Review; Extrema Ratio Scout 1

This months review is of the Extrema Ratio Scout 1. 

I had always wanted an Extrema Ratio knife but most of their products are on the expensive side, are clearly designed for tactical applications or were too large for what I was looking for in a bushcraft knife. When the Scout came out in 2017 though I saw something a little more affordable, the right size for bushcraft tasks and it was marketed by some sellers as a knife suitable for bushcraft;

"The Extrema Ratio Scout 1 knife is their version of a bushcraft, camp, scouting knife but what separates it from all others is the exceptional build quality and pure, functional design." Heinnie Haynes

If you look at Extrema Ratios website though they describe the knife as a 'back up knife' and don't mention bushcraft at all. 

So what is a backup knife?

In the everyday sense it might just mean a knife that you have 'just in case' for opening boxes, cutting tape or string but really that's an edc knife. From a tactical point of view a backup knife might be carried in addition to a concealed firearm for situations when it's impossible to reach a primary weapon perhaps because a fight has become so close quarters that the firearm can't be bought to bear or because it's been lost or has malfunctioned. They might just be used to wound or scare an aggressor into backing off far enough to allow you to draw a gun or retreat yourself. 

It is described as a backup knife but Extrema Ratio also produce a more aggressive version of the scout called the Defender with a pronounced guard and deep blood groove. 

So whatever it's design rationale and intended function my intended use for the scout was as a bushcraft knife. I got one back in early 2017 so mine has been used over the last two years and I'm confident in the opinion that I have formed of it. It honestly hasn't seen much use in that time compared to a lot of my other knives and that is telling; there are reasons that it hasn't been used all that much. 

Probably because it was never designed to be in the hand for all that long the handle is not comfortable for extended use. The distinctive Extrema Ratio handle with the rectangular indent might be the product of work between Extrema Ratio and the Motor Sciences Department of the University of Perugia in Italy and the result is a knife handle design perfectly suited to the human anatomy. It’s a much skinnier handle than most survival knives but sits in the hand beautifully, however bushcraft knives were never designed to sit in the hand and when you start to work hard with this knife it does become quite uncomfortable. Because it is so skinny it starts to twist in the hand during extended use and cause hot spots on the pinky and ring finger and palm of the hand. 

The blade is perfect for feather stick making and other buschraft tasks but if you've got to make more than two or three you will start to feel the discomfort.

The handle is made from foreprene, a material common to most of Extrema Ratio's knives and is extremely hard wearing, the handle does also feature a small divot, I think it's really a divot to allow you to easily find the handle and grip it securely in the dark or under stressful conditions but it could also be pressed to use as a divot for a bow drill. I'm not really a fan of using a knife as the bearing block for a bow drill as the risk of using an unsheathed knife very close to your leg while you work your bow seems unnecessary to me. Additionally the heat of the friction between the drill and handle seems to have damaged my handle a bit and the divot is quite shallow and flat which causes the upper point of the drill to flatten quite quickly causing unnecessary friction.  

Unfortunately the handle lets down the other great features of the knife, the blade shape is reminiscent of Horace Kepharts knife and is perfect for woodcrafting and basic backwoods tasks. I did replace the sheath on mine though for a more 'rustic' option; while the MOLLE compatible sheath which can be reversed for left or right hand carry and which retains the knife with a retaining strap closed with two buttons would be great for tactical use attached to a plate carrier or webbing the belt loop is quite low down on the sheath so the handle protrudes quite a long way above the belt line and due to the angular exposed tang is very uncomfortable to carry. I replaced the sheath with a sharpshooter leather pouch sheath.

 

The scout is available with a black blade but the version I have has a stonewashed blade made from N690 stainless steel, the N690 steel is a great choice but can be had in other knives for significantly cheaper. The full length narrow tang is very strong and would be great to use in cold weather as it leaves no tang exposed and in constant contact with the hand. The texture on the first inch or so of the spine is not uncomfortable and does provide some extra grip but the swedge and 'false edge' along the spine from where the texture ends to the tip does make supporting cuts for whittling and wood craft very uncomfortable and leaves no sharp edge for striking a fire steel with. 

An excellent feature of the scout is the fact that with the removal of a single bolt the whole handle can be slipped off for cleaning or perhaps with a bit of ingenuity the fitting of a replacement handle which would be more comfortable.

Extrema Ratio Scout with handle removed. 

So while certain features of the scout make it a great choice for bushcrafting others unfortunately let it down badly and I can't really recommend it in the form that is comes from the factory. A few modifications would make it a very strong contender for bushcrafting but as it is there are much better choices. 

TODAY'S LESSON

I promised a lesson attached to every review; today's is a lesson on how I go about reviewing knives. To make sure I don't just ramble about a knifes performance I have specific criteria that I judge every knife on so that the reviews are consistent and relevant. All the reviews I do are based on basic bushcraft criteria although I don't limit the testing to 'bushcraft knives' at the end of the day whether a manufacturer chooses to use the word 'bushcraft' to market a knife or not doesn't make it more of a bushcraft knife than any other so some of the knives I test might be combat knives or hunting knives but the idea of a dedicated bushcraft knife is relatively new and knives obviously are not.

To show you what I do to test each knife that features in the monthly reviews here on the blog I've included to hand written notes I made about the Extrema Ratio Scout 1 as I used it over the last two years or so.

I will include these notes for each knife in future reviews. 

Real Steel Bushcraft Knife

The word 'bushcraft' attached to any product seems to drastically increase it's price but unfortunately often not it's value. That's not to say that more expensive equipment isn't good, sometimes it's very good but at other times the gulf between the prices of kit, most particularly knives, is not always as vast as the quality and performance.

The Real Steel Bushcraft knife may not be as low cost as the ubiquitous Mora Companion but it is full tang, has a thicker blade (at 3.5mm instead of 2.5mm) than a Mora and a micarta handle. It certainly looks the part of a bushcraft knife with a Scandinavian grind and in this case coyote micarta handle slabs. At less then £60 the D2 steel is a bargain and will hold it's edge well, I had mine for well over a year and used it regularly and only needed to give it the most basic of care and sharpening. 

The Scandinavian grind enables this knife to excel in in wood processing tasks, from making feather sticks for fire lighting to carving and whittling duties. While some might criticise it as having no chopping power the same could be said of any bushcraft knife of ideal size. Between four and five inches is a good size for general craft chores, food processing and gentle batoning; all the tasks required of a general purpose outdoors knife. 

Light duty batoning to make a kazoo. 

And that will be the lesson that accompanies this review; how to make a kazoo;

First take a strait stick, willow or hazel are normally good choices. Score two parallel lines on it about an inch apart.

Once you have scored your lines all the way around the circumference of the stick split it lengthwise. 

Now using those scored lines as markers (removing the bark is optional) carve out a few millimetres on each half of the stick so that when you place the two half's back together you have something like this. 

Now take a 'reed' a strong piece of grass a slice of a leaf or something similar is ideal, you can use an elastic band if you struggle for something natural.

Once places back together you can now blow through the gap you carved for a musical note. 

The kydex sheath with drain hole might not be quite as rustic as a more traditional leather sheath but that does mean that the blade is better protected from the elements than in a leather sheath that gets damp and holds water. I attached my sheath to a drop leg panel for belt carry although it does come with a kydex belt loop,  I wasn't a fan of the way it carried with the belt loop it came with though there was no flex in it and it hung bellow the belt line like a dangler sheath and because there was no flex it kept getting caught on things and jabbing me, so I first replaced the belt loop with one of TOPS spring steel belt clips and later the drop leg panel. 

All in all this knife is hard to beat on price or performance as a general bushcraft knife.

Preview; Aim point micro H-2

In January you will get to read the full review of a product martin has been using recently one of his deer rifles, as you can tell from this little preview he is quite excited about it. Check out our usual gear review post in January for a full account. 

It's never too late to have one of those "I wish I'd known about this 20 years ago" moments and I just had one! I'm 61 next birthday and have fired many weapons in a variety of disciplines and situations and I can't think of one in which the aim point micro H-2 wouldn't have made me a better shot.
I grew up with small bore rifle and a lot of shot gunning for pest control and on my best days, I was good but never great.
The military had me shooting with assault rifles and sub machine guns as well as an assortment of man portable antitank weapons and once again, the aim point would have been brilliant in all but the pure long range applications.

My other love, whilst the military encouraged it and civilians tolerated it, was pistol shooting. Tragedy bought that to an unnecessary and abrupt end but without doubt, this too would have benefited from an aim point micro with its pinpoint accuracy and 'both eyes open' capability, I only wish I'd had the opportunity to try it! But alas, those opportunities have gone and unlikely to return. The one I do have though, is to put it on a short, light and fast handling deer rifle for woodland stalking.

Watch this space for my experiences in the cambridgeshire woodlands, shooting Muntjac, Chinese Water Deer and Roe. 

See you in the woods! MG

Mr Blade S-Hardy Knife Review

Produced by Lion Steel in Italy for Mr. Blade the S-Hardy is designed as a robust cutting and chopping tool, that will easily take on the toughest of jobs. The blade is of  D2 tool steel and is described by the manufacturer as a modified tanto-recurve shape. It's not truly a re-curve blade though as the point in the blade where the grind angle changes forms a sort of 'tooth' and isn't a completely smooth curve. It's a little reminiscent of the blade shape of the Tom Brown Tracker knife although the 'tooth' isn't as pronounced or aggressive. 

It's similarity with the Tracker is one of the reasons for this review, I am very critical of the design of the Tracker and really can't understand the rationale for the design or why an outdoorsman as celebrated as Tom Brown Jr. would advocate it's use when all my considerable outdoors experience indicates that it would be a poor choice for a backwoods tool. In my posts about the design process of my own bushcraft knife I wrote a little about the Tracker and other iconic bushcraft knives;

"As well as his [Tom Brown Jr's] incredible, unbelievable, claims about his experiences I just can't take anyone seriously who puts their name on a knife like this and claims that it is anything other than a heavy duty chopping tool. It's massively heavy and features a weird dog tooth which seems to have been adopted in a few other knife patterns since it first appeared on the tracker. This feature interrupts the edge of the knife meaning the section closest to the handle can really only be used for push cuts, a knife with a continuous curve or even a strait section which seamlessly curves up at the point doesn't snag on the material you are cutting and is easy to sharpen, unlike the tracker. The saw on the back is a gimmick and doesn't cut properly although this is explained away by the designers, manufacturers and fans saying that it was only ever designed to produce clean square edged notches for trap making. My questions to them are first; show me what use those perfectly square notches are? Second; if you are skilled with a knife aren't those notches just as easy to make with the blade of a knife? Third; why add a feature that detracts from the overall utility of the knife by making it uncomfortable to apply pressure to the back of the blade?

So you can see that I'm not a fan of the Tracker, nor of the feature that the S-Hardy shares with it, but I wanted to see how this particular knife performs and to try a new knife company that I hadn't heard of before. 

First of all it  came in a box with a very cool logo

It comes with a very well made leather sheath which honestly is a little fancy for my taste, I like plain sheaths and the white stitching and two tone leather is a little decadent for me, also the retention strap for the handle is eventually going to be cut through where the swell at the front of the blade catches it every time the knife is drawn and sheathed. With the slightly unusual blade shape it's not a knife that will fit in an aftermarket pouch sheath which is often what happens to my knives like the Extrema Ratio Scout 1 which I re-sheathed in a Sharpshooter pouch sheath rather than the nylon MOLLE sheath it arrived with. 

You can see that the 'dog tooth' section of the blade runs across the retention strap every time the knife is drawn it wont take long for it to be cut through entirely. 

It is an attractive package though and I can't complain about it's performance, it feather sticks well and it's 5.27 inch blade is great for battoning and light chopping. 

The weight forward blade makes light chopping duties a breeze, much easier than it would be with similar sized knives with a more standard blade shape. However where it excels at chopping, and I need to reiterate that it excels at LIGHT CHOPPING, if you want to really chop get an axe. By light chopping I mean chopping things between a few mm's to an inch or two across or possibly using a baton to drive the blade through some larger wood but it is NOT as people claim of knives like the Tom Brown Tracker a substitute for an axe or even comparable with the cutting power of a small hatchet.

While the S-Hardy is good for the heavier tasks required of a bushcraft or survival knife it does become uncomfortable after extended use, not so uncomfortable that it's a major problem but the handle cut out toward the back of the handle irritates and fatigues my pinky finger and the palm of my hand. I get the same issue during extended fine carving tasks and it falls down in that area as the false top edge makes it difficult and uncomfortable to apply pressure to the top of the blade during fine carving. Also the longer blade makes it difficult to span the knife with your hand and use you thumb on top of the blade to support cuts. 

While the 'modified tanto' shape does bring the knife to a sharp point, something I look for in every knife I use, the blade quickly broadens out and it quickly goes from a fine point to over an inch thick so it really can't do the fine carving that I consider an acid test of bushcraft knives. 

One of these 'acid test' tasks I do with all the knives you'll see tested here is to carve a netting needle and unfortunately the S-Hardy did not perform well in this regard, mainly because of that fairly broad blade which levers apart the wood fibres as you try to make small cuts on the inside edges of the needle;

 It was almost impossible to put a smooth finish on the inside angles and edges of the needle and the more I tried, especially down at the base of the needle the wood just split ruining my efforts. The needle was functional but not tidy and would have been a pain to use as the rough edges would have caught and snagged on the fibres you use to make a net.

I can't fault the quality or the choice of materials for this knife, although I'm less impressed with the sheath for reasons I've already stated. I like D2 steel in general and can't fault it even though I'm fully aware that there are more impressive steels out there. The handle can be uncomfortable as I've mentioned and it will cause you some discomfort if you use it for extended periods and it really isn't a fine carving tool where it excels is light chopping, battoning and much to my surprise feather sticking. I was concerned that the dog tooth edge would get in the way when feather sticking but there is just enough blade length between the choil and tooth to get decent feathers but you won't get the use of the full length of the blade when feathering or carving due to that tooth which in a more general purpose knife is a bit of a waste of a blade. 

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Because we've dwelt on the S-Hardys ability to make feather sticks todays lesson linked with this review will be on feather sticks;

Feather sticks are simply aids to lighting a fire, without small tinder such as dry grass, matchstick thin dry twigs, dry nettle and hogweed stems etc... you need to make fine tinder. This is particularly important in winter when dry material is often sodden or buried in snow. Select some dead dry wood, this will often be found on dead limbs or hung up in trees, if you have a saw cut it to ten to twelve inch lengths, if not you can use a batton to nibble through it with your knife or as it's dry break it against a tree or rock.

 Now split it with your axe or hatchet or batton through it lengthwise with your knife, for perfect feather sticks aim to split your wood down into pieces roughly an inch square. Now you can feather each of these pieces and you will need a pile of them to get a decent fire going, half a dozen or so would be ideal. You should be aiming to get the remaining wood so thin that the fat end of the feather stick will light from the feathers, you don't want to just burn off the feathers you want the whole lot to catch light and form the basis of your fire. 

One of those 'model' feather sticks that you can find online or in some poorly written and researched survival guides, these curls would all burn off before the rest of the wood catches and looking at how curly they aren't this is probably made of wet wood. Wet wood doesn't curl nicely like dry wood does. 

Image b R HORNE - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Char1.jpg, Public Domain, Link

To achieve good feather sticks I carve feathers on three side of the wood, some say you should only do it one but ultimately it doesn't matter. You have two choices when doing the actual carving, you can brace the wood and move the knife along it's length and you do want to carve along the whole length of the wood, just because all the feathers curl up at one end doesn't mean you start carving at that end you need a dense mass of curls and to get that you start carving at the tip and let the curls form at the bottom. Alternatively you can fix your knife in one place and draw the wood against it. I prefer the first method as I can employ the whole length of the blade which allows me to form curls more easily and use the full curve of the knife blade.

Lighting a fire with feather sticks, most of the curls have already burned away but the fire is still burning because the sticks were whittled thin enough

Feather sticks on the banks of a frozen lake in Sweden

For the full fire lighting process including feather stick making have a look at this video of mine from a few years ago;

                                    

So that's it for this months review, the Mr. Blade S-Hardy and feather sticks, I hope you enjoyed it and you can look forward to a more detailed lesson about feather sticks as we build on the Bushcraft Basics pages. 

Father and Son Bushcraft Trip to Sweden; Gear

This months review is going to feature some of the kit we used on our father and son trip to Sweden, both well tried and tested, there's no point heading so far afield with unproven gear. 

Klättermusen Arvaker 60 litre modelled by yours truly. 

The first review is my rucksack, the Klättermusen Arvaker. They don't make it anymore but I've had this for about eighteen months and it's seen extensive use in Scotland and Sweden in that time. It's by far the most comfortable rucksack I have ever used and although at 60 litres it doesn't have a huge capacity, they do also produce a 100 litre rucksack, the model that was contemporary with the Arvaker was the Mjölnir which has now been replaced by their Tor model. 

Even when it's loaded heavily it is extremely comfortable, you can hardly feel the weight in it at all and I really wouldn't want to switch back to a rucksack without the proprietary load bearing system.  

The rucksack has an aluminium frame which spreads the load and the hip belt is a perfect fit and is adjustable from four points so it can be tighter at the bottom or top depending on how your prefer it. The hip belt also includes the loop fields which can be found all over the rucksack. These can be used to attach a range of pockets and accessories. They are not designed for use with MOLLE but they do just about fit and a Maxpedition map and compass pouch fits perfectly on one side of the hip belt for convenient access, this means I don't have to carry my map and compass around my neck, and I hate carrying things around my neck. 

The external stretch pocket fitted to the arvaker using the loop fields

A closeup of the butterfly bridge feature on the right pack strap, you can also see them in the picture above.

The shoulder straps feature Klättermusens unique 'butterfly bridge' technology which is best explained in the manufacturers own words;

"Key for carrying easier and increasing your endurance is transferring the load to the skeleton in an efficient manner, which our Butterfly Bridge does efficiently. 

The benefit of load transfer is twofold. By carrying directly on your skeleton, you can simply lift more with better endurance. On the other end, the strain placed by regular systems on the muscles and ligaments is relieved letting blood pass freely through your muscles keeping you both free from pain and more alert."

All I can say is that this feature seems to work beautifully; I often find that the muscles of my left shoulder get uncomfortable when carrying a heavy rucksack but not with this pack. It is a little on the heavy side due to the frame but any actual weight the construction of the pack adds is more than made up for by the way it spreads that weight so well. 

Although it is a roll top pack like many dry bags, it;s not guaranteed to be waterproof so anything you need to keep dry should be packed up in waterproof bags inside the bag. Although it resembles a dry bag it is constructed far more strongly and the Kevlar reinforced bottom  will put up with being put down in brambles, bushes and on sharp rocks without you having to worry about damaging your pack. 

The only bad thing about the Klättermusen pack is the price. The Arvaker used to retail around £250 as far as I remember and it's equivalent product that is available now is about £300 but the quality is undeniable, if you spend a lot of time on expeditions you will struggle to find anything more comfortable and it is comparable in price with other very high end packs like the Fjällraven or some tactical packs by Karriomor SF, TAD Gear and Mystery Ranch.  

  

My Arvaker at a trig point in Scotland

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Another piece of kit we took with us, and which despite the craze amongst 'survivalists' for one tool knives I would recommend everyone include amongst their bushcrafting gear, was an axe. The fact that on a bushcraft trip to Sweden I didn't take a Swedish axe may seem a little blasphemous to some but for the last two years I have been using an axe by a Basque company called Jauregi. They make axes by hand to a traditional pattern and rather than having the axe handle inserted into  the bottom of the head and secured with a wedge these axe heads are fitted to their handles in a similar way to tomahawks. The model I have is one of their pruning axes and it has a 50cm handle and a head weighing 0.8kg's. 

When I picked one up a few years ago i wasn't necessarily looking for an alternative to my other axes out of any sort of dissatisfaction, I have a Wetterlings Swedish Forest Axe which I have had for over ten years now and which is as close to being the perfect axe as I've ever found, but it is a bit on the big side for every day bushcrafting, and for taking in hold luggage. I also have a Gransfors carving axe which is a specialist tool and not one to take on a bushcrafting trip. The Jauregi pruning axe is a little larger and longer than a hatchet  making it more powerful for cutting and chopping but it's lightweight handle means it weighs no more than a hatchet. 

Clockwise from top; Gransfors Bruks carving axe, Wetterlings Swedish Forest axe, Jauregi pruning axe

The beech handle is the only disappointment I have with this axe, it's a little on the skinny side, it has to be for the handle to fit, but that does make it a little uncomfortable so I wrapped a small portion with tape to provide a slightly chunkier grip, it can easily be unwrapped if I want to get the head off.  Additionally beech is not going to be as strong as the hickory used in most modern axes. I understand that they are using traditional materials but there is a reason that Wetterlings and Gransfors use hickory and it's not that it's native to Sweden. Hickory is an American import and before we had access to it tool handles in Europe would have been mostly made of ash and while ash is an excellent material for tool handles it's not quite as resistant to impact as hickory and I'd prefer something other than beech but it's not the end of the world.

The handle was fairly rough when it arrived and while some might complain about that just pause and think for a moment that the Gransfors carving axe, which will cost you at least £50 more than the Jauregi is deliberately made with a rough handle, according to the design criteria of celebrated wood carver Willi Sundqvist, to aid gripping it. If a rough handle is a problem for you use it more and get some callouses. 

Clearing a trail from windblown trees in Scotland last year

Looking out over Ullsjön and having a hot meal thanks to the firewood cut with our axe. 

The carbon steel head does seem to be a little more prone to rust that some of my other axes but it sharpens easily and came with a very robust leather guard that secures with a buckle.

The Jauregi 50cm pruning axe and a home made froe

I've only found one place to get these axes from; the Finland based online knife, tool and outdoor supplier Lamnia. While I can't recommend it above Wetterlings or Gransfors axes it is a unique design and very effective and lightweight. 

Whatever approach you take to choosing your gear make sure before heading off far from home to practice your bushcraft that you take tried and tested gear, don't head off on an expedition with a brand new rucksack or brand new boots use what you know and are comfortable with.

Volvo XC90 D5 Power Pulse Automatic

This road test was undertaken with a view to providing a typical member of BASC with an insight as to the suitability, desirability and practicality of this high spec Volvo XC.




First Impressions.


The XC90 is a big car, with great presence and imposing lines, standing ‘head and shoulders’ above other ‘normal’ vehicles around it but of course it has to be, it will carry seven people and a significant amount of luggage. As my old flying instructor used to tell me, stand back and look at it to see if it looks right before you get up close and it does look right! The tested model arrived in shiny black and it certainly wouldn’t look out of place dropping off dignitaries at 10 Downing Street! It may however, look a little out of place in the farm yard until it has been ‘de-shined’. The big, road based tyres, low and wide didn’t look like the tyres that would take it on a serious cross country journey and I think that many BASC members, like me, would certainly want to switch these out for something a little higher profile and with a rather more rugged tread pattern. I intended to try it way off road but as we’re still in first impression mode, this vehicle appears to just lack a little ground clearance for the farm and cross country application. It was also lacking another countryside accessory, a tow hitch, which is likely to be another BASC member requirement, I would have liked to test it as a tow vehicle, I suspect it would be good and may well find favour with the caravanning fraternity, IF that 2 litre engine can deliver the power necessary and on paper is says it will, time to find out!


Getting to know the Beast.


Time to enter the parlour! A quick press on the ‘unlock’ button on the keyless fob, has the lights flashing and the neatly folded door mirrors swinging into position, the doors are illuminated for easy location and entry in any light conditions. If you’re heading towards the car loaded with shopping, opening the tail gate doesn’t require a lot of effort either, a press of the button on the key fob or even a quick kicking motion under the rear bumper has the ample tail gate swing open. A convenient button on the base of the open tail gate, now nearly 7 feet in the air, reverses the ‘open sesame’ trick and is a bit of a stretch for some of our shorter family members and perhaps a button a little lower down may be worthy of consideration, maybe near one of the rear light clusters.


It is quite a step up into the driver’s and front passenger seat, I would want to see a convenient grab handle appear in the door frame when the door is open and fold away again as the door closes, so as not to provide a protrusion to injure occupants in the event of a sudden deceleration or worse, in the event of an accident, I’m sure Volvo could come up with such a device in a 50 grand car. If the car is on any kind of side slope, the big solid and heavy front doors need quite a bit of opening and closing respectively, several times I had to push the door ‘uphill’ to get out on a slope only to have it fall back on my legs as I swung out and that is a big heavy door to have close on you.


The third row of seats, the 2 rearmost seats for children, for this is the only size of occupant who can really be accommodated here, really needs some agility to gain access. No matter how we slid and folded the middle row seats, it was still essential to provide some assistance with a huge step or gentle lift for a small person. I feel a little extra work on gaining access to the third row would be well worth the investment, perhaps an extra step or similar.


The seats are very comfortable and it is impossible to conceive that anyone could not get comfortable in these well-appointed and infinitely variable leather arm chairs, this is going to make any journey comfortable, they adjust every which way and will even warm your rear if you so desire. I could write ‘war and peace’ on the gadget list but suffice to say that I have flown aeroplanes with a lot less gadgets and one could play for hours if gadgets are your thing. Gadgets are not my thing but safety certainly is and I loved the safety features, of which more later. The gadget box contained voice activation for climate and entertainment control and a whole host of other things but for me, navigation and safety devices outweigh the value of other ‘options’ by a mile.


Unleash the horses.


The view from the driving seat creates the immediate impression that the big Volvo isn’t so daunting after all. Visibility is excellent, mirrors and driving aids all help to make it an easy drive, despite its size. With the keyless fob in the vehicle, all you need to do is turn the start / stop switch to start and the horses are awake. It is a beautifully quiet and smooth for a 4 cylinder engine, the vibration and sound deadening is of a very high order and if you didn’t know it was a 4 you could easily believe you were sitting behind a 6 cylinder engine. Very powerful and smooth power delivery through the lovely 8 speed automatic gearbox, it would have been my first choice of power and transmission combination and it didn’t disappoint in any situation, gravel, grass or tarmac. Between the beautifully weighted power steering and that gear box, travelling was not going to be a chore!


On The Road.


We covered 873 miles on every possible kind of journey that the vehicle is capable of during which the car returned an average of 41 MPG, which was well down on book value, as we have come to expect for almost every vehicle. The very efficient start stop technology was the best and most consistent I have ever used but even this didn’t pull the mpg up to where it should be. Journeys included the daily commute to work, which is mixed country lanes and A roads in to the edge of the town. We had motorway journeys from Cambridgeshire to visit family in Staffordshire including the M6 and other A roads. We took Children and Grandchildren on days out and to Church on Sunday. I also drove it to and through the farm to collect wildlife cameras and deliver essential equipment for an executive training course at the wilderness camp site and I even shot a couple of rabbits from the driver’s window!


Acceleration is rapid once it gets off the mark but there is a slight lag between pressing the go pedal and leaving the mark, I couldn’t detect if this was a gear choosing process or what but when it had decided how it was going to launch, it certainly did go! Accelerating to cruise speed or speed matching with other traffic in the blink of an eye.


I loved the safety features and all those aids that assist with situational awareness. I have encountered some of them before but never so many on a single vehicle. In order of preference, I love the blind spot warning lights in the door mirrors, they were great on the motorway and as a look over the shoulder is pretty worthless because of the width of the door pillar, I quickly got to love them!


Next the adaptive cruise control is brilliant on the motorway along with the proximity warning lights which all aid awareness of a tired driver and keep those fast moving traffic jams just far enough apart to prevent using the car in front as a brake!


Reversing Camera is also brilliant, with proximity warnings on all corners, it really does help put this big car safely into modest amounts of space, it will even park itself but I didn’t have to opportunity to test that, everything else worked beautifully so I have no doubt that this would too.


For a big, tall vehicle, it drives superbly well and is not hard work at all, there was no hint of body role despite the slightly higher centre of gravity than your average saloon. It drives like a limousine and you could certainly use it for the school run, collecting the Chief Executive from the airport or taking a spare part across the field to the combine harvester and it will do them all very well. The big Volvo just ate up the miles on a late evening motorway journey, it was comfortable, restful, navigation was a breeze, adaptive cruise control, mirrors and safety features to assist in avoiding the increasing number of drivers who have forgotten what mirrors are for or just thought they bought the road with the car! We arrived home swiftly and safely, 2 awake and 2 asleep and I didn’t feel exhausted. I did detect a constant roar from behind me which I assumed was road noise but as the seats were so comfortable, I couldn’t find any volunteers to lay on the floor to confirm or deny my suspicion. If I was right, then that is a disappointment as the sound deadening from the engine and front wheels is superb maintaining the impression of a being in a six cylinder limousine, so logic dictates that it could be done for the rear wheels too.


During the period of the test, we had barely a drop of rain and so when I took the Volvo off road, it was on rough and grassy tracks but no mud to speak of and by choosing my line carefully the road tyres and the ground clearance proved adequate but in a month or two when it’s been wet for a while, I’m not sure if it would fare quite so well.


If you have a £50k plus budget for a luxury estate which you need to do almost everything, then the XC90 could well be the one for you. It did everything I asked of it, which is probably more than many of its owners will. I know several XC90 owners of older models who fill all the seats, do the school run and longer trips on holiday but if their tyres touch grass it’s because someone spilt grass trimmings at the city recycle centre! I think of the XC90 as a gentleman’s carriage rather than a workhorse, a very capable one too. I think for many farm / shoot applications, the XC90 may just be a little too grand and to excel in that role it needs just a little more ground clearance and some more XC type tyres, the road biased tyres on the model I tested were not going to go far when the mud got serious or even if the grass was really wet. If you want to do the airport run for someone special, take 4 big adults (and the driver) for a special night out or take a picnic for 7 (so long as 2 are children) off the beaten track or a major camping adventure, the XC90 will certainly do it all and then some. Definitely test drive it, it’s a big step up for small people and definitely needs a step to assist those entering into the back row or for those lifting children in to the back row.

the big Volvo doing it's duty on the farm 

It did take me by surprise with one little party trick, as I hit a particularly large pothole on the undulating fen roads, the seat belt pre-tensioner activated and took all the slack out of my seat belt and then about an extra two trouser sizes! Wow! That got may attention but it was reassuring to know that if I hit something, the seatbelts would be tight!

With the topic of this months review being a vehicle I thought a good lesson to include this month would be some tips about bushcraft skills and tools that can compliment overland expeditions by vehicle. Rather than turn this post into a huge essay though it is simpler to send you to the Overlanding Journal Website where Geoff has written some articles on just that topic. I hope you enjoy them;

Bushcraft Tools for Overlanding

Expedition Cooking on a Campfire

When Fancy Kit Fails

Summary.


Loved the Big Volvo, smooth, powerful, quiet in the front and drives like a limo, love the seating position, the visibility and driving and safety aids.


Tyre choice wouldn’t have been mine and a little more ground clearance would be a boon when the going gets tough, it’s a little bit thirsty considering the motorway miles we covered and I would have loved to tow a trailer for a few hundred miles to test that particular capability.


Would I own one, yes absolutely!



Martin R Guy

Karrimor Trig 30 Airspace

I bought this rucksack many years ago when I first moved away from home to attend college, it has served me well all over the globe from short expeditions here in the UK to New Zealand, North America and Scandinavia. At the time of purchase rigid air space rucksacks were becoming popular and having returned from many a hike drenched in sweat under my rucksac straps and on my back I thought it was time to try one of these new-fangled packs. 

I had been concerned that the rigid plastic which maintained the gap between my back and the rucksac would limit the carrying capacity of the rucksac and it did to an extent, and Bulkier objects if forced into the pack would also bend the plastic which maintained the gap between my back and the pack it'self. If packed sensibly though these things were never any more of an issue than they would be in any other type of pack.

The side pockets have proven very useful, although not really deep enough or secure enough to hold a water bottle the pack is equipped with well placed straps on the sides to allow the pockets to hold the end of ice axe's or other similar gear which can then be secured with the straps. The front pocket, if stuffed full, does eat into the available space of the main compartment but I found it an excellent place to stow waterproofs and gear that needed to be accessed quickly. The lid pocket houses a waterproof rain cover which can be stretched over the pack in bad weather and which is large enough to house other gear which you need easy access to; first aid kit, compass and map etc..

The 'air space' meant that your back was much cooler  during extended hikes, and the problems of sweating and overheating were much reduced compared to a pack without this space. 

The air space lived up to it's hype and has kept me dry and very comfortable for several years over hundreds of short expeditions, day walks and days of supervising groups out of doors carrying this loaded with first aid kit, emergency equipment and the other trappings of an outdoor educator.

TODAY'S LESSON

Talking of hiking and supervising people out of doors what should you pack for outdoor adventures on foot? 

Equipment is one of the many things that separates bushcrafters from other outdoors enthusiasts; while a bushcrafter might be comfortable with a simple tarp and no camp stove, someone else might consider those essential items but will only carry a small pocket knife and no other tools which the bushcrafter packs a sheath knife, hatchet and crook knife. 

Having worked with Duke of Edinburghs Award groups, youth groups, colleges, the field studies council and other groups put of doors for many years there are a few things I will always pack to make sure I can take care of a group out of doors whether I am teaching bushcraft or just supervising an expedition or hike. I have given a rough kit list for an overnight trip of a few nights duration here and I have also highlighted in bold the things I would carry on a single day hike;

·        Shelter

o   This might be a tent, tarp or bivi bag for over night expeditions or just a simple survival bag or bothy bag in case of emergencies on day hikes. 

·        Waterproof trousers and jacket

·        Spare clothes (even if you are only expecting to be gone a few hours a change of clothes can be life saving in the event that you or one of your team ends up soaked to the skin, remember to ensure that groups you are supervising carry a change of clothes as well but to be on the safe side I carry some extra spares in my 'emergency bag')

o   Hat and gloves (yes even in Summer)

o   Warm over layer (a lightweight down jacket or similar, I carry one that packs up no larger than your average can of coke which I use all the time even in the Summer)

o   Spare socks and underwear

o   Spare trousers

o   Spare t-shirt/shirt

·        First aid kit (minimum contents)

o   Plasters (band-aids)

o   Antiseptic wipes

o   Nitrile gloves

o  Pain killers (paracetamol or ibuprofen although you can't give these to your group if you are supervising young people)

o   Scissors/shears

o   Wound dressings (various sizes)

o   Blister treatment

o   Compression bandage

·        Sleeping Bag

·        Carry Mat (therma-rest, foam pad or equivalent)

·        Camp stove (unless you are planning to cook on a campfire)

o   Enough fuel to last your entire trip

·        Mess kit;

o   Cooking pot

o   Spoon

·        Lighter or matches

·        Pocket knife

·     Head torch (a head torch is a must for pitching a tent after dark and keeping your hands free to perform tasks at night, but is also vital in case of emergencies on short hikes)

·        Food (enough for two hot meals each day plus snacks for lunch and hot drinks)

·        Emergency bag;

o   Mobile phone with full charge and spare battery

o   Spare batteries for torch

o   Space blanket or survival bag

o   Whistle

o   Extra spare clothes for group members, including a few sets of gloves and hats, spare fleece or down jacket and trousers.  

·        Rucksac/Backpack

·        Map and compass

·        Water bottle

·        Water purification tablets

·        Personal hygiene items;

o   Toothbrush and past

o   Wet wipes

o   Microfiber towel (I always carry at least one of these even on day hikes in case of accidental soakings, they are so small and light that you hardly know they ar ein your pack at all)

o   soap

For a day hike when I am not carrying a full shelter such as a tent and sleeping bag I would still ensure I have an emergency shelter such as a bothy bag or blizzard bag but would not carry these on a multi day trip as I would already be carrying sufficient shelter items. 

Also from a bushcraft perspective I would want to carry a bushcraft knife and possibly a couple of light weight craft tools such as a crook knife, however these items aren't actually vital. On a camping trip where you carry all your kit including packaged food and a camp stove you will be absolutely fine with no larger tool than a pocket knife, you may want a larger knife but if you are prepared you won't desperately need it. 

There may be some circumstances where you will need to carry additional equipment for a specific environment, such as camping in the cold or snow, but these are the basics and will be sufficient in a temperate climate.

Looking worse for wear after thirteen years hard use. 

Eventually though all good things come to an end and the wear and tear started to show, the fabric and frame of the bag it'self is still completely sound and free of any significant damage but the, zips, buckles, straps and padded hip belt have all gradually degraded and worn away. All the buckles have now been replaced with various combinations of elastic and carabiners or have had so many changes of buckle that the straps themselves are worn out. 

A make shift closure for the pack made out of elastic and a caribiner. 

If Karrimor still made them I would highly recommend them, even after a more recent experience with a pair of disintegrating walking boots by Karrimor has put me off the brand, this particular pack was a winner and it's a shame to see it go but sometimes kit really does need to be retired.