Tuesday, November 18, 2014

artic mittens


ARTIC MITTENS

 I know, not exactly top of the line stuff but once again I find myself without too many earth shattering ideas.  I had gotten a video that the $30 Apocalypse movie book recommended, “Stake Land”, and I watched it on Sunday after the sun finally decided after near a week to come out for good so I knew I wasn’t draining the batteries ( ever since I went from 40 to 75 watts in panels I’ve never had a day the battery didn’t recharge, even in day long snow, but old habits die hard and I still think staying paranoid is the wisest course of action in all things and at all times ), but while it was pretty good ( even with what seemed to be an endless short loop for its score ) and I enjoyed it, it sure as heck wasn’t a survivalist movie by any stretch of the imagination so I can’t write about that.  I still haven’t heard from the wife, nor do I care, and whether she shows back up is both immaterial to me and to you’all and talked about time and again already so that isn’t anything to write about.  So by default I’m relating to you how my new super duper artic mittens performed in this mornings cold.  Not only might it help those searching for a like item, this also allows me to call it a business expense. 

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Here is the Amazon item: Superior Snow Calfskin Leather Extreme Cold Weather Mitt With Removable Liner And Fleece Cheek Warmer, Work, 17” Length, Black.

I’m also featuring it as the Amazon Ad at the top of the blog page, but the above is for those meandering in later and not seeing the advertisement.  At $35, this is one of those items I hemmed and hawed about and was unsure I should buy it.  If the item was sold under false pretenses I was stuck with a very expensive item I had no use for.  When I first moved to this little slice of Artic hell I had ordered some Swiss army surplus trigger finger mittens and they were utter crap after the temperature went much below freezing.  This is weird because all other Swiss military surplus I’ve gotten has been top quality.  And I’d just assumed Switzerland saw winters in temperatures ranging below 32 F.  My East Germany military surplus mittens were much better and have been what I’ve been using for six winters ( above freezing I use leather mitten shells, below that I use the German insulated mittens ).  Alas, every time the temperature went below about 20 my hands got cold ( prior feet and hand damage one winter left my hands very sensitive to cold ).  Below about 12 and into single digits, my hands got painfully cold.  I’ve just been sucking it up and dealing with it.  But this morning as the temperature was 7 degrees, I tried out these new mittens.  And they are so friggin good my hands were toasty warm.  I haven’t experienced that for years.  One small detail, even though my hand was warm, my thumb quickly got cold.  I think this is just a feature of all mittens and can’t be helped.  Better to arrive at work with a throbbing painful set of thumbs than a complete set of hands like I was used to.  If you need mittens for extreme cold, I’d recommend these ( and no, I wasn’t even tempted to try out US military surplus, after experiencing their equipment first hand- like the M-16 ).

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9 comments:

  1. Thanks!
    I was looking for some better hand wear. I don't think that mittens are ideal for all cold weather work, but where you can get away with the reduced dexterity, the warmth is worth it.
    Any recommendation on warm gloves that allow you to keep working in the cold?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have decent luck with thick wool inserts and heavy duty all leather work gloves.

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  2. You should check out Swedish mittens.
    The Swiss are way down south from here, and yes we have mountains up here as well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I use Swedish leather mittens for +32F, and my new Swedish surplus winter coat for below 32 degrees ( replaces US Army jacket that went one decade too long past its prime and is not salvageable ). I'd pick Swedish over Swiss any day.

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    2. Yup, those are great!

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  3. hi jim
    i make my own mittens out of rabbit fur from the rabbits i raise.. i use sheepskin liners.. they work just fine in the boonies of toto land
    off subject watched this and it is kinda informative
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w6QYPzF2TI
    shows where we are and where we are going according to history.
    history repetes it self

    denny

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  4. Hi Jim
    Amazon says they are out for 1 to 3 months, other choices?

    Bob

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I can't vouch for others- my prior mittens were from Sportsmans Guide.

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    2. I just read a bunch of comments from a bunch of different mittens to arrive at this choice. Could be something even better out there.

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