Orange is the New Black

[Toddy]

Even garish tartans disappear on a hillside. It's context really isn't it ?

Personally I like the stick on reflective stuff. It means that if I drop something and have to look for it, often just moving my point of view, turning my head a bit, can give me a 'flash' that lets me see it. Also, it means that shining a light on it really does show it up.

I bought metres of reflective tape meant for sewing onto cyclists or runners clothing. Even if you use paracord, just weave some of this into the braid, and it'll reflect.

M

 

[demographic]

I'm a big fan of stuff like knife handles being brightly coloured, if its in my hand or its sheath its not too visible anyway and if its in amongst a load of leaves it should be easy to see.
Having said that, I bought a secondhand Manly Wasp with what a mate described as Minecraft Grass Cammo (its actually a type of Digicam) and its my favourite penknife, however, if Id bought it new I'd have gone for blaze orange scales instead. I'll worry about that if I ever lose it.
Mind, I'm not one of those people who puts a knife into a bit of wood when I'm not using it, it goes back into it's sheath or my pocket depending on its type.
I'm not putting into wood so I can faff on taking pics to look reet herbacious bordercrafty for Instagram.

 

[Kav]

Years ago, I was a student worker
In a local college with agricultural Science history. I was using up my G I Bill. So, I’m working in a orange orchard, and as a joke, wore olive fatigues with orange circles.
Ronald Reagan came on a campaign swing. I’m up a tree mending a torn branch with tar.
Secret Service kicks everyone out.
Well, they had to dodge a very aggressive goose, matron of a large gaggle of abandoned fowl.
Orchard manager, a hippie Jethto Tull type made them wait while he gathered them into the pen.
They never saw me. From my perch overlooking the sports stadium I had a clear ‘shot’ of the Gipper. He opened with ‘ I hear you have a pretty good football team here?’ 95% reaction, We have a football team? I had met Ronnie as a child, another story.
I came down as local residents were allowed in that afternoon to pick fruit. Iranian lady laughed at my outfit. Mable the goose ‘ goosed her’ in a vulnerable spot for getting to close to her eggs.
Mable came over, lay her head on my lap as the limousines poured out.
Gear is like the Cheshire Cat; fading to a smile in front of us.

 

[TeeDee]

Please look up the California State Flower. Then look up our periodic ‘Superblooms.’ Orange can blend in with lesser colors of fall. Bright Blue is another option

Yes no doubt , but 90% of the people here on this forum Bushcraft UK are based in the United Kingdom - so yes the location is an important consideration for any activity. The advice offered is predominately offered for the majority not the minority.

Your Mileage May Vary.

 

[grainweevil]

I don't find orange terribly visible - perhaps just how my rods and cones do their thing - so opted for neon yellow green reflective para cord. Probably meant to be guy line I imagine, as it's 2mm stuff, but it makes for an effective eye-catcher for my purposes, without adding quite as much bulk and weight as the larger diameter cord.

 

[Woody girl]

I now use a luminous pink cord. It's not very bushcrafty or popular colour, but I know it's mine, so do others. It shows up well too.

 

[Ozmundo]

Pink is good. Very useful for visibility in and underwater too!

 

[Dave Budd]

All of the tools I use in the woods are painted forestry pink (hot fluorescent pink used to mark trees). I've found orange paint vanishes into the leaflitter and bracken from late summer right through to the spring, which is when I am working outside. I'm not concerned with pretty, I just don't like losing things. I also have a pink ball on the tow hitch of my tractor in an effort to save my kneecaps!

I've also got some reflective tape on things that are trail markers used by folks navigating by torch (to the toilet for example).

I used to use glow in the dark powder mixed with resin in some of my bushcraft knives, but about 16 or 17 years or so switched to putting a tritium phial in the handles instead. Works great if you put it down and need to find it, but the tritium is quite small so still gets lost in leaf litter at night.

 

[Broch]

It is amazing how many bright colours there are in nature. I bought the brightest fluorescent green and yellow fletched arrows; they still get lost in the bramble scrub which contains every tone of red, orange, yellow and green you can imagine

 

[Jared]

Pink is good. Very useful for visibility in and underwater too!

Unless want to hide your land rover in the desert

An Original SAS Land Rover Series 2A 109 Pink Panther - The "Pinkie"

The Pink Panther, often referred to as the "Pinkie", is a heavily customised Land Rover Series 2A built for British Special Air Service desert warfare

silodrome.com

 

[forrestdweller]

my "outer layer" (=shoulder bag, tool belt, backpack) still comes in colours blending into my surroundings (==result of too many bad encounters with two-legged predators) -- although only my 18year old ponch comes in camo, the rest is olive or khaki. items inside the bags are either attached with lanyards or have bright handles (f.i. pocketboy in blue) to avoid loosing them. i once spent half an hour looking for my shoulder bag at dusk when hanging it onto a tree whilst looking for some bamboo, so i carry some marker tape now for such an occasion.

 

[Nice65]

All of the tools I use in the woods are painted forestry pink (hot fluorescent pink used to mark trees). I've found orange paint vanishes into the leaflitter and bracken from late summer right through to the spring, which is when I am working outside. I'm not concerned with pretty, I just don't like losing things. I also have a pink ball on the tow hitch of my tractor in an effort to save my kneecaps!

I've also got some reflective tape on things that are trail markers used by folks navigating by torch (to the toilet for example).

I used to use glow in the dark powder mixed with resin in some of my bushcraft knives, but about 16 or 17 years or so switched to putting a tritium phial in the handles instead. Works great if you put it down and need to find it, but the tritium is quite small so still gets lost in leaf litter at night.

Apologies for not editing the post to leave the last bit Dave, but this Embrite stuff is worth a go. Turboglow is another one that glows for hours. The GITD stuff has come on a bit since the resin and powder mixing days.

Glow-Fobs & GID Patches

Glow in the Dark TEC Accessories Embrite Glow-Fobs, Glow-Rods and Glow-Dots, GID Morale Patches, CountyComm Maratac UGM Glow-Skulls, Tabs and Markers, RovyVon Ti Firefly

edcgear.co.uk

 

[demographic]

It is amazing how many bright colours there are in nature. I bought the brightest fluorescent green and yellow fletched arrows; they still get lost in the bramble scrub which contains every tone of red, orange, yellow and green you can imagine

Very little blue in nature.
Given the choice thats the colour I spray onto my worktools (as well as engraving my name and postcode on them) so they can be seen as mine from.a distance.
It's just that blue marker paint cos I picked a tin out the skip yonks ago and just kept with that colour ever since.

Thats not outdoor kit, just carpentry tools and just done to differentiate my kit from everyone else on a large site but it works.
I have a Svord Peasant in the same colour but its a long thing to have in my back pocket so nowadays I have a different penknife in a far less practical colour.

 

[billycoen]

I wrap blue,red and yellow leccy tape around bits of kit,i don't know why i bother,i'm colour blind.

 

[Woody girl]

I once "lost" my hammock in the early hours of the morning in pouring rain when I went to use the loo block at the moot several years ago.
It was set a way back off the path, and I had not marked it. Being brown, my torch just didn't pick it up, and I must have walked past it a dozen times before I finaly found it, soaked to the skin, freezing cold and raging to myself that I had left no marker to be able to find it again.
Lesson learned! If I'm off the beaten track by more than a few yards, I leave some reflective ribbon tied to the ridgeline so the headlamp can pick it up, or a light on inside it.

 

[JonathanD]

I’ve never used bright orange stuff to prevent losing my gear. I find that kit discipline and not getting drunk at night negates its use. Relying on slapping bright shiny bright colours on your kit makes you lazy and even more prone to losing your kit. Unless you plan on getting squiffy around camp, then it’s a wise choice.

 

[Kav]

Yes no doubt , but 90% of the people here on this forum Bushcraft UK are based in the United Kingdom - so yes the location is an important consideration for any activity. The advice offered is predominately offered for the majority not the minority.

Your Mileage May Vary.

You forgot to ski off the mountain with bullets wizzing past, drop your skis and pull the ripcord to deploy a Union Jack parachute
With Adele singing there 007.
I posted a simple EXAMPLE.

 

[TeeDee]

You forgot to ski off the mountain with bullets wizzing past, drop your skis and pull the ripcord to deploy a Union Jack parachute
With Adele singing there 007.
I posted a simple EXAMPLE.

And I replied to your pedantic little posting for why for the majority of us using the forum why your singular USA specific exception could be ignored. You seem to get off in looking into threads and then choosing to post obtuse little counter arguments for nothing more then minute ego points for some vapid unrelated counter argument. Maybe go take inventory of yourself.

 

[demented dale]

I just put a strip of yellow insulating tape on axe handle, knife and saw etc. Very simple works fine. it also pays to remember where I put things. x

 

[Pattree]

I’ve never used bright orange stuff to prevent losing my gear. I find that kit discipline and not getting drunk at night negates its use. Relying on slapping bright shiny bright colours on your kit makes you lazy and even more prone to losing your kit. Unless you plan on getting squiffy around camp, then it’s a wise choice.

Not a wild camper then Jonathan?

No one is suggesting that we shower our kit over the forest floor.

To suggest that I never mislay or drop the occasional item couldn’t be true of a frequent wild camper. Trouble it WHICH item. From time to time it could be anything.

It’s probably my ferro rod on a wet night when I’ve just got a flame. Maybe it’s my secateurs at suppertime. Like others, a bit of insulation tape works wonders. That and I rope and chain stuff to myself.