Gear

However, pride of place goes to my car-camping double-burner stove that I 'borrowed' from my father and have never returned. It was certainly in use on camping holidays when I was 6 or 7 years old so it is at least 50 years old.

james mitchell 2 wrote (see)

 also a recently acquired MSR ice axe from the 1970?'s i has been well used and the lovely orange paint has been mostly painted over. i have half a mind o respray it. i don't think its a thunderbird but must be pretty early, any pointers to resources to help identify if appreciated

I've got a Cresta Deluxe II rucksack bought (second-hand) in 1965 for my first scout camp. Weighs a ton by modern standards but still gets used for carrying bits when I'm out repairing footpaths and styles etc. on a clients land.

Also a pair of leather boots marked 'Botas', Made in Czechoslovakia. Bought - I'm not sure when but pre 1971 as they cost £19-19-6, well remembered as I was only taking home £5 p/w. Still perfect, used as winter boots. I think the soles are a form of rubber/depleted uranium as they just don't wear but boy are they comfortable.

Mal Mawr wrote (see)

Thomasaurus wrote (see)

Benco, if your Grandads axe has had 2 new heads and 3 new handles it's pretty much a replacement? Being 24 I'm nt old enough to have my own old original stuff but I have my dads silva compass from when he was a kid and he's 50 now!

Someone is pulling another someone's pisser. That's the old Trigger joke from Only Fools and Horses, innit? But being only 24 you've probably never seen it.

I think it goes back a bit before that. I remember a "Broons" cartoon from sometime in the fifties in which the family visited Stirling Castle. On display was Robert the Bruce's axe that had had its head replaced twice and its shaft three times.

Aye, the auld ones are the best ones.

I, too, have a pair of Salewa crampons bought from tiso's in Rodney Street in 1970.

And a wee stone pot of blue paint

..... Tramp up Snowdon with your woad on .....

They are a lovely stove & came out late 1930's & continued into the 1970's virtually unchanged. It's no surprise to me it still works.

They came in several configuration.  Here's 2 - check out last page of this brochure

& some examples

Damn... most of these things are older than I am!

I think my oldest bit of kit is probably not much older than when I first started camping by myself which is only about three years ago. I bought a poor quality tent but it had an awning with it. Since then I bought a Wild Country Aspect 2 tent, so pinched the awning poles from the old tent and use them instead of the company's awning pole set (which would have set me back £40 new)

You're welcome - you shouldn't get me started on old stoves though!

The 71's are harder to date than most Primus stoves.  Nearly all Primus stoves are stamped with a date code from 1911 to 1962/3 but the exception was the 71 where some were not stamped.  The dates in that gallery are derived from a date stamp on the stove so if your is the same it may be from a different year.   The date stamp was a letter or pair of letters within a circle - sometimes with an irrelevant number.

See 6th pic here  The letters relate to the date as per this  chart

After 1955 to 1957 (there was some overlap) the  letters were replaced with a 6 digit number, the last 2 being the year eg 123462 is 1962.   Optimus took over the Primus brand (not the company) for pressure stoves in 1962 & the last date code is 1963 - after that they weren't coded so dating is down todates on instructions or comparing features, tin graphics etc with trade catalogues. 

A 71 with no stamp could either be post 1963 or one of the earlier ones that had no stamp -  if I understand correctly yours has the pan-set & windshield so it'll  be one of the earlier ones as Optimus never produced that outfit.

The Optimus 80 was a very similar model to the 71 & eventually both stoves were the same under Optimus ownership  with no inscribing on the tank but merely a label to denote the stove a Primus 71 or Optimus 80.

 This is the original Camping Gaz Blueut that helped bring about the demise of the classic Primus tyep stove - Blueut

Couple of my favourites - Optimus No:9   'Everest' Primus No:210

again im not that old but i have my original foam mat from when i joined scouts age 10, so 20 years and i was using it at the weekend. i also have a rucksack from a similar time, but not really used much now but stores things in it now.

saying that the more i think, ive still got quite a lot of original kit. although not all used all the time, im still using most bits and pieces.