Discussion: silva vs. brunton

Photo A: my silva “director” compass, at least 18 years old, how it looks today.
Photo B: an advertising shot of a brunton 8010G.
Photo C: my 3 year old brunton 8010G, the day I sent it back in may of 2010 for an explanation &/or replacement.
Photo D: the replacement brunton 8010G, about 2 years later.

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x222/orienteeer...

luckily, all i need is the red end of the needle, but still......

....vs Moscow?

That's pretty amazing. Do you use DEET products such that the DEET gets on the compass? Is your black plastic watch much shinier than it used to be?

I always apply the DEET and then wash my hands before I touch my watch especially. I'm guessing the compass plastic can take it, but the paint can't.

chitown - are you recommending?
cedar - no deet, ever.

Why on earth would an orienteer need two compasses?

got a hiking pack & an o pack. keeps me from having to switch em around.

Interesting: Silva acquired the Brunton company in 1996. Silva was then acquired by Fiskars in 2006, and in 2009 Fiskars sold the Brunton company. So the Brunton you acquired '3 years ago' was probably, technically a Silva product, but the replacement that you got 2 years later wouldn't have been.

I have some even older Silva compasses, in even better condition, but I've also seen Silvas that have very faded markings - nothing as bad as the Brunton though.

I currently use Moscompass, but haven't seen any older than 3-4 years, so I don't know whether they will fade.

@ tRicky - maybe you need to try it!

Given my choice, I would choose to use option D.

tRicky, don't you strap a spare compass to your shoulder blade, in case the one you're using breaks when you are racing?

How's a spare compass going to stand in for a broken shoulder blade?

I actually have three compasses - two from Suunto (M3) and one Moscompass. The Suuntos do not have measurements along the edge anymore due to fading but the bearings are mostly intact. I like them for their ability to use magnetic vs grid offsets but the reason I have two is that one has a bubble in it so it's now a backup.

Moscompass works for me for both foot and MTBO because it is fast settling. I don't tend to use the bearings on it but they're all still there.

Boy, things have changed in orienteering. When I was actively involved you could have any sort of compass you wanted so long as it was a Swedish brand. Now, it seems, even the gentleman who runs the "shop" for OAWA owns a variety of brands.

Only Silva and Moscompass. The latter, especially thumb models, are good value compared to top of the range Silva, but for a basic compass - as used by schools and beginners at our events, you can't beat the Silva Field 7 and Ranger 3.

Even when you were a strip of a lad Mr R, you could get Finnish compasses (Suunto) here. tRicky probably got his Suuntos 2nd hand from some old rogainer.

I remember the Finnish compasses being available but actually getting your hands on one was difficult. I think the Scout shop had them. This was before internet shopping. Back then, for anything not availble in a shop you had to find some obscure supplier, either call and place and order or know someone who lived interstate or overseas and get them to order it for you. AND, you had to pay by cheque or money order.
By way of example these days, on the weekend I was looking for a mobile phone cradle for incar use, saw one in a discount department store and then declined to buy it because I was sure I could order it online and have it delivered cheaper than I could pay for it over the counter.
Times, they are a changing.

And you could get a Suunto now, unless you want a decent one (Arrow). They have stopped making them for zone MS.

I got my Suuntos from the army surplus store.

Same thing!

The best compass ever built is this one Still own one, and use it only for Championship-level races.

Yurets, what's the 0-9 dial for? To keep track of pace-counting (one click for every 100 meters)...?

Last control visited. This component of the compass would be against current O rules;)

Save the Bruntons for what they are supposed to be used for....geology

Being totally unfamiliar with current O rules why is the counter illegal? (or am I missing a joke?). At one stage you could buy a counter and fix it to the base plate yourself. Used to use it for keeping track of pace counting, especially in rogaines.

I use a counter in scatter events. Saves my poor brain from having to think too much.

bbrooke has it correct. We were taught to click the dial every 100 metres and then restart our pace count. That was in the days of very generalized maps (like you now see in Rogaines) Now days we can usually use terrain feature recognition to check off how far we've travelled on a leg.

Do you travel the same distance on the other leg or is that just there for stability?

Sorry, I (wilburdeb) hijacked my son's id. I was clearly being obtuse (;)).

Found the answer to tRicky's question.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNs1BXzKWaI

Great stuff. But tRicky probably already knew that given the number of times he travels sideways on/in various bikes and Subarus.

My Subaru was going forwards through that fence.

Was it also going forward through that tree branch a few years ago?

Well considering it was the windscreen that got caved in, I think the answer is obvious. It's hard work getting the Suba sideways when you're towing the event caravan.

The caravan was probably going sideways (at a greater velocity - see video above) and pushed the Subaru into the tree.

I know what happened. I just thought other people should know as well... :-P

Nice to know someone other than me has a dubious driving record.

Since I was the only witness to the caravan incident, I hereby refute any and all claims of dubious driving techniques.

Wait, isn't this thread about compasses? Ah who cares.

The guy in the Amarok has got me thinking. Do right-handed course planners (the majority of course) tend to set courses that turn more to the right - clockwise rather than anti-clock? If so then like the dog in the back the left foot will travel greater distances after many events. Has anyone noticed greater wear in the left shoe, over-use injuries to the left leg, etc? Of course the result may be masked by the coriolis effect in the northern hemisphere which gives a natural tendency to veer to the right, so we might only find the answer down under.

Gruver, don't forget about axial precession, which must surely have an effect on shoe wear proportional to both latitude and handedness, in both hemispheres.

What is this clockwise phenomenon you speak of? Don't clocks just ratchet from 00:01 to 00:02 to 00:03 to ..... Etc? For instance, now as I look at the top of my iPad, it informs me that it is 10:11 PM which presumably is similar to 2211 in other districts.

What is this anticlockwise phenomenon you speak of? Don't you mean widdershins?

Dunno JJ, I've always found that pain in the front of my lower legs happens to both at once. Cristina, I can't see that the vexed question of following, whether actual or perceived, should have any effect one way or the other. Walk you are absolutely right to tick me off for using that dated concept of circularity. Should have said compass-wise.

I've actually stopped using the words "medsols" and "motsols" completely because I think it's culturally insensitive. Not so much towards Australians and other upside-downers, but it's a bit unfair to people who live in places such as Vancouver, Scotland and Borås where the sun is never shining.

I don't know what either a medsol or a motsol is but calling me an upside-downer is totally insensitive to my culture.

"medsols" and "motsols"

...would be the equivalent of "clock-wise" and "counter clock-wise" (...or compass...) but instead using the sun´s movement* as a reference (sol = sun)...

*) I´m not an astronomer so this would probably be deemed an incorrect explanation...

That's societal culture, tRicky, not biological.

I think the point was that counter clockwise and widdershins is equivalent only in certain circumstances: