Does your kit shine or attract flies?

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Moine

Forager
The only single part of my kit that is clean and shiney is the edge of my blades... The rest is all dirty, beat up and abused. I hate new things. I feel like they have no "soul". For this same reason I like old houses, old jeans, and old cars... and old people too.

Cheers,

David
 

Kim

Nomad
Sep 6, 2004
473
0
50
Birmingham
Rule number 27, never trust a person with a clean shiny bicycle...

This rule also applies to kit, if it's too clean and too shiny then either they don't use it enough, or they have too much time on their hands. It can be clean, but it needs to be a bit rough around the edges, or it can be shiny and a bit scuffed...but both...I'm generally VERY suspicious of anyone whose too clean and shiny!!!
 

Squidders

Full Member
Aug 3, 2004
3,853
15
48
Harrow, Middlesex
If I had used my kit day in-day out for years, some of it WILL need replacing... when replacing kit, I prefer to buy new. I'm still trust worthy :roll:

Besides that, I would assume Gary is a very trust worthy person but he gets through kit like there's no tomorrow... Always got something new. I think he, like most of us is gradually working his way through every single product on the planet until he finds the holy grail (pink flamingo tent pegs) of perfect kit.

It's like assuming someone with a clean car is a bad driver... It's always hard to look like a newbee but I don't worry about other peoples thoughts on me.

Joe
 

Kim

Nomad
Sep 6, 2004
473
0
50
Birmingham
Squidders said:
It's like assuming someone with a clean car is a bad driver... It's always hard to look like a newbee but I don't worry about other peoples thoughts on me.

Joe

I was only joking... :wink: although I wouldn't trust Gary with or without clean kit...!!! :wink: :eek:):

It really depends on what I've been doing as to how deeply my kit gets cleaned or not. If it's just the smell of woodsmoke that's permeating my swanni, then I won't bother, but if there's loads of dirt, mud and bad weather involved then things will get a little more attention than normal.
 

maddave

Full Member
Jan 2, 2004
4,177
39
Manchester UK
I keep my kit clean. There's nothing wrong with looking after it, but like my billy, it's got black over time but I don't polish it to a mirror finish, I just clean it. My knife is well oiled, my clothing and basha are proofed now and again and my backpacks get a good hoover out every now and again.

In a nutshell, my kit is clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy :eek:):
 

Realgar

Nomad
Aug 12, 2004
327
1
W.midlands
some of my kit - most notably the inside of bags - causes people to go ewwwww and back away - bad habit of putting found things like flint tools, fossils and fruit in there without wiping them first, then there was that mineral that turned out to be hot....
Realgar
 

grumit

Settler
Nov 5, 2003
816
11
guernsey
i have a mixture of both as i have been replacing some kit over the last couple of months but like squidders i'm a tinkerer so like to keep it clean and tidy all my billys have stash bags to keep the rest of my kit clean and soot free the only thing i don't do is clean the outside's of the billys to much :wave:
 

Gary

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Apr 17, 2003
2,603
2
57
from Essex
Kim said:
I was only joking... :wink: although I wouldn't trust Gary with or without clean kit...!!! :wink: :eek:):

Ermmm well mother told me as long as I had clean underwear I'd be ok! :yikes:

And thanks Joe - nice to know someone trusts me (scribble Kim off christmas card list).

As for kit I am lucky I need to test and evaluate kit so I get to play with loads, that said my day in day out kit is middling between shiney and fly attractingly rotten - a state I call 'WELL USED'

My top tip here is to clean everything after trip and then to repack it in saud clean state - in the army we'd say the exercise isnt over until the kits been cleaned and this is something I still do today - even if I get home in the wee small hours I dont bed down til all my gear is sorted first.
 

bambodoggy

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Nov 10, 2004
3,062
50
49
Surrey
www.stumpandgrind.co.uk
[/QUOTE]My top tip here is to clean everything after trip and then to repack it in saud clean state - in the army we'd say the exercise isnt over until the kits been cleaned and this is something I still do today - even if I get home in the wee small hours I dont bed down til all my gear is sorted first.[/QUOTE]

Myself and my fellow intake of new recruits were beasted round and round our training area for the whole three hours of the first Wednesday after our first weekend away with the TA for not doing what Gary discribes below....a lesson learned very very hard indeed!!!!!!! :yikes:
The following Wednesday the intake seemed to have stangely halved in numbers....lol :rolmao:
 

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