Swedish Cooking Torch Without a Saw

I had an idea for a quick and dirty Swedish torch that I wanted to try. I made the torch taller than might be ideal because in this wet forest, the wood close to the ground is often very wet, so I wanted to get up high enough on the tree to get into the dry stuff. I’m sure this idea could be adapted to a larger diameter tree, and would probably work better with a saw, but I liked idea of doing with just a knife.

Being a small diameter tree, I had to force the staves open wider than might have been ideal so that it was open enough to hold my cook pot, but the wood caught quickly and burned for long enough for me to melt a frozen block of turkey soup.