Pants

Chris Pierce

Chris Pierce

Joined
Nov 15, 2006
Messages
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While we all know that 'Cotton Kills' I think that there are still a lot of us running around in blue jeans and Carhartts out there. I know I am.
What are you all wearing instead? Has anyone moved completely away from cotton pants?
I'm also interested in carpenter/logger style pants that use a material besides cotton, but still won't burst into flames or melt away when an ember or spark touches them.
I've looking around some, but everything I've seen with enough pockets seem to be "tactical"
Of course there are always wool pants, but I've never tried them.

Who makes wool double front Carhartts? I think that's what I want. :D
 
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Well they ain't cheap, but Filson makes a kick @$$ wool pant that will last you a lifetime.

I also have a pair of heavy wool pants I picked up at (insert huge hunting/fishing chain here). They're pretty well made, and warm, but they're so itchy that I can only wear them with long underwear underneath. Still, for really cold weather, they work well, and if you're patient, you can find them on sale.

A lighter wool option that often gets overlooked is whipcord. It's tough as nails, but lighter than a heavy wool pant. Kind of hard to find though. You might try some military surplus stores.

The one thing I would add when it comes to wool in general is to stay away from cheap 'recycled' wool products. The recycling process chops the wool fiber into shorter strands and strips it of much of its lanolin, which is a large part of what makes wool perform so well.

My favorite 3-season outdoor pants are the Arborwear Tech pants (which I just noticed have jumped quite a bit in price). They're really durable with a good active cut, they dry quickly and they don't look too 'tacti-cool.' Light enough for warm weather, but by layering underneath them I can wear them in cool/cold spring and fall weather as well. I use them for everything from backpacking to fishing to bird hunting and have beat the crap out of them.

Wool Carhartts are a good idea, though... :thumbup::D
 
I stopped wearing cotton except to business meetings into town years ago. However I keep a clothes bag in my vehicle if I need to change in an emergency. Anyway regarding the wilderness I only wear wool or wool blend in the winter. The rest of the warner seasons I wear nylon/poly blends - sometimes with a very low cotton content blend to prevent fire burn holes. I have a wood stove at home plus fire pit. Im in the wilderness frequently around fire. I'm around a lot of fire and the poly/nylon and poly/cotton blends still have no holes in them. These pants dry extremely fast when wet and I'm wet a lot!

There are wool cargo pants and heavy duty double wool pants out there. I'll look up the brands I have and post assuming others do not. My Filson pants rock!
 
5.11 TDU pants. They have done very well. Something like 65/35 poly cotton blend, with a the teflon coating(or whatever it is). Not full waterproof, but in my experience, nothing is. Though to be fair, I haven't tried the $100+ pants I see online, probably never will.

Edit: I am very fond of camp fires, running basically all day. No holes, no tears. My only real gripe is that they are a bit rough against my skin. But I'm also very picky.
 
This time of the year,lined Carhartt pants or R M Williams moleskin.Hate being cold.
 
I am still wearing cotton. My favorite pair of woods trou is from JC Penney. Heavy cotton canvas material, cargo pockets, dark brown, and for the past 8 years or so, totally bulletproof.
 
My problem is a bit of the opposite ,only need warmer wear a few months out of the year,if that.

I very much prefer the 100% cotton ripstop material,bdu trousers seem to work best for outdoor walking about. Going to order up a pair of the cargo shorts made of it,but don't know who makes the best.

Hardest thing is finding a cotton ripstop shirt.
 
I found a stash of "parachute pants" from the 80s in my size. I try to stay away from heat sources, but w/all those pockets, I have lots of room for knives, flashlights, pens, and other stuff.

Another bonus is that I've not startled anyone since I began wearing them again! It seemed that at least once a week I'd walk up to a neighbor's garage and say hello to be greeted by a jump. Now everyone can hear me coming.
 
NeedItCheaper said:
5.11 TDU pants. They have done very well. Something like 65/35 poly cotton blend, with a the teflon coating(or whatever it is). Not full waterproof, but in my experience, nothing is. Though to be fair, I haven't tried the $100+ pants I see online, probably never will.

Edit: I am very fond of camp fires, running basically all day. No holes, no tears. My only real gripe is that they are a bit rough against my skin. But I'm also very picky.
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I love those pants
 
Not pants but yesterday I saw a dealer for the old style Navy Pea Jacket !! I had a real one as a kid and loved it ! Sad day when I outgrew it. The new jacket is made to the old specs including Melton cloth. Melton is all wool with thread tightly twisted and tightly woven.This makes the jacket wind and rain repellant !! Long enough to cover your but and a 4" wide collar keeping the winter winds out . The dealer is in Harriman NY and I'll find the name if you're interestd.
My hunting gear includes overalls ,Navy type which are heavy weight cotton with a wool lining.Nice and warm for sitting in the woods in cold weather.
The good old days !
 
mete said:
Not pants but yesterday I saw a dealer for the old style Navy Pea Jacket !! I had a real one as a kid and loved it ! Sad day when I outgrew it. The new jacket is made to the old specs including Melton cloth. Melton is all wool with thread tightly twisted and tightly woven.This makes the jacket wind and rain repellant !! Long enough to cover your but and a 4" wide collar keeping the winter winds out . The dealer is in Harriman NY and I'll find the name if you're interestd.
My hunting gear includes overalls ,Navy type which are heavy weight cotton with a wool lining.Nice and warm for sitting in the woods in cold weather.
The good old days !
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Not as sad as the day I outgrew my issued Pea Coat! I got way too fat for it! I doubt I'll ever get back to 150 pounds in order to wear it!
 
I used to rock two heavy pair of wool surplus pants. They were a green/grey. Heavy wool. I used them for camping, snow boarding, hunting for decades. If I remember correctly they were like $25. One pair had a "waterproof" lining from the knee down. They were heavy when wet! But I never got frost bite.

I have looked into new wool pants, and besides not being able to really find my size, they are more than gortex other gear. The wool will last longer, but I have moved over to synthetic.

Now?

I have black Columbia snowboarding pants, kind of water resistant, and I have super comfy fleece liners that I sleep in and wear under the hard shell pants. They are not goretex. I have a Cabelas waterproof hard shell, that is water proof, but does not have any zip pits, vents, which is a downer when you overheat.

I still camp/canoe in cotton. Even in winter, I will often have jeans under the nylon pants. I even still snow board with jeans under the pants, if I know the weather will be fine for it (nice dry snow, and cold tempts seem fine, when you don't get wet all day).

I have synthetic hard shell, fleece, synthetic loft layers, and a few goose down vests, and parka's that work fine for cold/dry snow weather.

I am finally getting a set of rain over pants this year. The last camping trip in the rain, I decided I needed a bit better water shedding on the pants, without the extra bulk,heat of the dedicated snow over pants.
 
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I am way past my backpacking years, but I enjoyed it for decades in the Rocky Mountains. Even in summer we had to be prepared for winter conditions so wool was our fiber of choice. I would find a pair of US Air Force wool dress pants at a thrift store, less than $5, gabardine or a nice twill. They were light and baggy, just right for backpacking. In the winter we wore Woolrich knickers and knicker socks for snow country mountaineering, also wool sweaters, poly-blend parka, gaiters, etc.
 
Chris Pierce said:
While we all know that 'Cotton Kills' I think that there are still a lot of us running around in blue jeans and Carhartts out there. I know I am.
What are you all wearing instead? Has anyone moved completely away from cotton pants?
I'm also interested in carpenter/logger style pants that use a material besides cotton, but still won't burst into flames or melt away when an ember or spark touches them.
I've looking around some, but everything I've seen with enough pockets seem to be "tactical"
Of course there are always wool pants, but I've never tried them.

Who makes wool double front Carhartts? I think that's what I want. :D
Click to expand...

Where out there and doing what?

I find that my choice of clothing (pants included) depends a lot on where I am, what the conditions will be like and what I plan on doing. I'll bet that I have close to a dozen different pant/legs options in my outdoor gear wardrobe with little to no overlap.

Tell us more about what you're doing, where and when and I (we) can give more targeted advice.
 
Army surplus woolies from Sweden, or REI quick dry synthetic somethin or others. Combined cost of less than $50.
 
pinnah said:
Where out there and doing what?


Tell us more about what you're doing, where and when and I (we) can give more targeted advice.
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Living. :) If I'm working or fishing, shopping in town or hanging around my brothers farm. Around here (the middle of no where) you've got to be prepared.
I don't like stuff that only has one use. Hate it actually. Won't buy specialized stuff unless it's a must. I do have snowboarding pants and snow board boots, but thats just because its real hard to stay on your board in sneakers.

Like I said I'm not looking for special camping pants or snow pants or something. Just wondering at the alternatives to jeans and carhartts.
I looked at the Arbor wear tech pants. They look great, but man o man, 80 bucks is quite a bit for some work pants. Or maybe it's not, if they last for a few years they might be worth it. Currently a pair of double front carhartts lasts a little over a year.
 
I have a pair of Marmot Torreys that I really like for their flexibility, both literal and metaphorical. They're made of soft, lightweight nylon, with a gusset and a bit of stretch, so they don't impede movement at all; it's like being naked. And in Desert Khaki, they look nice enough to wear out to dinner.

They're definitely not work pants, though, at least not in the way Carhartts are. They're meant for climbing, hiking, and casual wear.

Something else to note is that the Torreys are fairly water resistant. In small amounts, water beads up on the fabric, rather than soaking through. It's a nice feature to have in light rain, as well as during that aforementioned dinner. Any water that happens to spill or drip from a sweating glass can just be dabbed off with a napkin.


Here's somewhere you might find some other good recommendations.
http://edcforums.com/threads/pants-updated-with-short-review.114446/

EDIT: I just did an actual test of the water resistance of the Torrey. Turns out it's a lot better than I thought; water pretty much won't soak through unless you rub it in. You could spill an entire glass of water, walk in moderate rain for half an hour (at least,) or receive a glancing blow from a hose, and the pants would stay dry. And in the event they do get wet, they'd dry out very quickly.
 
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Chris Pierce said:
I looked at the Arbor wear tech pants. They look great, but man o man, 80 bucks is quite a bit for some work pants. Or maybe it's not, if they last for a few years they might be worth it. Currently a pair of double front carhartts lasts a little over a year.
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Yeah, I hear ya. They're more expensive than when I bought mine a few years ago. But they have sales from time to time - if you can get 'em for $50 or $60, they're worth it, imo.

And while I've found them to be pretty darn durable, they are definitely more in the "multi-use, outdoor pant" category than the work/construction category. Hard to beat Carhartt double-fronts for that.

A good synthetic softshell, reinforced Carhartt pant would be pretty sweet for wet/cold conditions. Maybe it'll happen - they're making softshell jackets now...
 
I've had good luck with surplus wool pants in the past, but not for ranch work. You might get some canvas and sew a couple of 'skid plates' over the front of your legs if you get some wool pants. I don't think any of the wool pants mentioned will hold up any better than your Carhartts for moving hay.
 
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