“From the ticket pocket of the shorts you fumble out bookmatches and an empty Lipton teabag wrapper. You stuff the shorts down into the mummy bag to warm. Next you take the flashlight out of one of your boots (which are standing just off to the left of the sleeping pad). Then you put the teabag wrapper down in the little patch you cleared for the stove last night (on the right side of the bed, because the wind was blowing from the left last night; and very close to the groundsheet so that you don’t have to stretch). You set the teabag wrapper alight and hold the stove (which is the Svea) by its handle with the base of the bowl just above the burning paper. Soon you see in the beam of the flashlight that gasoline is welling up from the nozzle. You put the stove down on the teabag wrapper, snuffing out the flame. Gasoline seeps down the generator of the stove and into the little depression in the bowl that encircles the base of the generator. When the depression is full you close the stove valve and ignite the gasoline. When it has most burned away you reopen the valve. If you time it dead right the last guttering flame ignites the jet. Otherwise you light it with another march. The stove roars healthily, almost waking you up.”
— Colin Fletcher - The Complete Walker IV
This, amongst many other passages about gasoline stoves, in The Complete Walker, set a long, low simmering flicker of love in my soul for the idea of a gasoline stove ownership.
Today my new-to-me old Optimus 8R gasoline stove arrived, via the courier that is Mum, and I set straight to setting it alight.
…Open the fuel valve all the way, pricking the jet with the inbuilt cleaning needle and ensure the jet wets out with fuel
Close the valve firmly to make sure you don’t get a flare up
Pour methylated spirits into the priming bowl under the jet and cone
Strike a match and light the meths, peering into the bowl to see the flame
Contemplate the wonder of life as the meths burns down and finally the last boiling remnants nearly burn down
Open the fuel valve, catching the last of the meths flames
Fettle the valve as the stove warms up enjoying the characteristic roar
Put the kettle on the stove and marvel…
