botWerks

my latest obsession has been elimination of base weight from my pack for travel and backpacking.  this resulted in the purchase of a postal scale and a bit of time wasted weighing every item i might possibly be tempted to stick into pack and the creation of an overly complex spreadsheet to estimate base pack weight for my wife, stepson and myself.

i was unable able resist the replacement of our existing stainless steel sierra mugs with a shiny titanium sierra cup from snow peak.  unfortunately, i can’t seem to purchase this locally and a purchase direct from snow peak was the result.  (such are obsessions) this was an entirely painless purchase experience, but i was surprised at how heavy the package that arrived was.  my titanium sierra cups had been co-packed with a 2 lb. glossy printed catalog.  WTF?

the scraper in the scion gave up the ghost the other day. as a minnesotan, i’m more than a little picky about my scrapers. they’re critical tools. period.

most folks don’t appreciate the utility of the teeth on the back side of a well made scraper. they’re used to score deep ice or buildup and make use of the larger scraper blade more efficient. the alternative is to use the primary blade of the scraper to wedge through the build-up. a tedious endeavor.

the designers of this scraper clearly didn’t have an appreciation for the utility of these teeth, but they’d seen other scrapers on the market with these teeth. they structured the base of the scraper in such a manner as to render these teeth useless. fail.