wool blankets

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WEB2

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anyone used just wool blankets for cold weather camping? i was thinking of using a couple of wool blankets and a canvas tarp to role up in. should hold me into the single digits?
 
Wool Blankets was the norm in the Army until sleeping bags got popular. I was reading about the Civil war and the Union soldiers were issued two wool blankets each. I also watched a show on WWII and the soldier said he was issued 2 wool blankets. The soldier said 3 soldiers would share their blankets so they had 3 on the ground and 3 over them, and they survived the cold German winter.
 
probably not if you don't have a fire going, the union soldiers generally lived in wall tents with a log cabin base and a little fire place inside of it for winter quarters.
 
The answer would typically be "no." Two wool blankets would not provide 3/4" total loft doubled over. That's way under the model for 9 degrees f or lower. The Army specifies 4.5" of total loft for 10 degrees and 5" for 0 degrees. That assumes a standard GI foam pad under you.
 
Not to mention that they're pretty heavy compared to a modern sleeping bag. So's the canvas tarp.
 
From my experiences you could get away with two thick wool blankets down to about freezing (32* F), my father used to camp that way (two wool blankets and a foam mattress in a small canvas tent). So maybe two wool blankets and a tarp would be good a little bit further (high 20's maybe), though I wouldn't trust it. Are you sleeping in a tent or no tent?
 
wool blankets OK if you don't have to carry them too far, otherwise like already said they are heavier then modern sleeping bags, therefore not efficient. Car camping, cabin bunking and similar- wool blankets can be OK, althouhg I still preffer sleeping bag.
Wool blankets still have one advantage, they insulate better then bags if they get wet. Even synthetic bags don't really insulate when they get wet (yes they insulate "better" then wet down but that doesn't say much )
Martin
 
Polyester is hydrophobic. The fibers themselves, unlike wool, absorb no moisture. Polyester is therefore the insulation of choice in wet conditions. After an admittedly uncomfortable start, body heat alone will dry a wet polyester-insulated bag if you can cut off additional moisture -- as I have had occasion to learn "the hard way."
 
I've never used wool blankets while camping but have used them in my brother's poorly heated basement when sleeping over. It took a good while for me to get warm.

Unless you like being cold when you sleep, in the single digits no less, I don't recommend wool blankets when camping.

Best way to test it out on the cheap is try it out in your back yard, if you have one. On your deck if you live in an apartment. If it works for you there, then maybe it's a go.

If not, you'll know and you won't be far from warmth.
 
ima civil war reanactor so i know all about this style of camping. for the first night we spent in ohio, it was early october. we used canvas tents with grass, and straw around the edges to keep the wind out. we put strw inside of the tent to lay on and stay out of the water. we usually have a wool blanket under us and a wool blanket on us, in our full uniform. we freeze our @sses off!
the next time was in viginia in late october we had less straw because they made us pay for it. we were in a half shelter this time, but i joined 2 toghether to make a pup tent with open ends. this time i had a big candle in a can, inside the tent. we had one end of the tent closed up with hay, and thin hay beds. it had rained when we where fighting billy and all the way across to our camp. we had to march a couple miles back to our camp. the damn union gets to be right next to the sutlers, and the battlefield! not to mention they had GOOD firewood, a better camp site, and more water! anyway it was wet! we where in the open field, atop a hill! virginia wind multiplied by the moist air drove right through our tents, because it kept changing direction. it was so cold and wet, we couldnt even light a fire!
moral of the story, 2 wool blanket will not keep you warm! maybe 3 on the bottom, 2 on the top, with a mat underneath, and a tent around you. i would still have a candle in a can to heat the inside of the tent!
right now we have insulation boards wrapped in duct tape, millitary sleeping mats, 2 wool blankets each, a candle in a can, and a good canvas tent. i also have a sleeping bag, plus we pack alot more straw around and inside our tents!
 
My great uncle ran very, very large ranches in west texas, and his 'vacation' for years was to keep camp for montana elk outfitters for 30 days every winter. His sleeping system was an old fashioned light canvas saddle roll he had had for 40 or 50 years. It was 5' x 8' when rolled out, and bundled up inside it was a good down bag he would sleep in or on depending upon temperature, two hudson bay blankets, and silk sheets. Of course it weighed about 15 pounds, but by god he was comfortable no matter where he was or how nasty it got. It was kind of like a flat tent, and he would prop it up/open when the weather was good with about a 3' long tent pole section.
 
You are descriibing the good old Aussie Swag Web2. A large canvas sleeve with a thin foam mattres and a wool blanket inside. I love my swag and it is the most comfortable way to sleep outdoors - I have an extra piece of high density foam in the bottom to even out stones, a silk sleeping bag liner and two wool blakets - works well in all temperatures although it doesn't get too far below freezing here in winter.

I don't carry it however, much too heavy - I've got a Goretex bivvy and hi tech sleeping bag for that. The swag is for car, horseback and (once) camel back camping.
Most often it gets used when I drive a few hundred k's to visit a friend for a party and have too many brews to drive home. It's almost a standard thing in this part of oz. If you visit someone you bring your own swag - it's not often you'll get offered the spare room.

http://www.users.bigpond.com/lyntex/The Aussie Swag Story.htm

http://www.downunder.swag.com.au/
 
ur a reenactor? cool, so am I, living historian. What unit/ side? I'm in the 5th NH Vol. Inf. I've been inactive for like 2 years cause of money, saving up for primitive skills courses. I plan on getting back into it. You use duct tape? Farb!
 
All wool blankets are not created equal. Three Hudson Bay Blankets can be wrapped around you in a sleeping bag cacoon held together with a few giant safety pins (Horse Blanket Pins). The top blanket(s) are doubled up so you have more insulation on top then below.

This is the old time Canadian way of dealing with cold weather.
It will keep you warm down to well below freezing with a good spruce bough base. However it will weigh well over 20 pounds.

For a reference with good pictures see Cache Lake Country by John Rowlands(1947) page 57

A fantastic book available in better libraries.
 
Hey, John Muir would sleep in subfreezing weather using just a wool great coat. It's not that it can't be done. For me it's about how much weight do you want to carry and how comfortable do you want to be?
 
I had my wife sew me up a unique double person bag that consists of two poncho liners as the exterior and two wool blankets that are on the inside. She also sewed me a zipper in one end to allow me the ability to slip a sleeping pad between the wool and poncho bottom layer. It is actually pretty warm as I have used it several times down around freezing, but that was usually with the wife next to me! :D :D

Soup
 
A similar question was recently asked on another forum, this was my comment;

"Back in the late fifties I went through a two day snowstorm, not quite a blizzard in the following fashion.

1. A very sheltered spot in a dry gully.

2. A reflector fire in front of a lean-to rigged army poncho.

3. About 2 1/2 feet of debris and leaves under me.

4. Two GI army blankets.

5. Temperature never got much below mid-20's.

6. I was in my late teens, and spent all my time outdoors, and normally slept in a room with no heat anyway . (After a while you get used to the cold, sort of.)

I had plenty of food and firewood and I got through it all okay, But not very pleasant.

Wearing fairly heavy hunting clothes, once I stoked up the fire, I could sleep for about an hour and a half before the cold woke me up, then it was stir up the fire, add wood, eat a candy bar and sleep for another hour or so, then repeat the routine. As snow piled up on the poncho and at the open ends it seemed to stay warmer longer.

The next week I bought my first sleeping bag.

Since then I've used a foam pad, 3 1/2 to 5 pound sleeping bag, a full sized foam pad and an All weather Space Blanket as the lean-to. It's worked well into the 5-10 below range, tolerable below zero, fairly comfortable above. Again during times I was spending a lot of time outdoors in the cold.

If I slept normally in a 70 degree house with an electric blanket or something, I think the sudden transition could even be fatal, miserable would be guaranteed.

Well sheltered from the wind is absolutely mandatory.

Two blankets and a canvas tarp are not a good choice for the upper mid-west in winter!

In my opinion.

Tried to do some testing this year on several variations with just space blanket pad and sleeping bag, but it never got cold enough long enough for me to do it, (wanted 3-4 days of prox. -10f) maybe next year.

Just my opinion of course!

Regards,

:)
 
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