Our website is finally almost ready to open for business after way too many months of delays. Test orders are going through from end to end tomorrow, so if that goes well, you might be able to start ordering cheap outdoor gear from us this week. We are headed to EORA next week, and the website will for sure be up and running by then. By the way, if anyone wants me to take pictures or get information on specific products at EORA, let me know.

For the site, think Sierra Trading Post, but with a prettier website and hopefully not as many hideous outerwear colors. We are thinking about going for the Moosejaw angle with silly pages and quotes, but with customer service that more accurately reflects our 100% positive ebay feedback. One thing that we really want to do is have a page where people send in photos of them and their dogs outside. Sadly, it might be a while until we have a glossy catalog full of ski babes.

Anyway, we will have several specials running at all times, and everything will always be on sale. If we have to keep an item at full price due to a vendor agreement, then we will throw in some free crap to MAKE it on sale.

I’ll let you guys know when it is actually ready to go. We don’t have a ton of stuff in the website inventory right now, but it is all nice (Patagonia, Timbuk2, Nalgene, Wigwam, TNF, Mammut, etc.) and below retail. Expect the inventory to grow at an exponential rate in the next few months. I am really excited about the site’s potential, so you’ll probably hear about it a lot from me.

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OK, I post way too much about fire. Alas, here is another one…

Batoning is splitting wood by hitting a knife with a separate piece of wood or other “baton.” Batoning is a quick, easy, and effective way to split wood into smaller, more easily ignitable pieces. Batoning is also useful in situations where the outer portions of a branch or log are saturated with water and the dry inner wood is needed.

Batoning is most easily done with a large, thick fixed blade that has a full tang. Any knife or other sharp object can be used, but more care must be used in order not to damage the knife or hurt yourself.
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I finally have a working thermometer and thermocouple that can read up to 1300C, so the fire starter test is beginning in earnest. I know, I know, how much more exciting can I get than a firestarter test? It is almost like watching paint dry! Hopefully someone else will find something useful in the piles of information I end up with.

I will try each test 3-5 times, depending on how long each one takes. I hope to do several at once. The idea of the test is to figure out the optimal fire starter when you want to just be able to light a fire with minimum fuss. As such, anything that cannot be done to the fire starter with my bare hands (shaving fatwood, etc.) will not be considered as part of the test unless it was already prepared. Maybe I’ll get more complicated in the next round. I am going to try to keep the firestarters roughly the same size, so accurate comparisons can be made.
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Making a fire in windy conditions can be a pain, especially if you are using a magnesium block or any other fine tinder, like fatwood or birch bark shavings. Wind + fine tinder = no tinder. Use some duct tape to keep the tinder shavings in place.

Take a small piece of duct tape out of your kit (shame on you if you do not carry duct tape) and place it on the ground sticky side up. It might be a good idea to anchor the tape down with a rock or your foot if you are in especially windy conditions. Put yout back to the wind also if you can’t get to a less windy area. Scrape your magnesium block/fatwood/birch/etc. into the tape and watch it pile up and not blow away in the wind. When the tape starts looking pretty covered in tinder shavings, throw some firesteel sparks or a lighter into the mix, and watch it go up in flames! Duct tape burns nice and hot, so that is just an added bonus.

Of course, make sure you have some second stage tinder and enough wood to keep a fire going before you even mess with the duct tape.

Wiki entry
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Packing a backpack may be intuitive to many of you, but this guide is written for those who have never been told or shown how to pack a backpack for optimal comfort. This is all assuming that you are carrying traditional backpacking gear, like a tent, sleeping bag and pad, food, water, etc.

Everyone will have different gear, so this is just a rough guideline of how to place your gear. The idea is to have the heaviest parts of the load as close as possible to your natural center of gravity for both comfort and agility. To see what it is like without proper packing, trying doing the opposite of what this guide suggests and see how uncomfortable and difficult to move it can be.
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I was looking through my previous blog/forum posts over the past few days for information that could be converted over to wiki articles. I was dismayed to see that not as many of them could be converted as I would like. Basically, I was not conveying information in the way I originally intended for this site. I wanted this to be a place full of tutorials, beginners’ information, step-by-step guides, etc.

Well, I am going to tilt the balance back toward the useful side. You will start seeing a lot more how-tos, videos, basic information posts, etc. from me. I started this off with an article on merino wool, a subject near and dear to all of us. There are corresponding blog and forum posts to go along with the wiki article. I am working on articles on packing a backpack, making a survival kit, starting a fire, and several others. My intent is that I can post information in the wiki at the same time as the regular blog and forum posts, so I need to have some actual content in there somewhere. You all are being very anti-wiki, but I still think that is the best way to get more people involved in the site, so I am going to plow ahead with new articles. I’m awfully stubborn, so it will be a while before I give up on the wiki.

Just so you know, I’ll still have plenty of pointless posts. You won’t be getting away from those that easily.

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What is so special about merino wool, you ask? Well, here is some information from the wiki article I just wrote for you uninitiated:

Merino wool is wool from a merino sheep. Merino clothing has become popular in the outdoor industry, due to brands like Icebreaker, Smartwool, and Ibex.
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I added an entry for firesteels over in the wiki. There is a little part about the composition of a firesteel, which I found really interesting when I first discovered the mix. Sarman has also been working hard on adding new articles, so wander over to the wiki and see what is new.

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The always wonderful Cove Cutlery had the Sypderco Woodlander as their deal of the day a couple of days ago. I have read several good reviews about the knife and have been overall very happy with the few Spyderco knives I have owned in the past. The recurve blade and curved spine kind of threw me off, but I thought I would give the knife a try.

Usually Cove Cutlery’s DOTD prices cannot be beat, but as a habit, I always check ebay just to make sure. Sure enough, a seller had it for much less, at $139.99 plus $8 shipping. I have bought from this seller before, so I bit and have one on the way. I’ll give it a review when it gets here, but I am excited about having another knife on the way, as always.

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In case you haven’t noticed, I like playing with fire. A friend and I were playing with some of my fire related toys the other day and he asked why I would take a peanut lighter instead of a butane lighter or the classic mini Bic. Well, here is a video that shows why:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt65TlrDH_c

I apologize for the darkness of the video. I’ll be sure to jack up the exposure on my next one.

I know that you can waterproof a Bic or a butane lighter, but why not just take one that is waterproof in the first place? Also, the peanut lighter is short and fat, with a flat bottom, so it can tailstand very easily. The one downside is that it is solid metal, so it does heat up quite a bit if it stays lit for an extended period. I got my peanut lighters from oregon over in the CPF marketplace, but county comm also has then if oregon is not longer a dealer.

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