Swanndri and ventile ?

pitdog

pitdog

Joined
Apr 13, 2007
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Two questions for y'all....what's ya thoughts on Swanndri stuff now it's made abroad, is it any better than companies such as Woolrich ?

And why is Ventile not popular,seems a great material for survival clothing but it never gets mentioned ?
 
Hi. Pit. I got a Swandri from Paul last week. I like it very much. They do fit a bit large for the given size , but not too much. I'm 5'8" ,stocky build, and a large is just right. Long tail to keep your butt warm. Awesome traditional style bush shirt, and very flexible for movement ( like when you are chopping and stuff.)
I don't have experience with Woolrich, but heard they are expensive , but well worth the money. Hope it helps.
 
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Are they sold in the USA?

From a few years ago, I thought I saw them sold in England,
and they were expensive.

Is Ventile cloth similar to what they used to call Egyptian Cotton,
or balloon cloth? Light-weight cotton tight, complex weave.
It sounds good for general use, but many people want modern
synthetics, water-proof, etc.

Not having much money, I settle for a cotton/polyester blend, in the
forum of a M65 field jacket, which is heavier than I would prefer,
for a summer hiking jacket.
 
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fnc said:
Are they sold in the USA?

From a few years ago, I thought I saw them sold in England,
and they were expensive.

Is Ventile cloth similar to what they used to call Egyptian Cotton,
or balloon cloth? Light-weight cotton tight, complex weave.
It sounds good for general use, but many people want modern
synthetics, water-proof, etc.

Not having much money, I settle for a cotton/polyester blend, in the
forum of a M65 field jacket, which is heavier than I would prefer,
for a summer hiking jacket.
Click to expand...

You're on the right track with tightly woven cotton. It's another of the ideas in trying to get decent function from natural materials along with rubbing linseed oil into canvas to make a kind of Linoleum waterproof coat. The idea with Ventile is that if you weave it tight enough the outer layer will swell up when it gets wet stopping any further water getting through. Various levels of success have been claimed for it but it is commonly excepted that it becomes very stiff and heavy when wet, 'cos it has to take up a bunch of water in the first place, and then is slow to dry. Immersion suits have been made from it in the past. Although single layer Ventile might make for a passable tough smock that isn't a melt hazard it is commonly accepted that a double layer Ventile garment is required if you want to attempt a waterproof coat. That ramps up the weight, the drying time, and the stiffness. Then there's the price of a double layer garment in a decent design. For the amount of money a lot of places want you could be well on your way to purchasing a nice Harkila Prohunter or something without those deficiencies.
 
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I have an NZ Swanndri (Bush Shirt) and one of the imports (Ranger Shirt). I haven't noticed much difference, but QC is always a concern when you "outsource" you merchandise.

As to Ventile...well, I recently received my S.A.S.S. Smock. Not brand-name Ventile, but their version and it's rock solid! It's built like a BDU shirt and is pretty thin. I've been wearing it around the house as well as wearing it through two very severe thunderstorms...both times, my pants and shorts got drenched, but my T-shirt under the smock was perfectly dry...and believe me, I stood under then edge of a roof...worse than standing in a shower. Both times, the smock dried much quicker than my jean shorts and even with the high-humidity and heat, the smock doesn't heat up as much as expected; I expect it breaths very well. I love my synthetic clothes, but this light-weight ventile smock is quite impressive and I'll be interested to see how it does in the cold, wet season.

ROCK6
 
I would like to try one of the Swandri's, haven't had the ability to handle one, but the reputation of the product is very good. I think their stuff would be at least as good as Woolrich and probably closer to the quality of Filson. Only way for me to get a bushshirt was to make my own form an Italian Wool military blanket.

The ventile sounds dynamite. i'm gonna have to find out more about it.
 
I think if I used Ventile garments the first thing I'd do would be to Nikwax it. I'm very trigger happy with the Nikwax anyway because even things it can't waterproof dry quicker. I know one can buy dedicated Ventile proofing fluid but I suspect Nikwax is at least as good.

The quotes below seem reasonable to me:

“"Ventile" is "Ventile cotton," a tough but soft material made from long-staple cotton. Once upon a time it was very common in outdoor clothing. During the '70s and into the early '80s, my main outdoor shell was an REI-bought jacket made from Ventile cotton.

Ventile's chief attributes are its soft hand, windproof quality, and high breathability. It works great in cool-to-cold, dry conditions. It's also fine when it's cold and snowy out. But it works less well when it's raining, for instance. The stuff has good water repellency, but in time it will start to absorb water. When that happens, a jacket made of Ventile quickly becomes a heavy, soggy mess that can take days to dry. I used to joke that my Ventile jacket had the water repellency of a sponge: Meaning, it could absorb only so much.

Anyway, in the U.S., Gore-Tex pretty much killed off Ventile, even though Gore-Tex is more expensive, less durable, and less breathable. But, people went for its superior waterproofing (myself included). Ventile has remained moderately popular in the UK, and some makers can be found there via the Internet (try www.west-winds.co.uk to see some lovely but wildly expensive Ventile pieces). At present, I'm not aware of any U.S. gear makers who still make products using Ventile.

Is Ventile worth the money? That's hard to say. But you're probably looking at $300 and up—maybe way up—and for that kind of scratch you can find some pretty nice jackets made from other materials. But the stuff is comfortable and versatile, so there's that to consider.”

and

“The excitement went out of Ventile over here when the gov't created testing standards for "waterproof" and Ventile failed miserably. Devoid of the ability to even call itself "waterproof," it disappeared pretty fast.

Now there are texturized nylons that hold water repellant chemicals as well as cotton ever did. Not much interest in them either -- not "waterproof."

Still that melting problem, but I've had one hole in 25 years of nylon and polyester (pine wood fire %^$&#!!).

On the plus side, nylon and polyester are both much more abbrasion-resistant than cotton.

Back to the minus side, Gore-tex stops breathing when the outside gets wet as the vapor pressure can't overcome the film strength of the water --might as well be wearing "oilskin." This can be overcome to some extent by designing ventilation into the garment. .”

There's a discussion of Ventile here that is particularly interesting to me as like the querent I am very partial to Buffalo stuff. If I had any interest in going Ventile it would not be to put it at loggerheads with Gore-tex because to my mind Gore-tex is clearly vastly superior to it in the wet. It would be to put Ventile against my Buffalo systems or soft shell X. Despite never having had a problem with any Buffalo gear after years of usage it strikes me as obvious that Ventile would beat it at bramble-proof and would be a lot harder to catch fire to. That matters little to me especially when offset against drying and weight, but if under different circumstances my priorities may be very different.
 
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I now have quite a bit of stuff from Swanndri. First there is the bushcraft uniform stuff that consists of a rangershirt and original bushshirt. I like it, even though it makes me look like a hobbit in the winter. Then my wife bought me a tonne of clothes from the NZ website. They just had a huge sale, so even though customs hit us with duty, the price was incredible given the quality. Among the items were 2 pullover wool sweaters, 2 pair of heavy canvas pants, 2 pair of the same heavy canvas walking shorts, a merino wool vest (that is simply awesome but it makes me look like a geek instead of a hobbit) and a couple of kick ass golf shirts.

I have to say that every piece of clothing I received from them I was absolutely astounded with the quality. The canvas pants are like the old heavy hikers that MEC used to sell about 10 years ago but have since killed them in favor of synthetics. These things are going to outlast me, I'm sure of it. The wool sweaters are super classy and a mix of 80% merino wool/20% nylon. Looks like a classic fisherman's pullover.

Anyhow, I think I'm going to be buying most of my casual cloths from Swanndri from now on. They actually make my Tilley clothing look like crap, and its a tough one for me to denounce this Canadian company.
 
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