Friday, June 21, 2019

New Swedish Mess Kit, Kåsa Cup and Fold-A-Cup, Original Aluminum Green Mess Kit with Svea Alcohol Stove and Windscreen, Kuska Cup, Wildo Company of Sweden

In my never ending quest for all things Swedish, I figured that I'd be slowing down on my discoveries and additions to the collection.  However, much to my surprise, it seems that things have picked up recently in the Swedish Mess Kit department!


I finally found an original aluminum, green, Swedish mess kit with the wind screen and alcohol stove.  These aren't hard to find, but picking one up at an affordable price these days is the challenge.


I spotted this this beauty up for sale, offered by a seller that didn't know what he had.  To him it was just an old "army surplus cook pot".  I bought it for an "old cook pot price", and smiled all the way home.

This pot is the same as my unpainted mess kits, but has the "value-added" addition of authentic Swedish Army green paint.  Now all the slots are filled in the Swedish mess kit series.

I won't go on much more about these kits, as I have covered them a number of times in previous posts.  You can read up on them here (for more blog postings, you can search the blog using "Swedish Mess Kit" in the search bar).

https://sharky-fourbees.blogspot.com/2011/07/swedish-m40-mess-kit-svea-stove.html

https://sharky-fourbees.blogspot.com/2018/08/swedish-mess-kits-m40-and-m44.html

This particular kit is stamped and dated, ST 89, with the Three Swedish Crowns. (1989)


The windscreen is unmarked, with two additional air vent holes.  I'm not sure if that means this is a newer "reproduction" screen, or if it is another variation.  Here is a comparison of the two windscreens.


When compared to my other screens, it is identical, down to the press tool marks.  The only difference I can see is that there is an additional air vent hole on each side, under the handle slot.  The other slight difference is that the stove hole in the bottom of the unmarked screen has a sharp metal edge.  The marked screens have a slightly rounded edge.

The alcohol stove is the classic Swedish issue stove, marked and dated SVEA 64,   (1964).





In addition to the "new" mess kit, I also picked up a couple of the newly produced copies, of the original Swedish Army cups.


The original cups can be a bit pricey, so when I spotted these cups for a couple of dollars each, I couldn't pass them up. 

The large cup is a Kåsa Cup, more often called a Kuska Cup in bushcraft circles these days.  These large cups are designed to nest perfectly in the bottom of the Swedish Mess Kits.  They are BPA free, hard plastic, and fit nicely in the hand.



The smaller cup is the classic Fold-A-Cup style, collapsible cup that was also designed for and issued to the Swedish Army.  This little folding cup "folds in half", with the top half folding down into the inside of the cup.  Very ingenious!  The cup nests inside the larger cup, so if you want to carry both, it's easy to do so. This cup is also BPA free, and quite sturdy.





Now that the Swedish Army no longer uses these cups, and all of the remaining stocks have surplussed, the Wildo company has been reproducing them for the civilian market.  It is interesting to note that the Wildo company was the original manufacturer of the army cups.  In 2011 the company ownership was transferred to the founder's son and the company was renamed Wildo.  The Wildo company now produces an expanded line of camp utensils, plates, bowls and cups, all based on the originals.  Oh yes, and everything is still manufactured in Sweden!

You can check out the company and their products here:
https://www.wildo.se/

UPDATE:  I picked up an original cup to display with the mess kits.  You can read about the cup, and see a side-by-side comparison here:
https://sharky-fourbees.blogspot.com/2019/07/orginal-swedish-army-kasa-cup-kuska-cup.html

To finish things up, let's take a closer look at the new mess kit and cups.























1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hey there!
I sometimes looked through your very detailed, helpful blog about mess kits and folding shovels. Recently I got my hands on a Swedish mess kit, but it has a stamp that says it's from Norway. I decided to share it on YouTube, to hear opinions from several people. Maybe you know something or you simply want to know about it. So I leave this YouTube link in your comment section, if that's okay for you (?).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah5sy6DHZq0

Cheers!