I'm on the fence about an item. It's made of 100% Ventile. And I need advice:

I know next to nothing about Ventile's durability, waterproofness, and drying ability.

Has anyone spent time in anything Ventile? Is it worth the price? Or glorified Cotton?

Thanks,

Brian

Ventile is a very lightwieght,tightly woven ( windproof) cotton cloth from Britain. The fibers swell to extreme water repellency when wet. There are several different wieghts for different applications. There is another way to view ventile cloth. Look at the performance from inside. Body perspiration will vent around and through cotton and wool fibers.This is what Goretex is supposed to do, and does not. Just remember this is a shell material and must be part of a proper layered outfit.

Reading through some Google forums, it doesn't seem to be getting outstanding praise.

The problem with Gore-Tex is humidty outside the jacket, and condensation inside. Too often people fit their Gore-Tex clothing too tightly or fashionably instead of a loose fit allowing more room for moisture to escape at the bottom and into the air inside the parka. A tight fit rubs on under layers and makes them wet from condesation inside the Gore-Tex. Always fit Gore-Tex coats on the larger side. Gore-Tex footwear?? A waste of money!

i seem to recall that ventile was desigend for downed airmen, especially in the north sea. supposedly the cloth is 'so' tightly woven that once it's adsorbed a little water the fibers swell to the extent where its waterproof. a mate had one and he swore by it.

IMHO ventile clothing is always much better than gore-tex, triple point etc. ventile feels better, looks better, sounds better, and most importantly of all it works better. other people's comments about how ventile works are right, one thing i'd add though is that ventile has much better extreme cold weather performance. anywhere in the far north where the temperatures really start to drop synthetic fabrics can start to fail, as the fabric freezes it becomes brittle and can crack, that's never going to happen with a pure cotton fabric, i learnt that one from bitter experiance. ventile will also work just as well as, if not beter than, synthetics at the opposite end of the temperature scale. so for versatility i'd say ventile wins hands down. i'm pretty sure that the only reason that ventile fell out of favour is that when gore-tex was released it was hailed as being the solution to all our problems, people thought it was going to be the ultimate shell material, we now know better, gore-tex has it's limitations but it's still the most fasionable choice. this is a goodthing though i think, it means that ventile is affordable for the ones amongst us who want to buy it.
just my thoughts.

take it easy,
stuart.

Ventile was indeed designed to save downed airmen in the Channel and North Sea. It was swept aside by Goretex with all its 'Spacesuit' hype, but its still used by the British Antarctic Survey for their clothes.

I got a great Ventile smock from Snowsled in the UK. They make ventile clothing for HRH Prince of Wales, British Special Forces and the British Antarctic Survey.

The quality of the smock is exceptional...

Recently I bought a single layer ventile jacket from Snowsled. It was about £195 but the quality is excellent and the customer service was good.

I find that ventile fabric changes when wet. It is pretty amazing. It is incredibly windproof and provides a feeling of security in cold, wet storms above 3000 ft in Scotland. I need to test it in a really heavy shower first but think it will be excellent. No condensation at all so far.

A word of warning about another company that has a web site selling ventile garments. I ordered an item in March and they cashed my cheque but I have still received no garment and no refund despite several enquiries. I would not buy from this company.
Snowsled are expensive but seem to come up with the goods.

A good friend, known as edgewise on various forums, has created a transformable shelter and bag cover made from home sewn ventile. The shelter has been tested in MI winter conditions to NC spring/summer conditions and has not failed to provide ample shelter from the varying environments and/or conditions ...



Edge swears by the stuff and I must say, it certainly looks more than promising as a clothing topper or shelter material ...

M

Just want to point out that I have seen a few sites where so called experts criticize ventile for becoming soggy and heavy like a sponge. They also say that the manufacturers have to use phrases like storm proof and weather proof instead of waterproof when describing the properties of the material because it is not really waterproof.
I do not really agree with the critics of ventile.
Ventile is not made of the same material as a canvas tent. Canvas when stretched tightly becomes saturated and water rolls off the surface as long as you do not touch the inside of the tent. Ventile does NOT work in the same way.
The structure of ventile fabric changes when it starts to get wet, preventing percolation from the outside through to the inside. It doesn't matter if the fabric is touching anything.

I was in persistent drizzly rain and high winds for hours with a ventile jacket. I felt completely protected from the elements. The jacket became slightly stiffer and no water penetrated to my mid-layer. A letter I had in the pocket of the jacket remained totally dry. A guy who was with me wore a polycotton ski jacket and took a good soaking.

The reason they do not describe it as waterproof is to avoid complaints from people used to sweating up in plastic coats who expect to see the water run off the garment. Because ventile is designed to absorb some moisture into the threads (in fact this allows the jacket to become more water resistant) it is described as stormproof.

Anyway if you want to be absolutely sure just buy a double layered coat. I use single layer because it is so light and because my layering system of wool and sometimes silk can absorb small amounts of moisture and still retain insulating properties.

I moved to ventile after getting more soaked in condensation than I would from the rain.

I have also read that ventile takes ages to dry. I have not found this. In my experience it dries out quite quickly. And even if it is wet it doesn't matter.

ok sorry if this sounds dense, but i only recently (on this forum actually heh) discovered ventile.

id be interested in trying this stuff out.
so where did your friend get it from, how much and so on...

NYR ...

Here's a thread on KnifeForums with the majority of the details ...

http://www.knifeforums.com/ubbthreads/sh...=1&vc=1

M

I went to Snowsled website, but could find no mention of clothing. Not even a list of what they stock. All I could find were articles on thier sledges.
Could you post the URL of the site you bought the smock from. Here's the link I went to.
Forgive me if I'm just being stupid, but I found thier site unhelpful at best.
http://www.snowsled.com/html/frame_journeys.html

They dont have clothing online. Contact the helpful Lorraine and ask her to send you a brochure...
SNOWSLED CLOTHING LTD
Unit 44D, Nailsworth Mills,
Nailsworth, Gloucestershire
GL6 0BS
Tel: + 44 (0) 1453 839090
Fax: + 44(0) 1453 839800
Contact: Lorraine Goodliff
LORRAINE@snowsledclothing.fsbusiness.co.uk

Steven
Thanks for the info, I'll contact her today.

Go for it Martin...
The smock I bought is called the "classic". It comes with elasticated cuffs but I asked Snowsled to add velcro closure "Stormshirt" cuffs, which they did for only £10 extra.
The "Classic" is available in different pocket configurations. I chose the traditional map pouch, but there is also the option of double bellows pockets or a tunnel pocket.

I've been wearing ventile on and off since 1984. I was seduced away for a while by the claims of goretex. I went back after getting a soaking from condensation too often. Ventile is an all round better choice IMHO. I would second all of the positive comments given above but also add that unlike artificial fibres ventile also behaves well when hit by sparks from a fire. Very usefull for bushcraft or survival use.

Where exactly can one purchase Ventile clothing in the US? I found a couple of items at Orvis, but I would love some other input for other places to find this stuff.

Thanks in advance.