WeatherWool

Jim Abbott, an Adirondack Woodsman, took us up to one of his favourite ponds pushed back about a couple miles from the road, where there was an old Radisson row boat stashed away. He rigged up his 9ft, 6-piece fly rod with a 5-weight Lamson reel loaded with a level sinking line. Jim's technique is somewhat unique as he trolls with a fly-fishing setup. Although not original, it's not often practiced in modern times. In this video, Jim shares his experience fishing this way over the last 45 years. It seems to work for him, as he had a fish on within 10 minutes. The full article, along with pictures from this visit, can be found at https://weatherwool.com/pages/brook-trout-sinking-lines-with-jim-abbott

In this film, Caleb Musgrave brings us along for the last ricing trip of the season and walks us through the basics of processing that rice into delicious, nutritious food that can be stored for years. Caleb Musgrave is a Mississauga Anishinaabe man from Rice Lake Ontario, who has been training in wilderness survival, bushcraft and traditional woodcraft since he was a child. Since 2008, Caleb has been the owner and director of Canadian Bushcraft, Ontario's leader in wilderness skills ranging from blacksmithing and homesteading to week-long survival training courses to guiding long trips into the backcountry. He has hosted celebrities, and entire universities, teaching everyone who comes his way. Caleb has trained over twenty thousand individuals, both in the field and in the classroom. Since 2019 Caleb has been the host of Aboriginal People's Television Network's Wilderness and Cultural Survival series "Merchants of the Wild". Caleb is also the host of the Canadian Bushcraft Podcast where he continues to learn and share with the greatest outdoors men and women in the world. If you would like to book a course with Caleb you can get more information at Canadian Bushcraft. We look forward to spending more time with Caleb in the future and sharing his wealth of knowledge with all of you.

Professional Naturalist and WeatherWool Advisor David Alexander (@NatureIntoAction) spends a great deal of his time teaching people of all ages about Nature. David also devotes a lot of time and effort to conservation work and habitat improvement. In this video, filmed at the WeatherWool Swamp by Advisor Trustin Timber, David puts up a Wood Duck Nesting Box and explains a little about the nesting habits of Wood Ducks. MANY BIG THANKS to David and Trustin! -- Ralph

As we continue our series on highlighting American manufacturing we stop by Factory 8 and visit JR who is working on our North Maine Double Coat. JR has a lot of knowledge of our garment design and construction. He helped us make a great deal of progress when we first went into production, and we have worked with him steadily since in 2014. Check out our website for more info on this coat and our full collection. https://weatherwool.com

This video is the first of a series where we take a look behind the scene of how WeatherWool is made. Eventually, we'll go all the way back to the shearing of the sheep, but we wanted to get right into the heart of the process and show you how the wool is woven. In this episode, we feature Material Technology and Logistics based in Jessup, PA, USA.

American Woolen spins our yarn and finishes our Fabric. AWC is completely vital to WeatherWool. We visit AWC regularly. Here is a video made by Advisor Trustin Timber from footage he shot on the 17th March 2023. THANKS to Trustin, Giuseppe, and Jacob Long. To learn more about our relationship with AMC you can check out this page on our website. https://weatherwool.com/pages/american-woolen-company

More info at www.WeatherWool.com

www.WeatherWool.com Or phone us anytime at 973-761-1776 Ever wonder what happens to WeatherWool -- or wool in general -- in the rain?? Wool does not get wet the way most people think. There is lots more info on the website ... but basically ... the outside of a wool fiber repels water ... so the behavior of wool is almost the opposite of cotton ... cotton soaks up water like a sponge because cotton is very much like a sponge. Instead, wool gets wet kind of like the hair on your head ... water will sit on the surface of it, but it dries off quickly. However, here is the crazy wrinkle ... wool is scaly, and water molecules (vapor mostly) can slide between the scales and are adsorbed INSIDE the wool fiber, where the react chemically with the wool and actually release heat. I've worn an All-Around Jacket -- with a double yoke -- in the rain from dawn to dark and not gotten wet: https://weatherwool.com/pages/rain​ If you get need to walk 20 miles in a freezing rain, wool will get you through it. Wool does very well in the rain, so long as you wear a wool base layer (not cotton!!). Also, people have wondered about the sleeves of the ShirtJac shown here. We cut our sleeves long so you can tuck your hands inside if you want to avoid gloves. You can tighten the cuff if you don't want the sleeves coming down over your hands.

More info ... please visit us at www.WeatherWool.com

Does WeatherWool FullWeight Fabric Burn? Answer: “If your WeatherWool is burning, you are past caring.”. For more information ... visit us at www.WeatherWool.com

The danger of getting soaking wet in cold weather is greatly diminished if you wear wool. In this video, the temp is just above freezing. I'm wearing WeatherWool MidWeight Pants, our very first All-Around Jacket, wool socks and wool base layers under the Jacket. Plus leather boots and leather belt. To read more about Wool and Water, please visit our website: https://weatherwool.com/pages/wool-an...​ Legal Eagles have told me I need to put some kind of a warning here else someone sets their lawyer on us ... I guess that's the world we live in ... So ... here's some fine print ... Please don't get the wrong idea ... Wool is not going to turn a winter dunking into summer on the beach. The point of this video is to show that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". If you do something like the immersion shown here in cotton, or a lot of other materials, you'd be in serious trouble. Being prepared for the dunking made all the difference. If you are going to try this yourself, have friends nearby who can help if you need help. For me, this was really easy. But I've been told that some people might have serious issues from the dunking itself ... the frigid water was kind of shocking ... and from research I've seen, 95% of people who die in cold water don't die from hypothermia ... the "cold-shock gasp" induces panic, and death is caused by heart failure or drowning. And if you do try a winter immersion yourself, please remember that all wool clothing is not created equal. WeatherWool is designed to handle this kind of situation ... we use 0 cotton ... our Fabric is pure wool (unlike most other 'wool' clothing), and (again unlike other woolens), our garments are almost entirely wool. We do not use 'liner' fabrics around the neck and shoulders, for example, which would have resulted in a wet rag around my neck. Even thread matters in a serious situation. Instead of the typical cotton thread (a real weak link!), we use mil-spec nylon thread that does not absorb water. We use small amounts of nylon in other spots, such as the strips that secure our Slot Buttons. Where backing fabric is needed, such as under the pocket flaps, we use mil-spec wool/nylon blend. Use of anything but wool is absolutely minimized. We shot this clip at a little place we have in the New Jersey swamps of the Rockaway River. We do a lot of testing and photography for WeatherWool at The Swamp: https://weatherwool.com/pages/new-jer...​ WeatherWool All-Purpose Outerwear: All Challenges Accepted Sound and video production by my daughter Denali (Lauralie Studios, https://www.lauraliestudios.com/​), who is one of the owners of WeatherWool, our family's company. If you have any questions or input, please get in touch with me directly. I'm available pretty much 24/7... Ralph@WeatherWool.com, 973-761-1776. Thanks a lot!

This short clip shows our FullWeight Lynx Pattern Fabric on the sponging line at American Woolen Company. SPONGING uses steam and heat to relax the Fabric. When fabric is woven, the weaving process creates tensions in the fabric. These tensions, if not removed, can cause real problems for the tailors, because pieces cut from a tense fabric will change size when freed from the bolt. American Woolen sponges our Fabrics twice. Sponging also "fulls" the Fabric ... that is, the sponging causes the Fabric to shrink in a controlled way. When our Fabric comes off the loom at Material Technology and Logistics, it's about 61 inches (155 cm) wide, and the finishing processes at AWC "full" the Fabric down to about 52 inches (132 cm). Fulling, or partial felting, increases the warmth and weather-resistance of the Fabric. We full to the point where our FullWeight Fabric resists wind of 15mph (24 kph). We could make the Fabric tighter, if we wanted ... we could turn it into felt. BUT we require our Fabric to "breathe" well, and the more wind a fabric resists, the less it breathes. And the less a fabric breathes, the more quickly sweat builds inside. This density of our FullWeight Fabric, about 19.4 ounces per square yard (658 grams per square meter) provides the balance of wind-resistance and breathability that we chose. Finishing involves not only sponging but also napping, shearing and sometimes decating. This video was provided to us by Giuseppe Monteleone, who has been operating the mill at American Woolen since 1988. THANKS GIUSEPPE and the AMERICAN WOOLEN TEAM!! THANKS EVERYONE FOR YOUR INTEREST! --- Ralph