Make Your Own Gear

I decided to put Make Your Own Gear under Techniques instead of under gear. My reasoning is gear is just that - gear. But making your own is something not everyone does. It is a way to personalize your gear to your hiking style or technique, and that is why I put it in the Technique category for my site.

As lightweight backpackers, we are sort of different than the rest of the backpacking community because we have different gear wants and needs that the mainstream gear companies do not fill most of the time, or are just beginning to try and fill. There was a time when I first started that finding instructions for gear were limited to a few websites (my primary source of info) and some books. These days you can find instructions everywhere and many of these stoves, backpacks, tents, tarps, etc - look basically the same but with a little modification here and there.

If you have noticed, I call just about everything I make SGT Rock's WHATEVER, this isn't because I want some sort of fame, it's because if your out there talking on the net about what sort of alcohol stove you made, then the other person will know if it is the Roy Robbinson Cat Stove, or the SGT Rock version of the same (he invented it as far as I know). I list my influences for each gear on the review page for that piece of equipment as well as in my Hall of Honor. But if you look on the pages I reference, often they have another influence on their design. And most likely their influence has gotten their idea from someone else. Heck, in my humble opinion there probably isn't an original idea out there anymore when it comes to gear building. I personally like it if I see a piece of gear out there that has been mutated from one of my designs, but I would hope if it is a mutated piece of gear - that the new design has a slightly different name like Lil' Frisky's Mesh Rucksack or something.

Listed below are the different items I have made. There isn't a link for the instructions to each yet, but I will get them up as I make out the instructions.

Stoves/Mess Gear:
	Esbit Stove
	SGT Rock's Wood Stove
	Soda Can Stove
	Cat Stove
	V8 Stove
	Pot Cozy
	Lemonade Bowl/Cup

Backpacks:
	SGT Rock's Ruck