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For campfire lovers ... ever seen a "Swedish Candle"?

GT/CS S Code

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 26, 2007
Messages
912
Location
Victoria, B.C., Canada
Our fishing and hunting store has a staff fishing weekend each year when we drive up to Port Renfrew on the west coast of Vancouver Island and fish for salmon and halibut. While we're up there we stay at the store's guiding house near the beach and of course celebrate with a campfire party in the back yard along with lots of eats.
One of the neighbours is a european "transplant" and introduced us to the concept of the "Swedish Candle" for campfire lovers. You take a solid log and cut off a section anywhere from 18 inches to 5 feet tall and cut from 4 to 8 pie shaped slices into the log vertically with a chainsaw. Stop making your saw cuts about 10 to 12 inches short of the base of the log. The multiple cuts will leave the centre fairly much open and full of sawdust. You then pour some suitable flamable liquid such as BBQ lighter into the centre hole and let it soak in to the "candle" for a while. Light the centre of the "candle" at the top and it will flare up for a few minutes and then die down to a smokey fire. In about 10 or 15 minutes it will flare up again into strong flames, fed by the air drawn up through the saw cuts, and the fire will burn down through the centre of the "candle" for hours. This "jumbo" sized version that we used was lit about 3:00 in the afternoon and was still burning well after midnight.
In Sweden and other Scandanavian countries they use smaller versions for their campfires and place a cast iron frying pan or Dutch Oven on the top over the center hole and cook their camp meals over the "candle".
Neat concept and makes a great campfire for a hunting or fishing camp ...
:wink:
 

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admin

Staff member
Administrator
Joined
Aug 18, 2002
Messages
2,056
That's a cool idea. Learn something new every day. Thanks for the pics.
 

Mustanglvr

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
Messages
3,258
Very cool! My husband and I will have to try that sometime.
Got any fishin' pictures? :smile:
 

hookedtrout

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Joined
Mar 28, 2003
Messages
1,929
Location
Idaho
Neat idea, we have a huge back yard with a big covered arbor and a built in fire pit, we live out back in the summer evenings around the campfire, it's like camping but in our back yard.

Do you know what type of wood they used? Hardwood, pine?
 

Scott

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 17, 2008
Messages
126
Location
Coogee Beach, Sydney, Australia
that is brilliant.

Camped a lot in remote areas in my younger years. We used a 20L metal paint tin with hole 4" up the side, 2 pipes inserted (about 2" worked best) to make an L shape through the side and another verticle through centre and packed it with saw dust then remove the pipes and light a bit of paper in the low, horizontal hole - guess we had a poor mans' aussie version of the swedish candle. Great way to have a ready fire when it has been raining - very hot and convenient for cooking - extinguish with paint tin lid to starve it of oxygen and it would last for a week.
 

sam

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Joined
Jan 2, 2003
Messages
494
that's what I'm talkin about....................nice
 
OP
OP
GT/CS S Code

GT/CS S Code

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 26, 2007
Messages
912
Location
Victoria, B.C., Canada
Hey Cory,
Well, here on Vancouver Island we get a mix of Fir, Spruce, Alder, Maple, Cedar, Pine, and Hemlock. I'm sure that pretty much anything would work, but the density of the wood would affect the "burn time" on the candle ...
 
OP
OP
GT/CS S Code

GT/CS S Code

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 26, 2007
Messages
912
Location
Victoria, B.C., Canada
Local area fishing for Salmon and Halibut ...

Hey Mustanglvr,
We get some fabulous salt water fishing off the West Coast of Vancouver Island, from Victoria Harbour, out off Oak Bay, and then if you drive on out past Sooke to Port Renfrew you get into "fishing heaven". We've had some "monster" big fish weighed in through our store's weigh scales, with many of them caught on our store's charter boats. This year we've had five store boats running charters, with 2 based out of Victoria Harbour and 3 out of Port Renfrew.
Most of the fishing is done deep (200 to 400 feet) using electric downriggers to pull the bait or lures down to the depth you want to be fishing. Coho are running right now, and they can be caught right off the back of the boat with very light fly or spinning rods for some lively fun. Dragging a big Hali up from 200 or more feet is like trying to pull up a 4x8 sheet of plywood!
We have two "leader boards" at our retail store for Salmon and Halibut weigh in, with the largest fish in each category winning big fishing tackle packages at the end of the season.
Here are a few local area fish ...
 

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rvrtrash

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 25, 2003
Messages
3,652
I'm not a fisherman but love Halibut and have always wanted to go after one. I guess you're the one I need to be talking to.

Steve
 
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