Winter Must Have: Försvarets Hudsalva

Neighbouring countries always seem to have some sort of friendly competition and sometimes even jokes about the stereotypes from the neighbouring country. This is of course also the case with Denmark and Sweden. I won't be going into details with any of the jokes. I will only say, that I'm generally very fond of all of our neighbours. And especially Sweden. 

The Swedish military has even fostered a lot of cool things. Like the camo pattern, M90 and if you ever come across any vintage gear from the Swedish military like their storage boxes and jackets, you'll realize, that they were doing something right.

However I would probably say, that the one thing I like the most, is their lip balm, called Försvarets Hudsalva. This product was ordered by the Swedish military some time in the 1950's and since it has been a massive hit. The original purpose was to avoid chafing wounds, and probably also to put on the skin to avoid frostbite. But today it is mostly considered a lip balm because because of its slight vanilla scent and flavour. But you can use it everywhere needed (apparently also for frying food), which makes it sort of the male equivalent of the "Eight Hour Cream" by Elizabeth Arden. And the packaging isn't too bad either - very masculine and it reminds me of the small container, that films for analog cameras would come in. By the way it's still made in Sweden, in case you care about that.

If I had a shop, I would definitely be selling this. I think it might be sort of a hidden gem, unless you live in Sweden, but I still hope, that this will get a larger, easier distribution.

These photographs were taken by my friend and photographer, Niels Hjorth. Hopefully Niels will help raise the standard of the pictures used on ATD over the coming months, as we are discussing a lot of different projects. Hopefully they will all materialize in the new year.

On the Topic of Camouflage - Camopedia.org

I know, that you see a bit too much camo around these days, but I still love it. When I was a kid I used to collect militaria and I have spent hours and hours in surplus stores and militaria shops. So much that I think the later part of my childhood was spent there entirely. Mom and dad would even leave me there on my own and I would entertain the owners with talk about the crazy bajonet I found on a trip to Holland, the old riffle that my uncle gave me, the complete collection of Danish insignias and the World War I helmet I found at a flea market. Yep, I was a strange kid, now that I think of it.
This thing ended when I sold of my entire collection to buy a pair of new jeans.

Lately I have been doing a lot of research on camouflage because I want to make some small accessories using camouflage, which is why I have been paying Camopedia a daily visit - or actually a couple of daily visits.

My research led me to purchase 10 yards of this fabric - also known as Tiger camo, that I found through an American source. This camo was used by the US in the Vietnam war - and of course used a lot of other places.

I would like to add other camo types to my assortment, and I would also like to add other fabric types like Cordura and rip-stop for instance.

- I will of course let you in on, how the collection continues to increase...

Here are some, that I like - and some of them I'm even actively looking for, so if you have a roll of fabric lying around, let me know.

I like this in a way, but it was mainly included because it is Danish