in it, and even baked biscuits in it.
It’s a very versatile piece of kit.
I have both handle styles but prefer the batwing handles. They have lids too.
One piece of gear I never go without.
👍🏼👍🏼🇺🇸
bulletproof. i use a WWII one. Thank you for your service.
The WWII one with the stamped steel handle is great.
I don’t like the wire handle one - they rattle like crazy and heat up very quickly.
Nests with water bottle. I normally carry three of them - three bottles and the three cups are useful as you can have one for food, one for boiling water, one for other stuff - normally drinking out of to not burn my lips on the one I was boiling the water in.
I need lots of water so might as well carry the very useful cups that are nested in them.
Very versatile.
US Army 96-02 used my canteen cup for everything. Love it.
I was in the Canadian army, and in the Belgian army. In both, we had the best of all worlds by having the kidney canteen, with our gourd, and the canteen as yours. Today, 30 years later, despite having a LOT of civi and others army canteen, I still return to my old canteen that I brought back from the army, for nostalgia and functionality.
I’m ex Australian Army. I lived for years using the ‘kidney’ mug for daily use, in hygiene and cooking, plus all my hot/cold brews.
3 nails will work better than four, in the same way a 3-legged stool will be more stable on uneven surfaces than a 4-legged stool. Great video as always. Watching from Toronto, Canada.
U.S. Army Infantry veteran here. That canteen cup was with me always. We shaved, brushed our teeth, and if we were lucky we had a hot cup of Joe in it every morning in the field. The coffee was definitely optional, though. The idea is that we don’t keep our mess kits on our fighting gear. We keep it in our ruck if we have it at all. If we’re on a shorter patrol we leave it all back at the COP or ORP and take only our assault packs. Our assault packs will carry enough MRE’s (stripped) for the mission or patrol but nothing for cooking. Camp fires give away your position and even the smell of used mess kits can give away your position in the field. We don’t even take our MRE heaters. We eat the MRE cold. On our fighting kit we might have an emergency MRE and a Cliff bar. We do always have our canteen cups on us, but it’s for personal hygiene. Not for cooking.
Exactly. He kinda missed the point with the purpose of ours.
I have no military / combat experience, but I hunt in wilderness locations in the PNW for 2-4 days at a time and so I have a bit of knowledge on remote cooking and camping.
The game has evolved, and titanium is now king. There are US style GI canteens + cooking pots which are a system. (My go to for hiking / hunting). There is also a massive range of Ti pots and pans and I now never use anything else due to strength / weight and ruggedness.
For fuel, I use a pumped fuel system, very light and you can use anything to fuel it. (Fun fact :it will even burn Canadian Club at a pinch if you run out of regular fuel.) The back up is the hexamine kit, but I also use a Solo stove if I have room in the pack as the last resort.
Great video, and thanks.
I got myself a British style mess kit a while ago because of this video. Works great!
The gas can immersion and marking is a great tip. Thanks very much.
For people who hate aluminum but would like to have a British-style mess tin, the Dutch stainless steel mess tin might be a good alternative.
I am a. US army veteran. I have drank many got cups of coffee out of the canteen cup. Also bathed in it. Yeah it can be a pain, but "comfort is sinful" this sayeth the army.
Outstanding, as always. Stay the course, invaluable info.
German mess kit is in service. My opinion is mix of pros and cons. It`s very easy to carry due its shape. It can hang over the fire. It`s not confy in eating due its shape, but in hungry it is least in mind. Silicon soft spatula help get all food out for easy washing. Extra pliers handle help too.
Excellent presentation dear EM.!
Another advantage of the hexamine stove is that if you run out of hexamine you can easily use small pieces of wood/sticks or even a candle to warm/prepare your meal.
I prefer the German style mess kit, and stove. I hate short sporks! Your fingers get into the food.. messy and likely filth transfer. I prefer Ice Tea Spoons, they reach to the bottom of a 1 gallon can if needs be.
For 6 years in the Australian Army I used 2 cups canteen and definitely drunk out of it hot. Cutting a 3rd one around the base and handle off drill some holes in the third one you can invert it to cook instead of a heximine stove
Good stuff.
1) You sure as shit can eat and drink out of a USGI cup. I have turned two of them black from instant coffee. I carried two of 'em 1 for eating and 1 for cleaning. That being said, there are better options.
2) as of now I use a German mess kit in my pack, and a Pathfinder steel cup w/lid & metal water bottle in my kit.
God bless you from upper midwest
Very well explained and demonstrated.
Much appreciated.
Edit: after watching this vid, I took a look at your other ones.
To make a long story short, I subbed. 👍
Snow Peak makes "hot lips" a pair of silicone lip protectors the slide over the edge metal cups or pots.
Those might help someone drinking from a hot canteen cup or small pot.
Ive mixed old and new. I have a lc2 alice rig and my buttpack contains raingear/extra socks and my messkit/firestarting kit as well as 2 stripped dehydrated meals to save on volume and a 4" folding stainless steel stove that literally fits inside my messkit and is the best 20$ ive ever spent (the brand is LIXADA for those who wanna know). I have a secondary canteen cup with my canteen that i use with the "stove" when i just want something hot to drink and have some instant coffee/tea/Hot Choc in a bag with it
Lixada do some good cheap kit. I have a USGI canteen knock off and a titiaium alcohol stove from them.
big fan of the Esbit stove and the hex tabs. great video!
Great video. Just be aware the fuel canisters in below freezing conditions have a hard time burning. Little tip is to warm them inside your clothing in winter conditions .
Good tip
I have the Dutch set plus the Pathfinder stainless canteen and cup set. The Canteen doubles has a kettle. And for quick and dirty I use my jet boil zip.
In October 2023, hexamine fuel tablets were banned in the UK because the chemicals they contain could be used to make explosives.
As of 1st of October 2023 the possession of Hexamine in ANY concentration is an offence in the UK. I'd better get rid of my stash 😉 I melt candles for Buddy Burners. Pack a cardboard tube with paper etc pour in the melted wax. When solid you can burn the whole thing or cut of what you need. But I mainly use my Jetboil but eat out of my mess tins.
Won’t be long until you chaps won’t be able to do anything at all.
They keep making everything illegal.
Mess tins, the Dutch roll top stainless ones are a lot better than our old aluminium ones 👌🏻, the old Hexamin blocks are no longer available here in the UK, they have been ridiculously classed as a bomb making ingredient and are now illegal here.
Plenty of it still for sale on the internet along with esbit. Ridiculous bit of legislation but there you go.
I have a bcb mess tins/fire dragon stove set but I also have a crusader mk1 kit and a 750ml bushpot/1 ltr steel bottle set which are my favourites and use regularly 👍
Thanks for sharing
I would add high temp bbq paint on the outside of your mess tins. Easier to clean and remove the shine.
I have that Snowpeak kettle and the loose lid used to annoy me, but I fixed it up a bit by giving it a tap with a punch along the rim and now it sits in much better and stays on when tipped.
As a Yank who's never been in the military, I personally prefer the British cook set. You can do all what you said, plus they're deep enough to boil yet shallow enough to fry in, and you can do one of each, or both if needed. I agree with the canteen cup bit, it's ok and serviceable but not the be-all-end-all. Have you looked at the Pathfinder cook pots? International shipping might be a thing though.
Hexamine is now illegal in the uk to own, so we (backpackers and campers) have to use the fire dragon tablets now or liquid alcohol stoves like the trangia stoves
It’s not illegal to own in the UK, it’s illegal to get caught. Big difference.
@@cordellkent4790 hahaha very true
While I concede the point that the British mess tin offers more utility than a canteen cup, I think you've really sold the canteen cup short. I've had hot coffee out of a canteen cup many, many times and haven't encountered any issues with burning my lips on the metal. It's fairly thin sheet metal. Only the parts of the metal that your hot drink is touching will be hot. The upper rim, where your lips would touch, doesn't really retain much heat.
Also, you make the point that there's no way to cover up the top of the canteen cup, but like many people, I have a lid for mine. The lid has the same footprint as the canteen, so it fits conveniently in my canteen pouch with the canteen and cup.
As far as cooking goes, the mess tin definitely gives you a lot more options than the canteen cup, but I have no issues making ramen, rice, oatmeal, etc. in my canteen cup, and the canteen cup has the major advantage that it takes up no extra space, since your canteen nests inside of it and you'll need to carry water anyways, while the mess tin seems comparatively bulky and cumbersome to carry.
You have your British mess kit. What about the USGI mess kit for those of us who are "old school?" Also, I have used my canteen cup for cooking as well.
Do you breakdown your belt kit in any video? Haven’t seen it if you do. Would be interesting to see what you carry in your traditionally British belt kit. Everybody in America knows what Americans put on belt but Brits have a different approach that is interesting.
@@ryunakamoto6181 I don’t think so, will make a good video
I got a m40 mess kit from Pathfinder perfect
Prefer the Dutch steel mess tins better than the British army mess tins in my humble opinion.
Showing off again 😂😂😂.
@@vikingmitch4049 Well dutch steel mess tins with aluminium lids would be a more acurate description. Also a better combination in my humbol opinion....
yup I traded mine for the dutchies.
Good stuff Mike. Surprised you didn't go with the trangia. Sweds have been using them for decades. They take any liquid that burns, you can use the "meths" to help start a fire, also nice a quiet and cheap to run.
Nate
The British army mess tin set is available in stainless steel, and since studies have shown aluminum contributing to dementia in older people, you may want to switch . My apologies, but I thought that the UK passed a law against hexamine and no longer permits its use because of the toxicity.
Check out Snow Peak Hot Lips if you haven't heard of them already, it's basically silicone lips that go on your canteen cups or bushpots etc allowing you to drink without being burned by the metal. They're not expensive and do work really well, I don't think they'll penalize your weight much at all either 🤣.
Good Stuff! Thanks Bro!
If you leave the dragon fuel in the plastic pot, it only burns upwards. You get around 9-10 minutes burn time.
Think about taping the handles .
Have you done any comparison between the British Army Hexamine and the Esbit solid fuel tabs?
Nice!
Godd video. like your t-shirt. Swedish as the Logo is SNIGEL the swedish word for snails.
@@addictedtotreasuretrash108 they’re a great company
Thanks 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
U put tape around the top of the metal mug u can cook and u can make or buy a lid
Wind is the biggest problem.
I am looking for a lightweight tight mesh screen.
Any ideas.?
Mike,
You don’t like the canteen cup…but yet you carry one in your web gear? I love the Fire Maple, I have the Antarctic 1.2 liter nesting kit as well as the French M52 stainless steel mess kit, I find the M52 to be superior to the British style aluminum kit.
If you only want to carry one mess tin get a mess tin lid. Got mine on eBay for about £5 plus postage.
EM, what water bottles are you using, if British osprey try getting hold of the Austrian stainless Steel mug fit's on top of the bottle..also the us canteen stove stand fit's on the mug also..100 mph tape on mug rim to stop burning your mouth..
Keep up the great work atb from the UK 🇬🇧..
Seeing the British mess kit, I wonder what your experience with the Crusader MK1 is.
I love it in combination with an alcohol safety burner (x-boil), but I’ll also give the British/Dutch mess kit a try.
didn't mention a Colemans stove very economical spirits burner
B-but where to I plug in my microwave? 🤣😉
In the US we plug it into the forearm of our AR 15. Most people can only allow powering it because the toaster oven and coffee pot are taking up all the mounting area. If you want to mount your microwave you'll need to upgrade to an AR10 but keep in mind the extra weight of the heavier ammo. I thought everyone knew this
Unfortunately hexi is now a controlled substance in the UK now and possession could lead to a jail sentence, the government passed a new legislation last year, as for the dragon fuel , the new cooker has a container on it which holds it once liquified after lighting.
@@shaunwalters2928 Outdoor community better start fighting these laws over there UK is going to have 0 freedom in 10 years
@@Echo_Mike we have no freedom left here now 😢
I prefer the German style mess kit, and stove. I hate short sporks! Your fingers get into the food.. messy and likely filth transfer. I prefer Ice Tea Spoons, they reach to the bottom of a 1 gallon can if needs be.