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Your oldest piece of gear...

It will Dodat

Very Talkative
Messages
81
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Age
66
Silly question, but what is the oldest (by year) piece of gear you still use? & for the fun of it, why?

Mine is my Knife - fork - spoon set, Issued to me when I did national service back in 1974.... Never let that one go.... All the other stuff I have came after... Man, besides a gazillion other things I used it for I tore open tins with the fork, stripped my R1 / FN rifle with the knife, dug cat-latrines and shallow fox-holes with the spoon, and still it's around...

I alway's look to military issue stuff for camping, so over the years I've managed to accumulated a few sets, but the original one that was issued to me is still amongst them.....
As to why, well the genuine Mc Coy is as tough as nails, and the design is outstanding.

All the other set's I've come across, the design is such that the handle of the knife is thin, making it very uncomfortable to press down on with your finger. This design, the spoon & the fork slide into the handle of the knife, making it easy to apply real pressure onto the knife.....

Relativeheavy, but absolutely bomb-proof

Picture shows the set, could be my original issue, or not.... The dixi by the way is also Mil issue but it's not my original issue one.... Again the design is surperb... As per the pic you can intertwine the handles in such a way that you can hold 2 dixies in one hand...... All the others, you can't do that.... Oh and BTW? During the Border wars, I also used them to dig <deeper> fox holes......
GBHB gear eatware and utensiles.jpg
 
Probably my Mongol bow "Genghis", nearly 30 yrs old made in Hungary. Pulls 70lb @ 32 inches with decorated limbs to protect from wet/damp.
 

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Swedish,Swiss, German army ruck sacks of the times of the first and second world war. Swiss haversack and spate of this age too.

Wehrmacht bottle and haversack.
Equal equipment of the fifties produced for the german border police BGS, the tent too.
Swiss and US Army wool blankets of the fifties or older, no idea.
US Army dry sacks of the eighties in the canoe.
Bavarian leather shorts bought by my father in the fifties, his german and Norwegian knife too, his bikes of this age too.

German cotton boy scout tippee tent "Kohte" from the sixties.
Bundeswehr mess kit of the eighties.

"Canadian canoe" build in Berlin in the twenties.

Yes, I am a bit old fashioned, perhaps.

;0)

I used this equipment regularly till ten years ago and nearly nothing else.

My modern equipment I mainly bought because I don't want that it will be stolen.

But yes, I am still using all this.

It is good quality stuff, and if you now how to take care for it, it surely will survive another hundred years!
 
buck lock knife. Iv only had it 9 year. However it’s the oldest item I have to memory :thumbsup:
 
Silly question, but what is the oldest (by year) piece of gear you still use? & for the fun of it, why?

Mine is my Knife - fork - spoon set, Issued to me when I did national service back in 1974.... Never let that one go.... All the other stuff I have came after... Man, besides a gazillion other things I used it for I tore open tins with the fork, stripped my R1 / FN rifle with the knife, dug cat-latrines and shallow fox-holes with the spoon, and still it's around...

I alway's look to military issue stuff for camping, so over the years I've managed to accumulated a few sets, but the original one that was issued to me is still amongst them.....
As to why, well the genuine Mc Coy is as tough as nails, and the design is outstanding.

All the other set's I've come across, the design is such that the handle of the knife is thin, making it very uncomfortable to press down on with your finger. This design, the spoon & the fork slide into the handle of the knife, making it easy to apply real pressure onto the knife.....

Relativeheavy, but absolutely bomb-proof

Picture shows the set, could be my original issue, or not.... The dixi by the way is also Mil issue but it's not my original issue one.... Again the design is surperb... As per the pic you can intertwine the handles in such a way that you can hold 2 dixies in one hand...... All the others, you can't do that.... Oh and BTW? During the Border wars, I also used them to dig <deeper> fox holes......
View attachment 13212
Probably my trangia cook set which my wife brought me in 1990
 
An old penknife I've had since I was 10. It has mother of pearl scales and just one blade. It's retired now and I don't really carry another around all the time like I did that.
 
K J Eriksson Swedish clipper knife that I've had from new...probably around 40 years. I have older stuff but bought second hand so it won't count.
 
Probably oldest most used is my trekking/backpacking bergan...... Royal Marines Commando Arctic issue 1980's. They were made by Karrimor when that company made quality kit.
P1040800.jpg


Karrimor brand label...
P1040801.jpg


I've carried it for many miles and it's my favourite Bergan, and we're off together again next month ....:D

I use the PLCE 120 litre Bergan for woodland camping as the walk into the wood where I usually camp is only a couple of miles from where I leave my transport, so I don't mind the internal frame, but I much prefer the old fashioned external frame for long yomps.

DSCF4262.jpg
 
Hard to say really , I have a fair few tools that are old although I'm not sure how old . I have an old acrow tool for example that combines spade , pick , axe and a few others and was evidentially designed , but rejected , by the army prewar although strictly speaking while it sits ready isn't used very often. I've got 37 pattern water bottle which still gets used , the old enamel jobbie dated ' 44 I think . Does the job as does the 1954 large pack ( not that they are ) which makes a good size for a daypack . I've got a 1944 American army sleeping bag that is still perfectly functional and I last used that about 20 years ago and was very impressed when my friend's tent leaked , we woke up in a puddle filling the front half of the tent and my ( at the time) 40 odd year old bag was still fully waterproof.
 
Hi Fellas

EEK! Makes mine look like a new-born baby.... You chaps are lucky beyond lucky to have access to things of that vintage... Personally I get the smirks when I pitch with all the older stuff that I do have, everybody else has bright-n-shiny-Chinese-el-cheepo and watch them surruptisously pop over for a look see.....

But this begs the question as well... Does anyone ever actually get rid of gear? or do we all hoard the stuff.... <my excuse> 'Cause its' still useful o_Oo_O
 
Hi Fellas

EEK! Makes mine look like a new-born baby.... You chaps are lucky beyond lucky to have access to things of that vintage... Personally I get the smirks when I pitch with all the older stuff that I do have, everybody else has bright-n-shiny-Chinese-el-cheepo and watch them surruptisously pop over for a look see.....

But this begs the question as well... Does anyone ever actually get rid of gear? or do we all hoard the stuff.... <my excuse> 'Cause its' still useful o_Oo_O
Morning Dodat, I definitely suffer fro magpie syndrome, see it buy it because it might be useful in 10 years time
 
I managed to pick up what I was told was a genuine Fairbairn Sykes a few years back which is marked as being dated 1943. Whether its a real one I don't know but if so it was very well maintained a bargain at £40.



Also have one of them :thumbsup: been in my family for a long time. Didn’t list it above as I totally forgot about it until you mentioned yours lol
018719C0-0B91-4C4A-857C-E13776A8E9C6.jpeg
 
Apart from two tents, all my kit is old, from Blacks Good Companions tents in regular use and 50 years old, and all sorts of ex army surplus...........rucksacks, cookers, sleepingbags......:)
 
Well, with that I certainly have no problem.... I'm also OLD <apparantly 76 800 000 .00 + second old> And I still work well...:rofl:

Lest, I think so................

Have a great day LOL
 
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:D:rofl:
( I still have my grandfathers service (1916) prismatic compass, and has been used by me in the past)
 
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