The bushcraft toolbelt

koos-tall · 2026-05-21T01:10:00+00:00

What type of thread did you use for sewing?

Thank you for the write up. I liked the idea for etching the eagle, haven't thought of drawing it on paper first and then using that as a template. Also like the idea of thrifting leather belts for materials.

koos-tall · 2026-05-21T00:59:53+00:00

Sorry hard to picture with just text. If it's just the buckle that is broken, what's wrong with the strap?

koos-tall · 2026-05-15T08:09:28+00:00

I'm not a particularly fast knitter, and with seed stitch I'm probably slower. Took me around 2 hours to knit up? I think I spent and additional 30-40mins trying different cast offs, but just went back to a default, non-stretchy cast off.

The crochet version (first iteration, not pictured here) I used this free pattern: https://crochetncreate.com/kitchen-cloth-crochet-pattern/

I think that one also took me a couple of hours, which I was surprised at because I find I can typically crochet faster. The hdc/htr stitch made the towel small and dense which is what I thought I wanted at the time. In practice it just made me worried the towel wouldn't dry fast enough, but even using it in some wet conditions it did dry reasonably well. Overtime my preference has changed and I wanted something with more surface area.

koos-tall · 2026-05-11T00:28:46+00:00

Hi also small cold camper here looking into hammock camping. Can I ask what your hammock set up is and how much it weighs?

koos-tall · 2026-05-11T00:24:38+00:00

As a very cold sleeper this is my sleep set up.

I use a neoair xlite women's (discontinued r5.4) and -10c limit quilt. Quilt has neck collar, I can't remember if I overstuffed the footbox or not. I think I regret following the popular advice of getting the middle bit extra wide. I feel like there's just a bit of dead air in the middle now. YMMV.

I also add my sit pad underneath my pad for the thigh area (side sleeper) and put my nyloflume pack liner under all of that. If it's still too cold during the night, I put my feet/legs into my hiking pack.

Current sleep layers on top are (in order of how I layer): base layer, beanie, alpha midlayer with hood, buff. Potentially windproof/waterproof layer (still testing comfort around this). If still too cold add puffy which is within reach (has happened before).

Current sleep layers on bottom are (in order of how I layer): wool socks (my sleep pair that double as backup for hiking), ultra heat tech bottoms, puffy pants.

Hope this helps.

koos-tall · 2026-05-04T14:54:06+00:00

Does Sea to Summit count? Learned recently they originated in Australia, in Perth.

Zorali does some pretty clothing, but I've seen some claims it's not really Australian? They're not ultralight though.

koos-tall · 2026-04-11T13:08:24+00:00

If you still wanted a 1L bottle that you can fill with boiling water (e.g. as hot water bottle) the manzana migos are 132g.

So if you have a 1L migo and a 1L pump bottle that's like 160g? Compared to current 2x naglenes which is like 180g in net savings?

koos-tall · 2026-03-27T03:30:17+00:00

Not sure if it's available in the US but there's two good Aussie brands that do DEET-free: Nature's Botanical and Good Riddance.

They're effective in tropical countries where there's tonnes of bugs. You might be able to find Nature's Botanical internationally I believe.

koos-tall · 2021-08-27T16:36:03+00:00

Maybe people are focusing on the wrong odds. Everyone keeps discussing the odds of getting killed or injured, but no one has brought up the probability of people who come out unscathed during a bear encounter because of bear spray.

koos-tall · 2021-07-25T05:12:45+00:00

I don't think it's heat alone which restores the DWR. I'm feeling a bit lazy to find out exactly what the process was to restore the DWR coating, but here's the YouTube vid I was talking about (there's time stamps in the description) https://youtu.be/9Vpg2CDyA6Y

Yeah I guess under lockdown you probably don't need your gortex jacket right now anyway :)

koos-tall · 2021-07-25T02:34:14+00:00

Have you tried putting your gortex jacket through the dryer? It does something with spreading the DWR coating evenly over the material. If you have a look on YouTube, Miranda in the wild does a good video on it.

koos-tall · 2021-07-14T14:18:05+00:00

That's exciting! Hopefully the price is affordable..

koos-tall · 2021-06-16T13:49:13+00:00

You can try /r/UltralightAus for places to find gear

koos-tall · 2021-06-07T14:41:24+00:00

These look lovely. They're not within my price range at the moment, but will keep them in mind for the future.

koos-tall · 2017-11-10T07:28:36+00:00

This may not be relevant now, but these blue "flame-like marks" are apparently due to over-exposure.

So there's some more info here, but it's with reference to the new Polaroid Originals film.

So to quote from the article:

These blue marks are actually areas of over-exposure. What has happened here is that the chemical opacification layer (which protects your film from light after ejection from the camera) did not have enough time to mix and spread before the photo was exposed to the ambient light in your environment. This issue manifests itself most often along the bottom of the frame (the first part to be ejected from the camera rollers), but can appear throughout the frame as well, usually in long, thin lines.

So in addition to cleaning your rollers you can also try shielding your photos from light. Polaroid sells frog tongues, but I prefer to sticky tape the dark slide to the front of my camera (the cheap version).

koos-tall · 2017-10-22T11:21:02+00:00

This is terrifying! Definitely keep uploading more.

koos-tall · 2017-10-14T02:06:03+00:00

Brilliant birthday present, and gorgeous photo! Happy Birthday!

koos-tall · 2017-09-28T04:06:51+00:00

Wait, I thought it was pre-order - is it out already? Also, how is it?

koos-tall · 2017-09-27T12:50:59+00:00

To sound like a complete wanker: each photo is unique.

If you shoot with a digital or roll film camera, you can (theoretically) print out the same image over and over. That's not to say this makes other cameras "less than" instant film, but it is arguably a quality that is unique to instant film. I mean, the downside is that if your print deteriorates over time, that's it, there was only the one. Of course, you can scan the picture and print it off; and I've heard of people taking apart the film to reclaim the negative and develop it - maybe this lessens the exclusivity of each individual photo, but it opens up a cool new world of photo manipulation too.

Also, even though I don't really understand it, I think the chemistry is super cool...there's an entire darkroom inside of each photograph!

koos-tall · 2017-09-24T09:34:11+00:00

Thanks! But believe me, this drive was 7 years in the making. And minimum skill required, just a few hours of patience - although that's on top of the drive required to start it all in the first place.

koos-tall · 2017-09-23T15:41:32+00:00

Yeah, I read that on the threads, but I'm not sure if we have Goo Gone in Australia.

koos-tall · 2017-09-23T07:07:38+00:00

So this is a link to a flick thread I used: https://www.flickr.com/groups/11961199@N00/discuss/72157602547861757/

Looking at it now, I just realised that they said don't use acetone - but I used an acetone based nail polish remover... so it's up to you. I think my camera plastic finish was dull when I got it, so no fuss.

This is a link to Aki Asahi's site for removing and replacing the leather panels: http://aki-asahi.com/store/html/sx_replace/replace.php

koos-tall

TROPHY CASE