When camping and I have been feeling more adventurous, I would decide to avoid the usual commercial camp sites and head off into the wilderness, armed with a compass and a map or two. Well not the wilderness more off of the beaten track. It can be fun, but you really do need to have the best of equipment with you. With that in mind the maps I use are ordinance survey maps and the compass I prefer are the ones made by Silva.
The company that manufactures these compasses arguably Europe’s most reliable compasses, have been making them for 70 years, they are sold
to armed forces around the world
Silva compasses are liquid filled and have a sapphire bearing, this results in a compass whose needle rotates smoothly and never has the needle wobble that some compasses suffer from.
Who are Silva?
They are a Swedish company who have subsidiary companies across the world, their head office is in Stockholm. In 1933 they invented the first liquid filled compass and from then on have never looked back. Along with producing compasses they also make pedometers, headlamps, outdoor instruments, binoculars, professional instruments, orienteering equipment to name but some.
The Model
I use The Silva Ranger 3 compass, which I would place as right in the middle of the range of compasses that Silva make.
Why do I use this model?
It is called a base plate compass, this means it is a compass that is housed in liquid, and this compass is set into a rectangular plate that has two measuring scales down the side. The scales are 1:50.000 and 1:25.000 (these scales coincide with the same two most common scales used in orienteering or ordinance survey maps). It also has a magnifying glass housed in the base plate (to enlarge the map).
Other Features Sapphire jewel bearing for friction free movement of the compass needle Durable hot-stamping of scales/graduations Compass housing made from Dryflex Luminous stripe on the needle Patented red/black orienting lines inside the compass housing Declination scale inside the capsule
Does it represent good value for money?
Make no mistake, this model retails at around £15, at first this sounds like a lot of money for a needle that tells you where north is. But look at it the way I did, it is reliable; unless it is really badly treated it will not let you down. For an essential piece of equipment that can mean the difference in finding where you are/need to go and being totally and hopelessly lost (and therefore potentially putting your life at risk) so personally I don’t think £15 is a lot of money. Then add into the equation the fact that some models in the Silva range can be more than double that. I am more than happy at paying around £15.
Why not choose a cheaper compass?
There are many reasons for not choosing a cheaper compass, for example cheaper ones tend to not have the same range of features. Often the needle is not encased in liquid and it will pitch and twist as it finds North, cheaper ones are often only compasses and do not offer the same ability to work with a map as the way the Silva compass does. Often cheaper compasses are more fragile and to me a broken compass
How to use a Compass
I thought long and hard about this, my first thought was to explain exactly how a compass should be used in conjunction with a map. For those who do not know I can assure you it is surprisingly easy and a compass such as this one makes it so straightforward. But I have decided against trying to explain, just in case my words are not clearly understood and someone goes off on an adventure and get hopelessly lost. So with all of that in mind, the best advise I can give for anyone wanting to learn to use a compass, is seek advise and instruction on a person to person basis (a scout, rambler etc) that way you can walk away in real confidence that you know exactly how to use a compass, yes you can get tuition online, but that will not make up for a hands on training session and in my opinion that is very important as it could mean the difference between life and death.
Overall
Although Silva compasses are on general sale and can be found either in good camping shops or on a whole host of online shops. They are used by professional soldiers around the world (allegedly even certain elite forces have been known to use these), that in my mind was enough to persuade me to get one. This was one purchase that I was extremely happy with
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