Axe, Stove & Tarp help

[eskimo]

Hi Guys, I have a buget of about £135 for an Axe, Stove & Tarp.

I was looking at :

Primus etaPacklite which I have found for £60 online
GB Wildlife Hatchet which I found for £45 online
And a Tatonka Tarp for £45

This obviously brings me over buget, can anyone recomend any alternatives?

Regards

 

[Landy_Dom]

What kind of fuel were you thinking of for the stove? I got a Gelert copy of the MSR pocket rocket gas stove for £11

And you can get DD (light but fragile) or army surplus (tough but heavy) tarps for around £30 - I have one of each!

Dom.

 

[Shewie]

What about a Honey stove paired up with a Tatonka meths burner, great set to have in the pack.

DD tarps are good for the money, I have both the 3x3m and 3x4.5m.

The GB is a good tool but there are good alternatives out there.

 

[eskimo]

Cheers for the answers guys. I want a gas stove but ideally with remote canister as I will be climbing some cold peaks and am wanting to be able to warm the gas if possible. I bought a Estwing axe the other day for a great price but don't like it at all so have decided to get one with a wooden shaft.

Screwfix sell an axe which looks like a GB for £11.45 http://www.screwfix.com/prods/28420/Hand-Tools/Hammers-Axes/Axes-Mauls/Forge-Steel-Hickory-Handle-Axe-1-lb which looks o.k but I used to own a GB and was very happy with the quality.

I heard some great reviews on the DD tarps so will perhaps look at their website.

The web is great for finding bargains but a nightmare to find them all in the same place.

Thanks again

 

[Landy_Dom]

i got an off canister conversion from Brunton for £15 which fits my stove

 

[bushcraft_lad]

Do they have to be brand new ?
if not then a simple DPM tarp is £10 of British military surplus
axe; You can go with a GB or the one from screwfix but i would advise you to spend some cash on this item
stove; you can find msr pocket rocket stove's on e bay for cheap the boil water in minutes
also get a small folding saw(bacho Laplander) it is easier to use than a axe,safer,and need little training.

regards,Jordan

 

[Nat]

Axe - Husqvava's £25
Folding Saw - Aldis £2:49 Med or Fine toothed
Tarp - DD 3m x 3m Tarp or USMCpro Elite Tarp - £35 OR Issue Tarp £10 - £25
Gas Stove Gelert Micro £14 or Coleman Alpine - has a tube from the gas cannister to the stove and a good stable base

 

[TREETOP]

I'd stick with the Tatonka Tarp as going for a cheaper one is false economy in my opinion but the dd are good just not as good.

 

[spiritwalker]

Do they have to be brand new ?
if not then a simple DPM tarp is £10 of British military surplus
axe; You can go with a GB or the one from screwfix but i would advise you to spend some cash on this item
stove; you can find msr pocket rocket stove's on e bay for cheap the boil water in minutes
also get a small folding saw(bacho Laplander) it is easier to use than a axe,safer,and need little training.

regards,Jordan

I agree this after buying an axe and subsequently a folding saw in hindsight i would not have bought the axe, the saw for me makes light work of felling trees up to 6inchs wide and sawing up fire wood much safer and in my opinion less workload than an axe although the axe does have kudos :-D

in respect to a stove if your on a budget go for a swiss volcano stove (with or without a meths burner) which will cover all your options or a swiss army trangia or regular trangia. They are very reliable no moving parts and cheap to fuel speed is never really an issue to me i can wait 7 mins for a brew when surrounded by nature it passes by quick. Gas to me = noise and ive never quite cracked the art of gauging how much fuel i need or have left which leads to carrying more than i need.

saw = £3-20 depending on what you get i got bahcos at £12.99
swiss volcano stove = £10
which would leave you lots of cash left to buy yourself a tarp plus anything else you fancied

 

[ged]

Hi Guys, I have a buget of about £135 for an Axe, Stove & Tarp. [e.g.]
Primus etaPacklite which I have found for £60 online
GB Wildlife Hatchet which I found for £45 online
And a Tatonka Tarp for £45
This obviously brings me over buget, can anyone recomend any alternatives?

Unless I was going to become a logger I wouldn't dream of spending that much on a hatchet. You can get something like a machete for less than a tenner at hardware stores and many markets. A machete is a lot more versatile and will still cut through surprising lumps of wood. I have two cheap Brazilian things, one is machete-like but the other is a lot heavier. Although it's still the same basic arrangement and the blade is about the same thickness, it's about twice as wide so there's a lot more metal and it feels a lot heftier when you swing it. It easily splits sawn logs up to three or four inches in diameter (much bigger than that and I'd use a proper axe or a maul anyway, not a hatchet). I'm sure I only paid about eight pounds for it but it was a few years ago. If I were going on an expedition and I had to choose between that and an axe I'd take that. A parang is more versatile still but also seemingly more difficult to find and more expensive. Anyway you're already back under budget and you can stock up on gas cannisters!

 

[Nonsuch]

Decathlon tarp - about £20. Fantastic quality and comes with poles as well

NS

 

[alecf]

I've got a primus gravity II gas stove. Was £50 from cotswolds (minus whatever discount you get, 20% for me). Its got the separate gas thingy, as well as a pre-heater tube for operating in cold temperatures. Oh and a nifty little piezo.

 

[Lee Wright]

Another recommendation for the Husky hatchets, got six for our explorers and they've just had a full weekend of being hammered in the woods while they were building their shelters and keeping the fires going throughout the day for cooking. Keep their edge well and look very traditional if thats what you like!

I use a decathlon tarp, think I paid a tenner for it off evilbay. Put the poles in storage and wombled some ally pegs and I cant fault it, not had loads of hammer due to me usually just taking a bivvy bag when I go out climbing but it's always been dependable when I have used it.

Using the money you've saved on the above I'd be inclined to spend the rest of the cash on a solid multi-fuel stove like an MSR so that you're not just limited to gas. I'd love to recommend something from personal experience but I never moved on from my Volcano stove (apart from an Optimus 99 that I bought because it was cool!) so thats as much advice as I can give.

Hope that didn't confuse things even more!

Cheers, Lee.