Rab Microlight Jacket - a jacket that fits!

I have been wanting to get a light technical puffy jacket for a while but haven't made up my mind what brand and size to get.  I didn't want to just randomly pick one and order it over the internet for fear that it does not fit well.  I have been looking at the Arcteryx, Mountain Hardwear and Rab jackets.  Mountain Hardwear is the standard in the light puffy jacket segment with their Ghost Whisperer jacket.  I went back to Sail a few times to try it on, but I just really don't like the sizing.The sizing is what I call the fat body short arm syndrome.  Many shirts have the same problem I find.  In an effort to not have to offer many sizes of shirts, the industry standard sizing usually means that for me (175lbs, 6'2" tall, wide shoulders), in a medium size, the chest size seems to fit OK, but the arms are way too short.  When I put on a large, the arms (sometimes) tend to be long enough, but the chest is way too large and baggy.   This, of course depends on the brand that you are trying on.  I find certain companies offer sizing that's more compatible with my body type.

The Mountain Hardwear Ghost Whisperer falls into the type that does not fit me well.  You would think that, for an outdoor company, the fit would be a little more tailored to the athletic, lean body type, rather than the cheeseburger eating couch potato and take your dog for a walk type of body with a potbelly...  but it's more suited to the latter type I find.

So, doing a quite exhaustive search on the internet for a jacket that is more fitted and has long enough arms for someone my size, some recommended Rab jackets.  I checked some out at a local shop and the large fitted well, although the selection was quite limited and they only had a Twilight color jacket in stock (navy blue).  I purchased one online from a surf shop in the UK instead.  The British pound's value has tanked recently, making it worthwhile to buy stuff from there.

I ordered a beluga color(dark grey) jacket .  The fit of the size large Rab Microlight jacket?  It's amazing.  I recommend it to those who have trouble finding a proper fitting jacket that are lean.

The function?  It's so comfortable, like a duvet surrounding you, and so light for the warmth.  It's no wonder these types of jackets are so popular these days.  I notice there aren't many fleeces out there now, and these jackets are much more popular, although they are quite a bit more expensive than the fleece.  The fill is 750fill power hydrophobic down, so it offers some protection when it is raining out.  The fabric is Pertex that supposedly has a tight enough weave to prevent feathers from poking through, and it is also has a DWR coating, again to help shed some light rain.  It even came with a stuffsack in one of the pockets, although I would just prefer to turn the jacket inside out and stuff it in the one chest pocket or one of the hand warming pockets instead.  It works great doing this, although they should have a zipper pull on the other size for this to work a little better, as the zipper pull is on the opposite side when turned inside out.  Bonus:  If you stuff it into one of the handwarmer pockets, it makes a great pillow too.

Morakniv Garberg? No Thanks for That Price.

I would like to get my hands on a Morakniv Garberg knife – one of their latest creations – I really would.  But there’s no way I will be for $125 CAD/$85 USD.  It’s insanely expensive for a small chunk of stainless steel with a plastic handle molded into it.

This knife is Mora’s response to all the bushcraft wannabes whining about the Mora Bushcraft knives not being full tang knives, and the entire bushcraft community had an orgasm when this full tang knife was announced.  I don’t know what people are really using their knives in the forest for, but all these woodland hipsters are always talking about batoning wood and driving their knife into things with a hammer or something.  If you are doing that…  either it is an extreme emergency situation or you are just using the wrong tool, period.

The even worse part about it is obvious Morakniv realized how much these overenthusiastic woodland nymphs are willing to pay for something deemed a real bushcraft knife, and they are certainly making lots of money on these Garberg knives.  Morakniv knives used to represent really good value for money – I think I paid $50 CAD for my Morakniv Bushcraft Black knife – and this thing is more than twice the cost of that.  I just can’t see how it is worth it.

The blade is available only in stainless steel as well.  Everyone that really knows knifes knows that, other than with exotic specially alloyed steel - in general high carbon steel is the best knife steel.  High Carbon is easy to sharpen and holds an edge much better than most stainless steel knives, and is much less expensive material with the downside that it may rust if you don’t take care of it.   

My Bushcraft Black is high carbon stainless and is a beauty to sharpen, when I rarely need to, due to it’s edge retention.  To be honest, I think I'd even rather like the Morakniv Companion Black better than my Bushcraft, and think it's a better all around knife.  The Bushcraft's blade is as thick as a 2x4(well, not really, just a slight exaggeration), and the companion would be much better at slicing while still having enough strength, provided you're not trying to pry up nails and floorboards with it.   I have read reports of the handle of the Garberg being very hard plastic instead of a nice dual shot molded handle with some grip as well... I can only go by that since I haven't held one in my hand.

In the end, I would like to keep an open mind and would like to give this knife a fair shake, but I certainly won’t do that when I would have to spend $125 for this knife.  It’s obviously overpriced to cash in on the knife hype.  I’ll stick with my Bushcraft Black for now.