Keeping warm in Low Temperatures & a Good start for Period Clothing.

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Keeping warm in Low Temperatures & a Good start for Period Clothing.

Rating for trade blankets in the catalogues.

They rate them as follows:

Trade blankets to 50 degrees
         Ingenious and Lachine to 35 degrees
         Point Blankets to 30 degrees
         Buffalo Robe (HBC - Witney) to 20 degrees
         

This rating is misleading because it does not take into consideration age, wear, condition, etc., - then you wash it in cold water and cool  dry it's different. Wash the blanket in hot water and dry hot (will shrink 4-5 inches length and width) but your rating will change greatly, as the weave has been tightened up many times.
                     
Hold up your blanket to the light before washing, take a good mental picture, then do the same after washing - you'll be surprised at the difference in the tightness of the weave.


This thing about "rating" blankets is real questionable according to several reports I have read and I tend to go with what they say. Everyone has different temperatures they consider uncomfortable to them, I don't mean body mass - like we first think of, a heavier person is warmer than a thin one and so on.
         
          A 1960's US Army report claimed when trying to
          rate blankets for different climates, it was
          found that some individuals temperature would
          be lower when sleeping than a like person in
          the same conditions. One may be comfortable and
          the other is either cold or too warm, both using
          the same blankets and bedding. After several
          years of testing all over the world they threw
          out their rating system and decided to make additional
          blanket available to those that needed them.
          Another report done by a Canadian firm was much
          the same with the same results.
         
A good example is AMM Brother Pat Surena mentioned sleeping very comfortable in 15 degree weather with a buffalo robe and  a pair of 6pt wool blankets. I happened to be on that outing with several others, I used my Wilde and a Witney horse blanket and a bedroll with the blanket covers (3) stacked light blankets under me, in an open faced lean-too. Several others knowing it was going to go to a possible -10/15 degrees brought that much or more, I think three of us slept good, a couple where cold and one sat up and kept a fire going most of the night.  
         
The reason some slept better than others we figured was the ones with loose weave blankets cooled down the fastest and never did regain their body heat, those with tighter weave and heavier wool blankets seemed to fair better, Pat with the buff robe faired the best with less heat loss due to the hide and hair of the robe. You could see the steam coming up off that lump in the snow.
         
The rating idea whatever it would have been good for goes out the window with the age, condition and care of each blanket, I've talked to Jim of Blue Heron Merc. about this several years ago, nice chart, for a chart. But how does it apply to used blankets, new blankets and so on!


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