Bahco Laplander- my favourite folding saw.

ok, as i wrote the food review,i remembered that i used my BAHCO´s Laplander ( lap 396 ) saw as a weight in one picture,and also snapped a few shots of it too,so im goin to put em up here as well.
Laplander has been so far the best folding saw ive used on my trips,and at home too.

A choosed due to the reviews i saw about it,in newspapers,youtube etc and it sure aint bad reference to any tool if USA military forces issue this to their soldiers,and its NATO approved as well,and carries the number : #5110-25-147-4344

Its pretty sturdy,and yet not bulky or heavy in my pocket,the blade locks in open and in closed position too so it wont open up accidentally to rip the gear you have in you ruckasack,or tear apart your trouser pockets,neither your skin.

I´d say its something like 9 inches long when folded,so it rides easily in uniform pants pockets if you dont carry any backpack or similar,and theres now few belt sheats for these in Ebay too and im goin to sew one for myself too,as i really do like to carry things attached to me,in belt,so i always have necessities at my hands and i dont have to search thru packs and bags when i need some tool.

The blade is superb,it really holds up its edge and sharpness,and ive used this a lot,thru rotten,iced,moist,soft and hard woods,and plain ice too,and it keeps going on.Lately i managed to get a hold of some 5 spare blades from local scout shop,and due to this i think i wont be looking out for another saw for long long time.....if i dont drop this on trails,that is.From my classmate i got french,large Opinel saw but i havent used it at all yet so its my spare now.

I think its ok to carry axe in the woods,but to someone it might be too heavy and even more dangerous if youre not used to axe working,so the saw is lighter,safer and more accurate if you need to do some grooves and notches,smooth ends etc.With axe you can cut off a thicker tree faster but with stumpy saw like this,you can do it too,with some thought and it takes longer but its ok to me.Anyways,this will beat any(?) saw included in multitools and folding knives anyday of the week,when making any bigger tasks like cutting away material to build up a three stand for cooking,lean-to,or other shelter stuff and similar.

Anyways,if youre looking for good folding saw,for reasonable price,these are pretty easy to find nowadays ( mine came from Uk ) here,even from bigger markets like Prisma for under 20 Euros.Its not bad for hi quality item like this.

Personally i rate this as high as 4 points of 5,if id have to,and i dont give it five,cause any tool can be made better someday.BUT this is the best ive seen so far.

Hot Pack-flameless heater & Wayfarer hiking food field test

Well im back from a hike i did,and there i got a chance to do a little test and take some "how-to" pictures for your eyes,later on i wil add a short video film here and to youtube where i show the use of these cool light weight food & drink heaters.

First you just pick up the food you want to eat,and one of HOT PACK heaters.
Then you peel away the upper end of the heater,it has clear marking and cut-away´s too to ease out this step.After this,open up the food of your choise,in this particular case its WAYFARER´s
Chicken,pasta & mushrooms.Wayfarer is one of my favourites as it resembles those used by US military forces MRE ration packs.It does NOT need any water to be added,and it can be eaten cold too but it makes it digest and taste even better when warmed up.If you have one of those meals that need water,make sure you can close up your food pouch after you have added the water,since these heaters work best when theyre laying flat on ground,or roc or something.
If you cant close the pouch,make sure you put the meal,inside the Hot Pack,in a way it really stands against some support,tree stum or some similar.And it aint so effective when its standing,ive noticed,but still better than eating cold foods,especially those that require water,theyre bit hard to chew :).

Anyway,then you drop the meal that is in its own pouch,into the hot pack,and see that the clothbag in the hot pack,will be between the meal and ground/support,it heats up the portion better this way as the heat rises up to the meal,and wont escape,as it would do if its on top of the meal.

Then,you poor about 45 milliliters of water from your container to the heater,it has also been clearly marked where you stop pooring,as its bit hard to measure that amount in the woods if you dont carry a mug or something with proper measurements in it.

After this,just close the leftover part of the pouch that doesnt cover the meal pouch,use it like a lid/flap,to seal up the package,but DONT use any heavy items to make it 100% leakproof,this thing becomes VERY hot,and generates hot water steam,for quite a while,amd if its sealed up with tape or something,it might blow up.As long as you remember this,and that the package is laid flat on good surface ( it wont start a fire though,dont worry),youre doing just fine and its safe to use,really.

Let the whole package be there,for some time,from 7 to 12 minutes ( to my experience,this is),and then carefully pick it up,rip away the second marked part of the pouch ( this eases out removing the hot meal inside the hotpack).Be careful,the package can be still quite warm,use gloves if you want.Remove the warm meal,in this case you need just to open up the wayfarers factory-closed bag,check out that its warm,and start to eat straight from the pouch or poor the meal into your plate of choise,and enjoy.

MAKE SURE YOU GET RID OFF THE GARBAGE PROPERLY,DONT EVER WASTE NATURE. Its pretty odd you if you dont have the muscles to carry away the empty cans,pouches,packings if you had the energy to carry them along in to the woods.
Hot Pack has instruction for its use written on it very well,now in finnish too,which is great for us.



I found out,during our short trip,in our natural park,the Hot Pack,very useful and easy way to heat up the meal,so did my buddies,especially i noticed that my brother really liked it,as hes a beginner and does things on low budget intentionaly,and reduces weight of gear too,if he can.So this is also lightweight method to do food,and offers an low-cost way to get started your hiking and outdoor activities as you dont Have to buy any gas cartridge or liquid fuel operated stoves at the first point at all.And even later,im goin to carry these,cause they work well in cold climates too,where the gas stoves arent best things usually to carry around.And hey,it wouldnt be bad idea at all to add these into you cars emergeancy kit,not to mention other just-in-case uses,in boats,cottages or anywhere.These pack up in small space and dont cost much,think about it.

The food i tasted this time ( there will be few other taste testings soon too,folks.) was that Wayfarer chicken,pasta & mushrooms.I found it pretty damn fine meal,compared to multiple others ive eaten,and ive eaten a lot.It weights about 300 grams which is quite ok,as you usually eat few of these per day,and this stuff is anything but thin,its drowned in tasty filling creamy sauce,that suits me atleast,better than well.The stuff in the cream sauce is large chunks of tasty chicken.I was quite amazed about it actually as usually any hiking meal containing chicken,seems to contain only tiny crumbs,and almost non-visible particles of chicken.This meal made an positive
exception to that as it has about fingertip sized reddish chunks of it.The pasta is good,and not dry,points for that too.Not to mention the good amount of mushrooms,that i like,some dont but hey this is my tongue speaking now:)
My brother who is on novice-level when it comes to outdoors living,rated this the best stuff he had eaten on trails this far,and if youd know him,you would be sure that the meal cant be bad as this guy is picky one and eats a lot in restaurants etc.

Packings are sturdy,which is good,as in your rucksack sometimes meal pouches get some rough rides and get pierced,but these luckily didnt.I think you can even take away the outer packing away from any wayfarer meal,before hitting the trails,and it will not break easily.This just just to reduce amount of trash and weight in your backpack.I think it wouldn be stupid also to put the acyual pack containing the meal,inside the Hot Pack-bag,before you pack up you things and head out to your trip,and when the lunch break hits you,you dont have to look around for the hotpack and meal as they are togethe ralready and you only need to fill it with water,and eat away....

Both,the Heat Pac´s and Wayfarer rations along with many other food items can be found from SOLUTION FOODS webshop.

And as i said,i will be adding some short video clip as i get it edited,and few other meal tests here pretty soon,im bit busy now as im havin quite a lot of jobs,school classes and one trip in nearby future.

Hope you liked this one !?

Food test incoming

Ok,

Ive been talking thru emails to this one shop here that sells ready-to-eat meals,that i could possibly make a review & sort of field testing about them and now it seems that i have a green light from him and we just spoked on the phone about this matter.Later on this wweek i might get the items and then ill head out to some trip in the outdoors and take the foods along,cook em and take photos of those too,and then a si return to home ill post my review here.

A shop named "Solution Foods" (www.solutionfoods.fi) in Oulu,sells these foods,theyre bit special here,atleat i havent seen many other,if even one,hiking foods that you can eat straight out of pouch too,with or without heating em up in any way,but you can make em better by heating in hot water,in an un-opened pouch.

To my eyes they are very handy and intresting,since these dont require water,in times of crisis when the water supply gets broken,shut off or polluted,and this happen can the natural water sources like streams,pollution i mean.And this way wayfarer offers way to hydration too,due to the water it has already in it.You should consider these to be added in that "just in case" pack everyone should have in storage,along with all the other items like water purifiers,first aid kit,etc.

But thats it for now,ill post more thoughts and opinions after i get my field testing done .