Here is the feedback and the stories readers commented on this week:

A Search and Rescue expert weighs in: The best survival knife?

Click here to buy survival kits

From BLDTARA: “using a large knife takes experience and extra caution” I wish everyone of my students would learn this. The first thing they do is buy a huge expensive knife, then get mad when they can’t use it properly or it doesn’t do what they want it to.

Choose the best wool pants

From Ross: My experience with wool clothing in winter has not been that great. It is certainly better than denim jeans, but in terms of “warm when wet”, my experience has been anything but. In fact, I have never seen any study showing that. From what I have seen, wool retains about as much heat as fleece when wet, or even certain types of primaloft. Every time I have gotten my wool clothing wet, I have been cold.

The big problem I had with wool clothing in winter is the very poor moisture management. In the snow it is almost unavoidable that they will get wet, and once wet, they will stay wet. On top of that, wool just seems to attract snow, which gets embedded and stuck onto the fibers. I imagine that is why traditionally canvas covers were worn over wool in winter.

Surplus stores have a decent amount of low cost wool clothing and pants in particular. However, they also have a lot of very good, very cheap synthetic clothing. I find that a pair of fleece pants with a polyester cover perform much better than wool pants for the same weight. They repel snow better, they dry much faster, and are just as warm, even when wet.

Wool is indeed better around open flame, but I am yet to have a problem with any synthetic clothing in that respect.

Anyway, that has just been my experience.

From Jennifer: My luck with wool garments hasn’t been nearly as good as yours. Unfortunately many of the desirable properties of wool result from the lanolin content within the fibers and most commercially available woolen garments these days have had the lanolin processed right out leaving the fabric little better than cotton and scratchier.
If you find a good wool garment that breathes and keeps in heat whether it is wet or dry you can bet it still has its lanolin, and you should treat that garment right! Don’t toss it in the laundry with everything else. Detergent will strip that lanolin out! Do a bit of research on the “right” way to treat good wool.

How to choose the right knife for small game hunting

From Peter: Thanks for the interesting post on pocket knives. Maybe you could give potential small game hunting ‘newbies’ some helpful information on how to properly field dress small game in future posts.

From Leon: Anybody else interested in a how-to on field dressing a small game animal?

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