Red Yeti's Blog

I was reading an article on BPL.com entitled Ultralight Knives and Other Sharp Things (sorry the article is visible to members only – but it’s quite cheap and well worth it) when I came across Ryan Jordan’s preference for taking apart a small Swiss Army knife and using just the scissors from it as his only cutting tool. Apart from being quite hard to do it’s a shame to waste the knife, and what’s more it’s not necessary.

Scissors come as part of the Swiss Card and it’s quite possible to get hold of spare parts.

LB was given a Swiss Card as a present and unfortunately forgot that it was in her wallet when we flew to see her parents in Sweden. Of course the security people at the airport confiscated both the scissors and the knife.

So when we came back I looked around and found that Peter Hillocks, who runs the ebay shop PMCShop, will supply both the scissors and knives for the Swiss Card for a very reasonable price.

You could also try the importers Burton McCall directly but I know from experience of ordering other things that their post and packing charges will be more than the cost of these small scissors so you’re better off with Peter’s more reasonable P&P fee. He’ll happily take Pay Pal if you ask and are willing to pay the extra that Pay Pal charge him – worth it to avoid writing and mailing a cheque from my point of view.

When I had a pair of shoes suddenly need repair halfway through the Haute Route I was very glad that I’d got a good sewing kit with me. So I was pleased to find out that you can now buy Kevlar thread quite easily.

Using Kevlar means that you don’t need to use so much thread to repair whatever you’re repairing.

For example, using the polypropylene thread to repair my shoe I needed to hold the top lace in place for at least another week’s walking so I kept sewing until I’d built up a considerable thickness, about a 3mm gear cord’s worth I reckon. Each stitch had to be punched through the plastic lace-grip that had blown as well as the tough shoe material. I had to use a Swiss coin as a thimble and managed to badly bend a “leather” needle. Luckily I had a thick “darning” needle as well which finished the job.

Sewing for ages to get a strong repair is fine if you’re sat looking out over a nice view eating lunch. Which we were. But even then, after twenty five minutes of sewing, my fingers were sore and cold and everyone else was starting to shiver. Using Kevlar I know for a fact that I could, and would, have used far less thread and spent far less time doing it.

The fact that the leather needle bent surprised me but it wasn’t the sharpest thing I’ve ever used. So I also had a good search around for a strong and really sharp needle. The best I could find are Wenzel needles that come as a kit with some dyed linen thread for sewing leather. I got them from an ebay seller who currently isn’t trading but a search for “Wenzel thread” on ebay turned up several listings.

As for the Kevlar thread, I got mine from an ebayer in the USA: Primitive Originals were a pleasure to deal with and sell a set of five colours. FindingKing also sell just plain black Kevlar thread but the first one got ripped from the envelope by a sorting machine before it arrived. But they’ve since posted another one with no quibble at all.

Another supplier that I’ve found has a limited amount of thicker Kevlar thread. He has one huge reel and is selling it off a length at a time for a reasonable amount – but once it’s gone it’s gone. 50 metres would probably last a lifetime of gear repair but he will do any length you want. He also has a rather nice picture of it suspending a brick (tied to thicker polyester string) and reckons the breaking strain to be about 5.7kg.

Once I’d got the threads and needles I wanted I cut up a bit of card to spool some the Kevlar around. Add in the darning needle that saved the shoes and a curved upholstery needle that looks like if you need one nothing will substitute (both from a cheap sewing kit) plus a couple of safety pins and you’ve got a complete kit.

Finally, to hold it all I cut the corner from a plastic document wallet, with a spare flappy bit to fold over to make a closure. Taped the edge then covered the tape in Seam Grip (which wasn’t necessary! I was just repairing something else at the time). A piece of Magic Tape or Gaffer Tape over the flappy closure to hold it shut, chuck it in a waterproof bag and you’re done.

Total weight – just 4gms.

I reckon you could put a wheel back on a Land Rover with that.

I’ve just leak tested the five dry bags we’re taking on the GR5 and three had leaks.

Most of them are by no means old either.

To my surprise, by far the worse leaks were in the “tougher” Exped sacks and not in the little silnylon Sea To Summit bags.

Even pin-hole leaks can let in surprising amounts of water I’ve discovered – and some of the ones I found were pretty big.

Here’s a quick HOWTO:

• Have a pen ready to circle any leaks and a towel to dry the outside.
• Turn inside out (you’ll want to make any repairs on the inside of the bag).
• Fill with no more than about four litres of water, even in big bags (any more and the silnylon bags could rupture).
• Dry with a towel so you can spot the leaks.
• Roll the bag around so that each section of bag is at the bottom of the water inside them (to get the most pressure).
• Pay particular attention to seams.
• Dry and repair with Mcnett Seam Grip or Mcnett Silgrip

Only four days to go… Whoohoo!

Edit 07 May 2010: Folks – Duct tape is not the same thing as Gaffer tape. Gaffer tape comes from specialist camera equipment suppliers and is very, very expensive. I can use Google pretty effectively and if I could have turned up actual Gaffer tape with a quick search or two, believe me, I would have done. What’s the difference? Read on! :)

I’ve been looking for Gaffer tape for ages and at last my search has come to an end, twice in the same week.

What? Surely you can walk in to any DIY shop or visit ebay to pick up a roll of Gaffer? Same as Duct tape – right?

Nope.

Duct (or should that be Duck tape?) tape is great stuff. It should be part of everyone’s repair and first aid kits.

But if you’ve ever used it (and really, who hasn’t?) then you’ll know it’s sticky.

Really, very sticky.

Which is rather the point. It sticks like… well, you know what.

But it’s also a drawback, you stick it on something, and when you want to peel it off, some of it stays. Or, worse, some of what you’ve stuck it to, doesn’t stay.

When the film and theatre industries started using it for sticking cables and other things that they didn’t want covered in glue, that became a problem.

So, they invented Gaffer tape. Named for the head of the lighting department on a film crew.

Its surprisingly hard to find. I eventually stumbled across it in the obvious place; professional camera supplies.

In the USA Adorama supply a 50 yard roll (they still use measurements that are impossible to convert between ;) and in Europe Calumet do it in a 50M roll (they also have a large selection in their US shop, and also in those odd measurements!).

It’s a specialist item, so, as the Wikipedia article has it; “[it] is therefore not a consumer good“.

Meaning it’s not cheap.

But if, you want to make things using tape or if you find yourself having to repair something that you don’t want to get covered in residual glue, it might be just what you need.