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Best knot teacher
Animated Knots, animatedknots.com All knots are knotty and hard to visualize the first time. This free website is the best knot teacher yet. It beats any of the beginner books I’ve seen, as well as all the other knot websites. The key here is the stepped animations synchronized with instructions, which you can run at any speed. Replay them till you get them right. Animated Knots is the next best thing to having old Pete next to ya. Once you get the basic ones down, try some of the harder ones. There are 75 cool knots animated in total. – KK
Next step beyond the basic knots
Morrow Guide to Knots, $18 Knots are such fundamental tools, and matching the right job with the right knot is so often essential, the important next step from the Klutz Book is the equally lucid and fairly comprehensive Morrow Guide to Knots. Last week my wife Ryan gave a glad cry at the clarity in the book when she wanted to see a couple ways to tie a clove hitch, and learned that it’s easy to put a slip in a clove hitch for quick release. – Stewart Brand
Knot substitute
Nite Ize Figure 9 Carabiner, $7 The Figure 9 carabiner lets you quickly fasten – and quickly loosen or adjust – a small-diameter rope to a fixed point without a knot deploying a clever combination of friction and angles. To those of us with knot-dyslexia, this is a real boon. The only requirement: your fixed attachment point must feature either a place to clip the carabiner (i.e. a metal loop in a pick-up truck bed or a thin, sturdy tree branch), or something around which your line can be looped. That could mean securing a Tarp tent to a tree, improvising a handle around a bundle of cables, or securing a travel clothesline between window-grate and curtain-rod.
All you need to do is pull the rope through in the right sequence and finish with the rope’s loose end tugged into the notched “V” section to keep the rope attached and taut. There are actually multiple sequences and ways to work the geometry. Three methods are diagrammed in the instructions that come with the carabiner.
Thus far, I have used the devices only with standard-issue parachute cord, but they’re sized to work with a range of small-diameter ropes. Though the tying system looks suspiciously wimpy, I’ve found it is as robust as promised. I ordered the Figure 9s to replace the mesh netting that came with the roof-rack basket on my car. Not only do these make a decent replacement (i.e. riding around with a kayak strapped to my car this summer), but tying one more knot under the car is something I’m glad to skip. Note: the device is anodized aluminum and weighs a bit more than I expected (slight downside to ultra-light hikers); still, “Not for climbing” is printed on the packaging, repeated in the instructions, and emblazoned on each carabiner. I think they mean it. – Timothy Lord
Quick, easy tie-down
Rope Ratchet, $20 (¼-inch, w/rope) roperatchet.com I wanted to rig a single line of rope across the ceiling of my garage for a storage solution, but was concerned about getting the line tight enough to keep from sagging. Rather than tie up a come-along winch – which requires a lot more hook up room and has a tendency to release quite hard – I saw the Rope Ratchet and decided to give it a try; I’m glad I did. The contraption is basically a rope that’s fed into and around a ratcheting wheel and bracket that holds the line and prevents backspin; you can release the line with a lever. It’s quite simple, but I haven’t seen anything quite like it. I’m using one to hold up a 70-lbs. tackle bag 6 feet off the floor of my garage and another holding about 80 lbs. of plastic lures on a rope stretched across hooks against the ceiling of my garage. I’m using the ¼-inch Rope Ratchet that’s rated for a working load of 150 lbs., but there are different sizes for different needs: the 1/8-inch will hold 75 lbs. up, while the ½-inch will hold 500 lbs. After a number of months, mine are holding strong with no sign of failure. – Doug Mainor
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A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true. All reviews on this site are written by readers who have actually used the tool and others like it. Items can be either old or new as long as they are wonderful. We post things we like and ignore the rest. Suggestions for tools much better than what is recommended here are always wanted.
The need: a very tiny woodstove suitable for a small space in a home. I received many suggestions after posting an inquiry here last month. Here is the consensus from Cool Tools readers.
The original Very Small Woodstove is the Jotul 602, from Norway. This model is a mere 12 inches wide, 19 inches deep. They are found most often in cottages and cabins in the woods, where the 602’s good looks are a highlight. It’s been around almost forever. Jotul claims over 1 million of these have been manufactured. Waterford and Garden Way produced a near identical stove called the Reginald 101, but it is no longer in production, but available used, as is the Jotul 602. Although very small it can heat amazingly well.
But the tiniest very small woodstoves are those built for boats. These are designed for very tight quarters, and often have a railing on the top to keep pots from rolling off. Here is a typical one from the Canadian coast measuring all of 12 inches by 12 inches. They are made of cast iron and porcelain and are so cute and enchanting, folks have thought of getting a sailboat just so they need one.
The third option for extremely small woodstoves are those manufactured for camping. Sometimes known as wall tent stoves, or pack trail stoves, or ice shack, or even shepherding stoves, these are meant for nomadic or seasonal camps. Like the marine varieties they double as cookstoves. More expensive varieties are produced in titanium, the cleverest are even collapsible, but the cheapest are steel, and they are as plain and basic as camp coffee.
The source for pack trail stoves is Pack Saddle Shop.
Slightly larger– that is small, but not extremely small — home woodstoves can also be found at Lehman’s.
This low-clearance stove sits in a corner of our family room, which is not huge, so I wanted to nestle it in as close to the corner as I could. The big difference between this Morsoe and the previously-reviewed Jotul isn’t the physical dimensions so much as just how close to the walls each stove can be. The Jotul needs to be situated 13 inches off the walls. The clearance for the Morsoe: 7 inches. A significantly smaller space clearance-wise than any other stove I’ve found. When I plotted just how far the Jotul would protrude into my room versus the Morsoe, the difference was dramatic.
In lieu of legs, the stove has panels bolted on either side which run from the floor to the top. Since they are not the same casting as the main body of the stove, the panels do not get incredibly hot. I can have the stovetop at 700 degrees F, and still touch the panels with my hand without getting burned. Air is drawn from beneath the stove up between the panels, and flows up into the room providing most of the heat output.
Aside from the clearance, this is a really nice little stove — easy to start and burns great. I’ve used mine for two seasons now, two to three times a week during the winter months. While the rest of the house is kept around 65 degrees, the family room is 75. The downsides: requires small (10″) wood, and the firebox is somewhat small, so it needs reloading pretty frequently. However, I shouldn’t forget to mention the stove has cool squirrel symbols on the side panels. — Paul Mitchell
We live in a tiny house and love our Dickinson Marine fireplace — it does an excellent job of heating our 105-square-foot space. Watching the flames makes things very cozy on a cold day.
We generally use our fireplace beginning sometime in November through about April, depending on the weather. It uses very little propane; I think it cost us about $40 for heating this past winter. We use the 12v built-in blower when it is particularly cold or when we are trying to heat things up quickly. But forced-air heat blows around dust, which makes me sneeze, and it is a little noisy, too, so I prefer to leave the fan off when it’s not necessary. Without the fan on the heater is very quiet. For our small space and compared with electric space heaters or even central forced-air systems, this little guy takes the cake.
One nice side bonus: When the heater is on, I can place my coffee cup on top next to the flue to keep my coffee warm! — Derek Raedeker
There’s not much new in the art of firemaking, and most methods are a few hundred thousand years old. But in the 21st century, getting a fire started in the fireplace can still be more difficult than it needs to be. Crumpling up inky newspaper as tinder under a full size split log is hit or miss at best, and gathering up sticks as kindling is a pain, especially for city dwellers.
This winter, I’ve solved the problem with the discovery of “fatwood” firestarters: small sections of resin-rich pine (most commonly from the longleaf pine Pinus palustris) produced from stumps. They just work: criss-cross two of them, light them and they will quickly catch and burn long enough to get the big logs going. They work every time. They smell good, they’re inexpensive and they’re sustainable. They come from existing stumps and the Fatwood company plants three trees for every one they use. Start a cozy fire faster with a clear conscience this winter. —Matthew Perks
Portable wood stoves are for tents, tipis, huts or other temporary shelters. More efficient than a campfire, and more powerful than a backpacking stove, they are often used by ranchers, hunters, fisherman, and other trail groups who need to set up a moveable camp. These little guys will heat a large tent/small room, and cook meals. It’s overkill for overnight use, but quickly becomes beloved in cold weather, large groups, or extended summer camps. Once upon a time you needed a pack horse or off-road vehicle to carry one — and the stove pipe it requires. Now there are lightweight versions. The Kifaru, for instance, will fold into a backpack. However the heavier ones will last longer and warp less due to high heat and burn-out of the stove bottom.
The best single source for information, comparison evaluations and ordering various brands and models of these stoves is the Wall Tent Shop. (And yes, they also sell traditional wall tents.) — KK