So what's this stove called?

After doing some research on ultra-light backpacking, I've come across an interesting kind of stove.  There are a couple of commercial versions by Kelly Kettle and World Stove.  Of course I prefer the cheap home made versions.  It's only appropriate that these be made as they also go by the name of Hobo Stoves.  Mark Jurey and Ray Garlington have great how-to's with pictures that show how these stoves have evolved and the different techniques that can be used to build them.

These stoves are unique in that they can burn wood from the top down.  Usually when one starts a fire the tinder and smaller pieces of fuel are at the bottom.  How this fire works in reverse is out of the scope of the blog, but it is described briefly at Ray Garlington's site linked above.

One might ask "why build a stove when I can just buy one?".  Well for starters there is lack of waste.  Most backpacking stoves use canned fuel which pollutes through solid waste such as the empty containers that remain and emmisions through the production of the fuel itself.  These stoves produce very little smoke which means they burn relatively cleanly.  Fuel comes by way of twigs, branches, dry leaves, and any other form of bio-fuel that can be found.  What remains in these stoves can be buried and, according to the World Stove site linked above, it is beneficial to the environment.  Also, the home made versions of these stoves are usually made from recycled products such as tomatoe sauce cans turning trash into something useful.  In many cases wood stoves are even lighter than fuel burners.  There is also a matter of versatility.  These wood stoves can easily be converted to use alcohol instead.  A very good site on creating alcohol stoves can be found here.  With a little creativity they can be set up many different ways with varying features and efficiency.

In the near future I'll be trying one of these out and put up a post on my findings.  If only someone would decide on a name for these.