The Kjortel -- an ancient but super-functional garment

Description

The Kjortel is an ancient piece of clothing that is highly functional for survivalists, bushcrafters, and adventurers. I forgot to mention that the "skirt" can be used as an improvised gathering basket.

If you're interested in purchasing one, mine came from www.urda.se. If purchasing from them, note that the tunic and the hood are sold separately. Note that this was a gift, so I am not exactly sure about sizes, etc., but here is the link to the hoods: http://www.urda.se/medeltida-klader/vikingatida-medeltida-klader/struthatta-och-vikingahuvor.html

And here is the link to the tunics -- note that they sell them in linen and wool. For some reason I couldn't find my green color in wool, but if you write to them I'm sure they can help you out: http://www.urda.se/medeltida-klader/vikingatida-medeltida-klader/medeltida-kjortlar-o-vapenrockar.html

I also searched on Etsy.com but could only find a few wool tunics -- most were linen. Still, it's worth searching. Of course, one could also make their own!

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Tags: Kenton Whitman,ReWild University,Human Rewilding,personal rewilding,mindfulness,how to,bushcraft,survival,wilderness survival skills,how to survive in the woods,kjortel

Video Transcription

as many of you probably know I'm a fan of low gear no gear or old-fashioned gear today I'd like to talk about a piece of equipment clothing actually but when I first heard about it I was a bit skeptical but I have come to really use this as my main outer shell of clothing during the late fall in a lot of the winter months

this is called a I don't know how to pronounce it exactly so I'll write it right over here Cureton is the way I pronounce it or tunic this hearkens I think back from medieval times and it's an ancient garment and today I'm going to show you why it is so functional and why you might consider getting one for yourself first I want to explain where this came from as many of you probably know I was quite skeptical about starting a YouTube channel but it has allowed me to connect with people all over the world and to form some amazing friendships one of the most enduring of these friendships is with gentlemen from across the seas that we just started writing back and forth after he first wrote to me and he shared everything from the music that he creates to photographs of of his outdoor adventures one day he said Kenton I'm gonna send you this and he uses this all the time and he does a lot of outdoor exploration and adventures if you're gonna consider purchasing one of these consider getting one from someone who makes it by hand this is made by wall made of wool it's made by hand this is the web address of the people that make it another place you could look would be at sea for instance and you might be able to find one of these for sale you're gonna get one get one people often make these sorts of things out of other materials nothing's gonna function like well the reason I was skeptical the first is that it comes way down the body you know almost like a dress and I was worried about it

disrupting my ability to move to the woods because I like to do a lot of parkour II stuff climbing trees moving through my environment I was worried it might hold me back it hasn't it's proven to be very versatile as far as movement having this little skirt on it makes a big difference when we're trying to conserve one here's the thing today it's about 34 36 degrees out and everything's wet right all the snow is kind of damp in a way and we might be really good you might have a great squat then you can work around the campfire you're gonna be just fine but a lot of us we can't hold that squat for very long and then at some point our butts gonna hit the ground and a lot of times that means that my pants are getting wet you probably know about conduction it's one of the biggest heat loss scenarios that we're gonna encounter out in the woods so when I do sit down and here I'm sitting down essentially on a wool blanket and still not perfect it can get wet like anything else but it's it's off of my pants and so not getting that wet right up against my skin the other thing this does heat wise is that we know that there's a lot of heat around our groin area coming up the main arteries that come up through the legs and so this is all protected and the heat comes up and Rises into your torso by having this cell again this little screw basically it comes down around it the mantle has a hood so if it's the colder day he has a really deep hood I can bury myself in it in the back I'm not exactly sure what this is for but here's what I use it for really cold day I can wrap it around tuck it in and then this is really keeping my warmth in through here I can still see straight at least and not too bad as far as condensation from wearing something that goes right up against my nose in my mouth then I tend to get more you know that condenses if you're out in the cold cold but this allows my breath to go out but still keeps kind of a bubble of warmth around the face finally I've spoken about this before what we wear it's a reason military will have very specific clothing that people wear religious groups clothing what we wear as a power on our mind so for me at least when I put this on it takes me back to a simpler time before our cell phones and internet and all the other things of our world it's a little bit easier for me to tune in to my environment when I'm wearing something that harkens me back to pre-industrial ages that my friends is the total again saying it incorrectly I'm sure but if you ever get a chance to try one on give it a try and this it's really become my my go-to piece of clothing for much of the year when the temperatures begin to drop

it's awesome if you've worn a tunic if you've seen somebody in Internet if you know the history of this garment please chime in share your thoughts and tell me about your experiences I'm sure we all love to hear thanks for watching talk with you soon