Monday, December 14

three on the tree -wax

Wax in most forms is sticky, smelly or inconvenient; pick two. Convenience is the enemy etc., that is why the back-to-the-landers and Tweed Run crowd love it. It makes a great inexpensive gift, or stocking stuffer for the gentiles/pagans. Give one of the fencepost bloggers a tin of Barbour wax and their weekend is all set.

1. Fjallraven, for your G-1000 garments, or hell, why not the backpacks too.
2. Barbour thornproof dressing. The messiest [so best right? -ed.] of the bunch.
3. Filson Oil Finish Wax. Unwaxed cotton cowers in fear.
4. Moustache wax, from Pinaud-Clubman. Pops' weapon of choice. Goes with the Moustache Calendar from RISD too.
5. Any snowboard wax is better than nothing. Nothing beats geeking out with a hot iron and giving your dried base a big drink of hydrocarbons. One of the few performancey things I do, and makes a huge difference. Purl Wax is behind this readily available K2 brick.
6. For the gliders and skaters, a set of universal cross-country wax. X-country wax preparations can get pretty nutty, with wax/klister/kick areas and glide sprays. Too much. I switched over to fish scales a long time ago; though Swix makes very cool cork buffers...

Barely related; a must read is A.A. Gill's article in the current Vanity Fair titled Loch, Stalk and Burials. Not online yet, it is on page 44 of the current print issue. Have mentioned Gill before, a very sarky British commentator, often does restaruant reviews (pretty obtuse ones) for the Times. Here is a bit he did about hunting, out with Marco Pierre White.