Tin obsession

[tinkers]

i'm glad i'm not the only one. i've always been a keen recycler, and its stood me in good stead since i've drifted into bushcraft, and according to the wife she says that she's noticed that whenever i walk past a skip my pace slows to a crawl, and i seem oblivious to whatever she's saying to me whilst i'm scanning the contents of the skip for anything that might have another use. she now knows not to start a conversion with me if we are approaching a skip lol! as for going out shopping i used to hate it but that was before i became a little more enlightened as to the possibilities of finding the right size and shaped container for whatever project i'm working on, and since i've started shopping with the missus she has said it now takes her twice as long.

[OKBushcraft]

Ah you poor American chaps. The greatest and most found tin in British households is the Lyles Golden Syrup tin, an absolute tinaholics icon for generations. I looked at a sexy hudson bay tinderbox (£30+), a 1700's english brass tinderbox (thick end of £40) thinking either would have huge bushy cred and then realised the familiar and instantly recognisable green golden syrup tin IS the canine's lickey bits for the job. I defy any uk member on this forum to deny that my 425g (pah it was and always will be the pound) tin just oozes credibility and for making charcloth there is nothing to touch either size. For you American chaps if you've never seen them they even have there own place on wikipedia. millions of sheds across the uk have these filled with screws, nails, paint thinners, you name it.

I went and found it. Cool looking tin. I can find some like that about 8" tall and 2.5" in diameter, they hold some sort of rolled cookies with choc in the middle. I could make a lot of char cloth or keep a good amount of red lentils and a bag of spice in one. Keep right nice in the outside ALICE pack pocket. Making me think outside of the box...

[OKBushcraft]

Don't worry Raven - you're amongst friends...we're all recycloholics here! Imagine what the world would be like if all us westerners thought like this. Having three rat..eerr..cats, and a dog I have to accept that I can't keep all the cans we get through, but it grates with me every time one heads toward the green bin. I just keep the unusual shapes/sizes (plus the Lidl chicken soup can - for replacement non-rusty boot kit cook pot).

I sometimes wonder what you could build if you could keep every single can or milk bottle. Could you weld cans together end ways to make "logs" for an eco-cabin, and roof it with shingles made from milk-container sides, for example?
The retailers and manufacturers often talk about reducing the amount of packaging on the products as a long-term goal. Great for the environment, but what the hell will us guys use for materials!!!!

I have even seen some backwoods folks in the past cut cans down their seam after removing the ends. The flatened them and made shingles for their animal sheds.

[Edwin]

Oblong oilcans opened out and the edges turned over each other and flattened to join the pieces together from which I made a chimney blocker to go behind our stove. Most difficult thing was getting a reasonable seal for the stove pipe.