sorry if i ask a daft question, but should'nt the metall distract the compass?!
Yes. It would but you can allow for it to a certain extent by mounting the compass where it's equally affected in all directions. Not something you could do on a stick tang handles unless you balanced the blade with a tiny magnet or something.
In the days before gyro compasses they would line up the whole ship or aircraft so the compass was pointing precisely magnetic north and then adjust magnets or lumps of iron around the compass until the card lined up. I think it was called "being swung". I used to have a chart ( lost it when I sold the book on, d'oh!) that showed the distance you had to be from certain objects such as a rifle , tin hat, jeep, before the amount the compass was out was negligible. I always laugh when I see in a war film some guy sighting a hand compass sitting in a jeep, getting a excellent bearing on where the engine block is.
To be honest these days all I really use a compass for is for vaguely aligning the map. I've not forgotten how to use one, not having it drummed in at O, A and Degree level and a lot of miles trudging over moors in fog and and on a couple of occasions white outs, just the terrain normally shows you were you are if you keep track of where you've just been.
atb
tom
