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Wool blankets

La Cucaracha

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Have been watching a few YouTube video recently and have been watching guys like the endurance room and iwildsurvival (if not seen before worth checking out) and there is somthing about the canvas tarps, wool blankets and simple stuff they use i like.
Is this all just me having a romantic view of it? Has anyone done anything similar? Would i freeze to death with a wool blanket?

I have a vision iam sipping cowboy coffee under my plash palatka poncho on my wool blanket in front of a small fire with a big beard and pipe... Ok maybe iam getting carried away!
 
Ha, coincidentally I've just ordered a wool blanket, should be arriving this weekend and if it arrives in time I'll let you know how I go on saturday night, thinking I'll take a wee wander into the woods, its been a couple of weeks.
 
When I'm re-enacting I use a simple canvas awning and as such my bed is on show so I use blankets as opposed to a sleeping bag . I use a mattress that is essentially three layers of felt carpet underlay in a calico bag. On warm nights the blankets are almost superfluous although I tend to sleep under one as a matter of course. On colder nights I use two and fold them together to form a rudimentary bag. I have slept out to well below zero . That was at Towton , an early Palm Sunday and when I woke up therre was a thick frost on everything . One trick we had learnt was to warm a stone up , put it in a pillowcase and take it to bed with us. On one occasion I did this but must have got the stone a little too hot as the cotton pillow case had smouldered away by the morning. So there' s one advantage of wool blankets . That said blankets are heavier and bulkier than modern sleeping bags so less useful for hiking and the like?
 
Ha, coincidentally I've just ordered a wool blanket, should be arriving this weekend and if it arrives in time I'll let you know how I go on saturday night, thinking I'll take a wee wander into the woods, its been a couple of weeks.
Was it a army surplus blanket?
 
I read an after action review by a US mountain infantry battalion operating in Afghanistan who decreed old fashion wool blankets as life savers for cold tired hyperthermic soldiers. Warm when wet; robust enough to throw out of helicopters, cheap enough to give away to Shepardā€™s and tribesman, they said they just worked, as they always have and alway will do. Not as light as the latest tech but still a place for it.

38
 
Wool is light, anti-bacterial, insulates even when wet, it's fire retardant and has a low environmental impact compared to other technical fabrics.
 
Wool is light, anti-bacterial, insulates even when wet, it's fire retardant and has a low environmental impact compared to other technical fabrics.

It does weigh a fair bit though and is quite bulky. Its horses for courses, if I'm away up the hills I'll stick to my sleeping bag(s). I get what you're saying though mate.
 
There are ways of getting a lot more insulation value from wool just by the way it's woven or different mixes of wool...I have tried a Jaeger camel/wool mix sleeping bag using a camp bed and I was fairly impressed
 
I bought a double size one a few years back, never used it for what I bought it for, instead it goes in the back of the car when doing a tip run :eek::eek::eek:
 
The oldest sleeping bag I have is a 1944 American army issue one. It is essentially a wooden blanket sown into a mummy shape with a cotton /canvas cover. It'd been a while since I last slept in it but I seem to remember it being warm enough. I can also remember using it in the 80's camping with a friend. His tent had a sown in groundsheet and unfortunately a leak. We had camped on a slope and in the morning there was at least three inches of water collected by the door. My friend's sleeping bag was soaked through but I was still nice and dry. Slight digression as that's more the cover than the blanket but I was still pleased with it.
 
This is all beginning to sound like an argument for ( not needed as I have 2!!) the Czech army blanket sleeping bags?
Once available for absolute peanuts.
The only thing is that the blankets they use are synthetic and not wool as commonly held.....

(but I love it when not too cold!)
 
I have one but never used it yet, been in the cupboard for years, too heavy for the typical camps I do now :(
 
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Arrived today is feels 'itchy' enough. Had this tag on it too so gamble paid off.

IMG_20190516_144120.jpg


Bought it with voucher I was given as I'm being a good boy and laying off the rouge fuelled Amazon purchases but if I was feeling profligate I'd buy another couple.

Edit to add, its a bit 'stiff' (ooh err) but I think that will ease off with time and a wash.
 
As you say Bam......a couple of washes before use would soften things up bit........got the weather with us for outdoor drying šŸ‘
 
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Nothing like mixing kit up, I have my US woobie and a snugpak blanket thingy, but the wool blanket on a cold night beside fire is great..... And you can smell it burning.... šŸ˜‰
 
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