I'd forgotten to mention ...

To make matters even more confusing, in 2006 Fiskars, who owns Gerber Legendary Blades, bought Silva of Sweden, and placed it under the Gerber wing.

So now Fiskars/Gerber owns Silva of Sweden/Brunton of U.S..

Sheesh.

All my compass work has been in the midwest, so that might explain the lack of bubbles. When I went out west to Yellowstone I had my 15TDCL with me (I said I was trying to carry it more).

BTW, about the same time my 8099 had the bubble I found that my 15TDCL had stopped pointing north. Never figured out why. Brunton replaced it with a new one rather than fix it.

An a slightly different tangent, one thing folks who buy compasses should keep in mind (back to the original post) is that, at least in my view, they can have two basic roles: (1) to give a fairly general sense of direction (which way is north? for me this is usually when orienting a map), and (2) to provide relatively accurate bearings (following a bearing, or more importantly when using triangulation to determine your location).

Most any half-decent compass will do for (1), but for (2) I much prefer a good sighting compass. I've never felt very accurate doing bearings with a plain baseplate compass.

Hi KenK,



I believe that Johnson Outdoors has Silva.

Gerber and Brunton have the same parent company-Fiskars.

Suunto is owned by Amer Sports.

Okay: here in Canada I can buy a Silva Ranger made in Sweden, under the Silva name.

If I buy a "Silva" compass in the US, where is that compass made?

Inquiring minds want to know. Me, I use a Suunto MC-2DL.

I would suggest that your EDC should be the one you are most familiar with and have the greatest confidence in. After all, if you get into a situation where you REALLY HAVE to use it, that will most likely be when what you have is your EDC, and it BETTER WORK RIGHT. Just my thoughts.

good thought EdD270. your of course correct.I am well known by friends to terribly abuse my gear through use. not b/c I am wasteful but I practice its ability. I replace (from use) almost every item in my EDC 1x per year, Some pieces like the fire/tender gear much more often.

Just trying to lighten my load in my EDC and maybe buy some new kit. I have a GI lensatic & an original Silva Ranger that are my gold standards and if I think i need that level of preparedness it goes on my body. But think a 'simple' baseplate compass would do well for daily carry in urb/suburb environment

+2 to the above two posts. A plain baseplate compass is just fine as a navigation aid if you don't need the precision fo a sighting compass. Though if that happens to be the case I wonder whether you even need a baseplate compass at all for urban EDC. A wrist/button compass would be just fine to get a quick bearing and in a lot more compact package.

Why does the lack of declination make it a novelty compass? Most marine compasses (sighting or fixed) do not have a declination adjustment, just variation, if that. You then either do the math, or plot using magnetic instead of true. I use a Suunto M2? when I am in the woods. Declination adjustment is nice, but an option. Basic map skills include changing from mag to true.

Bill

Fiskars, who owns Gerber, now owns the Swedish company named Silva, which in turn owned the U.S. company Brunton. They are all one big company now.

Check out http://www.fiskars.fi/business/index.html

Johnson Outdoors owns the U.S. registered trademark for "Silva". This trademark ownership does not impact labeling outside of the U.S.

I don't know who makes the U.S. "Silva" compasses. Some have said it is Suunto, but I've seen no proof of that.

I agree with TomL - that was my point with the two uses of a compass. The tiny button compasses or a simple wrist compass can take someone a loooong way so long as they have a good map, THOUGH I prefer to have a compass with a straight side to help orient the map. I see the map as bearing (no pun intended) 95+% of the navigation load. Heck, I even bring a Brunton 9020G compass (pockets real nice) to places like Disney World and Sea World so I can orient the map when I confused.

Regarding adjustable declination ... lack of it doesn't make the compass a "novelty", but I myself wouldn't buy one. I choose not to do that math when good compasses are available with adjustable declination (even at a low price).

I hate drawing true north lines on maps. Yuck! I was taught that way, but would rather orient the map to north and use an adjusted compass.

I just set/use all my gear (compass, GPS, and map) to "true north" and go.

Marine compasses do not use declination because charts are used with magnetic bearings.

I find a Lensatic compass to be a novelty compass not only because it does not offer declination, but its operating system is far less easy to use on a map than the Silva type systems.

As a field compass sighting it is fine, but map to field, field to map work is far easier with a baseplate compass.

Declination adjustment to me is a requirement as again it makes a baseplate compass a sure bet to use. No messing about with subtraction or addition of declination...no confusion, no mistakes.

About the only thing that can be stated for sure is that "Silva USA" compasses marketed by Johnson Outdoors are NOT made by Silva Sweden. Suunto/Recta are the likely source for most Silva USA branded compasses....only because they have county of origin as Finland. Johnson Outdoors can have anyone willing to make a compass brand it "Silva" as they own the trademark in the US.

A nice quick and easy....popping out of the subway, turned around at Disneyland, local woods, sort of compass is a small TruNord.

This one a pin-on version that makes for handy quick reference.



These can be ordered with your local declination already set. This makes them not great travel compasses, but they are definately quality items that have their use. They are not a bad choice for EDC, but not one I use as a primary compass.