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.
2 comments:
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!
Hello "Grenzkraft"! First off, feel free to post any links to my blog. Next......Your NORGE stamped kit is a mystery! There are no manufacture codes on it, which is odd. Sweden did send equipment to Finland for the Winter War, but there would be no reason for the Norwegian Volunteers to remark it before picking it up. It may have been an experimental, post-war, kit that that was trialed by the Norwegian Army, but not accepted. Just a couple of guesses. I can say that I have never heard of the Norwegian Army using these Swedish kits, but that's not to say that there was not some exception. Norway used TONS of surplus after the war: WW2 German gear left behind, surplus helmets from nearly every WW2 army, US donated gear, etc. So, maybe Sweden made a donation to get the Norwegian Army back on its feet before the 1953 mess kits were put into production. Time for research!
Post a Comment