Dumb questions, i know.

Please can someone explain to me:

1) fresnal lens
2) Nalgene bottle
3) stropping (something to do with sharpening knives?)

any pictures or inernet sites would be welcome.
thanks a lot!

fresnel lens = a magnifing lens used to make fire
Nalgene bottle = a brand of a plastic bottle, with is resistent to heat and has wide necks

link for Nalgene bottle: http://www.nalgene-outdoor.com/
they make both flesible canteens and hard plastic ones. the wide month makes it easy to clean and you can throw hot water in it without damaging it. ( i remembered once, that a PET bottle filled with hot water shrinked ! ). the mounths are also compatible with MSR water filters. on the side they have markings on how full the bottle is. The flexible canteens are kinda patypus like, but with diffrent mounth's. they also got bigger flexible canteens with handels.

Fresnel Lens
Nalgene Bottle
Stropping a Blade

First of all, there's no such thing as a dumb question. No one knows everything, although I've met a few people who thought they did, ha ha. Everyone of us had to start somewhere. I've learned a tremendous amount from Doug Ritter, and am very grateful to him for this.

Fresnel lens- Fresnel (pronounced Fruh Nell or Frah Nell) is the last name of the French scientist who invented it. Basically it is a flat lens. Since it is flat it can be made of plastic, and the plastic ones are very compact and weigh almost nothing. This site can explain it better than I can:

http://www.howstuffworks.com/question244.htm

I carry a credit card sized (about 50 by 85 mm) plastic fresnel lens in my wallet. I also carry one in a backpack that is the size of a sheet of typing paper.

I assume you are familiar with starting a fire using a magnifying lens to concentrate the sun's rays onto a handful of dried grass, etc. Believe me, the big lens gets a fire going quick.


By the way, I did not know what a fresnel lenses until I read about them here at equipped.

Nalgene bottles- Nalgene is the name of a company that makes plastic products, therefore the water bottles they make are often called Nalgene bottles. They are very high quality but expensive:

http://www.nalgene-outdoor.com/


So many people use Nalgene bottles that several of the backpacking type water filters are designed to be used with a Nalgene bottle. These filters have a screw on lid that fits the bottle. With this lid in place, you don't have to hold the bottle and can use both hands to operate the filter. I keep a Nalgene bottle with my PUR filter just for this purpose, but usually carry water in the 1 and 1.5 liter plastic bottles that bottled water is sold in.


Stropping- straight razors, which everyone used before disposable razor blades were invented, were stropped between each use. The razor was stroked back and forth across a heavy leather strap that was made for that purpose. This helped keep the blade sharp between sessions with the sharpening stone. This leather strap is called a razor strop or just a strop, and the act of using it is called stropping.

According to my dictionary, the word strop is a variation on the word strap. I heard that a razor strop was handy for punishing children. Lucky for me, my dad didn't own one, but he had a leather belt that worked just fine.

Anyway, some people use a strop on their knives. Here's one site with more information. A search on "leather strop" or "razor strop" should lead you to more:

http://www.premiumknives.com/Premium_Knives_help-Straight_Razor_Care.htm

Hope this helps!
Bill

Thanks for the responses guys!