My traditional kit: canvas and leather!

[Clouston98]

Cameron.
have you got anything left to buy from frost river mate?

I've been tempted by the nessmuk pack for years but never had the funds spare t justify it

Haha just a few, but not much and not for long

The Nessmuk is a lovely bit of kit- I can't put it down!

 

[Clouston98]

Sorry Cameron this is a bit off-topic, but some here might be interested in this company for canvas and leather gear. Again it's in the USA and looks to be very much a cottage industry, but prices seem very reasonable and they say they ship internationally (NB I've no personal experience of this lot, just thought they seemed worth checking out)

Alder Stream Canvas

Added later: I've now found a few references on BCUK to this company - all very favourable!

Oooh they look great! Me likey

 

[Clouston98]

Is the pack basket from frost river? I've been lusting over one of those for some time but have been struggling to find somewhere that sells them. How much did it set you back?


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Yes mate- it's great and you'd love it! It was a hundred and something dollars, but the shipping was almost as expensive - having said that I did have all the other stuff and it came within one week!

 

[Clouston98]

I particularly like the photography of the kit layouts. It always seems to add something to the collection to see it nicely presented like that. Just like food, half of it is in the presentation. I take it that is a deerskin in the photos. It is used for anything besides a photo backdrop?

I have an accumulation of old gear, more old-fashioned than old school or traditional, though some of it dates from the 1940s (so do I). I have so much that I have to try real hard to use everything at least once in the course of a year. And I still want more! I have an eye on something from either Duluth Pack or Frost River. I was lucky to visit the Duluth Pack store once. My senses were overloaded for a while.

Even with traditional/old-school/old-fashioned items, we all evolve our own opinions about what works and what doesn't and what is simply obsolete. For instance, I have three or four pair of heavy, thick wool pants. They're good for cold winter weather but under certain conditions, no better than combinations of long johns and blue jeans. Of course, blue jeans are as traditional as a canvas pack. I love wool shirts, too, but I like medium weight dress-shirt styles, like Pendleton, though I have a couple of heavier shirts, too, and I do wear them all. None are "hair shirts." I have also decided that I don't like pullover-style outer garments, traditional or not, though I do have pullover shirts. The reason is because I only have to walk up a slight grade and I'm hot and a pullover garment doesn't allow me to cool off sufficiently.

If you go back far enough, working men and woodsmen wore leather garments, especially pants. I don't recall anyone here ever mentioning leather pants or britches. Anyone have any? Or old-style breeches (not shooting breeks or whatever they're called). In turn of the century photos, one frequently sees men wearing various kinds of breeches, probably riding breeches, either with leather wrap leggings or high boots of one kind or another. I don't suppose anyone does that, just to be traditional or old-fashioned. Somewhere I have a photo of an uncle of mine holding his son or daughter. He's sitting outside of a log house, next to the stone chimney, dressed in breeches (probably army surplus) and leather leggings.

Yeah it's a fallow deer hide- if we're canoeing I will probably take it as a sleep mat and it makes a nice seat for a picnic too, I use it as a little rug in my bedroom too in the Christmas season .

You should definitely try from river stuff too- you'd love it! I know what you mean about the preference side of things, some people have different builds, some run hotter than others so that effects what gear works best for each individual I guess. I can't say I've ever seen any leather trousers here or most places- I'm sure they would've been used and buckskin probably was too- all these bits of historical gear and how & why etc is great reading .

 

[Clouston98]

I meant to mention in my previous post that there is a book devoted to traditional camping entitled "Camping in the Old Style," by Davis Wescot. It's quite interesting and well-illustrated with photos and quotes from old books on camping. After I got a copy of the book, I realized I actually possessed a copy of most of the old books that were referenced. The only fault of the book is that many of the reproduced illustrations are quite dark.

Another interesting book, though not oriented towards outfitting and "how-to," like the book above, is "The Way we Camped." It is really mostly about camping in the mountains of California, particularly in Yosemite, roughly from about 1890 through the 1940s.

Sounds great- I like illustrations in outdoors books - Mors kochanksi's book has it spot on for me, Nessmuks is good but those books sound well worth picking up .

 

[Clouston98]

There is something to be said for the smell of canvas and leather, very evocative. I wonder if in the future people will be enthusing about the old fashioned feel of goretex and silnylon in the same way?

Yeah it's got a lovely aroma and feel to it! I doubt they will, and if they do when Im An old geezer I shall have to say 'back in my day we used to....

 

[BlueTrain]

Although I'm from a place where traditions ran deep, I never heard of anyone mentioning leather pants or britches when I was little. I expect they haven't been used since the buffalo hunting days of 130 years ago, around when my grandmother was born. They were used not because they were traditional but because they lasted better than wool "store-bought" pants, up to two years from what I've read. That may not sound like very long but that's all they wore, same pair, until they wore out. Don't know where they came from.

 

[Clouston98]

Although I'm from a place where traditions ran deep, I never heard of anyone mentioning leather pants or britches when I was little. I expect they haven't been used since the buffalo hunting days of 130 years ago, around when my grandmother was born. They were used not because they were traditional but because they lasted better than wool "store-bought" pants, up to two years from what I've read. That may not sound like very long but that's all they wore, same pair, until they wore out. Don't know where they came from.

Now that's what you call hardwearing - ooh I've just remembered a chap on here from the states posted a pair of leather trousers he'd made - can't for the life of me remember who/ when / where but I'll try and dig it out if I can .

 

[Hibrion]

I've been hunting in mainland Europe where quite a few locals wear leather trousers. They were not traditional, but merely modern style trousers made of leather. They hold up well against thorns and the like and seemed to work well. They certainly looked well used anyway.

I wear leather jeans on the bike and that sometimes involves camping. They work well, but I doubt I'd want to be hiking in them. perhaps something like buckskin would be more breathable. I may even get a chance to brain tan some hides before the end of the season and make some.

 

[Clouston98]

I've been hunting in mainland Europe where quite a few locals wear leather trousers. They were not traditional, but merely modern style trousers made of leather. They hold up well against thorns and the like and seemed to work well. They certainly looked well used anyway.

Sounds good - almost like motorbike leathers .

Here's a link I found and one from Hamish too:

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=120132&highlight=Leather+trousers

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=114836&highlight=Leather+trousers

 

[Clouston98]

I've been hunting in mainland Europe where quite a few locals wear leather trousers. They were not traditional, but merely modern style trousers made of leather. They hold up well against thorns and the like and seemed to work well. They certainly looked well used anyway.

I wear leather jeans on the bike and that sometimes involves camping. They work well, but I doubt I'd want to be hiking in them. perhaps something like buckskin would be more breathable. I may even get a chance to brain tan some hides before the end of the season and make some.

Ah now that's something I'll look forward to seeing!

 

[Hibrion]

It's on the ever growing 'to do' list; along with several canvas items I might add.

 

[Clouston98]

It's on the ever growing 'to do' list; along with several canvas items I might add.

Sounding even better! Whatever you make be sure to show us your pics so we can have a drool .

 

[BlueTrain]

I totally forgot! When I was stationed in southern Germany in the 1960s, it was not at all unusual to see men wearing leather knee pants, lederhosen, which are probably reserved for folksy occasions these days, along with leather shorts. Some that I saw certainly looked well used and shiny.

 

[Clouston98]

I totally forgot! When I was stationed in southern Germany in the 1960s, it was not at all unusual to see men wearing leather knee pants, lederhosen, which are probably reserved for folksy occasions these days, along with leather shorts. Some that I saw certainly looked well used and shiny.

Yeah - leather trousers are one thing but I doubt you'd ever catch me camping in Lederhosen ...

 

[Laurentius]

Or frequenting the Blue Oyster Bar.

 

[Clouston98]

Or frequenting the Blue Oyster Bar.

 

[BlueTrain]

I was just thinking of what was probably the last noteworthy thing I acquired, as a gift, too, last Christmas. It wasn't stainless steel or aluminum or titanium but tinned steel. Yeah, it's a reproduction of an old French mess kit/gamelle and not terribly practical but I've been using it. I'm happy with it and it seems worth mentioning at this point. It still looks too new, though. I've picked up a couple of pocket knives but they almost don't count.

After studying the big photos for a while, I notice you have some other traditional gear that isn't backpacking stuff, like the lantern and I think the cast iron pot in the corner. They of course could be camp equipment and even backpacking gear but not something you'd take if you were going out by yourself. But I did notice a couple of other things I have a question about.

In the full layout photo, what is the oval object below the belt pouch, next to the watch cap? It isn't the tinderbox, which has a different shape. Also, on the tinderbox, what is the little round "compartment" on the lid? Or is that just an opening in the cover?

Is there insect repellent anywhere there?

 

[Clouston98]

I was just thinking of what was probably the last noteworthy thing I acquired, as a gift, too, last Christmas. It wasn't stainless steel or aluminum or titanium but tinned steel. Yeah, it's a reproduction of an old French mess kit/gamelle and not terribly practical but I've been using it. I'm happy with it and it seems worth mentioning at this point. It still looks too new, though. I've picked up a couple of pocket knives but they almost don't count.

After studying the big photos for a while, I notice you have some other traditional gear that isn't backpacking stuff, like the lantern and I think the cast iron pot in the corner. They of course could be camp equipment and even backpacking gear but not something you'd take if you were going out by yourself. But I did notice a couple of other things I have a question about.

In the full layout photo, what is the oval object below the belt pouch, next to the watch cap? It isn't the tinderbox, which has a different shape. Also, on the tinderbox, what is the little round "compartment" on the lid? Or is that just an opening in the cover?

Is there insect repellent anywhere there?

That sounds really nice and almost civil war in style . Picture think the thing you mean is the leather pouch for the tinderbox, or possibly another pouch I made from fur. The little lid has a fresnel lens in it for solar fire . I don't often take insect repellent - unless we are in Scotland in the summer, I have some life systems stuff and it's not great and we have a few headsets we take if it's really bad. I do keep meaning to get some of the stupidly simple stuff - it looks much better.

In other news today I gutted, skinned and butchered a whole young deer we found dead on a back road. It was still warm to the touch and it wasn't there yesterday as we passed. Blood hadn't even coagulated and it's great meat. Took lots of photos which are stuck on my phone but I shall try to upload them soon .

 

[BlueTrain]

There are insects in Scotland? Well, uh, I, uh, don't know what to say.

White tail deer abound where I live in the suburbs of Washington, DC. Many meet their end on the roads. One Sunday afternoon a year or two ago, someone knocked on our door to inform us there was an injured deer in the yard beside the house. I went out to see and sure enough, there was. We believed he had two broken hips. The passersby had already called animal control, who came out about 30 minutes later. The animal control officer, a young woman younger than my daughter, killed it with two shots from a .22 rimfire rifle, then went off and left it. I dragged it away to a low spot on the common property on the other side of our fence and covered it with leaves. This was during cold weather and there was never an odor. But within a week, the carcass had mostly been stripped clean by "the creatures of the night," probably foxes.