Ground Reflector
Name: Ground reflector.
Description of difficulty: Can you breathe? Can you chew gum? (Hint: No need to do both at the same time to qualify for this project.)
Overview: This is an optional piece of gear. One more thing to keep track of. But aside from that, it’s useful in that it both forms a barrier under the stove and reflects heat back up toward the stove and cook pot — heat that would otherwise be absorbed by the ground and lost. So while it’s helping to get the heat where it belongs, it’s also helping to keep you from setting the ground on fire.
Technical details:
Size: Variable. Should be small enough to fit inside cooking pot.
Weight: Likewise, variable, but insignificant.
Materials list:
Heavy aluminum foil oven liner. (Sold as largish sheets.)
Ruler
Sandpaper (100 grit, or thereabouts).
Scissors (beaters that you can cut aluminum with).
Scribe (Pushpin, heavy safety pin or heavy needle) Overview of construction process: You’ll scratch an outline of the shape you want, then cut it out.
Step-by-step construction:
1: Decide what shape is right for you and how many pieces you need.
A single large piece would be easiest to handle, but if you cut several smaller pieces you can carry them inside your cooking pot and spread them out on the ground when you cook. Four disks will give you the most material and the best fit in your pot, but four squares will actually cover the ground better.
2: Let’s use four square pieces.
Measure the inside diameter of your cooking pot. Mark a square that measures about 0.5" (12 mm) less than this, as measured on the diagonal. It’s easier, cheaper, and safer to work with a piece of paper first, then use it as a pattern when you have the right size.
Scribe the outline onto the foil when you have the right size figured out.
3: Cut.
Put on gloves. Protect your hands from sharp edges while you cut out the pieces with scissors. A nice touch is to make rounded corners while you’re at it. They don’t snag on things so much, and they don’t bend so much. Square corners will bend or crumple pretty fast anyway.
4: Dull the sharp edges.
Take up your sandpaper and scuff the fresh edges until they are safe to handle with bare hands. You can now use this reflector under your stove. Just lay the pieces out in a square grid, and put your stove in the center where the four corners meet. Then do what you normally do. Cozy.
Sixteen-ounce aluminum measuring cup on pot stand. Ground protected by the reflector we’ve built here.