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.