A Spring Wander With Some New Gear

Mistwalker

Mistwalker

Gold Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2007
Messages
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One of my current projects has me wandering through the spring woods and testing a few things in various conditions. One of them is a pretty nifty new piece of kit, so I thought I'd share a few photos of it here, and the spring woods I have been wandering through in the process.

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Lots of color popping out now

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The dreaded “leaves-of-three” that may as well be the state flower here...

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The Solomon's Seal is up and going

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And the Autumn Olive is blooming

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She seems to have put on some weight...

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The knife sheath on my belt is almost always well set up for fire craft. Something about having sever frost bite in both feet had a major impact on my thinking there I suppose...

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But this is the new piece of kit I have been playing with...

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The caps can be removed more than once, but they don't come off very easily, which is good for a zipper pull. Would be quite annoying if they easily came off during the normal day to day zipping. So since the ends of the cord are melted and need to be released from the core anyway, I would suggest that if you are in a hurry to just cut the tab off. Though you would loose about an inch of cord it's still enough to start a fire with very little prep.

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I was able to ignite it with one strike from a new rod, so I am really happy with them so far.

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There was a lite rain yesterday evening, last night, and most of the morning, so I thought today would be a good day to try the tinder zips out wet. When I headed out the sky was pretty gray, but the rain was lite and didn't last much longer.

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Doc, I am thinking this is hickory

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Not knowing for sure what the weather was going to do, I took a knife that is less environmentally sensitive, being made out of CPM S35VN and micarta. I like the way it rides on my bottle carrier so it lives there most of the time :)

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The orange makes spotting my gear pretty easy if I set it down

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The small stream is overflowing an old foot bridge across it, so that seemed a good place to leave the zipper pull for a while so it could get wet. Then I gathered the materials for the fire from some downed tree tops in the immediate area.

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Twenty minutes later I retrieved the zipper pull from the water, cut the tab off, separated the cord, used the tip of the knife to fluff the ends,and started the fire. Just as before, the first spark to touch the end of the cord ignited it. Less than fourteen minutes after retrieving the pull from the water, working at a rather leisurely pace, I had sustained fire. I am happy with it as a contingency plan, and ordered some more of them for other packs and kits.

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Last edited:
That Fiddleback and the sheath are awesome! The grain in that wood is stunning.
 
Nice kit, mistwalker. The handle scales on the Fiddleback are gorgeous. Missed tknife's post - he beat me to it. I especially like the plant pictures. Is that Buckeye below the Tulip Poplar?
 
DOC-CANADA said:
Nice kit, mistwalker. The handle scales on the Fiddleback are gorgeous. Missed tknife's post - he beat me to it. I especially like the plant pictures. Is that Buckeye below the Tulip Poplar?
Click to expand...

I am not sure what it is yet Doc, some things I am still working on a positive ID of :) .
 
great pics as usual mist

im going to have to try some of those zipper pulls too
 
Beautiful pics, buddy. You eye is excellent.


What knife is it? Hiking buddy? Specially made for you? Tell me more about the rig, please.
 
VANCE said:
great pics as usual mist

im going to have to try some of those zipper pulls too
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Thanks man. I tried them wet earlier today. Then decided to order some more :)


Rockywolf said:
Beautiful pics, buddy. You eye is excellent.

What knife is it? Hiking buddy? Specially made for you? Tell me more about the rig, please.
Click to expand...


Thanks Rocky. The knife is a KE Bushie with some really nice iron wood for scales. The sheath is the brown version of a Martin sheath I think you might be more used to seeing in black :)
 
Thanks for taking us along! I always enjoy your rambles, equipment reviews and photos of plant life. :thumbup:
 
Excellent post!
I was expecting the tinderpull to be simple paracord. 'Had me fooled...
 
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