Its been a while since I played a harmonica, around 30 years at least. I remember the black Hero harmonica that dad had. In fact most of my friends who had harmonicas had Heros. Its quality was pretty good and I was surprised to find out a few days back that it was/is made in China. I always thought the print on the cover was Japanese.

My mother presented it to my dad sometime after they got married, sometime in the late 1960′s. I called her up yesterday and she told me that she had paid about Rs. 34 for it. The cost of a Hero today is around Rs.240, still cheap -the price of a meal at a good restaurant. When I remember the Hero, I remember it with a pang of guilt, because as a kid  to satisfy my scientific curiosity I took it apart  in such a way that it would only make farting noises when put back together. Dad had various things locked up in his cupboard -always for display and never for use, but this harmonica was one thing that he sometimes used, although I don’t remember hearing it very often (probably my fault again).

In its strong pretty plastic case

The harmonica was forgotten except for a couple of toy harmonicas bought at fairs which had covers that would rust and had bad quality reeds and wooden combs painted pink which cut into my lips. When I was nine, I started learning the violin and it was my companion for many years until a few fractured fingers later (at work) I stopped playing it. It was a beautiful instrument no doubt but had too much maintenance associated with it -tuning, proper posture, notes and of course perfect fingering and bowing to eke out the proper sound. This always made it feel like a tedious chore rather than an enjoyable and relaxing past time -like I felt when I played my cheap bamboo flute. Soon my violin was relegated to its case for close to 10 years and it still awaits repairs as some of the parts have begun to separate.

Close up of the plastic comb

When I was working on a draft for posts in my bug-out category. I wondered if I were to pack a musical instrument in my bug-out bag, which one would it be? I knew that the mood lifting properties of music are a great stress reliever and from experience I knew that my body and soul responded better to music I played rather than those heard through head phones. The answer was pretty simple as the instrument had to be light, compact and more or less maintenance free, so the choice boiled down to either a flute or a harmonica or probably both!

High quality brass interiors

Checking out Youtube for AV samples of small harmonicas, I finalized on the Hohner Golden Melody primarily because of its size. Although all recommended that a C harmonica be procured for beginners, I opted for the GM in D as that was what was available at the Furtado’s website where I bought it for Rs 1875 + Rs. 50 for shipping.

Matt finish makes a valiant attempt at hiding fingerprints but does not completely succeed

Although I knew it was relatively small, I was shocked at how small it was when I actually received it. Its size was comparable with my Victorinox Swiss champ and it looked like one of the toy harmonica’s that we bought as kids from fairs for a few rupees. This seemed more so because the harmonica was seated in a a black formed plastic holder which looked as it was made of recycled garbage bags and was formed (inset) in a similar way to disposable blister packing. The lower holder had also come unstuck and I used some petroleum based adhesive to stick it back on. Another visible feature was that the M.HOHNER stamped on the covers was not sharp as though the impression was worn out or the stamp had failed to cut deep enough into the metal.

The slots in the box vent the moisture inside the box -works very well in the dry Delhi summers

On the positive side, the red plastic box was without reproach with all the printing impressed onto the hard plastic cover in golden color. This plastic feels very good to the touch, shuts with a positive click and won’t open easily if it is dropped. It also has two rectangular cut outs which form slits when the box is closed thus allowing air circulation and drying of the harmonica when inside the box.

The golden melody comes with a red plastic comb and its sound is hauntingly sweet. The low tones when properly played sound like a pipe organ and are incredibly beautiful. I found a lot of complaints  on various forums that some of the reeds were stiff and needed more energy to blow. I have the same “problem” but I don’t think the good folks at Hohner have anything to do with this. Although I am a beginner, I think this has to do with the laws of physics. Just as it is more difficult to bend a shorter object and easier to bend a longer object, similarly the higher notes need more air pressure to bend/vibrate their reeds. I could be wrong on this though.

Size comparison with my Victorinox Swiss champ

In a similar way, when you create a proper resonant cavity with your mouth and blow from deep inside, the lower notes sound sweeter. This again uses the same principle of a woofer requiring a large resonant box and so has nothing to do with Hohner’s quality control but more with playing style and skill.

I enjoy playing the GM every night before going to bed. Unlike my violin I can play it with the lights out with one hand and even sometimes lie on my side while playing. The deep breathing probably relaxes the body as a psychiatrist friend had once told me that stressed people breathe in a shallow way and that they must consciously breathe deep. The GM helps me do this in a melodious way and clears the mind.

I was a bit apprehensive about the plastic comb and personally I’d prefer a wooden comb, but the sound was still excellent and the comb will definitely last a long time. Although I read on some sites that there is no data to prove that wood is better, with my experience on the violin and the flute, I feel that wood being a natural material resonates better. Wooden speakers sound the best too! Some people swear that the sound gets sweeter as the instrument gets older.

Of course I’ve realized that I can’t play all tunes on the GM. Initially I thought that the GM was defective. Then of course you can’t play half notes which takes away a bit of the joy. The beauty of the chords however do patch up some of this lost joy, but I went ahead and ordered a Hohner Chromatic 270 deluxe with a Pear wood comb. This time I bought it from newharmonica.com as it worked out cheaper in spite of the International shipping and I should have received delivery in a couple of days if it wasn’t for this unpleasant Independence day security delays. In addition it wasn’t displayed on the Furtado’s web site. I will let you know how it performs in a new post. In case you are contemplating on buying the diatonic Golden Melody, go ahead and get it, its a great buy! BTW if it means anything, mine says No. 542 on the cover, and it is in D.

Notes:

After using my Chromatic 270 Deluxe for over a month, I have learned to appreciate my Golden melody more, not that the Chromatic is bad. I’m just amazed at how easy and effortless the golden Melody is to play -hats of to the Hohner team. Comparing the wooden and plastic combs, I couldn’t make out any appreciable difference in sound quality. The plastic comb however seems to stink when played regularly in humid weather. With the wooden comb on the other hand, I was inhaling sawdust for quite a while and close inspection saw the inside of the comb finished pretty roughly. More on the Chromatic 270 Deluxe in a separate review.

 

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The most expensive of my camping purchases finally arrived. It was a long wait while I bought the essentials and kept postponing this purchase. I didn’t plan it this way -to make this my most expensive purchase, but as the years went by, so did my paycheck and of course I wanted something which would be of good quality and of lasting value. I had almost finalized Steiner binoculars -the rugged military models with the built in range finding reticle and compass, but both the times that I tried at Optics planet, my card was declined even though the Nikon I finally bought was much more expensive than the Steiner.

With the optional binocular harness attached

I chose this model ( The Nikon ) because I was very pleased with the quality of my Nikon D40x SLR and a bit less with my SB 800 Flash (which could have been improved upon). Sometimes fate decides where you buy from, especially if you are making an online purchase from the east. Many merchants shun International sales or charge such an atrocious amount for shipping that it  doesn’t make any sense to buy from them. Optics Planet did not have the model in stock so on adding the Nikon to my cart at a few merchants and checking their shipping rates, I finally decided on buying from Adorama’s website. It was a familiar name on camera review sites so I felt safe shopping with them.

Now that I look back, I never did a proper research on the technologies and models available at their store as I was tired of these things as I had been postponing my purchase for the last 3 years and the only thing I wanted was to check it off my list ASAP. At the same time I had also learned that we were having our organization’s RGB (Regional Governing Body) meeting yet again at Corbett Park -close to the tiger sanctuary. Although for the past two years I had seen nothing but pug marks and tiger poop, I planned to have a glorious time watching the birds. If the big cat came out I would count that as an added bonus. This would also be a good place to review my new binoculars.

The twist up/down eye cups, excellent focus knob and the diopter correction ring on the right

Back at Adorama’s online shop,  I chose the black model initially, but by the time I reached check out, I realized that I was late for work and so rushed off. Around lunch, I went back to Adorama’s site and searched for the Nikon Monarch 8 x 42 again. Instead of finding the same model, I found its twin sister in Realtree camouflage. I was so glad that I was unable to place an order in the morning and placed an order for this model. A couple of days later, I did the same search again and found another model at a higher price, this model had dielectric written on it. I searched some other sites and they referred to it as the new Monarch ATB 8 x 42. The description on Nikon’s site also said that this model was Nitrogen filled. The last thing I wanted was to buy a

The well padded soft case with Velcro closure

model which had been superseded by a newer one, so I inquired whether  I could change my order. However I was told that the order had already left the warehouse. I was disappointed, but the model I had placed an order for had very good reviews too. All the reviews were for the black version of the Monarch though and I was hoping that the only difference between the two was the difference in color -One in black and the other in Realtree Camo.

Killing time as the product shipped, I read up on the various technologies on Wikipedia. I already knew about the porro prism binoculars as I had a 7×35 Russian made model bought at Fort in Mumbai around 15 years  ago for 1/20th the cost of these binoculars. Roof prism binoculars come in two technologies; The Schmidt-Pechan prism, and the Abbe-koenig prism.

I noted some advantages and disadvantages…

The roof prism binocular made for a narrower and more compact binocular and it didn’t need periodic re-alignment. What was scary though was that roof prism binoculars were highly precise instruments and would need to be returned to the factory for any re-alignment. Then the light transmission was lesser in roof prism binoculars than in binoculars employing porro prisms.

The sides of the soft case are left open to accomodate the binocular straps, but also let in stuff such as rain water, dust and sandwich crumbs

I read up on the two technologies for roof prism binoculars and also checked out Nikon’s description of their roof prism technology and it resembled more of a Schmidt-Pechan prism than the Abbe-koenig prism. Here are two links to the Nikon site describing these prisms; one, two.

The difference in the New binoculars -the ones with the “dielectric prism coating” sticker seems to be the new dielectric coating and probably that it is nitrogen filled as the previous model did not have this mentioned in its specs. However on comparing the specs, I found some small differences such as Angular field of view has been reduced and that the exit pupil has been made smaller etc.. (Trade offs fro the Dielectric model?) The specifications and description from the Nikon site  (for the dielectric model) are as follows:

Specifications

• Focusing System
  Central Focus
• Magnification
  8x
• Objective Diameter
  42mm
• Angular Field of View (Real)
  6°
• Angular Field of View (Apparent)
  55.3°
• FOV at 1000 yds
  314 ft
• Close Focus Distance
  8.2 ft
• Exit Pupil
  3.6 mm
• Relative Brightness
  28.1
• Eye Relief
  19.6mm
• Size (Length x Width)
  5.7 x 5.1 in
• Weight
  21.5 oz
• Interpupilary Distance
  56-72mm
• Phase Coating
  Yes
• Waterproof/Fogproof
  Yes
• Prism
  Roof
• Supplied Accessories
  Nikon binocular travel case, adjustable binocular strap and lens covers.

(They forgot to mention “shitty manual in many languages”  under supplied accessories.)

Nikon is a master craftsman of lenses and in applying lens coatings so the optics should be impeccable.

The optional binocular harness attaches to the binocular with the supplied black plastic wire ties. Shame on you Nikon!

The package from Adorama finally arrived on 4th April 2011. I got a shock of my life when UPS demanded INR 4265 as customs duty. This pegged my purchase at INR 19200. I was a bit disappointed as I knew that I got charged because Adorama mentioned on the invoice that this was “photographic equipment” which was what attracted such a large amount in customs duty and it was impossible to outargue anything as the product was branded Nikon. However two things were comforting; Adorama did ship me the dielectric model after all (I suppose the older model is no longer in stock) and some of the Indian online shops were charging around INR 25,000 for the same. However I was still a bit disappointed as I knew that if it had shipped via USPS (which was not an option at Adorama’s site) then I would have saved on that amount. In USD, I got the binoculars for $244.95 plus $61 for shipping to India via UPS. The dielectric model however was pegged at $299.95 -a difference of $55. But don’t forget to subtract the customs duty from the $55 grrrrr….

It came well padded with air filled plastic bags and packed in a sturdy box. In addition, I  also bought  Nikon’s binocular harness for $15.95. I  wanted to buy the tripod adapter for another $16.95 but had already exceeded my budget as the Steiner which I had budgeted for was selling in the $220 range. On unpacking, it wasn’t as exhilarating as I was expecting it to be -probably the damper was the customs duty I paid. In fact I didn’t open it for a few hours which wasn’t like me at all. I felt like the Grinch.

Lest my colleagues all want to look out of the window, I took it to the privacy of the conference room and examined it. It was typically Nikon, a superbly crafted piece of equipment. Just like my SLR, it had the right amount of weight to give it feel and balance and fit my hands very well. There were two thick manuals (more on that later) a high quality strap and a stingy amount of silica gel. (I replaced this with one of the large  packets of desiccant that came with our new IBM server.)

On the down side, as I ran my hand over one of the barrels, I felt a burr, probably a remnant of the realtree camo job. I checked everything and it was all made in China, including the strap and I swallowed hard. The lens caps were as every reviewer has said… so un-Nikon like. Although I did not have many problems with the front caps as so many people did (Did Nikon rework them because of the complaints?) but they automatically popped off every time I removed the binoculars from its case. The single lens cover on the user side was like an over sized lid slipping off every now and then without rhyme or reason. In addition, you can only use it threaded through the standard binocular strap and not with the binocular harness. When I use the harness, which I plan to, I’ll have to pocket the lens cap to keep it from getting lost.

The manuals are works of art in high quality paper containing basically in many different languages what could be said on a single sheet of paper the size of their warranty card. I wonder if they though of this waste when they were designing their “responsibly manufactured Eco-Glass”. Most of the manual is full of dumb things… don’t walk looking through your binoculars, don’t swing your binoculars around or you might give someone a black eye, don’t look at the sun through it etc… Its like the printed ‘Do not eat’ labels on the silica gel packets. No one in their right mind would want to eat them, the only ones who would are the toddlers who can’t read or understand anyway.

This model drew a lot of flak for its case too. However it seemed to me that the case was decent for a pair of binoculars, probably Nikon once more took note and worked on it. The only two downsides to it would be the top for the case, which is just a flap and would allow -for example sandwich crumbs to fall into the case or fill with rain water, and the Velcro which makes an evil sound when opening the case which is guaranteed to empty the birds out of the trees and make the monkeys take offense. I plan to replace the Velcro with a magnetic catch. Once my wallet recovers from this shock, I might also check out other photographic shops for a better case. The sides are probably left open to let the binocular strap through. I’d prefer though that my binocular was fully protected from the elements and accidents and that its case have its own external strap.

The one piece rear lens cover which never stays on the rear lenses except when inside the soft case. It might work better with the stock strap provided with the Nikon as it has got notches for threading it through it.

My cribbing wouldn’t be complete without two other things, the binocular harness and the product registration. I had noted other users complain that they had to pay an extra $20 for the clips on the harness so was pleasantly surprised to find the clips on and also two good quality brown metal rings to attach the clips to the binoculars. What I uncovered next came as a rude shock. I was expected to attach the binoculars to the rings using the provided two black tie-wraps (aka zip ties or cable ties) which are normally used to secure wires inside a computer. These were meant to secure wires rather than hang a load from. I’m also worried that abrasion at those points will damage the paint job. I’m disappointed with Nikon for once.

Coming to the product registration, I could not register however hard I tried, in fact it is close to impossible to locate the serial number. I never succeeded and checking online, I found that I wasn’t the only one with this problem. There is only one number on the body and the product registration page doesn’t accept it. There were a lot of similar questions on the net. In fact even if I did, it would figure out that the product came from the US market and probably list it as a grey market product. I can’t see any reason why I should not buy grey market products then… yes Nikon threatens with a no support policy for grey market stuff, but then I don’t want support from Nikon India. In fact, if my SLR or binocular or Flash conked out, I’d discard them and buy a new one from Chandni chowk.

I took a long route home last evening. Walked for about 5 kms and also through the gardens behind the Lotus temple. I saw some nests in the trees and pointed my binoculars at them. The picture was beautiful, a family of kites feeding their young. The father looked almost as big as a large vulture through the glasses. Then I pointed my glasses at the outline of the ISKCON temple which was back lit by the evening Sun. I was astonished to see a clear image.

Luckily my friend called me up from Mussoorie inviting me for a camp, so it looks like I wont have to wait till July to review this baby.

15th July 2011

The binocular harness is very comfortable to wear and the weight of the binocular is hardly felt. The binocular also hangs close to the body instead of banging against you when walking

I did take it to Mussoorie. I could not use it much, but one incident stands out. I was observing the Himalayan Banj, and I noticed some nodes on the tree that I couldn’t quite place. When I glassed the tree, I could see a peanut like fruit affixed to the tree encased in what looked like the shade of an incandescent lamp. These were acorns that had split open… I could see it so clearly and the colors were so rich even in the light of the evening sun that I was glad I bought these binoculars.

At our meetings close to the Corbett tiger reserve, I put it to much more use even though I hardly had any free time for the four odd days that we were there. Most of the mornings were useless as the monsoons had set in and the humidity was very high. On coming out from our AC rooms, both our cameras and binoculars would fog up due to condensation and stay that way for the next hour or so no matter how many times we cleaned the lenses. Finally for the last two days, I wisened up and started leaving my camera and binoculars in the washroom for the night where there was no AC. The next morning I observed some beautiful birds on the bank of the Kosi river. It was amazing how the bright colors popped off the birds. It was like setting my Nikon D40x camera to vivid mode. I watched till my neck started aching and then moved on.

Finally on the second last day we went for an early morning tiger safari. This year was even worse, no tiger poop either -only pug marks -one step backward from last year. It was drizzling too, the big cats would have all taken shelter. We were sitting with grumpy looks on our faces as the jeeps were covered with plastic and the taller ones like me could not see a thing. Finally at the first stop we all rebelled and asked the driver to take off the plastic sheets.  As the guide helpfully took our cameras, we stood in the light rain holding on to the grab bar and balancing on the rear edge of the jeep. It was fun in a way as the four by four Maruti Gypsy slid, turned and slipped in the mud and crashed through the shallow streams as we held on for dear life.

I was using the comfortable Nikon binocular harness, it hardly felt loaded. Then I experienced its down side. The eye piece cap cover was designed to be used with the stock strap that comes with the binocular, otherwise it is looser than an oversized hat. It was like covering a saucepan with a dinner plate and would fall off every now and then. It happened more than 15 times as the jeep bounced along on the jungle trails. I dared not stow it in my pocket as a light drizzle was on.Luckily it always fell inside the jeep.  I came very close to losing the eye piece cover many times. Yeah and the front covers kept popping off every 30 seconds or so. The water proofing was good. Of course it was only a light drizzle  and none of us were exactly soaking wet.

One test that I could not finish was how the Nikon performs in low light conditions. I’ll add it to this post whenever I have an opportunity.

 To summarize:

PROS:

• Excellent optics. Colors spring to life.
• Waterproof
• Feels good in the hand and has good balance.
• In spite of the RT camo job, you can still get a good grip on the binoculars even when it is wet.
• Well padded case with provision for belt attachment
• Excellent and smooth focus knob with just the right amount drag
• Great build quality, soft grippy rubber parts.

CONS:

• Manual was written with kindergarten kids as the target audience.
• Case has a Velcro closure which disturbs the peace.
• Case leaves the sides open and thus does not fully protect the binoculars
• Product registration is a sham
• Lens/eye piece covers were designed by some neanderthal who never uses binoculars.
•  Retractable eye pieces to aid in switching from contacts/normal vision to glasses. Keeps retracting by itself -again dumb design.
• Front covers sometimes spring back up and partly obstruct viewing.
• Fogproof? Is it only me? Someone leave some feedback.

Overall it is a very good investment even at its steep price -thanks to the Nikon badge. Yet there are so many rough edges… it feels like a BMW engine fitted into a CNG Taxi driven by a Sardarji. Unfortunately, most of the cons can be overcome even by the cheapest binocular manufacturer as they are not highly technical issues but issues which only require a dose of common sense and a desire to spend a few extra bucks for customer satisfaction. Its a beautiful product though. Get the tripod adapter too  guys, my muscles still ache! I recommend this binoculars and rate it as one of my better purchases.

 

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Buds, Flowers and leaves of the Calotropis procera in Charmwood Village, Faridabad, Haryana

A folk remedy for joint pains. The leaves are wiped clean, toasted on a tava (griddle) on both sides till the leaf wilts and becomes pliable, applied to affected part and bandaged.

Distribution: Throughout India on plains and on wastelands up to 900 meters.

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A dried seed pod releasing its seeds to the wind (Calotropis procera) [Courtesy Wikipedia

Flowers: White or Lavender  in colour. A flower that has fully bloomed has a centre that resembles a crown.

Medicinal uses : (unverified)

• Leaves found to be effective for treating elephantiasis.
• Flowers along with jaggery are useful against cough and improving appetite.
• A mixture of its latex, turmeric and sesame oil  is useful in treating scabies.
• Plant works as a powerful cardiac stimulant (probably due to the cardiac glycosides present in the latex)

A sticky latex is present in most parts of the plant

Medicinal uses : (verified that it is used this way, however its efficacy is not verified)

Other uses:

• The long fibers (fluff) attached to the seeds may once have served as lamp wicks.
• Some scholars suggest that the fibers could also have been spun and woven into a kind of linen in Biblical times.
• The seed fluff is used as a stuffing for pillows instead of cotton and rural folks use it for therapeutic reasons.
• The seed fluff might serve as a down alternative in cold climates. (untested)
• The seed fluff might serve as a good tinder for fire starting, particularly when still in its dried shell. (untested)
• Traditionally, leather manufacturers fermented parts of the plant and mixed it with salt using  it  to aid in dehairing goat ( for making “nari leather”) and sheep skins for production of  leather.
• Yields a durable fiber (commercially known as Bowstring of India) useful for ropes, carpets, fishing nets, and sewing thread. This is possibly obtained from the inner bark -the phloem layer of the stem.
• My friend from Bihar claims that his father used to harvest Calotropis roots from the oldest plants in the forest and prepare drums out of them for sale. He also claims that the roots are preferred for making Sarangi‘s – ( An Indian musical instrument) as it resonates with a very sweet voice.
• The latex was allegedly used to to coat arrow tips during the production of poison tipped arrows

CREDITS : |Sunayana Walters | Spoorthy P | Charlton P | Ramdhani Yadav | Daniel Masih| Manorama Soans|Malyadri Sudarsi|

 

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I have been on the  lookout for a smaller pack -smaller than my existing 80 liter rucksack. I had bought this on sale and red was the only colour available. A brightly coloured pack is not very suitable when trekking out in the wilderness, trying to observe the flora and fauna around you as in nature, bright colors are considered cautionary. Then, an 80 liter pack is good for winter camping, but works out a bit too bulky for using all year round, -unless you are the among those who believe in luxury camping and carry everything including the kitchen sink around.  Even if you aren’t that kind, empty space in a pack presents an incredible  temptation to fill up with unnecessary stuff, often stuff you would end up not using on the trip. This pack, the ‘Disciple Extended Ops pack MK II’ being an assault/extended op’s pack  also makes an excellent 72 hour (3 day) bugout bag.

The contoured strip of aluminum used for stiffening the pack

I didn’t plan on buying this pack, but rather had short-listed the Eberlestock Halftrack. However, after looking at the Disciple’s specs on the RVOps website which I stumbled on through a Google search, I was convinced that this was an acceptable compromise as it would work out about 4000 or so Indian rupees cheaper than the Halftrack.  Like the Halftrack, this too was clad in Multicam, (read more on that below) and was made with 1000 Denier Cordura. It also had a rated volume of about 60 Liters which is just what I was looking for (50 – 60 liters). I liked the specs and therefore placed an order for the pack. Just for the record, the Eberlestock online shop promises to levy an unspecified shipping charge when the order is fulfilled and charges USD 40 extra for Multicam.

The upward folding bottom panel

The extra USD 40 could be royalties paid  to Crye precision, although I don’t see it affecting the Halftrack’s sales. In fact, it might even end up boosting sales of their own propriety Unicam and the other colors which sell for USD 40 lesser than the Multicam version. However Eberlestock packs can’t be compared in any way to the Disciple. If they are expensive, then they are worth every extra rupee. If you want to compare Eberlestock with any other brand it would have to be with the likes of Kifaru and others in the same price segment.

The peel-up reservoir pipe or radio antenna port. Note the top grab handle too.

I received the pack in four days from RVOps. Actually two of the four days were over the weekend so office was closed. Most of the customers who had left their reviews on  the RVOps  site praised their quick delivery time. The packing was however dismal, just a thick grey polythene bag wrapped at one end with brown packing tape, unlike the super strong cardboard box in which my Lowe Alpine pack was delivered by Moosejaw . The pack was in good shape, but I noticed after unpacking  that it had a single aluminum strip in the center and if someone had sat on the package, it would have been badly damaged -especially as the strip was contoured to fit the wearers back.  Later on I did notice that the strip of aluminium was twisted towards one end, but it cannot be put down as shipping damage as the twist clearly indicates a manufacturing defect, sheer carelessness or poor quality control (all on the manufacturing front). The weight, about a kilo, felt almost as much as that of my 80 liter 600 Denier pack which was comfortable and acceptable.

Compression straps around the side pockets

While RVOps desists from using the term multicam on their product page, some other websites probably deliberately misspell and call the pattern “multi-camo”. I wonder whether this is to avoid a lawsuit from Crye. Usually most of the multicam pack vendors can’t help boasting about their “genuine Crye multicam” products and there doesn’t seem to be any reason why RVOps, the other vendors or Disciple should want to keep mum about it.  I conclude that the multicam might be an asian knock off of  Crye’s multicam. Some other sites too are selling the very same pack  branded differently.

The front compartment peeled back to reveal the mesh pocket, ID holder, 2 square pockets -1 zipped and phone/GPS pockets

They claim that it is genuine Crye multicam which seems a bit fishy as the pack photograph and price are identical to mine. Templar Assault Systems (whose site is suspiciously under construction as of now like Disciple’s own site) also sells an identical bag. I could be wrong, but I strongly feel that some one else is doing the manufacturing (China?) and all the others are getting their choice of branding  done by them and selling it under different names.

It does have reasonably good quality materials used, but the stitching and scant attention to detail adds the invisible made in China watermark to the pack. There is a lot of confusion with similar bags -designed with slight modifications, some say, “genuine Crye Multicam and stitched in a foreign country”. The “multi-camo” however is good. I’ll post some pics when I try it out in the wild. I can’t however comment on how it compares with Crye’s Multicam as I don’t have any genuine Multicam products with me as of now -unless this one is genuine of course.

The side pouch with elastic webbing loops

A lot of the products on RVOps have videos, but this product did not have any. They also have only a single picture for each of their products which makes an informed decision a bit difficult as the product is visible from one angle only -probably its best angle. Tracing out the manufacturer’s website wasn’t easy either. After playing around with search terms on Google, I found out that the manufacturer had two websites. http://discipletactical.com/ and http://disciple-ose.com/. The former is a one page website with thumbnails of their products and the latter consists of three lines of text, something like the introductory slide in a bland monochrome PowerPoint presentation.  If I had the option of buying directly from Disciple, I would have not done so on account of their site resembling that of a fly by night operators website. What was worse is that I could find no reviews of the pack anywhere on the web and most of them had the standard thumbnail (which I too have used at the beginning of this post) and the copy and paste description + specifications of the pack, including a story of it being used by troops in Afghanistan due to its large carry capacity.

I  hope that the bag is genuinely made out of 1000 D cordura as like the Multicam thingy, I have nothing to compare it with. It is understandably rougher and thicker that that of my Lowe Alpine pack. Apart from the botched assembly line quality stitching in a couple of places and the flimsy back propped up by a rough improperly ground strip of contoured aluminum in a sleeve, the pack is a delight to behold. The zippers say YKK and the buckles boast that they are Duroflex -both also used in my Lowe Alpine pack, yet there is a difference in quality between the two (Maybe they are different models?). While the zippers and buckles are not bad, they are quite noisy which is inappropriate for a tactical pack. The design of the bag is excellent and I am happy with the quality of the pack -but only in relation to the price I paid for it. Would it be worth to pay about Rs. 4000 more for the Eberlestock Halftrack? Yes if it was a regular pack, but for a bug out bag which won’t see frequent use, the Disciple OSe pack is adequate.

On the brighter side, I loaded it lightly for testing and it performed quite admirably. Hope it does so on a full load too. It has two side pouches on each side one of which has elastic webbing on the inside for attaching various gear such as a Swiss army knife, a Leatherman, a short torch etc. (Being an assault pack, the elastic webbing loops were probably designed to hold  four 5.56mm AR-15 magazines). The other pouch has a pocket on the side  and can store either a small medical kit, the NATO 58 pattern water bottle with mug  or any other stuff that you need to access frequently. In addition each one has a compression strap running across the pocket on the outside. An additional two compression straps each run around the sides of the pack and two more on the top. This is good as these straps will keep the weight of the bag contents from overloading the zippers or a pack with damaged zippers from spilling out its guts. The biggest compartment is shaped like a small coffin -big enough for a baby to sleep in or a medium sized adult dog.

PALS webbing all the way and the Velcro patch panel

It also has retaining straps to keep your stuff from sliding around in the pack and changing its center of gravity. The sleeve for the hydration pack lies along the back of  the main compartment. My 3 liter Camelbak fits in perfectly with lots of room to spare on both sides. The pack has 3 well placed grab handles on all three sides of the pack. On either sides of the top grab handle are velcro tabs with can be peeled up to reveal a hole each. Either of them can be used for passing out a hydration tube for drinking water or used to let out a radio antenna, although I couldn’t see a radio rack. (The pack comes without a shred of documentation). It is possible that the straps that secure your stuff inside the belly of the pack could also secure a radio.

The detachable carry straps attached to the PALS webbing on the bottom. Note the four rubber feet.

Most of the Pack is covered with PALS webbing. There are 36 loops in the front, 10 on the bottom, 9 loops on each of the side pouches, and 8 loops on each side of the waist belt.  The PALS webbing on the  waist belt is neat, I can now clip my Cammenga compass pouch or an IFAK (Individual First Aid Kit) to it with their ALICE clips. All the webbing is in “multi-camo” this is where the Disciple pack scores over the Eberlestock. One of the other reviews on the net for a similar bag says that these fade off eventually. I guess only time will tell. At the top of the pack, there is a slot for passing out the headphone leads for an iPod or other MP3 player/headset. The back padding although comfortable seems a bit suspect and only time will tell if it retains its cushioning or  looses its loft and collapses. Most of the cheaper packs in India have this type of padding on the back. The bottom stiffener plate is unique as it folds upward to flatten the pack for shipping or for storage. The waist belt folds flat under your back neatly and doesn’t cause any discomfort if you don’t want to use the waist belt. This is where it scores over my Lowe Alpine pack whose waist band is like the legs of a bloated pig which has been dead 4 days.

The stingily padded but comfortable back

All of the compartments/pouches have eyelets on the bottom which function as drain holes. I am uncertain whether this is a pro or a con, as I don’t want ants or terminites nesting inside my pack or snacking on my food. A tag on the pack said that the pack was DWR coated for water repellency but I will also be buying a multicam rain cover from RVOps in the near future and  therefore plan to close up the holes with some silicon sealant (Sorry 6 legged guys). I might also use one of the side pouches as my first aid kit and don’t want dust and atmospheric humidity pumping in and out of my pack in the process of walking. The drain holes are beneficial only if everything else is packed in a dry sack or in individual waterproof containers like the ones sold by Otterbox or Pelican.

L-R: A local bag, the Disciple and the Lowe Alpine

At the bottom of the pack you have two straps hanging from the PALS webbing which can be used either to strap your sleeping bag or tent to the bottom or can be removed and stowed in your pack.  I think its a great option for carrying firewood to camp too! I like this a lot. In addition it has four flat rubber patches which will take the wear and tear off the pack bottom on level ground when the pack is standing up.  It would have been more effective to have large strips of the same material running all the length of the bottom than just 4  patches. There are a couple of vertically zipped large pockets one behind the other in the front  -just behind the PALS webbing which can be useful for storing important documents, maps and Nyrex or plastic files/folders.

The pack abounds with bad stitching and loose thread

Behind this there is an equal sized mesh pocket which has a zip. Opposite this there are a few small pockets for storing stuff such as a mobile phone, an iPod, a GPS  unit and two approx 15 cm square pockets one with a zipper and the other without. However you cannot place stuff which is thick as the pockets are all one on top of the other and sewn flat so that the thickness adds up making the other pockets unusable if one of the pockets is overloaded. Above these pockets is an ID card holder made of good quality, clear, soft  plastic.  Coming back to the outside, the lowest pouch is a short zip up pouch as wide as the width of the pack for storing other frequently required stuff. For the benefit of fellow Indians reading this post, the pouch fits in exactly two PET 500 ml Coke bottles one over the other placed horizontally. Above the PALS webbing on the top of the pack is a coyote coloured Velcro patch for attaching either a name patch, morale patches, a blood group patch, IR patches or a combination of them all. I also like the sternum strap as its buckle is on the left side rather than in the center which I dislike. On the shoulder straps there are two metal D rings for attaching stuff probably using a carabiner or for hanging a camera or binoculars with a compatible strap. The  coyote coloured zipper pulls feel very comfortable to use.

The contoured aluminium strip used for stiffening the pack runs straight for almost a foot and makes a good field expedient measuring scale for approximate lengths if graduated with a sharp tool.

I mentioned that the aluminium strip is shoddily finished because after the strip of aluminium (alloy?) was sheared, the strip has not been ground and has left a sharp burr all along the edge which could cause a premature tear in its sleeve in the long run. I  filed off the edges gently and sanded it down with fine emery paper.  In addition I glued strips from a thin sheet of Styrofoam before inserting it back into its sleeve.  The Styrofoam needs to be pretty thin about 1mm or so as the sleeve for the aluminium strip is pretty close fitting. For those multi tasking freaks out there, this strip of contoured aluminium runs straight from one of the ends for a length of about 27 cms before it curves. Graduating it by scratching marks on it, you could end up with a fairly accurate measure for up to one foot. Engrave some conversion tables on the other side and you have a good field expedient tool for tasks requiring measurements for construction or for estimating your stride and then calculating distance using ranger beads.

Note the bottom drain holes with eyelets on all pockets/compartments

All said and done, I love this pack. At least on the design front, this pack is a real winner. If some other reputed manufacturer makes a high quality pack with the same design, I’ll buy it without a lot of deliberation. RVOps is also a good place to shop and I will be buying other things from them in the near future! Hope this review clarified some of the questions you had about this or similar packs.

Note: Sorry for the bit overexposed photos. Half way through the lights went out, and I thoughtlessly shot the remaining photos in pitch darkness using a Nikon SB 800 Flash

Hands on: [21 to 24th April 2011]

I was finally able to check out the Disciple in action over the Good Friday-Easter weekend as I got invited over for camping over at Yamuna bridge with some friends. this is about a 2hour drive from Mussoorie.

Observations:

• The pack was comfortable even though it had a tent and bulky sleeping pad attached to the it. I trekked for over 4kms on plain ground (in Delhi) and for approx a kilometer or so on a steep incline near Yamuna bridge.
• The zippers were a bit hard to use once the pack was loaded. In fact, in real tactical use, I have doubts if one hand could be used to unzip the side pouch to access the magazines for reloading the weapon.
• I got more loose thread as I used the 3 grab handles to move the pack around.
• The waist belt clip is solid but pretty hard to depress and unlock. This could become an issue in an emergency where you need to release the pack quickly such as if you lost your footing when crossing a river. On my trip, I therefore left it fastened on the pack.

I will add long term test results if I choose to use this pack for regular camping. However  I bought this pack for use as a bugout bag and it is quite likely that it will be loaded and stowed rather than put to regular use. I am happy with the bag though and recommend it for purchase to others.

12th June 2011:

What I feared about the back padding finally came to pass. I had left my loaded pack on a steel trunk for a few weeks after my last use in April. The pressure on the back padding caused the top center pad to turn concave. The padding is absolutely useless and will loose its loft under sustained compression. In the three pack picture above, the local bag had its handle padded with a similar material. When the shop owner took it off the peg to show it to me I noticed that the handle had a permanent peg shaped  groove where the padding had got compressed. I asked for a fresh piece and was given one, but this confirms the fact that the Disciple uses the same cheap padding that my locally made pack uses. That’s a minus point keeping in mind the price at which the Disciple retails.

14th June 2011:

My Tru-Spec multicam boonie hat arrived yesterday. When I compared its genuine multicam pattern with the “multi-camo” of the Disciple, I could observe differences not only in patterning but also in the shades. The genuine multicam was darker than the Disciple’s multi-camo which appeared faded out. This is just an observation that I felt you should know and not a negative remark on the Disciple.

26th June – 2nd July 2011:

Week long trip to Corbett National Park in Ramnagar… Official trip, so pack travelled mostly in our Mahindra Jeep. Felt comfortable carrying it to and fro from my house to the pick up point… roughly a kilometre in each direction. No metal this time -knives, khukuris, shovel’s, batons or stoves only a DSLR camera, binoculars, clothes and toiletries in addition to some IT hardware. Feels comfortable when its lightly loaded. My friends liked the pack and admired it.

23rd August 2011: Checking out some of the other web sites, it looks like Disciple Tactical has now started calling their “Multicam” or “multi-camo”,  Multi Terrain Environment Camouflage (MTE C). That’s good for them. It looks good too!

 

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5. Review: Clikstand for the Trangia burner
6. Review: Hohner Golden Melody 10 hole diatonic harmonica
7. Review: Lowe Alpine TFX Tundra 65 + 15
8. Trangia meth burner : Review
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My Bushbuddy stove is one of my oldest camping accessories. I somehow never managed to review it even after owning it for more than two years. In the space of that time, a few other reviews, an interview with its maker and other pictures on various forums have cropped up. This was however not the case when I bought it and it was only by a lucky accident that I stumbled upon the Bushbuddy website. The Bushbuddy is also one of my favourites and something I don’t wish to ever part with. I’ve had it in my bugout bag for a while now, but I’ve also recently purchased the Swiss Kuenzi Magic Flame NG wood burning stove  (Konzi Kocher) sold by Roland Kuenzi which I plan to review shortly. This might replace the Bushbuddy in my bugout bag as  it folds flat and is made out of a heavier gauge of stainless steel.

The Bushbuddy stove is hand made on a small scale by Fritz  Handel in Canada.  Unlike some of the many sellers out there on the www, he always seems to have time to reply to emails and be polite to others. I’d like to give you a background of how the Bushbuddy came to be the Bushbuddy as Fritz shared with me on email after I bought the stove, but Hendrik Morkel has done an excellent job of it when he interviewed Fritz. You can read about it at his blog ‘Hiking in Finland‘ and we can jump straight to the review.

The prices don’t seem to have changed much, maybe an additional Can $2 or so. I think I paid Can $100 for shipping to India. I chose the regular Bushbuddy since it is a bit more robust than the marginally more expensive Bushbuddy Ultra. I say this because the regular Bushbuddy is heavier as it is made from a thicker sheet of stainless steel. It arrived packed in a cute little crate made from wood and the packing itself shows how much the maker cared that the Bushbuddy should reach safe and sound. On unpacking the Bushbuddy, having worked in a reputed sheet metal fabrication company for 8 years which is a household name in India, I could see the same attention to detail in the build quality of the Bushbuddy.

The Snowpeak Trek 900 Ti on the Bushbuddy

The packing of the Bushbuddy is a neat idea. Apart from protecting the Bushbuddy in transit, it supplies ready fuel to test it out -something that you can’t wait to do! Where on earth am I supposed to go hunting for firewood in Delhi on a short notice? The only cook pot that I had at that point was the Vargo Titanium 750ml Ti-lite mug. I broke a strip of  the wood used for packing, lit it up and had about 700ml water boiling in no time. It took only two thin strips of wood and the rest of the wood was spent  watching the beautiful flames and savoring the heavenly aroma  of burning wood. After burning everything from newspaper to plastic coated cardboard (yuck!) I finally found out that I could buy pieces of split mango wood from stores supplying items necessary for the Hindu vedic ritual called the havan. I think I got it for Rs. 12/- per kilo.

It took me quite some time to figure out how to use the Bushbuddy efficiently, without generating a roaring fire and burning away excessive, unnecessary quantities of wood. I also learned practically (what Fritz had already told me earlier which I had forgotten) that wood needs to be added in small quantities to keep it from smoking too much. Nevertheless as with all wood burners, expect your pots to get sooty.

Too much firewood = A lot of smoke

In my travels across north India, I noticed some of the villagers smearing a thin paste of mud onto their pots before placing it on a wood fire, so that it could be washed away with the soot later on. Some others made a paste with ash and it serves the same purpose.  This is a good idea if you think blackened pots are uncool and don’t want your fingers and pack to get sooty. Since I’ve bought the Bushbuddy, I’ve carried it regularly when traveling, often using it in guesthouses just for the sheer joy of lighting it up. Here are some of the uses I put the Bushbuddy to.

• For cooking -obviously
• In Landour, Mussoorie as a hand warmer and mini indoor camp fire, both with wood and with charcoal as well. (used it without the pot support)
• Used it as a stand for my Trangia burner for cooking, this was before I bought my Clikstand and I don’t recommend this to anyone.
• Again without its pot support, used it for burning off any remaining feathers off a chicken. ( There is a picture of this in this post )
• Used it with a tea light candle to warm up a thick vessel in winter to assist the yeast which was leavening some dough for a loaf of bread.

The Bushbuddy’s uses are only limited by one’s imagination. My Bushbuddy is always ready for duty on the refrigerator. Come to think of it , you can use it as a glorified ashtray, to place your incense stick holder inside (to prevent ash all over the table), hold live coals for using as an incense burner, burning your bank/credit card statements, phone bills and other confidential stuff that you don’t want some garbage miner to get their hands on, if you use matches, you can drop the match into it after use without the fear that you might accidentally set your house on fire with what you thought was an extinguished match, set you candle stand in it to prevent difficult to clean wax run-off onto your table top etc…

Sometime back, I was watching a video review of the Bushbuddy on a website and someone had commented on the review…

“…boy there are lots of these kinds of wood burning stoves out there, can even make them yourself….I guess a large part of the decision is “how much $”….vs. effort to do yourself…they all seem to work well….I am still investigating…I do need a stove…”

I’m sure you can make a wood burning stove by yourself, there is a picture later on in the post of a wood burning stove made from a broken pot! Even though that was ingenious, comparing the Bushbuddy with other riff-raff is a grave insult to the stove. The air circulation which aids the combustion is so effective, that even if the pot support is taken off and a close fitting lid put on the Bushbuddy, every coal inside the Bushbuddy will turn to ash. In fact, as Fritz advised me, if you need charcoal, it is advisable to pour out the leftover coals after cooking into a tin with a lid so that the coals suffocate and die. The way we do it when we put out a campfire is to sprinkle some water over the coals, but I like the tin idea better as if you overdo the water thing, your charcoal will not light on your next use. Another way to make charcoal would be to cover live coals with some dry earth.

The Bushbuddy is made out of two sheets of stainless steel. The Outer wall has holes on the bottom (visible on the outside on the lower end) and the inner wall has holes on the top (visible on the inside on top of the stove).When you look down from the top, you can see the grate which is made from nichrome wire.  The only other nichrome wire I had ever seen was, the flat delicate kind sandwiched between layers of mica in the heating element of an electric iron. I was therefore skeptical about the longevity of this grate. However time has proved me wrong. Below this grate, hanging from strips of steel, is a round, walled, stainless steel cradle which catches any coals which fall through the wire grate and of course the ash that falls through. Its pot support too has a ring of holes of the same size. When turned upside down, it nests into the top of the Bushbuddy. It has an opening on one side to enable adding fuel when the Bushbuddy is carrying a cook pot.

The view from above...

When the stove is lit and starts heating up, it draws in air through the bottom holes. This air can only take either of two paths through the stove, -up through the nichrome wire grate, and up between the two walls of the stove. When the air flows through the grate, some of it also swipes the cradle and cools it down reducing the heat radiated onto the bottom of the stove.   The air passing between the walls heats up, and the hot air exits forcefully from the  ring of holes on the top of the stove which vent into the stove. This apart from supplying fresh oxygen to the flame or the burning wood gas, and aiding in better combustion, also seems to force the flame to the center of the stove. I’ve always noticed that instead of burning haphazardly inside the stove, the flame hits my cook pot right in the center and then spreads outwards and around the pot. This makes the Bushbuddy unsuitable for barbecues, but works almost like a gas burner for cooking.

This cooling of the bottom of the stove is so effective that I have successfully made tea in the Bushbuddy by placing it on my bed (which is a foolish thing to do). However for the sake of the review I’d like to note that it did not scorch my bed. As advised by Fritz, I got myself a Snowpeak Trek 900 Titanium pot. The Bushbuddy fits perfectly into it. Its not only the Bushbuddy that fits in, as my Trangia in turn fits into the Bushbuddy and the Clikstand windshield between the Bushbuddy and the Trek 900 around everything else. You can see a picture of the nested Trek 900 > Clickstand Windshield >Bushbuddy > Trangia towards the end of my review on the Clickstand.

A wood burning stove made from a broken pot used by a security guard from the state of Bihar, India. He has been using this daily to cook all his meals since the past two years. He does conduct occasional repairs on it using mud.

Even though the Bushbuddy reeks of excellence and attention to detail, I still had my misgivings like that of the trustworthiness of the nichrome grating that I mentioned above. I was worried about the seemingly delicate pot support as well and also feared spearing my feet on it or stomping it shapeless in my cramped one room apartment if  I unknowingly knocked the pot support to the floor. Needless to say, none of this has befallen me. However as the comment I quoted says, the concept of a compact portable wood burning stove is not new. When I took it home for Christmas last year and lit it up, I had a crowd around me. One of my aunts said, “Your grandmother had something like this”.  “Yes, I remember it”, chirped in some of the others. I’m sure it wasn’t a Bushbuddy that she had, but I’d never have known the fact that they had portable stoves back then if my aunts had not seen the Bushbuddy in action. It would have seemed like an irrelevant thing for them to tell me as they all unanimously think of wood burners in the past tense, but the Bushbuddy re-kindled old memories. I wish I could make them  understand how wrong they are! These skills, techniques and designs will work and do the job in every generation as it depends on dependable unchanging laws of science and not an any other underlying fickle technology which changes over time. Wood , fire and food will be around as long as the earth exists.

PROS:

• Light, innovative and extremely well built
• Burns wood frugally and efficiently.
• Easy to setup, pack and transport.
• My only stove which accepts all the sizes of Titanium pots that I own. All the others fail to support the smaller pots in my collection.
• The ultimate stove for leave no trace cooking/camping.
• Have never needed to worry about running out of fuel.
• Incredible attention to detail.
• A good stove for your bug out bag when teamed with the Snowpeak Trek 900. Although it might not fold flat, if you are evading someone, this is one stove which won’t let anyone know that you lit a fire and cooked your food or warmed yourself. With other stoves, you will still have to deal with the ash that falls out of them.
• Can be used in a Dakota fire pit for discrete cooking without having to gig an additional air tunnel. All you need is a hole in the ground.

“CONS”:

• Found finding fuel in the Indian monsoons a bit difficult. [Nothing to do with the Bushbuddy though as it would hold true for any wood burner]. However it was difficult enough for me to order a Trangia for backup!

Other observations:

Thanks to the super air circulation, everything seems to burn up too fast. I’ve not compared burn times with my Kuenzi Magic flame stove or with other wood burners but have a gut feeling that everything burns pretty quickly. I particularly noted this when I was barbecuing using the bottom of my Kuenzi MF stove as a grill with the Bushbuddy underneath it. I kept alternating between large flames and very low heat and never got good long lasting coals required for barbecuing. The SAS survival handbook by John Wiseman does mention a similar technique in the chapter on fire. The Bushbuddy’s fire tray causes the Bushbuddy to act somewhat like a signal fire which is normally built on an elevated platform to allow in lots of air to allow for a fierce burn. I think a sliding throttle for the intake would do the Bushbuddy a great deal of good. It could be just a plain band of stainless steel which could be pushed up and down to reveal or partially close the bottom air intake holes. To be fair, to the Bushbuddy, it neither advertises itself as a grill nor comes with any such attachment, although I did spot a pic of someone who had built a small grill/toaster for it. The toaster application should work very well.

If you’re still waiting for a recommendation, then I highly recommend it as like for many others, this has become a precious possession -especially as I now know that Fritz hand makes them (Thanks to Hendrik’s interview). Its not some dumb machine that has been ingesting steel and spitting out Bushbuddies from its other end. Hard work and dedication show even if you’ve not met the maker in person. A part of Fritz will live with all his Bushbuddy owners. Thanks Fritz for this fine product.

Note:

In all her glory!

If you are wondering why I swapped out the Bushbuddy and the Snowpeak Trek 900 from my bugout bag… well yes, it is in part the volume, but also that I found the Snowpeak Trek 900 was a bit too small for all round use, for example for baking or for cooking foods that froth, so I went in for Montbell’s #3D Titanium cooker.  I must mention here that the #3D cooker is built from a thinner sheet of titanium (which I hate) than my existing Vargo & Snowpeak products. A wider pot will also catch more heat from the fire so for the same quantity, food will cook faster on a pot with a wider bottom.  As part of my ongoing research for my post on bugging out,  I started looking around for sturdiness and reliability, which basically boils down to having less moving or stationary parts and sacrificing convenience and performance for sheer ruggedness and reliability. For example, Niblewill Nomads stove, in which sheets of metal  hook on to each other -no welds to come off and no hinges  to jam either. When it finally came to buying it, the only similar stove that I could find online was out of production as their production facility was  being relocated. The other options for fold flat stoves were the Vargo Hexagon Titanium stove and the Kuenzi Magic Flame NG in heavy duty stainless steel -both hinged, a compromise which I accepted.

Well, I wanted the Vargo as it was Titanium, then I remembered the Vargo 750ml Titanium mug that I bought from one of the online shops. They shipped me a defective piece probably knowing that it would work out expensive for me to pay return shipping from India. It came to me shoddily packed in Vargo’s recycled paper box (as thin as chart paper). I had to remove one of the handles and reshape it, then I cut my finger when cleaning the mug as it had a sharp burr on the inside of the mug, the aftermath of a botched spot weld. In addition, the handle that was shaped well was so loose that it folded flat against the mug when cooking and thus heated up. I hate shoddy work. Such a product shouldn’t have got off their assembly line in the first place, not that I gave a clean chit to the shop I bought it from either…  they paid by losing a customer who had a lot more stuff to buy. However as soon as I found the Kuenzi stove as an alternative for the Vargo hexagon that I was about to purchase, I dropped the Vargo -promptly. I wish I had a hinge-less fold flat stove though. At some point I might choose to make my own and adapt it for such uses as for grilling kababs or tikkas which the above mentioned stoves do not have. The Kuenzi MF stove can be turned upside down for grilling, but I have not been fully convinced of its grilling efficiency. I’ll re-test this feature during my review. I suppose stainless steel bicycle spokes should do a good job of acting as skewers.

This probably sums up the characteristics of the gear I’m looking at for my bugout bag, sturdy, simple, corrosion free and having a long life. In relation to what I mentioned above, the Bushbuddy is in no way unreliable or that any of the spot welds gave way on use. It is just that a bug out plan is a plan for the worst, so you need to make sure that you simplify your gear to avoid the possibility of something giving way when you need it the most. I still take my Bushbuddy with me whenever I travel or camp. Sometimes I burn it just for the pleasure of unwinding, watching its magical flames and savoring the aroma of the good life lost in the sands of “civilization” and time -when people were nomads and hunter gatherers and had time to live life and were one with creation. It takes me away from the daily chore of spoon feeding the dumb servers at work that take up most of my day. Hope this inspires you to get your own Bushbuddy! You can get yours here!

Here are some comments by Fritz with respect to my observations after I sent him the link to this review:

“About your comments under the “cons” section, it is true that the stove has no way to throttle the air flow, and it will burn small and thin pieces of wood very fast. I did experiment extensively with methods to control the air flow in earlier stoves, but in the end I chose to keep the stove simple. And, there is a good way to regulate the heat of the fire, if you have access to larger size pieces of wood, and that is to use as large pieces as you can, up to about 2″ in diameter. These will burn slowly from the outside in, and burn cleanly. Reducing the air supply to control the heat will result in a partially smothered fire, with carbon monoxide and other undesirable elements. For the cleanest burning, it is better to allow enough air to the fire, but to limit the fuel supply. Limiting the air supply is the standard method of controlling the fire in an “airtight heater” such as is used a lot in Canada for space heating in tents and backwoods cabins, but it has the drawback that it creates a lot of smoke, and clogs the stove pipe over time with creosote, creating a fire hazard.

Your suggestion of using a strip of stainless steel around the stove would be a good way to control the air supply, and I did also think of doing this. But, as an experiment, rather than make the strip of stainless steel, which I did not know how I would hold in place to expose only part of the air intake holes, I simply put small pieces of masking tape over some of the intake holes, to simulate the reduced airflow. This was some time ago, and all I can remember now about the experiment was that I decided that the benefit of controlling the air didn’t seem to be worth the trouble, especially when using larger pieces of wood seems do the job better and more simply. I should do the experiment again though, and see if I still think the same thing.”

Thanks Fritz for your comments. They makes sense and I’ve given up my idea of attempting to throttle the Bushbuddy’s air intake. It wouldn’t help for barbecuing anyway as the Bushbuddy’s flame will still get centered instead of being evenly distributed as  a barbecue would require. Nevertheless the Bushbuddy is a great buy and a wonderful addition to my now growing collection of wood burners.

 

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An entrenching tool ( e-tool for short)  is a compact digging tool which is a good thing to have in your backpack. It can be used for a variety of purposes, -digging a toilet pit,  digging a shallow trench around your tent to channel off rain water, digging for roots, mundane construction projects or to shovel soil onto the remnants of your camp fire to keep it from flaring up after you’ve left. The entrenching tool however has its origins in the military and is used for digging foxholes, latrine pits and probably for burying the dead as well. I’m sure it has more uses than what I’ve listed here.

Some of these e-tools have their edges sharpened  or serrated to be used as field expedient weapons or as a cutting/chopping tool for small branches.  Cold Steel makes a variant of the shovel allegedly used by the Russian Spetsnaz. This could be/was used with deadly accuracy for throwing at people or probably for hunting for food in survival situations as well. 

1 -Spade, 2-Shovel, 3-Hoe

Searching for an entrenching tool should give you a lot of hits, from militaria to production models. Among the lot, the Gerber Gorge, Cold Steel, the NATO e-tool and the Glock e-tool, I chose the latter. Among these available models, the two variants are the shovels with a wooden handle (or shovels which don’t fold) and the folding shovels. Some of them have a pick as well which has its own uses.  For e.g. a pick is better suited for digging up tubers. The Glock unlike the others has a telescopic folding handle and a saw which narrowed down the choices for me. Of course there was also the Glock name and it would become my only “made in Austria” piece of equipment.  The added advantage was that the shovel blade locks in three different positions which enables it to work either as a spade, a shovel or a hoe.

The Glock compacts well

I had bought it some time back but was unable to test it until I went home this time for Christmas. There was a folded sheet of durable paper describing how the e-tool could be setup in various ways. It came in a nice good quality nylon pouch which has two metal loops which can pass through a thin ( less than 1 1/2 “) belt. this enables the pouch to be mounted horizontally. I’m assuming it was made for some kind of attachment to a modular pack or vest as there is an additional bigger strip of nylon which enables fitting the pouch vertically on a belt. In this position, a hole with an eyelet at the tip of the spade also faces downwards enabling any water in the pouch to run out. The handle of the e-tool is made out of some kind of strong polymer which does not feel like it will break anytime soon. It is not very smooth so you can get a good grip on it with dry hands. However, In spite of the use of so much polymer, the weight of the e-tool still touches 740 grams. I suppose this could mean that that the blade is made from good quality durable metal.

The adjustment knob, very simple to use, locks the blade in one of three positions.

I had read somewhere that someone had a problem with dirt interfering in the locking mechanism of the e-tool. I had no such problem. It held well as I dug with it. Maybe the polymer handle helps as it slips when you put too much pressure on it, especially when your hands are wet. The locking mechanism on the handle is simple too. You pull out the telescopic handle, and holding the part of the handle attached to the blade still, turn the telescopic part of the handle counter clockwise till it can turn no more. Turn it clockwise and it unlocks and can then be pushed and shortened.

For using the saw, the tail cap on the telescopic handle is screwed out and the saw blade removed from within.

The saw blade is turned by 180 degrees, fitted into the end of the shovel, and the tail cap screwed back on through the saw blade.

It fits in sturdily and without any wiggle or wobble. However I did not get a chance to put it to the test. I will do so at the next opportunity and post the results. The saw has staggered teeth which is important in creating the right clearance for the saw when cutting through wood. I have no doubts whatsoever that it can cut through bone too!

Feels good and sturdy in the hand both when holding and during use

As expected, the nice paint job was lost on first use. A month later it has started to rust. My dilemma is that oiling the spade could cause some of the oil to come onto the handle in storage. Will it affect the nylon parts in any way? It will definitely make the handle one hell of a lot slippery and unusable unless washed with soap and water

I used it to dig up some Tapioca that my mum had planted. I got a small bucketful, more than we could eat by ourselves.

PROS:

• Very high build quality
• Innovative 3 in one design, can be used as a spade, a shovel or a hoe
• I like the telescopic design more than the other folding shovels available on the market
• Integrated saw blade
• Compact to carry

CONS:

• Relatively slippery handle, if you have blood or other slimy stuff on your hand, you can forget about using this tool. Maybe the same can be said about shovels with wooden handles?
• If the locking knob or handle locking system fails in the field, it is going to be more or less useless, unlike the non folding shovels for which you can fashion a new handle.
• Susceptible to heat damage, if you leave it near a fire or if it catches fire for some reason, you can kiss it goodbye. I don’t think it can be used to shovel coals onto the lid of a pot for baking or browning either.

All said and done, I like this babe and I highly recommend it. I might buy the cold steel version for my bug out bag though, as it is good to have tools which can be repaired or weaponized in the field if required. I’ll use this baby for regular backpacking and camping though.

 

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Buying the best backpacking gear is expensive, so keeping it safe is a priority. Backpacks or rucksacks are not secured as easily as a suitcase is. Suitcases can be chained or tethered by means of a cable/chain and padlock, but how do you do that for a backpack? If you loop a reinforced chain or cable through any part of the pack, the pack can be cut  or slashed and the thief can get away with the damaged pack and its belongings. Googling backpack security solutions returns the PacSafe site listed at first position.

Pacsafe has a lot of innovative travel security products. Some of these products have a hidden eXomesh such as their 25 liter pack called the Venturesafe.  However the Venturesafe has two limitations from my point of view, the first being that you are stuck with the model, color and size (thus limiting your choice of design, materials, features and color when buying the pack) Secondly, the eXomesh is discreetly placed under the fabric of the pack. This takes away the advantage of having a visual deterrent which the regular PacSafe eXomesh has. For example, a thief might spot the Venturesafe tethered to the steel luggage tethering cable under the berth in a train and try to cut it free or slash the pack to remove valuables. When he realizes what it has under its skin, he’ll drop it in search of easier prey. Yes, your belongings are safe, but your 120 USD bag is  now badly damaged and useless. This kind of bag makes sense only if you are carrying gold or other precious stuff which makes this trade off worthwhile and for other occasions when you need discreet security. The regular Pacsafe eXomesh however will cost you less while providing a visual deterrent in addition to security. (and of course you can choose the pack of your choice). A bigger model, about twice the size of the Venturesafe  would make a good bug out bag though! There is nothing much to review about the Pacsafe as it is just a locking mesh which goes over your pack. So I’m listing the pros and cons and an overview of how it works and let the pictures do the talking.

The PacSafe eXomesh in action!

I bought the 85 liter Pacsafe eXomesh lock for my 80 liter ( Actually 65 + 15 ) Lowe Alpine rucksack. I did this as I paid over Rs. 13,000 (Indian Rupees) for it (the rucksack), so even if someone grabbed and made off with my empty pack it would bring me to grief, let alone when it was loaded with gear. It was easy for me to justify the high cost of the Pacsafe in my case.

The quality of the product, i.e. the mesh, the Pacsafe brass lock with 3 keys and its carrying case all reek of high quality and shows great attention to detail. The whole package does weigh you down by about 580 grams though.

PROS:

• Very high quality. A well made product
• Good Documentation
• Innovative design
• Supports packs from 55 to 85 Liters

CONS:

• When used on a pack close to that of its rated volume, a very short length of cable remains for tethering it to an anchor. This works very well within the city, but in the outdoors, you’d normally want to tether it to a medium sized tree or so which seems a bit difficult to do due to the short length of the cable.
• Wish there was a model which was plated black as when used in the bush, the reflective mesh attracts attention from far away. There is no reason why anyone with the proper tools and time should not be able to free the pack.
• For its weight, not a complete security solution for your pack as this post here shows. It is advisable to lock the zippers on your pack even if you have secured it using the PacSafe. I quote, ” My jaw dropped when I realized what had happened. While I was out, Diego’s accomplice had managed to pull the locked zippers apart far enough to pull out a small leather pouch (the size of a business card) that I use to keep extra—but quickly accessible—cash and credit/debit card(s) in.”

Is the weight a con? I’m not so sure, probably opinions would vary from person to person. Along with the lock, 3 keys, manual and cover, it weighed close to 580 gms. I’m not grumbling as there is only so much weight you can shave off  before the strength of the cable reduces with it. I was planning to buy a smaller PacSafe 55 liter model  for my bug out bag but I’m not sure of it yet as the 85 liter eXomesh cage does work on a 55 liter pack and the weight difference is only 80 grams. The 85 Liter model when used on a 55 Liter pack will also give me a longer length of cable for looping around a thicker object.

The PacSafe seems primarily aimed at city travel, but even in the outdoors, it is good to be able to tether your pack to a tree or  other immovable object when you want to go for a swim in the outdoors without constantly worrying about your stuff. This is also true when you are outdoors alone and want to go down and back up hill a few times to get water or firewood and don’t want to be carrying your heavy pack around. However I doubt whether there would be enough cable left to loop around a good sized tree, but it still makes sense to buy one of these gizmos. I highly recommend the PacSafe eXomesh for securing your backpack or rucksack. Check their website for other variants of the 85 liter Exomesh reviewed here.

How the Pacsafe works

The PacSafe packs & unpacks from its small case quite easily.

The eXomesh net is put over and around the pack and tightened around the backpack by pulling on the looped cable. It is tightened till the closest available plastic coated bead passes through the locking hole. The oblong bead is then pressed into the bead holder as shown above. The bead locks in place due to the pull exerted by the cable which acts like a spring.

The free end is then looped through or around the anchoring object and back to where the bead was locked. The padlock is then locked through the loop at the end of the cable and also through the locking hole. The presence of the lock partially blocks the hole thus preventing the bead from passing through the hole and thus releasing the pack.

After unlocking, the mesh folds easily and stores in its sturdy carry case.

 

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When I bought my 40 oz (approx 1.1 liter) Klean Kanteen, I also bought a neoprene jacket made by Built NY from them. It took me quite some time -almost a year to get used to the neoprene jacket (because I was carrying my Sigg around) as it  was a bit different from the simple zip up jacket on my Sigg made of the same material. It leaves the top 3-4 inches of the bottle uncovered on one side. Then it has this vertical handle, which makes for a great grab handle for drinking but when used to carry the bottle, its like carrying my violin in its case and this gets me a lot of stares -not because it looks bad, but because not many people in Delhi carry a stainless steel bottle horizontally in a designer jacket. I don’t enjoy the unwanted attention. This means that I can’t really carry the bottle without my backpack if I need my hands free -true I can loop the tail of the jacket through my belt loop and secure it using the sturdy velcro reinforced press button, but a full bottle of  water dangling from a single belt loop wobbling and bobbing on a stretchable neoprene strip is very uncomfortable even on a short walk. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my Built NY neoprene jacket and always use it when I carry the bottle in my pack, but carrying a pack just for the bottle is not ideal in spite of it affording  extra protection and insulation for it. Sometimes you just feel like going for a walk or biking around and at such times it is good to have a bottle holder  which can be slung across your shoulder.

Some time back, searching for folding bags on Google (The ones that zip up to resemble a wallet) to avoid using plastic bags for my grocery, I accidentally stumbled on the Chicobag website and their glacier  colored bottle sling caught my eye. International shipping to India was just USD 3 so that brought the   total cost to USD 13. Paying for the order was the easy part, receiving the order was not so easy and I was on the verge of filing for a chargeback with my card company four times before I received the product. Each time I received some communication from Chicobag which stopped me from proceeding with the chargeback. They weren’t trying to cheat me or something, its just that they

The bottle sling can be stuffed into its own pocket!

need to work on their sales and support procedures and timeliness for International orders.

I buy a lot of stuff from overseas online and was surprised at how long it took for the bottle sling to arrive. It wasn’t just the delay in posting, it was also the delay in any remedial action  that Chicobag took. Here is a time line reconstructed by going back to my email communication with them.

15th September 2010

I receive an invoice for the purchase that I have made. I immediately inform them that my address is messed up and that Haryana has been added after Delhi although I’m sure the postman will figure it out. Two emails later, I’m assured that the corrections have been forwarded to the shipping department.

7th October 2010

I’m shocked as I receive an empty envelope with an invoice for something that I have not purchased. The address corrections too have not been made. I suspect that someone stole whatever was inside. Why did it take so long? Did it actually go to Haryana and come back? I don’t think so, the postman would have to be a complete idiot to do that. I write back and tell them that the invoice for USD  58.17 was not mine, I didn’t order a nylon shopping bag and that there was nothing in the envelope -neither bag nor bottle sling.

14th October 2010

I get an email saying that my order was “damaged on the way” and that they are working on it. I suspect that if they can send the wrong invoice, probably they could also forget to put in the product too. Besides the product is so thin that it is not easy to figure out whether there is anything in the envelope even after packing it. I think the addresses and orders have got mixed up, but an empty envelope, sounds like chaos at their end, unless someone flicked the shopping bag and resealed the envelope. However I have never had any stuff stolen in so many years of online shopping.

23rd October 2010

I get another email asking me for my shipping address as my order is being processed. This could probably be due to any doubts caused by my first email to them.

11th Novemner 2010

I get an email informing me that my order has been shipped

15th November 2010

I receive the bottle sling and it is really beautiful and well made. I stuff my Klean kanteen into it and it fits well. However there were no instructions or description along with it and only when checking their website for the dimensions when writing this post today did I discover that it could also be folded and stuffed into its built in pouch, -a neat feature!

I've got a pen and a walkman in either of the sleeves in the strap. When the strap is let down as shown in the picture, the pockets turn upside down.

PROS:

• Uses recycled materials which Chicobag innovatively calls rePETe, short for recycled PET (polyethylene terephthalate). The bottle sling is made from 100% recycled PET which is used as the main fabric for the body, the strap liner from 100% recycled Polypropylene, and the carabiner from 97% recycled Aluminum. (All from their website)
• The strap or handle of the bottle sling has two pockets of different lengths. The longer one can be used to clip your pen and/or chopsticks and the shorter one can fit in a pen drive or a similar sized MP3 player or your lipstick or lip balm or any other object of that size. The slightly elastic material forming the sleeve holds the items tightly -at least in my case (Depends on what you put in)
• An iPod classic can be put into the integrated pocket used for stuffing the bottle sling when not in use, but it juts out as being flat it doesn’t follow the curvature of the bottle.

CONS:

• Some people might find the strap too long and there doesn’t seem to be any way to adjust its length.
• When the bottle is placed down, the pockets in the handle turn upside down. If you have things that fit in loosely in the pockets, for e.g chopsticks, they will fall out of their pockets. My Smith & Wesson tactical pen held on tightly to the sleeve and the sleeve held on tightly to my Sony Walkman, but you’d better think twice of putting in anything precious into it.

All said and done it is a very well made product and not very pricey for all its refined looks. The shipping too is pretty cheap. I’m looking forward to buy  a daypack from Chicobag in the near future. It is good to have a compact bag which I can carry around when I’m traveling. Here is the link to the product page of the bottle sling.

 

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This post is an expansion of a procedure mentioned in a previous post. Most houses in coastal south India having a garden also have one or more banana/plantain ( Musa balbisiana ) plants. The plant has a long list of uses, apart from its edible fruit. This post outlines how an oil applicator can be made from the stalk of one of the leaves of this plant. This can be used to oil the griddle (usually cast iron) before pouring a dosa. It is a simple procedure so I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking.

CAUTION: The sap/fluid from the banana/plantain tree can stain your clothes permanently

Cut off one of the leaves close to the "trunk" of the plant

Cut off a length of the stalk of about 5-6 cms in length. Remember to make the cut at an angle of approximately 45 deg to the stalk

In the previous picture, you can see a tube created by overlapping sheaths. Slice off the sheath as shown above

Initially I did not understand why this step was necessary. However when I did it practically, I found a spider resting cozily in her web under this sheath!

Once finished, this is how it should look from the front

The side view of the oil applicator. Oil is applied by dipping the surface of the tapered end in oil and greasing the griddle with it.

 

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Snakes evoke mixed feelings in most people. They are either  feared, adored, worshipped or despised. Even among those who worship and revere them, most of them would rather keep their distance than come up close to observe them. On looking  back at my past interactions with snakes, from a total of about six or seven , two stand out. The first took place when we were taken to a “snake exhibition” as part of our school outing in Mumbai. Although  I now find this practice of keeping any creature in captivity against its will detestable, it was here that we were allowed to touch a snake. The head was of course held safely out of the way by the handler . The second, the closest I ever came into contact with a wild snake was when I rode over one at top speed on my bicycle. The rat snake was crossing the road at top speed too. I instinctively lifted both my legs high up in the air and was scared witless for a while. I suppose the snake was just as scared too. Both these incidents  happened when I was still in school. After this, both the parties successfully managed to evade each other for about 25 years or so. Now I’ve started looking for them in earnest wanting to know more about them.

Ever since Discovery and National Geographic began airing on television, a lot of myths about snakes have been dispelled. I’ve always been an animal person, but of late I’ve fallen in love with plants, insects and now reptiles. The Ray Mears programs on Discovery channel produced by the BBC, stirred up in me a deep love for Bushcraft and for all things wild. Soon I had become an avid backpacker roaming around wooded areas with my trusty Nikon DSLR slung around my neck. I was disappointed however that I could not spot any snakes anywhere. I was probably often in the wrong place at the wrong time in the wrong season. It is quite possible that I was looking in the wrong places as well.  What was worse was that I could identify only about three or four Indian snakes.

A section on scaling/methods of scaling for those who are interested. Sorry about the quality, I has to over adjust the contrast to make it visible.

I had already bought some books on birding, bushcraft and botany which I often carry around with me when I go backpacking or camping. When I was browsing  through some  other related books, I came across Snakes of India written by Romulus Whitaker and Ashok Captain. Although I knew this is what I was looking for, I was disappointed as the price  was quite steep. I was saving to buy a  pair of good quality tactical binoculars made by Steiner for birding, and this book cost half  its price. I then Googled the book title hoping that some other bookshop would be selling it for less and ended up at the Draco books website.  I was sure this was a good buy as I had watched programs featuring Rom on  TV. I was disappointed once again at the price. Thankfully instead of  just closing my browser window. I decided to let Draco India know that their books were a bit overpriced for most of us, so I shot off an email to them not really expecting a reply.

I got a prompt reply from  Janaki Lenin the next morning. She explained that the price I saw (in USD) on their website was for a hard cover edition. This  was printed primarily for overseas customers and held more photographs than the Indian (paperback) edition, which retails here for Rs. 975/- .  She also mentioned that the cheaper paperback version meant for the Indian audience was to be sold only through their distributor, so she couldn’t offer it for sale on their website. That made things a lot clearer. I had previously noted that some of the online book shops were selling a cheaper version. However since there were no thumbnails of the book cover, and there were no  reviews by people who had bought it either, I was a bit skeptical as I have had enough past experiences of buying stuff online from Indian merchants which on delivery looks nothing like what had been shown online during purchase. I finally bought the book for Rs. 780/- from a popular website with free shipping and received it in less than two days in Delhi.

I was surprised as the cover was semi-rigid. I was expecting a flexible cover on the book. Even though the corners of the cover had curved slightly inward, I was glad to have this instead of a flexible cover.  I was eager to see the quality of the paper and the photographs as well. I have an Oxford India publication going by the name ‘Flowers of the Himalayas’, whose pages  are fit to be  used as tinder for starting a fire as the paper is rough, yellowish and only marginally better than newspaper. In addition, the photographs are washed out and look like they have been clicked on a first generation camera phone.

Coming back to the snakes of India, what immediately caught my  attention was the strips of color running down the unbound sides of the book. This is the result of the color coding on the pages which divide the snakes  broadly into three  categories,  Non venomous, Mildly venomous and Venomous. (There are a few mildly venomous snakes in between the non venomous ones though). I’m not sure whether they are graded by the relative toxicity of their venom to some scientific standard or by the toxicity of the venom to humans. The book does mention that even non venomous snakes have toxic saliva which is used to subdue their prey.

[ Note:  On reading this review, Janaki  added, "There isn't much of a difference between "relative toxicity of their venom to some scientific standard or by the toxicity of the venom to humans." So if the snake is red coded, its bite can be fatal, the orange coded ones can cause reactions such as swelling, localized pain, etc. for a couple of days and green coded are totally harmless although the bite is painful! But this is an evolving field of study as we don't know a lot about toxic saliva and its effects on humans, which snakes have such saliva..."  Thanks Janaki for setting the record straight.]

The book starts and ends with a total of three plates on the end pages of the book. Spread across the front end pages, we have the map of India  and across the rear end pages, a close up of North East India.  On the pages preceding the rear end pages, you have a close up of the Western ghats. The pages are  made of good quality smooth paper and the photographs are brilliant. Knowing the associated problems of shooting out in the wilderness in various kinds of lighting, I commend the photographers who have shot the pictures. The details stand out and makes it quite easy to identify the snakes and admire their patterns and colors.

The book has a very good introduction called ‘What this book is about’. In a couple of pages it speaks of the basics of identifying snakes, what to look for and where and of course what the book is all about. Then there is a general introduction to snakes which is also very well done. Next a section on snake bite and anti-venom follows. This contains among others a section on snake bite first aid, how to safely remove a snake from your  premises, a summary of snake laws in India and a section on snake conservation. Just before the section on individual snakes start, there is an Introduction to the snakes covered in this book.

Layout of Pages

Here is what you will find on a typical page in this book (refer to pic above)

1. The Scientific name of the snake followed by its maximum length. Wherever data is available,  the lengths of the hatchling and adult are also mentioned.
2. The Common name of the snake, followed by whether it is common, uncommon or rare.
3. The color code for quick classification into non venomous, mildly venomous or venomous. This is repeated on the top and bottom edges of the right hand pages as well.
4. Distribution Map -where you can expect to find these snakes
5. Inset -other pictures as necessary or where available.
6. The main picture of the snake.
7. At the end of the book, you can find indexes both to common names as well as scientific names.

On the Left page, after the description, you have a section on scalation, Natural history/behavior and finally at the bottom of the page, a list of look alikes which I felt would be very helpful when attempting to positively identify a snake.

To conclude…

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars Quality of workmanship

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars Content of book

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars Organization of content

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars Value for money

I was looking for something like this. The book is exactly  is what it claims to be -a field guide. Although it lists only 157 out of what probably could be a total of 270 species (The book says so). It is more than adequate for most of its audience. It was written to assist travelers, herpetologists, naturalists and doctors -especially doctors working in rural areas where a greater percentage of patients are snake bite victims. I would also recommend this book to students. It filled my need for a compact book to carry with me on my camping and backpacking trips  and should help me in identifying at least most of what I see. I’m a beginner, and I doubt whether I’ve really done justice in this review to the more technical parts of this book. You can find more reviews though at the reviews section on the Draco India Website.

I will post any issues arising during regular field use of this book at a later date if any thing needs mentioning. Thanks to Draco books for making such a good book available and affordable. The book seems to have been first published  in 2004. I wonder how I missed it for so long

A few of my other books. Snakes of India fits in well with them. I plan to take it with me whenever I travel to rural places as part of my job.

 

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