OK, I was so angry with my ME Sleepwalker and the way it takes up half my rucksack this weekend that I went e-bay bargain hunting.

I got a down sleeping bag made by Point Five for a fiver. It is a hideous orange thing, obviously very old, but with no zips or anything, so it's quite lightweight.

Was this a good company, and does anyone have a similar sleeping bag and any idea of how far I could use it without dieing? (I'm thinking not that far...)

The down seems to have quite a bit of (brown)feathers in there, is this normal, or is the down cr** quality?

I think my boyfriend is thinking of banning me from ebay! Still he was impressed by the pack size of it, but this is a bit useless if it isn't functional...

Internet search yielded nothing. It's obviously an old bag.

"When I were a lad...."

Actually I have a vague recollection that a gear company called Point Five existed when I started walking and camping in the late 70's. I never had any of their gear but I think it was reasonable mid-range stuff for it's day. Another thing I recall is that pure down bags were less common and more expensive relatively, and that a lot of more budget kit was made with down/feather or feather/down mix (depending on the ratio). Heavier, bulkier and not as warm as pure down. Not as long-lasting either. That might explain the brown feather in yours. There do seem to be a lot more products using much better down on the market these days.

So overall I think I'd have to be a bit wary of it. I know down can last a long time but this might be pushing it.

On the other hand someone else with a better memory may be along shortly....

(Now, where did I leave my zimmer?)

I vaguely remember it. My first sleeping bag was a mummy-shape and feather/down as well.

I'm reminded of my old Scout troop. It had a stock of ancient sleeping bags for those children who couldn't afford their own. They were orange cotton stuffed with about three kilos of feathers and down. You couldn't compress them properly for some reason, and they ended up rolled up using up most of your rucksack. Smelled damp and had various unpleasant stains, but were in fact very warm indeed.

This is orange nylon (definately not cotton). Compresses down quite small, but maybe that is because it doesn't have enough feathery stuff in it!

Think model is 'snowcap'

Certainly weighs a lot less than my ME Sleepwalker but I don't have any scales.

I suspect that it was a good bag for its time but the down is a bit pants.

So probably not an awful lot of use :-( I guess I could donate it to charity (is Oxfam collecting for Pakistan?) as it surely has some insulation value and could be put inside another sleeping bag to be better than nothing.

Matt C is probably right. If you cannot recall Point Five gear then I am guessing your sleeping bag is probably as old as you!

I reckon it is likely to be past it's best.

They did some pretty decent gear duvets bags fibre pile jackets etc.

Sound like an old Point Five Orion, which was a bag weighing around a kilo that was around in the late 70s and regarded as a good alternative to the ME Lightline (which was around back then in a different form). My first decent sleeping bag was a Point Five Orion, a major investment back then. Point Five were regarded as the top down bag and clothing maker then, along with ME.

If the bag hasn't been used much and the down is in good condition it should still be usable. The key is the distribution and loft of the down rather than the colour or feel. If it fills the channels and is lofts quite well you've probably got a real bargain.

Ah, well done Chris. Now if we'd tried to guess who would know.....

Point Five Orion was going round in my head but I couldn't recall for sure as it's really getting back to my fledgling gear-buying days. My first sleeping bag was a 3-season down bag from a company called Slaters (Manchester-based I think), now also long-vanished.

(Defunct gear company reminiscences - maybe there's scope for a thread?)

As Chris says, if it is lofting well it should be ok. If the outer is a bit shoddy it may be possible to re-bag the down. Though how cost effective that is these days I don't know. (or if you can find someone to do it)

It may be worth giving it a wash if it isn't lofting well....for a fiver it has to be worth a go!

There was a tendency to use mixes at that time as pure down was ultra expensive.

My first bag was a re-cycled eiderdown from a double bed. It made a 3-4 season and a 2-3 season bag.

Ah yes Slaters!

Remember the dodgy "non-PC" Javelin ads??

Yes, I remember Slaters and the Javelin ads!

My first ever sleeping bag was a Blacks "Pal-0-Mine", bought in a sale as a second - it had a patch inside. It was a rectangular bag filled with feathers and down with no hood, sewn-through seams (lots of them in squares), a half-zip and a weight of about 2 kilos. I can't remember the temperature rating, if it had one, but I needed to wear clothes in it below 50F (we hadn't heard of Celsius in those days and Centigrade was a bit of a mystery).

I remember those! Not the warmest were they?

I seem to remember one freezing night in the Yorkshire Dales wearing all my clothes in the bag and still feeling cold. The fact that I hadn't discovered sleeping mats back then didn't help.

Hmmmm. Not lofting so well-bit clumpy. So I decided to wash it. Now seems to be even more clumpy. Did the dryer and shoe thing and it didn't seem to do much.

I think the down might have had it...

(kind of explains why it was being sold...)

Damn ebayitis!

Try alpkit for Down bags,