The winter is here, though. The roofs are covered by frost all around the celtic capital in every morning now. Time to review my own gears, do a season rotation in my backpack to prepare for winter bushcraft. As I've been selecting clothes and equipments to swap them for a cold weather ones, I've realized that there are things I lack. More precisely, my life would be easier with them in the woods. For example a 100% wool blanket (swedish officer's blanket or an NVA blanket), a pair of toasty, robust wool pants and so on. I've been using US BDU, dutch army sleeping mat and british sleeping bag for such an adventures in wilderness. I know, things mentioned above might sound a little bit old-fashioned, but don't forget: wool is one of the best, if not the best, insulator. Even when it's wet. So, I was surfin on the net for a while and seen loadsa heart-warming, vintage, army stuff and some beautiful handcrafted things as well. I have to admit that I always evaluated the good, old things more than hyper-modern gizmos. Those old crafted products have soul, smell good, call up many memories from our childhood and you can feel the 'sweat n blood' of the wise craftman who made 'em. It does not mean that I'm not glad that we have 1000D Cordura, PALS webbing and military plastic hardwares now. These things are lighter, stronger and more versatile than old waxed canvas, leather and metal buckles. BUT! Remember, all the modern things come from some older, well-developed pattern. Just have a look at the PALS webbing. It's the same method how mankind have been waving baskets or wicker walls. Thus the term 'old' does not necessarily mean 'bad' or 'wrong'. In my opinion old things mean thousands of years of progressing, developing, usage and therefore it's equivalent trustiness, durability and well-tested in my dictionary. I bet you, there are thousands of people out there, who think on the same way about these objects. That's why I'm considering to widen my range with a bushcraft series, when I got a real beast industrial sewing machine. I do bushcraft too and I know that outdoor series are not always fit completely to a bushcrafter's needs. Sometimes they are just to 'shiny' or 'cute-looking' or too thin or kitschy. That's why lots of bushcrafters go for a vintage army stuff. They are kind of old-fashioned guys...on a good way. They don't need this nowadays business glare. They like the good old John Wayne's style 'sleepin in the desert on my wool blanket with my head laid on a saddle' kind a lifestyle. All they need is durability and reliablility. Nutin fancy...and I can truly understand you guys. I'm one of you. Therefore I've decided to do some research on those old school equipments in the upcoming winter. I do belive there are loadsa great techniques to learn about such gear making and it's gonna be fun and an enjoyable challenge to interiorize our grandpa's disappearing knowledge, what I respect so much. This decision means to find sources of quality materials, more tools, studying all the new materials and what kind of techniques they demand to get the most out of them. After this journey to back in time, I hopefully can come up with something like this:
This is a Frost River pack from the States, what I don't want to copy it. I just willing to become one of the guys who has the skill to make a product which is at least this quality for those who love the traditional way of life and honor our forefathers' huge knowledge.
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