norwegian wool jumper is also good, if you can find one. not very common at all anymore
The ‘F’ word (Fjällraven)
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Used to walk in a Greek Islands wool jumper. Thick, very warm, windproof and shower resistant. Great in winter blizzards where it was below zero. You just had to dust the snow off before you dropped off the hills into the valley and above zero temperatures. Santorini I think the island it came from.
Hi all, first post!
Talking of wool I recently brought a yaks wool jumper (I won't post links as I'm not sure that's allowed) but it can be found on Amazon, great jumper and warmer and softer that lambs wool (yaks wool is one of the warmest) , as someone who travels extensively throughout the Nordics and US Sierra's / Rockies it's become one of my favourite jumpers - if I'm going out in the woods or travelling I'm taking either and or the yaks wool jumper and Fjallraven Greenland jacket or the buffalo mountain shirt
Cheers
Talking of wool I recently brought a yaks wool jumper (I won't post links as I'm not sure that's allowed) but it can be found on Amazon, great jumper and warmer and softer that lambs wool (yaks wool is one of the warmest) , as someone who travels extensively throughout the Nordics and US Sierra's / Rockies it's become one of my favourite jumpers - if I'm going out in the woods or travelling I'm taking either and or the yaks wool jumper and Fjallraven Greenland jacket or the buffalo mountain shirt
Cheers
You can get them online from Norway, very common there.
The most common brand is Dale of Norway. In Norway there are shops with local handcraft, most I have been in sell handmade woolen jumpers.
Plus socks, mittens, hats and other woolen items.
On my Vintage HH, the obly part that needed repair is the finishing band on the sleeves, the part that goes over the knuckles when the thumb is in the hole.
Easily repaired using a strip of soft leather. I used chamois.
Spot on!
A few years ago I went to the Bushcraft Show in Derbyshire and saw a wonderful sight (I wish I taken a picture) of a family walking hand in hand.
Dad looked like he had just won a supermarket sweep at Ray Mears’ Woodlore store - and was dressed head to toe in pristine Fjallraven clobber, fancy boots, rucksack with GB axe attached and what I assume was an expensive knife on his hip.
Daughter (aged about six) was skipping along happily wearing a pink fairy outfit and mum was wearing jeans and sweat shirt and had an expression which suggested that she was not having fun but that the trade off for letting her nearest and dearests wear their fancy dress outfits was that next weekend she would be having a Prosecco fueled pamper day at a spa with her mates!
I have no idea whether the forests were echoing with laughter but there was a fair bit of sniggering at our bushcrafting hero’s expense.
If you absolutely set on purchasing the ladder to bushcrafting Nirvana then crack on but there is still time to change the road you’re on.
I have spent a decent night out with just the kit I could fit in the thigh pocket of my combat trousers - in cold , wet Wales - and that included bedding and shelter!
I can also go out for a weekend or more wearing and using nothing - from billycan to footwear, knife to jacket, basha and hammock to rucksack - that I have not made myself - as long as I go "Commando"!.
Mostly I use a mix of charity shop, home made, "mate made", Army Surplus, Aldi and hugely expensive (but mainly second hand!) specialist kit - the latter usually boots and Frost River big packs
You do not have to spend a fortune on kit but find what you like - the OP is on the right track asking a very good question and getting some very good answers - and spend what is needed to fit your "look", your budget, your activity, your comfort needs, your knowledge and ability level, your safety needs and of course your "oooh! factor
I can also go out for a weekend or more wearing and using nothing - from billycan to footwear, knife to jacket, basha and hammock to rucksack - that I have not made myself - as long as I go "Commando"!.
Mostly I use a mix of charity shop, home made, "mate made", Army Surplus, Aldi and hugely expensive (but mainly second hand!) specialist kit - the latter usually boots and Frost River big packs
You do not have to spend a fortune on kit but find what you like - the OP is on the right track asking a very good question and getting some very good answers - and spend what is needed to fit your "look", your budget, your activity, your comfort needs, your knowledge and ability level, your safety needs and of course your "oooh! factor
jimbo75
Settler
I got a fantastic fjallraven looking cheque over shirt from Sainsbury's last year. It's made of that heavy cotton, and if it had a fjallraven logo on it you would have think it cost a fortune! Thoroughly recommended.
Warm, dry, not thirsty or hungry, somewhere to shelter and something to sleep in and something interesting to learn to do. That more or less covers the essentials. To do that, I need the correct clothing kit.
List everything you take with you for a nice couple of days and overnight out in the woods and compare that with the half bag of gear I have. What would you add to my kit? That’s what I still need to get.
All that glitters is gold...
List everything you take with you for a nice couple of days and overnight out in the woods and compare that with the half bag of gear I have. What would you add to my kit? That’s what I still need to get.
All that glitters is gold...
not a norgie fleecy jumper with a zip - a norwegian army wool jumper - will send oyu a photo when i next have it out, i have only seen one other like it in years
Warm, dry, not thirsty or hungry, somewhere to shelter and something to sleep in and something interesting to learn to do. That more or less covers the essentials. To do that, I need the correct clothing kit.
List everything you take with you for a nice couple of days and overnight out in the woods and compare that with the half bag of gear I have. What would you add to my kit? That’s what I still need to get.
All that glitters is gold...
yeah but you dont need to buy gucchi labelled kit to enjoy it, but hey its your money man!
I got that for £25 too in green check. Got it back to where I was staying and my FiL said it was just his style and he had one once (MiL threw it out as making him look old and scruffy). So I've not worn it and might take it back.
Annoying thing is how it shows image and perception plays on my mind. It's almost a perfect fit and other half says it suits me. I lived in a red one that's similar but warmer as a student in Leeds. I found I could use it to walk a mile to uni in deepest winter cold and but somehow wasn't too warm walking around the department.
I have spent a decent night out with just the kit I could fit in the thigh pocket of my combat trousers - in cold , wet Wales - and that included bedding and shelter!
I can also go out for a weekend or more wearing and using nothing - from billycan to footwear, knife to jacket, basha and hammock to rucksack - that I have not made myself - as long as I go "Commando"!.
Mostly I use a mix of charity shop, home made, "mate made", Army Surplus, Aldi and hugely expensive (but mainly second hand!) specialist kit - the latter usually boots and Frost River big packs
You do not have to spend a fortune on kit but find what you like - the OP is on the right track asking a very good question and getting some very good answers - and spend what is needed to fit your "look", your budget, your activity, your comfort needs, your knowledge and ability level, your safety needs and of course your "oooh! factor
+1
I may lack JF’s DIY skills but I share is sense of thrift.
I live and work on a smallholding at 1200’ on a Welsh hillside and while it is not normally a land of ice and snow it certainly gets more than its fair share of weather.
FWIW - I have some nice kit for mountaineering (and have a bit of a weakness for Swanndri gear) but for working outdoors (it may not be bushcraft but as often as not it involves sharp tools and sometimes setting fire to things), almost every day, whatever the weather I’ll mostly be wearing a random collection of army surplus, waxed cotton, fleece etc. sourced from the Bay of E, charity and surplus shops, members classifieds on here and I doubt whether anything I wear regularly for work has cost more than £30. I have decent boots but unless I am chainsawing or it is very cold, a £20 pair of rigger boots does the job.
It may not be bushcraft chic but I look like Beau Brummell compared with most of my neighbours who in a few weeks will be putting in 24 hour shifts in unheated lambing sheds.
I might be a bit more comfortable in some of the Gucci brands discussed on this thread but IMHO clothes and kit are a means to an end and most people who work outdoors in all weathers manage to do so without wearing fancy branded clothes other than perhaps PPE gear.
A couple of budget items I would highly recommend to the OP are the German army mountain/arctic trousers - heavy duty goretex(ish) outer with full length zips and fleece lining great for standing around in the cold and current British army thermal fleece which has a lovely long back and I live in mine at the moment. Both in inoffensive olive green and khaki and available in new/as new condition for <£20.
Anyway I’ll stop now before I start to ramble on or we have a communication breakdown and the OP gets even more dazed and confused!
I do own some named gear, all of it second hand. I worked my way up to things. Most of my stuff comes from charity shops or I've made myself. Would I go buy a new swandri? No I would not. I've been waiting 10 yrs for one to come my way second hand,... still waiting, meanwhile I made a wool smock type hoody shirt thing that serves the purpose . It doesn't have a fancy label but I wear it with pride.... and I saved myself enough money to go to other things I want to do. After all to me bushcraft is not about the fancy label , it's about being comfortable in the wild with the least amount of stuff. Fancy gear doesn't make you a bushcrafter .
No gear, new and fancy or second hand and scruffy makes you a bushcrafter.
Having said that, it is a difference of being 30 minutes from nearest help or being 3 days from it.
It is important to choose equipment that does not fail when it counts. Be it showlaces, or a fire lighting device. New or old.
The cost does not matter either, everybody should be free to spend the amount he or she feels comfortable with without getting stick!
I am more than happy cooking on my 40 year old, battered Trangia, clad in decades old, slightly holed HH. I am also happy doing that in a pair of supercomfy, ultralight boots that cost a half fortune.
Having said that, it is a difference of being 30 minutes from nearest help or being 3 days from it.
It is important to choose equipment that does not fail when it counts. Be it showlaces, or a fire lighting device. New or old.
The cost does not matter either, everybody should be free to spend the amount he or she feels comfortable with without getting stick!
I am more than happy cooking on my 40 year old, battered Trangia, clad in decades old, slightly holed HH. I am also happy doing that in a pair of supercomfy, ultralight boots that cost a half fortune.
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Spot on!
A few years ago I went to the Bushcraft Show in Derbyshire and saw a wonderful sight (I wish I taken a picture) of a family walking hand in hand.
Dad looked like he had just won a supermarket sweep at Ray Mears’ Woodlore store - and was dressed head to toe in pristine Fjallraven clobber, fancy boots, rucksack with GB axe attached and what I assume was an expensive knife on his hip.
Daughter (aged about six) was skipping along happily wearing a pink fairy outfit and mum was wearing jeans and sweat shirt and had an expression which suggested that she was not having fun but that the trade off for letting her nearest and dearests wear their fancy dress outfits was that next weekend she would be having a Prosecco fueled pamper day at a spa with her mates!
I have no idea whether the forests were echoing with laughter but there was a fair bit of sniggering at our bushcrafting hero’s expense.
If you absolutely set on purchasing the ladder to bushcrafting Nirvana then crack on but there is still time to change the road you’re on.
I think I may have seen that same fella. The dude I'm thinking of also had a compass on his belt lol
You do see some sights there. The two fellas camping together with an open fire plus a frontier stove each next to their camping chairs, which are next to their bushcraft A-frame chairs but a little ways away from their hammocks allways makes me chuckle
The only thing I don't like about swanndri shirts is the label!
Like you I might have one if one comes along cheap enough but I'll be cutting that obtrusive label off first job
I started out doing more interesting walks wearing my dad's cast off work jacket from a previous job that he had never worn because they gave him a cheaper jacket than the job before that. So basically I got his rejects. Cyclone breathable fabric and padded. I got the beginnings of hypothermia but I blame my ignorance not the clothing.
I was ignorant off north York moors on deepest winter. I hadn't enough layers on. I still replaced it with a new brand out called paramo but that was a cheap brand back then because it was so new. Also a birthday present.
My point is clothing doesn't make the outdoors experience better or safer that's your knowledge and experience that'll have a bigger effect. Good clothing does make a difference and price isn't a guarantee.
A cheap HH lifa top worked very well for me for best part of 30 years (13 to 40+ years). I might own better and more expensive but that top worked well.
Brands? Well IMHO you tend to find brands you like that suit you. It's what suits you and your needs not the brand itself. It changes too. Montane was a brand that was made to fit me so I bought their kit (never for full rrp) until I bought a direct replacement for worn out kit and it no longer fitted A sizing change ruined the brand for me. Move on..
The other point is you find your kit after mistake purchases. What I mean is it think you know what you want. Then you use what you buy and realise it isn't right for you. Sell it on buy better next time based on more experience. We can't start with the experience of some of the regular posters on here. Even they didn't.
I was ignorant off north York moors on deepest winter. I hadn't enough layers on. I still replaced it with a new brand out called paramo but that was a cheap brand back then because it was so new. Also a birthday present.
My point is clothing doesn't make the outdoors experience better or safer that's your knowledge and experience that'll have a bigger effect. Good clothing does make a difference and price isn't a guarantee.
A cheap HH lifa top worked very well for me for best part of 30 years (13 to 40+ years). I might own better and more expensive but that top worked well.
Brands? Well IMHO you tend to find brands you like that suit you. It's what suits you and your needs not the brand itself. It changes too. Montane was a brand that was made to fit me so I bought their kit (never for full rrp) until I bought a direct replacement for worn out kit and it no longer fitted A sizing change ruined the brand for me. Move on..
The other point is you find your kit after mistake purchases. What I mean is it think you know what you want. Then you use what you buy and realise it isn't right for you. Sell it on buy better next time based on more experience. We can't start with the experience of some of the regular posters on here. Even they didn't.
Listen, if i’m not going to be handed a freshly ironed Financial Times and a glass of sherry, while lounging in a silk double-breasted dressing gown, i’m not going anywhere. One has standards one must maintain...
Your copy of the FT should also be scented with your preferred eau-de-cologne...
As you say, standards must be maintained.
As you say, standards must be maintained.
Don't forget the foot stool. After a hard day being carried up in a sedan chair you need to put your feet up. If the servants forget it then use one of them instead.
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