sleeping in wool blankets

  • Hey Guest, Early bird pricing on the Summer Moot (29th July - 10th August) available until April 6th, we'd love you to come. PLEASE CLICK HERE to early bird price and get more information.

ledders666

Full Member
Jun 6, 2010
110
7
bath
what is the most comfortable set up to sleep in wool blankets with? I'd like to try it but want to sleep well enough. is it one underneath and one on top? what about the damp ground coming up through?

Thanks
 
Most comfortable way I've found is two blankets.
a really thick un such as the dutch army blanket folded in half beneath me and the another blanket thick or thin folded in half or in a diamond lay to wrap up in.
you can then have three layers of wool beneath you and one on top.

if you can make a natural bed that will solve the damp rising. Or just a layer or three of line needles etc to cushion you somewhat.
It can be done making hollows for hips and shoulders.
 

rg598

Native
In what conditions do you plan on using the blankets? Are you going to travel with them, or are you going to be in a stationary spot? In what weather do you plan on using them?

You can always bring enough blankets to stay warm in any conditions, although the weight will soon become prohibitive if you have to travel with them. Most people who use a wool blanket and travel with it in a backpack, bring just one good blanket.

In anything but warm conditions, you will have to use a fire with the blankets. With one or two blankets, you will not stay warm in cold weather.

If you are in a wet environment, you have to be very careful about where you place the blanket(s). Water will quickly get into them, and not only decrease the insulation, but make them much heavier to carry the next day.

In terms of actual wrapping, Man of Tanith gave a good description.

Keep in mind, even in the old days, when traveling with a blanket was the norm, it was almost always done in connection with a fire which was kept burning through the night. It is difficult to use blankets as a stand alone insulation like we do with sleeping bags today. It requires a different approach. (assuming you don't just bring 20 blankets and set them up next to the car)
 

Big Stu 12

Bushcrafter through and through
Jan 7, 2012
6,028
4
Ipswich
I use blankets durring the warmer nights, and a sleeping bag durring teh colder ones, as MOT says use a thick one folded just for a Mat, then wrap your self in it, it def brings a whole new way of camping back in to your moden day way of life :)....

HAve a go at the Boonie way as well :), Suffolk have a four night Boone challenge in May
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,937
4,570
S. Lanarkshire
Two blankets, one folded in thirds, two layers of which are laid under you, on top of one half of the first blanket. If you do this so that the folded edge of the third fold comes up at the opposite side of the fold over of the 'half' blanket, it means that you have three layers under you and two on top, one of which is wide enough to pull up over your body and the 'third' fold.
No draughts, easy in and out, three layers under you and two above.

Find a bit of brash and sweep the ground before you lay down, and you get used to knowing how to scrape out enough to let your shoulder and hip coorie down into the padded ground.
Personally I wouldn't do it without putting down a bit of oilcloth or the like first, and if you can pack up under you with brash too, it makes for a much more comfortable bed. Heather's good; it's springy :)
In Autumn, leaves are good just because there are so many of them that it's easy to make a big pile. Hay is excellent, fine shingle is surprisingly good. Try and find a south facing bit that's been in the sun through the day, and it's not only drier but sometimes it can keep the heat for a while too.

atb,
M
 

Clouston98

Woodsman & Beekeeper
Aug 19, 2013
4,364
2
25
Cumbria
I'd use two, one smallish mid weight blanket, about 80"x50" underneath, folded a bit. Then a heavy thick large blanket on top, about 90x90 or around that mark anyway. Diamond fashion and do the blanket rap like MOT described, some good youtube videos about that too.

You can add browse bedding underneath in the cold, and always under a tarp or shelter of some sort too. It was 2 degrees Celsius at night on my Boone challenge, I slept like described, was toasty warm with no browse bedding either! Our fire was a good 5 foot from our shelter so we didn't feel a nude amount of heat when we went in at bed time, that was mainly due to the plow point way we set our tarp up, it's canvas so won't and didn't get holes from the fire, but we would have burnt a tree if we'd have had it too close. If you did a lean too style setup you can have the fire really close and be toast warm in most conditions, especially in Britain :).

Hope this helps! Just my experience! :)
 
Last edited:
Nov 29, 2004
7,808
22
Scotland
This video from the North West Woodsman website shows one option...

[video=youtube;Gx38go8-Ig8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx38go8-Ig8[/video]

Not all blankets are equal, on the odd occasion I do sleep out with just a blanket I'm using a very thick Transylvanian rug type blanket which is very very cosy.

:)
 

ledders666

Full Member
Jun 6, 2010
110
7
bath
Great video there im going to order some blankets when I get some spare money and have a go,
do they work wel in hammocks?
 

Nice65

Brilliant!
Apr 16, 2009
6,440
2,864
W.Sussex
I have never got on with balnkets so good luck to those that do (like to wrapped in a sleeping bag)

Me aswell. I have a grade A Dutch Army, but it's weight prevents me using it for anything but car camping, and then I use it as a mat, triple it up and throw a layer over me if it's nippy. I don't find them very warm either, particularly if there's a draught. There's a reason why sleeping bags were invented ;)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Droidy

rg598

Native
“Since the entire camp outfit and food supply must be carried on these journeys, the outfit taken must of necessity be meager. Only a single blanket and a small, light canvas shelter can be taken and to sleep without a fire under such conditions is out of the question. A good hot fire must be kept going and such a fire will consume nearly half a cord of wood during the long northern night...Now, it is not difficult to get together a quantity of blankets that will keep a man warm in the coldest night, but the trouble will come when he wants to transport them. No, you can’t carry with you enough woolen blankets to keep you comfortably warm when traveling the northern trails in midwinter...But when zero weather is to be contended with woolen blankets must take a back seat for the Indian’s kind, woven from strips of rabbit fur.” E.H. Kreps, 1919
 

rik_uk3

Banned
Jun 10, 2006
13,320
24
69
south wales
We used wool blankets in the Scouts but to be honest they were blooming cold and were not as good as the down bag mommy bought for her only son from Blacks... (a Palomine then an Icelandic Special) :)

I can see the appeal of using blankets if your the type who's going the re-enactment route but lets be quite honest if they were any good sleeping bag manufacturers would be out of business.

Nowt so queer as folk so they say so have fun and stay safe with your blankets.
 

Haggis

Nomad
Among the many things I collect, I collect Hudson Bay blankets. I've tried on numerous occasions to sleep "comfortably" on and under them; I'm always cold to the point of shivering, and shivering so horridly I cannot sleep. I'm quite through trying to sleep in cool weather in an unheated tent with only Hudson Bay blankets to hold in my body heat.
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,937
4,570
S. Lanarkshire
This is where my pedantic textile loving self comes into play.

Modern wool blankets beat old ones hands down. They are woven thick and then fulled. We all know the difference between a generic 'blanket' and the heavyweight Dutch and Belgian army ones. Night and Day, they really are.
Old ones, including the Hudson Bay ones which are / were, supposed to be the ultimate, are still thinner than either of those two.

Highlanders in my country slept in their plaids. I've slept in mine and been very comfortable indeed. Better than a sleeping bag ? hmmm, certainly easier to carry around, since it's 'worn' rather than packed.

The northern American cord of wood is generally poor stuff and burns at a ferocious rate, in the UK we burn hardwoods for preferance and they do last a heck of a lot longer. I can still see Mors pleased surprise at how little and how long our fires lasted. Lot less work to prep the wood for overnight.

There's one enormous point that folks are excluding from the equation too. Modern living is generally with central heating. That's only common within the past fifty years or so. I still can't sleep comfortably in a heated bedroom, and I'm not alone in that.
It's all very well to say that you're comfortable outdoors during the daytime, but it's a different thing at night.

It's normal to feel cold. Humanity has managed it for millennia :D and managed to make themselves comfortable.

Big part of the whole bushcraft thing is to carry less by knowing more; to learn to make from natural resources, to learn to be part of the cycle of nature.

I can spin, I can weave, I can felt, I can make a wool blanket :D
I know how plastic textiles are made, but without a laboratory and factory facilities I can't make them.

Each to their own :D

M
 
Nov 29, 2004
7,808
22
Scotland
"..Highlanders in my country slept in their plaids. I've slept in mine and been very comfortable indeed. Better than a sleeping bag ? hmmm, certainly easier to carry around, since it's 'worn' rather than packed..."

Which is one of the reasons it was outlawed.

From the Times newspaper of the day...


"The advocates of the ban argued that the Highland dress distinguished the Highlanders from the rest of British subjects and bound them together in a narrow introverted community: that the plaid, in particular, encouraged their idle way of life, “lying about upon the heath in the daytime instead of following some lawful employment”; that, being “composed of such colours as altogether in the mass so nearly resemble the heath on which they lie, that it is hardly to be distinguished from it until one is so near them as to be within their power”, it facilitated their robberies and depredations; that it made them, “as they carry continually their tents about them”, ready to join a rebellion at a moment's notice."

:)
 

Goatboy

Full Member
Jan 31, 2005
14,956
17
Scotland
This is where my pedantic textile loving self comes into play.

Modern wool blankets beat old ones hands down. They are woven thick and then fulled. We all know the difference between a generic 'blanket' and the heavyweight Dutch and Belgian army ones. Night and Day, they really are.
Old ones, including the Hudson Bay ones which are / were, supposed to be the ultimate, are still thinner than either of those two.

Highlanders in my country slept in their plaids. I've slept in mine and been very comfortable indeed. Better than a sleeping bag ? hmmm, certainly easier to carry around, since it's 'worn' rather than packed.

The northern American cord of wood is generally poor stuff and burns at a ferocious rate, in the UK we burn hardwoods for preferance and they do last a heck of a lot longer. I can still see Mors pleased surprise at how little and how long our fires lasted. Lot less work to prep the wood for overnight.

There's one enormous point that folks are excluding from the equation too. Modern living is generally with central heating. That's only common within the past fifty years or so. I still can't sleep comfortably in a heated bedroom, and I'm not alone in that.
It's all very well to say that you're comfortable outdoors during the daytime, but it's a different thing at night.

It's normal to feel cold. Humanity has managed it for millennia :D and managed to make themselves comfortable.

Big part of the whole bushcraft thing is to carry less by knowing more; to learn to make from natural resources, to learn to be part of the cycle of nature.

I can spin, I can weave, I can felt, I can make a wool blanket :D
I know how plastic textiles are made, but without a laboratory and factory facilities I can't make them.

Each to their own :D

M

Good post M,

I too cant abide a hot room to sleep in. Not that that's a problem in my draughty old place! When I've been in hospital I have a heck of a time with the heat in there. The nurses would be trying to shuffle me under the blankets and I was melting. I do tend to give off a lot of heat when sleeping - my ex said it was like sleeping next to the boiler. Still always nice to hear I'm hot stuff:eek:.
Belzeebob and I have picked up wool blankets from various places, (internet and the Comrie Cancer Club shop - great place, things cost buttons, rammed full of stuff and raise huge amounts for charity - not like the gentrified shops elsewhere).
A wool blanket either as insulation from the ground of worn when sitting outside 'round the crackling fire at night is braw! Makes you feel good.
On the wood front yup a hardwood fire (if you have the right species) is much longer lasting. Also the Frontier Stove in my Tipi doesn't like too much softwood due to the tar build up in the flue. Though 'tis great for a quick heat of getting the fire going initially.
Used to burn greasy roots (the non-rotted star shaped roots ploughed up by the tractor in the fire up north. But the were too hot and melted the grate and chimney liner in the end. And a pile of pine knots (stubs of branches) from a rotted log are a great addition to get the fire heat up too. Remember Mr Mears talking about them in a program of his and how the Indians used to leave a pile by the fire site when moving on to help the next person. A nice wee practice that could be a life saver.
So yup a wool blanket or two for me and your right about the plaid too - toasty practical thing - though can leave important bits open to midge and clegg when wandering about in the summer:rolleyes:
 

rg598

Native
It's very true that these days we expect a level of comfort when in the woods and even at home, which was unthinkable 200 years ago. Being cold was just part of life.

E.H. Kreps is probably referring to pine when talking about the wood he burns. The amount would be significantly smaller if using wood like oak or hickory.

The point of the Kreps quote was not to calculate the amount of wood needed, but it was just the most concise description of sleeping out with a wool blanket that I have seen.

From all the sources I have been able to find, from the 1700s through the early 1900s, people didn't expect to stay warm while sleeping in the woods with just blankets. Except in emergencies, the blanket was used together with a fire. It was a different sleep system, and we can not do a direct comparison to a modern sleep system. We can not just replace a sleeping bag with a blanket or two and expect to stay warm in the same way.

I think we should also remember that the woodsmen we read about and their gear lists which we examine, were pushing the limits of what was possible. It is hard to apply the same gear lists to the comfort oriented camping we do. It is the same as looking at the gear Ulei Steck used to climb Annapurna and then thinking that a 0C bag with no pad is all that is needed for the rest of us under those conditions.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk
 

BCUK Shop

We have a a number of knives, T-Shirts and other items for sale.

SHOP HERE