Once you said, the needle was pointing in the wrong direction, that was the end of it as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't matter from then on. Thanks for the information.
Interesting that at 10.53 the 2 more expensive compasses appear to be pointing in slightly different angles, might just be the camera angle, but over time the magnetism can change. Heating and cooling, knocks and bumps. Which is why navigational compasses on ships have large compensator blocks and are able to be calibrated. Always worth checking your compass for accuracy every once in a while. Thank you for another entertaining and informative video.
It beggars belief how a magnetised needle can point anywhere other than magnetic north. One of mine somehow got reversed, and was 180 degrees out until I stroked it with a magnet. But to have an approximately 10 degree error is probably too much friction for the weakly magnetised needle. Ive got a stainless steel cased pocket watch style compass that Ive had for 50yrs that reads about 5 degrees out, but I’m putting that down to either the case being not totally non magnetic stainless steel, or perhaps steel in the hinge. I didn’t realise I was a compass enthusiast or collector until I stumbled upon this channel haha.
The person doing the navigation with a chap I knew had put his compass in the same pocket as his phone. Can't remember all the details but it was reading off.
The Bash-o-meter! It doesn't slice, it doesn't dice, but it bashes cheap compasses to bits! Precisely calibrated with a Rock Density Calculator! Get yours now! :) BTW, in the USA, a garden is typically one of two types: for growing vegetables, or ornamental. I always have to remember when listening to someone from the UK that they mean yard. It's like pants. Here it means trousers, there it means underwear. I do like the UK spelling of colour and humour which spellcheck here does not like! My theory of buying gear is like buying my woodworking tools. Buy once, cry once. Get the very best you can afford and you usually only have to buy them once. Barring stuff that does wear out. Love your channel!
As I've always had a reliable compass, if I do buy a new one, I test the accuracy against my 'master' compass before going out with it. My favorite is my dad's prismatic army compass he used in WW2, but it was originally issued in 1917 - !
You’ve definitely got the right approach. But cheap compasses work, magnetically, exactly as well as expensive ones. Where the quality differences are, is in the measurement markings in my opinion. After all, in a pinch, a magnetized needle floating on a leaf can save your bacon.
A friend of mine always says that if you 'buy cheap, you buy twice, once to buy the item and then again to replace it with something that works correctly'
Small problem with that wisdom. Often times the cheep one works better because the expensive one is just paying for a brand name. Research everything every time.
@@MeepChangeling And a lot of times the cheap one falls to bits after a short while (case in point as demonstrated in the video) or loses it's efficiency. Having said that, I understand what you mean though you don't have to go out & buy an all singing, all dancing model, just get something that's reasonable. The one thing about getting a branded name model is a lot of times their after sales service is far better
@@MeepChangeling "Often times" Not often at all. Its cheap for a reason, the label "cheap" extends beyond just cost. And if you blindly buy expensive for a brand or because you think "expensive = good", you are just as much an idiot as the fool that buys cheap simply because it was more affordable
I used to use a prismatic compass as it was issuded to me, later as a geologist I had a Brunton compass for its climometer and so on. Now I use a Silva for navigation, it works !
AFAIK, Recta was bought by Suunto. Even the good old Recta DP-Series now comes as Suunto MB. Hence, it makes me no wonder that they sell off their stock at half price. What makes me wonder is the Chinese scrap vs. the Suunto: Both are plastic with no metal, so I am really stunned by the craftsmanship that makes a magnetized needle go off that far :-). On the other hand. in the first experiment the Suunto did not point exactly to the line, despite you said so :-). By experience, I am very skeptic about using compasses indoors, especially near electronic devices. I once managed to take pictures of a "good" compass in vicinity to my Laptop, and it led me to nirwana, when the hard disk spun up or ran. And the fluxgate compass in my wonderful outdoor wristwatch ist a running gag, because in smaller restaurants it reliably points to the kitchen :-). But assuming, your video is uncut, it remains a miracle.
@@HuplesCat I am a pilot (YES this IS an argument from authority - you might just learn something). When a compass is installed in an aircraft or routinely maintained, all electrical systems in the aircraft are turned on. The deviation caused is adjusted on the compass. All electrical circuits interfere with compasses.
Great video and explanation. Like a good, solid, reliable watch, I would not mind spending good money on a compass and a fair amount for a backup. Cheers.
Is there a way to fix a compass? I have several Silva's and Suunto's and over time they get bubbles and are expensive to replace. I tried to fix my ranger, only to make it worse. I am thinking about a Cammenga because they are not liquid-filled but much harder to use. thanks and keep the great videos coming
I was reading a small PDF I downloaded from internet about bubbles and they say anything under 6mm isn’t a problem and in fact smaller bubbles actually benefit the compass!
You do great videos, but this one should have ended after the first test. A compass that doesn’t point north by 20 degrees is dead useless and could even make you dead. Sorry. Couldn’t help saying that. Keep up the good work. ………..Oooh. Just went back and watched to the end. Bash-o-matic test shows that the cheap compass was even worse than I thought! Amazing! Good work!
I bough a compass of a brand unknown to me a few years ago. Had forgotten my silva when going hiking in the mountains so I had to buy one in the sporting store on the way there and they only had the one type. That was the only trip I actually got caught in very thick fog as the night was closing in, and that compass freaked me out. It never settled properly, it kept moving so I trusted my knowledge of the mountain more. With 10 meters visibility we walked a few kilometers on my gut feeling combined with vague directions from the compass. Ended up exactly where I hoped but it was not a comfortable situation. Gave that compass back to the store on my way home.
Great video. I have a Silva Expedition compass and two cheap ones that cost about £6 each, they're both accurate but i wouldn't trust them if they were dropped or knocked. It really does pay to get the best you can afford, finding your way when the trail gets confusing is priceless.
Love your videos. This got me thinking if you could do a video to see if it's possible to navigate with a smartphone gps compass app comparing the results to a 'proper' compass?
@@gregvanpaassen That's fine and I think I've heard that before. But don't claim a compass is on the line when it isn't. It might be within specs, but it wasn't dead on.
It is not always cheap vs expensive, often it is cheaply manufactured and shoddy vs well constructed, which is not always a matter of price. Sometimes the extra you pay is for things that you would like but are not strictly necessary. If a compass points north and you can read the bearings, it is good to go. I have a cheap plastic faux military sighting compass with Japan clearly marked on the compass card and the sticky label "Wakefields" still on the back which should indicate how old that is since Wakefields have been gone many a long year, and a nice Silva Ranger sighting compass, and do you know what, they both point in the same direction. All I can say about the cheap one is that back in the day cheap was a lot better than cheap is now.
@@redf7209 I take it out and inspect it now and then. The trouble with Silva compasses is that they all seem to develop a bubble eventually, the cheapo is just a rotating card, the only real disadvantage being that it takes a while to settle down.
Id have binned the cheap Chinese tat after test number 1. Everything that followed was irrelevant. If it can't give you an accurate bearing, it's totally useless.
I believe that the military landnav qualification runs required their trainees to take a known bearing on a landmark before the start and reject a lensmatic that was off by more than three degrees.
Actually, even a compass as far off as the one in this video *"can"* be used - just add/subtract how many degrees off it is when plotting. Personally, I'd toss it in the trash - but I could work with it in a worst case scenario. If I HAD to. lol
The other way the compass could be sold as a speculation to make money on shipping is because some of these "wholesalers" buy rejected goods that have failed quality control. Say a factory has a large batch of product that was found to be defective, they may sell it as defective to these speculators, who then on sell it to unwary "marks" ie you and me. I've noticed that one way to identify these bad operators is to look at their whole inventory and you'll see that they have wide range of completely unrelated goods, what seems to be a completely random selection of tat from a Shanghai market. They're not interested selling good products, only in buying junk that looks good enough they can fool enough people into giving them money. Coincidentally I've just bought three cheap compasses to look at: A stupidly cheap lensatic compass, a slightly more expensive copy of a Cammenga, and a variation on the mirrored baseplate design which I actually have some hope for. My feeling is that you're more likely to get something usable in a baseplate compass but having said that, my engineer brain is demanding to know what manufacturing disaster could have occurred that could produce any baseplate compass that is reading +25° off. That's just terrible.
Lol just got back from Anaconda after buying a compass and this video comes up 1st on my feed. I bought a Silva Expedition MS compass for $89(AUD) made sure model was southern hemisphere calibrated(MS)before purchasing but yeah kind of top of the range model rubber feet so can sit still when using with/on a map declination adjustment screw on the lanyard luminous direction of travel mark tip of mag needle etc so yeah should be more than adequate for the field of work I am in training for(Mining Exploration)
Also, a couple of years ago I had a very expensive fancy pair of specs, and using a prismatic compass every reading was wrong, because the steel in my specs changed the due north of the ompass !
If the needle is (somehow) off .. that's end of story. No other tests are required. But that bezel seems awful loose, if that mattered given the needle issue.
I have a Recta DT 420 G compass. The Suunto equivalent is the MT 3 G. The G stands for "Global". The can supposedly be used anywhere in the world. (Recta patented this and Suunto later bought Recta out). It has an additional benefit in that the design means that the needle does not jump around when you are walking and following a bearing. The patent has expired now so if you do decide you want one you are not restricted to Suunto and Recta. Whether those benefits are worth the extra cost is debateable They are a "nice to have" but most people seemed to survive before Recta patentted the design. On the other hand a compass that points where it is supposed to is infinitely more valuable than one which doesn't - whether or not it claims to be "global".
As Peter mentioned, a major benefit to Suunto's original Recta patent global needle is that it is very stable and settles very fast, in less than one second. This makes the compass usable and accurate while moving, even while jogging or paddling a canoe.
I picked up a Chinese ripoff version of the Silva Navigation Expedition 4, for $2. Seems to work fine and doesn't feel like it will fall apart easily. Only time will tell.
Good bash test. I have a Suunto MC-2G, which importantly for me here in Jamaica has global balance. A lot of people don't realize many compasses are balanced for the N hemisphere. You try to use them in the tropics, you have problems. Definitely not going to try bashing it, though! :-)
If the inaccuracy is reliably consistent I’d rather have one of the cheap ones than none at all but if I have the choice I’ll always go for the better model if possible…
Silva do perfectly usable starter compasses starting at £10 or so. So you can save a bit without going quite so extreme as a 1p offering and still save a little. Or you can be like me and build up a nice collection that people have dropped on the hill...
Thanks! -- now we can add "rocking" a compass to the list of British neologisms . . . (BTW, a when it's not being a flawed meter, the American "yard" is often seen with swing sets, broken automobiles, riding mowers, and bicycle ramps)😂
I though in the US a Yard was the rear garden. In the UK a Yard (in this sense) is a paved enclosed area at the back of a, normally small terraced, house. To quote George Bernard Shaw "two nations divided by a common language".
@@TheMapReadingCompany Ol' G.B. could certainly slay in the usage competition, all right! It's probably just the perspective of an educated provincial, but I suspect you're right about the American yard -- but only in certain regions. In others, the qualifiers "front" and "back" are employed when needed. The sad fact of American english is that geographically distant citizens of our fair land can have every bit as much fun understanding each other as cousins an ocean away! But YT content like yours might ultimately lead to some kind of homogeneity of speech (until the mob, needing more spice, starts calling for more Scottish brogue or musical Nepalese . . . ) Keep up the good work!
I have bought 4 x Silva Expedition 4 over the last 6 months and all now have a bubble in them. Such poor quality now. Its insane! Ive now gone for a Suunto. I cant find a Recta for sale in the Uk unfortunately thanks for this
Hi Sue, it happens to us all. Have a look at the video at the 10:54 mark and you'll see that the Suunto has a massive bubble in it. I bought that compass last year. The only way for air to get in to a compass, unless there is a leak or a crack, is due to poor quality control in the factory.
Silva of Sweden moved all compass production from Sweden to their factory in China in 2011. But then Silva closed their factory in China, where they arguably still had some control over testing and quality control, and now outsource their compasses from a third party, HANZA. Per the Silva CEO: “It feels very good to have HANZA as a partner! HANZA has guided us through the manufacturing process because it is not our core competence." Yes, you closed your Swedish factory, so you lost your core competence - manufacturing compasses.
I have a Silva Field 7 compass on which the needle is not level. I have to tilt the compass in various direction for the needle to move, otherwise it's sticking. I noticed that when I shake it harder, some tiny white residues are floating inside. It has no air bubble. The needle also turns very slowly and when I rotate the outer ring, it drags the needle with it. Kind of useless compass, very annoying.
What causes the different readings between the compasses? And if its that one compass is more magnetized, couldnt you "charge" the wrong one by running a magnet under it a couple times?
Your videos area really great. I am just trying to calibrate the effects of rail cart on the bearings if its moving. Just wondering if this can be actually achieved.
I assume the magnetic needle was trying to point northwards but there was (maybe) a problem with either the spindle or the pivot - but may be wrong as I'm not an engineer
@@TheMapReadingCompany Ahh, our conspiratorially-minded friends will read something into it. A violent resilience test might make the compass behave, and multiple tests should be run to see if the error falls in a consistent spot. If yes, send the offender south↕ I placed a tiny bar magnet into a paper cupcake and set it in water; even though it took ages to settle, I determined the north end. If not for discovering the slow NNW-NNE oscillation of my bar magnet, I would not have considered my compass purchase and its dampener quality, such as the oil's viscosity. Thanks from sunny Western Australia for taking the time to respond.
Yes you can still buy them I bought 6 last year - I was teaching a group of trainee construction site surveyors and I used the KB-14. I’m not sure they are useful for land nav but that’s OK as this is not what they are designed for. As you say they are very accurate and much cheaper than other types of surveying compasses. I bought 6 very cheap tripods from Amazon for mounting KB-14’s.
There are many different sizes of dials. Some are VERY large (e.g. TTS Large Compass). There are brail compasses (e.g. Brunton Braille Compass 16B) and even talking compasses (e.g. C2 Talking Compass). Also most mobile phones can download a large format digital compass which can be enlarged to a big as is needed.
@@TheMapReadingCompany Thank you. Just looked at the Bruntons and found the TruArc 10 which has a magnifier on the bezel. Makes those numbers a bit clearer. Thanks again.
Question. An expensive compass usually adjusts for declination. Do you want to adjust your compass for declination? Or do you leave it and do the math?
Hi, this depends on how you use your compass. If you just want to take a bearing from a map, then follow it, a compass with a semi-permanent declination adjustment may be worth the extra cost. Bit if, like me, you use your compass to go from the map to a compass and also from the ground to your map, then a semi-permanent declination adjustment is not a good idea - as you will have to reset the adjustment each time you go from the map or the ground. Have a look at these videos where I go through some of the most popular types of compass’s declination adjustment. Brunton: th-cam.com/video/aH5EzwBiVb0/w-d-xo.html Silva: th-cam.com/video/dgvWnskAfxg/w-d-xo.html Cammenga: th-cam.com/video/uzhTa-5rIEw/w-d-xo.html Suunto: th-cam.com/video/hjjAgPzKfG4/w-d-xo.html
I am teaching a class on geography next year and I plan to teach the student how to use a compass. There are about 20 kids. What is the cheapest compass I can get away with?
Hi Glen, I would try and find the best possible compass I could, for a price that I have a budget for. You could try asking REI (they seem to like a bit of PR) or don’t forget that Amazon (occasionally) do some good deals on OK equipment. In the UK I can buy 28 reasonable compass for less than £50 - but I think the postage to you would be a lot. So have a look around and don’t be afraid to contact to big players - Suunto, Silva, Brunton, etc and ask for a mega discount. PS - also don’t just look at the big brands, there are lots and lots and cheaper options available.
All compasses "do" declination. I would get a standard compass without semi-permanent adjustment. This way you can teach the kids how to do it. If, at a later stage, they decide to use a semi-permanent declination, that fine, but at least they will know how to use a compass without. It’s a bit like driving an automatic gear shift car - it’s best to learn how to drive in a manual shift first.
@@TheMapReadingCompany What I ended up doing is buying 10, $20 Silva compasses, the Starter 123 and one fancy Silva compass the Pro something at about $50.
I thought the Recta DT200 was no longer made. It is superior to the Suunto you have next to it. You can see much more substantial phospor on the needle an much more useful romers.
When you do some of you closeup on the cheap one, it looks to clearly have the reliability of a dime store toy. The pin going through the center looks like it is barely holding it together. This practice of selling something that looks good on the surface but is of inferior quality is also commonly seen in inexpensive twisty puzzles (like Rubik's Cube style puzzles) that come from factories in China. With those, however, there are actually some good products that also come from China, so a person has to become familiar with the brands.
There is a joke in the US if you want to pull someone's leg. You say that the worst compass ever made was sold by the Tate's Compass Company. They were so bad people would claim " He who has a Tate's is lost". It's a great joke for any navigation class.
One more reason not to buy such compasses. Incredibly cheap items, sold well below the cost of manufacture, are often, if not always, used to obtain your name and postal address. This information is then used for other, slightly dishonest if not illegal, purposes, such as inflating reviews, personifying customers on the web and so on.
Everything is made in China. compass, electronics my Ex Gf. all made in china.. all nonsense! but thank you for this. $20 isnt a lot of money. for a good quality compass.
Jee-Let’s hope that the Chinese Navy fitted these cheap and nasty compasses that they made on their own ships-With a bit of luck, as they all head of Taiwan they’ll get stuck on the rocks!
![Back to Orienteering School: COMPASS [Episode 1]](/img/n.gif)
The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten
About 10 mn I'd say, that's the time it takes before realizing it belongs to the bin.
I like it.
Once you said, the needle was pointing in the wrong direction, that was the end of it as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't matter from then on. Thanks for the information.
That's amazing! The cheaper compass calculates it's own declination!
Interesting that at 10.53 the 2 more expensive compasses appear to be pointing in slightly different angles, might just be the camera angle, but over time the magnetism can change. Heating and cooling, knocks and bumps. Which is why navigational compasses on ships have large compensator blocks and are able to be calibrated. Always worth checking your compass for accuracy every once in a while.
Thank you for another entertaining and informative video.
might be a wagon full of scrap iron just parked outside the house at traffic lights!
It's called a wilderness compass for a reason... that's where you end up.
😂
It beggars belief how a magnetised needle can point anywhere other than magnetic north. One of mine somehow got reversed, and was 180 degrees out until I stroked it with a magnet. But to have an approximately 10 degree error is probably too much friction for the weakly magnetised needle. Ive got a stainless steel cased pocket watch style compass that Ive had for 50yrs that reads about 5 degrees out, but I’m putting that down to either the case being not totally non magnetic stainless steel, or perhaps steel in the hinge. I didn’t realise I was a compass enthusiast or collector until I stumbled upon this channel haha.
The person doing the navigation with a chap I knew had put his compass in the same pocket as his phone. Can't remember all the details but it was reading off.
was it a southern hemisphere compass?
At 05:14 - it's amazing how the needle follows the twisting movement of the dial ! 🙂
The Bash-o-meter! It doesn't slice, it doesn't dice, but it bashes cheap compasses to bits! Precisely calibrated with a Rock Density Calculator! Get yours now! :) BTW, in the USA, a garden is typically one of two types: for growing vegetables, or ornamental. I always have to remember when listening to someone from the UK that they mean yard. It's like pants. Here it means trousers, there it means underwear. I do like the UK spelling of colour and humour which spellcheck here does not like! My theory of buying gear is like buying my woodworking tools. Buy once, cry once. Get the very best you can afford and you usually only have to buy them once. Barring stuff that does wear out. Love your channel!
As I've always had a reliable compass, if I do buy a new one, I test the accuracy against my 'master' compass before going out with it.
My favorite is my dad's prismatic army compass he used in WW2, but it was originally issued in 1917 - !
You’ve definitely got the right approach. But cheap compasses work, magnetically, exactly as well as expensive ones. Where the quality differences are, is in the measurement markings in my opinion.
After all, in a pinch, a magnetized needle floating on a leaf can save your bacon.
A friend of mine always says that if you 'buy cheap, you buy twice, once to buy the item and then again to replace it with something that works correctly'
Small problem with that wisdom. Often times the cheep one works better because the expensive one is just paying for a brand name. Research everything every time.
@@MeepChangeling And a lot of times the cheap one falls to bits after a short while (case in point as demonstrated in the video) or loses it's efficiency. Having said that, I understand what you mean though you don't have to go out & buy an all singing, all dancing model, just get something that's reasonable. The one thing about getting a branded name model is a lot of times their after sales service is far better
In Dutch we say "goedkoop is duurkoop".
@@MeepChangeling "Often times" Not often at all. Its cheap for a reason, the label "cheap" extends beyond just cost. And if you blindly buy expensive for a brand or because you think "expensive = good", you are just as much an idiot as the fool that buys cheap simply because it was more affordable
It's better economy to pay more for better quality and the Bash-O-Matic proves that.
I used to use a prismatic compass as it was issuded to me, later as a geologist I had a Brunton compass for its climometer and so on. Now I use a Silva for navigation, it works !
AFAIK, Recta was bought by Suunto. Even the good old Recta DP-Series now comes as Suunto MB. Hence, it makes me no wonder that they sell off their stock at half price. What makes me wonder is the Chinese scrap vs. the Suunto: Both are plastic with no metal, so I am really stunned by the craftsmanship that makes a magnetized needle go off that far :-). On the other hand. in the first experiment the Suunto did not point exactly to the line, despite you said so :-). By experience, I am very skeptic about using compasses indoors, especially near electronic devices. I once managed to take pictures of a "good" compass in vicinity to my Laptop, and it led me to nirwana, when the hard disk spun up or ran. And the fluxgate compass in my wonderful outdoor wristwatch ist a running gag, because in smaller restaurants it reliably points to the kitchen :-). But assuming, your video is uncut, it remains a miracle.
The electrical wiring in his house, computer and other electrical devices will all influence a compass.
@@mtkoslowskithe others shown first were bang on
@@HuplesCat
I am a pilot (YES this IS an argument from authority - you might just learn something). When a compass is installed in an aircraft or routinely maintained, all electrical systems in the aircraft are turned on. The deviation caused is adjusted on the compass.
All electrical circuits interfere with compasses.
@@mtkoslowski thanks. Your ego interrupted your critical thinking skills in this case.
@@HuplesCat
Play with your cat.
Good advice Wayne, nice presentation, bash O' matic
Great video and explanation. Like a good, solid, reliable watch, I would not mind spending good money on a compass and a fair amount for a backup. Cheers.
The Silva at 4:14 looked a bit adrift too from the line - by a couple of degrees or so.
Is there a way to fix a compass? I have several Silva's and Suunto's and over time they get bubbles and are expensive to replace. I tried to fix my ranger, only to make it worse. I am thinking about a Cammenga because they are not liquid-filled but much harder to use. thanks and keep the great videos coming
Not that I know of. Maybe someone else will know. I tend to throw away compasses with bubbles in them.
I was reading a small PDF I downloaded from internet about bubbles and they say anything under 6mm isn’t a problem and in fact smaller bubbles actually benefit the compass!
You do great videos, but this one should have ended after the first test. A compass that doesn’t point north by 20 degrees is dead useless and could even make you dead. Sorry. Couldn’t help saying that. Keep up the good work. ………..Oooh. Just went back and watched to the end. Bash-o-matic test shows that the cheap compass was even worse than I thought! Amazing! Good work!
I bough a compass of a brand unknown to me a few years ago. Had forgotten my silva when going hiking in the mountains so I had to buy one in the sporting store on the way there and they only had the one type. That was the only trip I actually got caught in very thick fog as the night was closing in, and that compass freaked me out. It never settled properly, it kept moving so I trusted my knowledge of the mountain more. With 10 meters visibility we walked a few kilometers on my gut feeling combined with vague directions from the compass. Ended up exactly where I hoped but it was not a comfortable situation. Gave that compass back to the store on my way home.
Great video. I have a Silva Expedition compass and two cheap ones that cost about £6 each, they're both accurate but i wouldn't trust them if they were dropped or knocked.
It really does pay to get the best you can afford, finding your way when the trail gets confusing is priceless.
Love your videos. This got me thinking if you could do a video to see if it's possible to navigate with a smartphone gps compass app comparing the results to a 'proper' compass?
The Silva looked off to me. It wasn't off as badly as the cheapy compass, but it didn't look to be squared up with the line either.
Silva quotes plus or minus three degrees for their cheap compasses. Pay over two hundred quid and you can get down to half a degree tolerance
@@gregvanpaassen That's fine and I think I've heard that before. But don't claim a compass is on the line when it isn't. It might be within specs, but it wasn't dead on.
As it would at that angle ,through the Perspex..on a video...🙄.
It is not always cheap vs expensive, often it is cheaply manufactured and shoddy vs well constructed, which is not always a matter of price. Sometimes the extra you pay is for things that you would like but are not strictly necessary. If a compass points north and you can read the bearings, it is good to go. I have a cheap plastic faux military sighting compass with Japan clearly marked on the compass card and the sticky label "Wakefields" still on the back which should indicate how old that is since Wakefields have been gone many a long year, and a nice Silva Ranger sighting compass, and do you know what, they both point in the same direction. All I can say about the cheap one is that back in the day cheap was a lot better than cheap is now.
Extra cost is usually for inspection and testing
@@redf7209 I take it out and inspect it now and then. The trouble with Silva compasses is that they all seem to develop a bubble eventually, the cheapo is just a rotating card, the only real disadvantage being that it takes a while to settle down.
@@inregionecaecorum just discovered one of my silvas has a needle that just loosely moves with the compass direction
@@redf7209 No, it's usually for padding a corpo's wallet. Don't pay a lot, don't pay a little.
Id have binned the cheap Chinese tat after test number 1.
Everything that followed was irrelevant.
If it can't give you an accurate bearing, it's totally useless.
I believe that the military landnav qualification runs required their trainees to take a known bearing on a landmark before the start and reject a lensmatic that was off by more than three degrees.
Actually, even a compass as far off as the one in this video *"can"* be used - just add/subtract how many degrees off it is when plotting.
Personally, I'd toss it in the trash - but I could work with it in a worst case scenario.
If I HAD to. lol
Great video thanks, I love using a well made compass especially if it’s made fairly locally.
I finally understand why the semi-spherical compass on my uncle's boat, that he built in the UK, was on a weird dip/incline when he arrived in NZ.
Enjoyable as always. Thanks
I love the bash-o-matic! And as Ben Franklin once said -- it's better to be cheated in the price than in the goods!
The other way the compass could be sold as a speculation to make money on shipping is because some of these "wholesalers" buy rejected goods that have failed quality control. Say a factory has a large batch of product that was found to be defective, they may sell it as defective to these speculators, who then on sell it to unwary "marks" ie you and me.
I've noticed that one way to identify these bad operators is to look at their whole inventory and you'll see that they have wide range of completely unrelated goods, what seems to be a completely random selection of tat from a Shanghai market. They're not interested selling good products, only in buying junk that looks good enough they can fool enough people into giving them money.
Coincidentally I've just bought three cheap compasses to look at: A stupidly cheap lensatic compass, a slightly more expensive copy of a Cammenga, and a variation on the mirrored baseplate design which I actually have some hope for. My feeling is that you're more likely to get something usable in a baseplate compass but having said that, my engineer brain is demanding to know what manufacturing disaster could have occurred that could produce any baseplate compass that is reading +25° off. That's just terrible.
Great job, really looks cool
I love the Bash-O-Matic, but I am NOT putting my Brunton in that bag lol
Lol just got back from Anaconda after buying a compass and this video comes up 1st on my feed.
I bought a Silva Expedition MS compass for $89(AUD) made sure model was southern hemisphere calibrated(MS)before purchasing but yeah kind of top of the range model rubber feet so can sit still when using with/on a map declination adjustment screw on the lanyard luminous direction of travel mark tip of mag needle etc so yeah should be more than adequate for the field of work I am in training for(Mining Exploration)
Also, a couple of years ago I had a very expensive fancy pair of specs, and using a prismatic compass every reading was wrong, because the steel in my specs changed the due north of the ompass !
I had a Silva compass and used it in the army. It lasted one field training exercise. I’ll stick to my Army issued compass for serious navigation.
If the needle is (somehow) off .. that's end of story. No other tests are required.
But that bezel seems awful loose, if that mattered given the needle issue.
I have a Recta DT 420 G compass. The Suunto equivalent is the MT 3 G.
The G stands for "Global". The can supposedly be used anywhere in the world. (Recta patented this and Suunto later bought Recta out). It has an additional benefit in that the design means that the needle does not jump around when you are walking and following a bearing.
The patent has expired now so if you do decide you want one you are not restricted to Suunto and Recta.
Whether those benefits are worth the extra cost is debateable They are a "nice to have" but most people seemed to survive before Recta patentted the design.
On the other hand a compass that points where it is supposed to is infinitely more valuable than one which doesn't - whether or not it claims to be "global".
As Peter mentioned, a major benefit to Suunto's original Recta patent global needle is that it is very stable and settles very fast, in less than one second. This makes the compass usable and accurate while moving, even while jogging or paddling a canoe.
As a former ScoutMaster I have seen gear get handle roughly and I fully endorse your testing method! Did the base break? That would be bad. Very bad.
I picked up a Chinese ripoff version of the Silva Navigation Expedition 4, for $2. Seems to work fine and doesn't feel like it will fall apart easily. Only time will tell.
This proves the point.....you pay peanuts you get monkeys. Excellent video Wayne. I've watched almost all of your videos cheers mate😂
Good bash test. I have a Suunto MC-2G, which importantly for me here in Jamaica has global balance. A lot of people don't realize many compasses are balanced for the N hemisphere. You try to use them in the tropics, you have problems. Definitely not going to try bashing it, though! :-)
The Compass Bash-O-Matic will be on sale worldwide very soon 😅
@@TheMapReadingCompany I might pass on that :-)
Silva or Sunnto for me every time - ! 😊
please make video on brunton truarc 15 its unique complicated compass hard to wrap head around it
Thank you
If the inaccuracy is reliably consistent I’d rather have one of the cheap ones than none at all but if I have the choice I’ll always go for the better model if possible…
Brilliant, as always.
Loved your video on this. There's a saying buy once cry once.
Buy cheap, buy twice.
@@mtkoslowski LOL, so true
Silva do perfectly usable starter compasses starting at £10 or so. So you can save a bit without going quite so extreme as a 1p offering and still save a little. Or you can be like me and build up a nice collection that people have dropped on the hill...
Thanks! -- now we can add "rocking" a compass to the list of British neologisms . . . (BTW, a when it's not being a flawed meter, the American "yard" is often seen with swing sets, broken automobiles, riding mowers, and bicycle ramps)😂
I though in the US a Yard was the rear garden. In the UK a Yard (in this sense) is a paved enclosed area at the back of a, normally small terraced, house.
To quote George Bernard Shaw "two nations divided by a common language".
@@TheMapReadingCompany Ol' G.B. could certainly slay in the usage competition, all right! It's probably just the perspective of an educated provincial, but I suspect you're right about the American yard -- but only in certain regions. In others, the qualifiers "front" and "back" are employed when needed. The sad fact of American english is that geographically distant citizens of our fair land can have every bit as much fun understanding each other as cousins an ocean away! But YT content like yours might ultimately lead to some kind of homogeneity of speech (until the mob, needing more spice, starts calling for more Scottish brogue or musical Nepalese . . . ) Keep up the good work!
This cheap is perfectly compensated declination for use it in middle of south America
I have bought 4 x Silva Expedition 4 over the last 6 months and all now have a bubble in them. Such poor quality now. Its insane! Ive now gone for a Suunto. I cant find a Recta for sale in the Uk unfortunately thanks for this
Hi Sue, it happens to us all. Have a look at the video at the 10:54 mark and you'll see that the Suunto has a massive bubble in it. I bought that compass last year. The only way for air to get in to a compass, unless there is a leak or a crack, is due to poor quality control in the factory.
@@TheMapReadingCompany and I think that says it all. Not sure I would buy another after these 4 have all gone the same way.
Have a look at this video th-cam.com/video/y2VtT1LdqkY/w-d-xo.html
at the 2:53 mark
Silva of Sweden moved all compass production from Sweden to their factory in China in 2011. But then Silva closed their factory in China, where they arguably still had some control over testing and quality control, and now outsource their compasses from a third party, HANZA. Per the Silva CEO: “It feels very good to have HANZA as a partner! HANZA has guided us through the manufacturing process because it is not our core competence."
Yes, you closed your Swedish factory, so you lost your core competence - manufacturing compasses.
I have a Silva Field 7 compass on which the needle is not level. I have to tilt the compass in various direction for the needle to move, otherwise it's sticking.
I noticed that when I shake it harder, some tiny white residues are floating inside. It has no air bubble. The needle also turns very slowly and when I rotate the outer ring, it drags the needle with it. Kind of useless compass, very annoying.
The Silva Field 7 compass is not really long enough to use efficiently with a map. You may want to look at getting a different compass.
What causes the different readings between the compasses? And if its that one compass is more magnetized, couldnt you "charge" the wrong one by running a magnet under it a couple times?
I bought my Silva expedition in 1985 .......still going strong , unlike my legs
Your videos area really great. I am just trying to calibrate the effects of rail cart on the bearings if its moving. Just wondering if this can be actually achieved.
PS I have a tiny Silva base plate compass I bought in 1984, and its accurate today
how can they manufacture a compass that does not point north. Would you get the same problem with a loose magnet
I assume the magnetic needle was trying to point northwards but there was (maybe) a problem with either the spindle or the pivot - but may be wrong as I'm not an engineer
@@TheMapReadingCompany
Ahh, our conspiratorially-minded friends will read something into it.
A violent resilience test might make the compass behave, and multiple tests should be run to see if the error falls in a consistent spot. If yes, send the offender south↕
I placed a tiny bar magnet into a paper cupcake and set it in water; even though it took ages to settle, I determined the north end.
If not for discovering the slow NNW-NNE oscillation of my bar magnet, I would not have considered my compass purchase and its dampener quality, such as the oil's viscosity.
Thanks from sunny Western Australia for taking the time to respond.
One of the most accurate compassesmade is the Suunto KB-14 -expensive, no frills, but extreme accuracy - probably no longer made or sold.
Yes you can still buy them I bought 6 last year - I was teaching a group of trainee construction site surveyors and I used the KB-14. I’m not sure they are useful for land nav but that’s OK as this is not what they are designed for. As you say they are very accurate and much cheaper than other types of surveying compasses. I bought 6 very cheap tripods from Amazon for mounting KB-14’s.
Hi. Is there a compass with a bigger dial please? Something a bit easier to read with poor eyesight.
There are many different sizes of dials. Some are VERY large (e.g. TTS Large Compass). There are brail compasses (e.g. Brunton Braille Compass 16B) and even talking compasses (e.g. C2 Talking Compass).
Also most mobile phones can download a large format digital compass which can be enlarged to a big as is needed.
@@TheMapReadingCompany Thank you. Just looked at the Bruntons and found the TruArc 10 which has a magnifier on the bezel. Makes those numbers a bit clearer. Thanks again.
Question. An expensive compass usually adjusts for declination. Do you want to adjust your compass for declination? Or do you leave it and do the math?
Hi, this depends on how you use your compass. If you just want to take a bearing from a map, then follow it, a compass with a semi-permanent declination adjustment may be worth the extra cost. Bit if, like me, you use your compass to go from the map to a compass and also from the ground to your map, then a semi-permanent declination adjustment is not a good idea - as you will have to reset the adjustment each time you go from the map or the ground.
Have a look at these videos where I go through some of the most popular types of compass’s declination adjustment.
Brunton: th-cam.com/video/aH5EzwBiVb0/w-d-xo.html
Silva: th-cam.com/video/dgvWnskAfxg/w-d-xo.html
Cammenga: th-cam.com/video/uzhTa-5rIEw/w-d-xo.html
Suunto: th-cam.com/video/hjjAgPzKfG4/w-d-xo.html
Will it point to North in any given country??
When you started, I thought the 18 quid one was the cheap one… as there surely are compasses costing more than double that, right?
Do you want to go home or do you want to get lost? In snow. In rain.
Clearly your one penny compass has not been magnetized properly.
Edit: also the balance fulcrum and needle bearing could be lousy.
The string is still useful and worth a penny. A Silva Ranger 3 is the best you can buy. Be honest and fair.
I am teaching a class on geography next year and I plan to teach the student how to use a compass. There are about 20 kids. What is the cheapest compass I can get away with?
Hi Glen, I would try and find the best possible compass I could, for a price that I have a budget for.
You could try asking REI (they seem to like a bit of PR) or don’t forget that Amazon (occasionally) do some good deals on OK equipment.
In the UK I can buy 28 reasonable compass for less than £50 - but I think the postage to you would be a lot. So have a look around and don’t be afraid to contact to big players - Suunto, Silva, Brunton, etc and ask for a mega discount.
PS - also don’t just look at the big brands, there are lots and lots and cheaper options available.
@@TheMapReadingCompany Do you think I need a compass for the kids that does declaration?
All compasses "do" declination. I would get a standard compass without semi-permanent adjustment. This way you can teach the kids how to do it. If, at a later stage, they decide to use a semi-permanent declination, that fine, but at least they will know how to use a compass without. It’s a bit like driving an automatic gear shift car - it’s best to learn how to drive in a manual shift first.
@@TheMapReadingCompany What I ended up doing is buying 10, $20 Silva compasses, the Starter 123 and one fancy Silva compass the Pro something at about $50.
That was great 👍 & chuckly 😅
I thought the Recta DT200 was no longer made. It is superior to the Suunto you have next to it. You can see much more substantial phospor on the needle an much more useful romers.
some might find the silva compass expensive,that ones reasonably cheap compared to the one used by the mlitary .
Magnification on that dearest one probably adds to the cost a bit
The more expensive compasses typically come with a jewelled bearing.
@LouiseBrooksBob: Yes, usually sapphire.
The one penny compass would be good for a teacher to purchase for the 30 students in the class 🤣
To teach them what? Critical race theory?
When you do some of you closeup on the cheap one, it looks to clearly have the reliability of a dime store toy. The pin going through the center looks like it is barely holding it together. This practice of selling something that looks good on the surface but is of inferior quality is also commonly seen in inexpensive twisty puzzles (like Rubik's Cube style puzzles) that come from factories in China. With those, however, there are actually some good products that also come from China, so a person has to become familiar with the brands.
Craftsman, an American icon, now made in China. Suunto, made in Finland but owned by China. It’s the way of world I suppose.
Maybe the penny compass automatically corrects for declination 😂😂😂
There is a joke in the US if you want to pull someone's leg. You say that the worst compass ever made was sold by the Tate's Compass Company. They were so bad people would claim " He who has a Tate's is lost". It's a great joke for any navigation class.
where can I buy these calibrated rocks 😂
Eh, being 20% degrees off isn't bad, right?
If your life might depend on it, do not go cheap.
'Nuff said.
Also don't go expensive. 90% of the time the +70 you paid over a mid-priced version of the thing just went right into a corpo's wallet.
You can buy a cheap compass - let's say 5-10 times cheaper than the expensive one - which will work pretty well, but it just won't be the cheapest.
I have to try that markup stuff. Mine always looked more like ransom notes written by a kindergartner.
it is the old saying: you buy what you pay for!
@Nick.Romanidis: As they say "up North"......"you don't get owt for nowt".
One more reason not to buy such compasses.
Incredibly cheap items, sold well below the cost of manufacture, are often, if not always, used to obtain your name and postal address. This information is then used for other, slightly dishonest if not illegal, purposes, such as inflating reviews, personifying customers on the web and so on.
Suunto is finnish company.
Suunto is owned by Chinese company Liesheng, who bought the company from Amer Sports, which is part of Anta Sports, which is another Chinese company.
👍
My first thought; magnetic compasses beside a computer and very close to a mouse !!.....
No matter what you buy, always buy the best that you can reasonably afford. Buying cheaply is always a false economy.
I was lost but now I am found.
Thanks,
Don't get hung up on the cost of the compass. $20 is not much. Think about the value of your life.
Everything is made in China. compass, electronics my Ex Gf. all made in china.. all nonsense! but thank you for this. $20 isnt a lot of money. for a good quality compass.
That compass is shockingly bad
How can it not point to magnetic North?
18 pounds i thought that was gonna be the cheap compass
You paid one pence that? You got screwed brother....
The needle on my Suunto mc 2-g compass sticks, $140 worthless pos.
Makes my blood boil..
Jee-Let’s hope that the Chinese Navy fitted these cheap and nasty compasses that they made on their own ships-With a bit of luck, as they all head of Taiwan they’ll get stuck on the rocks!
Yikes! Chineseum fails again.