Left: Italian Military Officer’s Wool Blanket. Proper: Normal Italian Military Wool Blanket (the darkish black markings on each blankets are light maker’s marks) Photograph: ©2018 Rocky Mountain Bushcraft
Bushcrafters LOVE wool blankets for his or her versatility within the subject. One of many blankets they significantly like for this position are the excess Italian Military Wool Blankets.
The Italian Military Normal Wool Blankets in use circa 1985:
Sadly, the provision of those blankets, like most high quality army wool blankets, has dried up over time and have turn out to be harder to seek out. The Italian Military blankets specifically have turn out to be extremely wanted, fetching upwards of $100 to $200 per blanket on eBay and on-line boards.
As uncommon because the Italian Military Wool Blankets are, the Officer’s model of the Italian Military Wool Blanket is much more harder to seek out.
The Officer’s Blanket has a particular star on it (see essential photograph above), is usually lighter in shade, is longer than the usual military blanket by 10″ to fifteen”, and noticeably heavier. Dimensionally, my one Officer’s blanket is 96″ X 67″, and the opposite is 98″ X 66″. How a lot heavier are these blankets? One weighs 7lbs 12oz, and the opposite is 7lbs 14oz. That is almost 8lbs of pure wool!
Photograph credit score: Jason Schwartz/Rocky Mountain Bushcraft ©2018
So the Italian Officer’s Wool Blanket, at 1 1/2 to nearly 2lbs heavier, is one critical subject blanket!
Regardless of its weight, the Officer’s blanket truly packs down a lot smaller than a Hudson Bay due to its dense, tightly woven building. To provide you an concept of simply how small it should pack down, right here is considered one of my Officer’s Blankets subsequent to a smallish 100% Wool USGI Military Blanket:
Left: Italian Military Officer’s Wool Blanket. Proper: USGI 100% Wool Blanket
Photograph credit score: Jason Schwartz/Rocky Mountain Bushcraft ©2018
That is a significantly small bundle for almost 8lbs of wool! My rolled up Hudson Bay blanket is twice this dimension.
As cool as these Officer’s blankets are, they’re extraordinarily uncommon sadly. In reality, they’re so uncommon that I may hardly discover any details about them, even on bushcrafting boards.
Photograph credit score: Jason Schwartz/Rocky Mountain Bushcraft ©2018
So as to add to the confusion, it appears that evidently lots of people suppose that the common Italian Military Wool Blanket is definitely the Officer’s mannequin. As you may see from the primary photograph and from the variations of their dimension and weight, they’re truly fairly completely different.
Hopefully, this put up will assist make clear these variations in case somebody ought to run into considered one of them at a yard sale, property sale, on-line, and so on.
If you happen to occur to personal one and might add to this data, please depart a remark under.
Cheers,
Jason
