The "Gear I love" thread - An open list for good gear

[canross]

Starting this thread as a central point for "Gear I love" so we can find out about new gear that we might have wondered about, or never knew we needed until now!

Really this can be anything, but I'd say it's something you genuinely love and would buy again if you had the opportunity. Entirely up to you, but maybe the name of what it is, a picture if handy, and why you like it (use, quality, price, features, etc etc). This is NOT meant as a sales thread, just stuff that you use regularly or wouldn't want to go without.


I'll start with some hunting and work items I really like:


Bahco stainless tradesman knife
It's stainless, it holds a remarkably good edge, it's made in Sweden, and it's dirt cheap (currently on sale for $11 from George Henry). I like it for boning out, skinning, and fishing - the edge holds well for stainless, the rubber handle doesn't slip, and being bright orange stops you from losing it. The plastic sheath holds onto a belt well, but seems to have a weak point where the sheath and belt hanger join... I don't really wear it on my belt much so doesn't matter to me.
It appears to be made in Sweden, possibly under license or in conjunction with Mora.







Meindl Airstream work boots.
Got them for chainsaw boots, but find they're comfortable and easy to wear so wear them tramping as well. Certainly pricey, but given it's also PPE it's not as bad. Mine have been badly abused being exposed to chemicals, fire, ash, lack of cleaning etc etc for three years of constant use etc and are only now starting to show wear (melted the middle sole from heat from standing in coals and left ash on the leather for weeks, which tends to crack any leather over time). Also failed to properly clean and re-proof the boots over the "toe flex zone" for 2 years... which Meindl says to do, so it's my fault. Other guys wearing same boots are getting 2-3 years of 5-7 day weeks wearing them timber surveying, so all in all decent. Will be buying another pair of these when the current ones eventually fail.






Tactix Bluetooth earmuffs
Bought these on a whim and love them... good noise reduction, and the bluetooth/radio/microphone setup with lots of ear room and padding means I spend a good portion of some days wearing them. Bluetooth allows you to sync with your phone so you don't miss calls, and can listen to music from your phone, or tune into the radio if that's your preference. Speaker quality is decent surprisingly. Can answer calls with the headset on and hear the caller well, and if you aren't in a terribly noisy environment they'll hear you well as well. You also have the option of a mic-to-earmuff button if someone wants to talk to you but it's too loud to take the earmuffs off. This feature is ok, but since they're cheap they don't have noise cancelling, so it's not the same as a $500 noise-cancelling setup... you get what you pay for Battery is running strong at 3 years of use (Li-Ion so don't overcharge and don't run it down to 0% and it'll last ages) and charges from a standard micro-usb. Will cost about $70 and beats the hell out of bigger brand earmuffs for value and function. Seem reasonably tough as I've dropped them etc and nothing major has been damaged. Come with an audio jack if you don't do bluetooth, and a micro-usb charging cable.





I'd add a Tikka T3 on here - because they're simply designed and well built, but everyone on here already knows the T3 and either love or hate them, so not much point