Posts tagged Reviews

Aquamira Water Purification Chemical Review

4 months ago
by Craig Rowland in , ,

Aquamira is a very lightweight water purification chemical. It comes in two parts, mixes easily, and produces water with no bad tastes. This is a good solution for hikers looking to save a lot of weight over a filter. Also, for those that don’t want to deal with a clogging filter, broken parts, busted seals, etc. that many pumps may have.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), chlorine dioxide (the chemical of Aquamira) is one of the best chemical treatments for a wide number of pathogens. A chart detailing the various methods is here:

CDC Backcountry Water Treatment Options

Aquamira is a simple, light and reliable way to get clean water. Highly recommended!

If you want to use a filter, then I highly recommend the Platypus GravityWorks system. It is a great solution as well:

Platypus GravityWorks Review

If this review was helpful to you, please consider making your purchase through my Amazon store. It costs you nothing extra but helps support my work. Thanks!

Crawling Road Amazon Store

 

How To Carry An Axe

4 months ago
by Craig Rowland in , ,

I have found that a small camp axe can sometimes be really efficient to have when out hiking and doing wood craft. For instance, having one of these makes fabricating a bow drill set go a lot faster!

In this quick video I show how I carry my axe on a modern ultralight backpack. Just slip it down vertically through the foam mat. It keeps the pack streamlined and the axe safely tucked away.

Products reviewed on this site are available through the Amazon Store:

Crawling Road Gear Store

Stainless Steel Bark River Bravo 1 and Fallkniven S1 Knife Review

4 months ago
by Craig Rowland in , ,

I really like my Bark River Bravo 1 in A2 carbon steel, but I live in a really wet area and I decided to try out the stainless version. I also decided I wanted a little bigger knife for winter camping and got a Fallkniven S1. In this video I review both of them side by side in pouring rain and snow. Both knives performed admirably. The stainless Bravo is  CPM 154 stainless and it held a great edge and did not rust under these conditions. It has a beefier 4″ blade than the S1 and a good balance.

The Fallkniven S1 is VG-10 laminated stainless and also did not rust. It has a 5″ blade and similarly good balance. The Fallkniven knife handle is a material called Thermorun and it was warm in bare hands and worked well with mittens on. The Bark River probably had a more overall comfortable grip in bare hands, but it did get cold due to the exposed metal in its micarta handle. In mittens the Bravo 1 had a good grip, but was slicker than the Fallkniven. Both knives are highly recommended.

Get the Zytel sheath version of the S1. It will be best in wet and cold temps vs. the leather.

Products reviewed on this site are available through the Amazon Store:

Crawling Road Gear Store

 

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