Light Wind Screen
Name: Folded aluminum foil wind screen.
Description of difficulty: Even the dead can do this.
Overview: Made of ordinary household aluminum foil, this is a light, foldable and simple to make wind screen that is surprisingly durable if treated with just a little respect.
It’s a full-coverage design that totally wraps around and over the top of the stove and cook pot, providing complete protection from the elements (especially wind, of course), and retaining the maximum amount of heat in a small space around the pot.
It is also a little delicate. If you don’t keep the stove’s flame away from it, it gets crumbly. If you handle it too roughly it will tear, but on the other hand, you can fold it up into a small package of whatever shape you need.
Technical details:
Size: Depends on the size of the stove and pot, and the diameter of the pot you use with it. Its diameter should be at least two inches larger than the pot, to allow flames to lick around inside, when they need to. If flame touches this wind screen, it weakens it, and the wind screen will get brittle and begin to crumble when you fold it. Be sure to make it large enough in diameter to keep it well away from flame.
Weight: Roughly 0.8 ounce (23 g), depending on size.
Materials list:
Household aluminum foil
Stapler (optional)
Overview of construction process: Measure off a length of foil and just fold it and finish it with your bare hands.
Step-by-step construction:
1: Work area.
This is easiest if you have a long stretch of kitchen counter top, or a long, smooth workbench or table.
2: Measure out the foil.
These directions will give you a wind screen three layers thick. For a heavier and sturdier one, use four layers (overkill). If you are easy on your gear, you can try one two layers thick (slightly light). Just measure out different lengths of foil and fold accordingly.
Measure the diameter of your pot (be generous, add a couple inches). Multiply that by three. Then multiply multiply again by three. Unroll that much aluminum foil. This will be the length of your raw wind screen, before folding.
Example: If your pot is five inches (125 mm) in diameter, then you want between 45 and 47 inches of foil (1140 to 1195 mm). This doesn’t have to be exact, but too long is OK, and too short is useless.
3: Fold the foil and finish the edges.
Fold the foil twice, ending with a piece one third the original length, and sharply crease the folds using a fingernail or the side of a plastic pen. You want clean, precise alignment and razor-sharp creases.
You now have a long rectangle of foil that is three layers thick. Fold one long edge over about 0.25" (6 mm) and crease it, then do it again. Repeat for the other long edge, then for the short edge where the loose ends are. The fourth side is OK as is.
4: Roll and secure.
You now have a rectangle of foil 12" (305 mm) by whatever length — let’s say it’s 22 inches (550 mm)), having three of its edges neatly and tightly folded with a precise crease.
Bring together the two short ends, and fold them over each other about 0.5 inch (13 mm), and put in another tight crease. Then do it one more time. You now have a hollow cylinder of aluminum foil with nice, neat folded edges.
5: Staple ends (optional).
It’s easier to keep this together if you staple the two ends together as well as folding them. Take the folds you just made in the ends and put four or five staples right through all the folds at regular intervals.
Your wind screen is now ready for its first use.
The process looks like this (top left to bottom right)...
Now you have a cylinder. To use, stick a hand in one end and smoosh it with the other hand to form a flat cone for a chimney. While using, keep flame away from the foil or it will get brittle and crumble.
Above: Triple-folded foil, foil with border, and foil rolled into cylinder.
Above: Foil rolled into cylinder.
Above: Cylinder reshaped by having one end formed into a cone-like chimney (the real thing has a flatter, crinklier shape, as you can see from the photo at the top).