Swedish snow smock.

Here's a bit of kit I thought you may want to know about.

Sarah and I had business up in the big city last week 

(Exeter).

While we were there we thought we'd call in on our old friend Kevin.

As you may well know, Kevin owns a rather splendid military surplus store not far from the River Exe.

I call him my 'gentleman's outfitter', as most of my wardrobe originates from his store.

Here's a link to his web page.

ENDICOTTS ARMY SURPLUS

While we were there Kevin managed to slip a rather nice item into my holdall.

We got it home and I tried it on.

Wow !

A perfect fit.

A great smock for the woods.

It's a genuine Swedish snow smock.

Made from good quality, closely woven cotton.

Try holding a bit of the shirt you are wearing right now up to your lips and blow through.

I bet your breath flowed through the material fairly easily.

I just tried it on my shirt.

My breath passed through with no problem.

Mind you, I'm sat under a big sun umbrella wearing a linen shirt due to the heat.

I tried blowing through the Swedish snow smock material and struggled to get my breath through the material.

Huge great pockets, envelope style.

I've owned smocks like this for many years now, and although there are more modern products on the market, you won't find anything as comfortable and quiet as these classic smocks.

Large hood for a big winter hat.

So, they are windproof, check.

Are they waterproof ?

Well the short answer is no.

I wouldn't recommend you venture into the middle of Dartmoor with just this as a waterproof.

However.........

Left-waxed..... right-natural.

I still own an old smock which I treated with wax some years ago.

I've used this smock for hard use in the woods and it'll keep a fair amount of weather out.

It reminds me of my old Barbour jacket I used to use back in my forestry days.

In fact, the wax I used for waterproofing my old smock came from Barbour.

Heres a link...

Barbour Wax

Left-waxed..... Right-natural.

The hood is very big, plenty of room for a fur hat in winter.

The neck closure is buttoned and doubled up to keep the chill out.

I won't wax this one, instead I will give it a treatment with some Nikwax Tech Wash.

That'll proof it enough for my preference.

I use my new one for sitting by the fire of an evening.

And being cotton it won't melt under a spark.

It keeps the evening chill out a treat.

I bet some of you are wondering....

Jon, if it's a snow smock, how come it's green ?

Well Kevin has batch dyed some of these smocks a nice Swedish military green.

He has other colour varients on offer.

And the price?

If it's dyed - £26.00

If it's plain - £22.00

If you are interested in one of these classic smocks, go visit Kevin's dedicated pages...

Swedish smock original off white....

Swedish smock dyed....

Great value bits of old school kit.

Enjoy...

J.