Instructions

How to prepare for difficult times

War has struck so close now that many people are worried and want to do something. For the sake of your wellbeing, don't spend too much time guessing what world leaders are going to do. Instead, focus on things you can do while you are not under pressure. Here are a few preparation tips that may prove useful in many kinds of crises like a natural catastrophe, martial law, or war.

Winter hiking tips

Especially here in the north winter takes up most of the year, which means snow and cold are a big part of life outdoors. This is why we asked our best bushcraft warriors to teach the rest of us about the secrets of winter camping! We gained such valuable knowledge that we wanted to share it with you as well. The boot camp was divided into three stages: camping and sleeping, clothing, and nutrition. So, let’s look at what we learned and what we should all take into consideration on our wintry outdoor excursions.

How to Not Suck with Socks

Have people lost the basic skill of using socks properly? Or could it be that knowledge has increased and people were too hardy to complain about blisters before? Either way, taking care of your feet has an important role in covering distances successfully by foot, hence an entire article about socks. Will you find new tidbits of useful information or points of great disagreement? Let's find out!

Using a Tarp as Shelter

Ah, the tarp: the versatile sleeping quarters and shelter of any bushcraft-minded camper, trekker, or hiker.

Introduction to weaponlights

This article talks about the selection, mounting, and use of weaponlights. If you have been thinking about getting some light for your gun, start here.

Making your zippers smarter and quieter

Are you miffed by noisy zipper pulls? In certain use, so are we. That’s why we made this compact article on how to make practical and silent pulls with your own little hands.

Road-tripping

Thanks to a certain global pandemic, domestic traveling has gotten quite popular. In this article, we’ll talk about the joys of traveling by car and introduce three very different road trippers. Hop in!

How to choose, adjust, and pack your backpack

In this article, we give you the essential tips on how to choose, adjust, and pack your backpack. It’s no rocket science but there are a few pointers that are good to know.

Assembling a Plate Carrier - a Tetris exercise with PALS pouches

Plate Carriers are one of many options to form the base of your modular combat gear. This article covers short reasoning why to choose a plate carrier, which pouches are most advisable, and how to place them.

How to Protect Yourself from Ticks?

The most dangerous animal in Finland is the bastard know as the tick but even if you have zombie dragons in your neck of the woods, these small pricks are quite a nuisance anyway. But don’t let them control your life. You can go hiking, hunting, and fishing to your heart’s delight as long as you do it smartly. In this article, you can find a few tips for neutralizing the tick threat.

Combat first aid kit placement on your gear

There are many dangers and potential hazards on the battlefields and without a good first aid kit you will die, so you should carry the right stuff among your combat gear. But what to carry and where? Let’s find out!

Do-It-Yourself: Webbing Suspenders

Here's some reading for those who can't afford ready-made products and have no imagination to help themselves. Umm... That doesn't sound good but anyways, maybe someone will enjoy this.

Gear Selection for Practical Shooting in Winter

There is plenty of cold and snow in Finland when this article was written, and it is fantastic for us practical shooters. Even though the shooting season is usually more commonly associated with summer, you should still get everything you can out of winter training and test your performance in more demanding surroundings. This kind of training is also useful for our Brutality matches.

The basics of snow camouflage

When writing this article, we have the ideal winter season here in Finland and many other countries in the northern hemisphere, and luckily the climate change hasn’t yet killed the chances of having snow. We wanted to give you a compact guide on what to take into account in your camouflage when snow covers the landscape and how to get everything out of the top Finnish design, M05 Snow camo.

The definitive guide to layered clothing and then some

On avoiding hypothermia, heat paralysis, and everything in between.

Three lines of gear placement - right gear in the right place

In layered clothing, each layer has a specific role to play. A very similar model can be applied to other gear, too. Different countries use different terms to describe this but the concept is a similar three-layer model. In Finnish, these layers are called circles but elsewhere they are often referred to as lines. In this article, we go through the basic principles of this kind of thinking and give a few examples of how to use the concept in military and civilian applications.

Getting Into Practical Shooting - A Simple Guide

Due to the publicity of the Brutality series of shooting matches by Varusteleka and InRangeTV, many people have asked how to get into this kind of shooting sports: dynamic, practical, action... you get the idea. Here's an overview of how to get started, what to consider when buying things, and make your life easier. In the scope of this article, the various disciplines are treated pretty roughly as one big lump instead of going into specifics of this or that part of any given rulebook.

Freedom to Roam in Finland

In Finland we have this thing called "Everyman's Rights". In a nutshell, it means that nature is for everyone to access and enjoy. While these rights are not laid out in the law, certain things are specifically allowed based on our age-old customs.

March or Die! A Basic Guide to Military-Style Movement on Foot

Loaded marching is a major part of soldier skills. Everyone who served should have memories of marches, healed by time. It sucked back then but afterwards all those klicks are warmly remembered.

Rantala's Orders: Perfect gear list for your adventures

Finland is the hottest travel destination in the world! This is already known by international Instagram celebrities, Bollywood stars, and top athletes (or they at least knew it before this pandemic). Soon also the Finns will understand how beautiful their home country really is…

The washing and caring of wool clothes

When used and cared for correctly, wool is a long-lasting material. It does have certain requirements to maintain its properties and long service life. Pressure and abrasion are not good for wool - they don't make those elbow reinforcements just for show. Table edges are natural enemies of shirts made of wool.

Psst, wanna buy a used sleeping bag?

New good quality sleeping bags cost a lot. Used military surplus sleeping bags cost relatively very little, but there's a few things you'll need to know. Let's go through these a bit, but first, we'll explain the playing field, in other words, what you can expect from a bag bought from us.

Cooking with Skrama

Skrama is one sharp piece of metal and the flagship of our Terävä brand. While some might think that it's not optimal for cooking, and they might be right, we wanted to try it out. If you're brave enough, you might do the same and share your results with #cookingwithskrama hashtag!

A simple list of outdoor apparel you should own

This article aims to be a simple guide to outdoors(wo)man's wardrobe, so he or she will have means to stay comfortable in most weather types. All of the items here can be found at Varusteleka of course, but you might already own some garments that fill the purpose or think you can find better deals somewhere else. There's a lot of links to different categories of our web pages in this article, and you don't have to open them all as a reflex. They just direct you straight to the appropriate product groups.

Sleeping bag size selection guide

The woes of fitting a sleeping bag online We're often asked about sleeping bag sizing. Especially large persons struggle to find a big enough sleeping bag, but an oversized bag means unnecessary weight and reduced warmth for a slender person.

Varusteleka's brands 12 month warranty

On top of our regular 100 day returns policy all our Särmä, Särmä TST, Terävä and Jämä products have a 12 month warranty against defects in materials and workmanship. The 12 month period stars on the day the customer receives the product.

Särmä TST backpack use as daypack lids

Särmä TST day/combat packs are designed to enable attachment onto the Särmä TST RP80 recon pack for use as daypack lids. In this tutorial we present two ways to manufacture the necessary adapter straps, using a Särmä TST DP10 Roll-Top daypack as example. The same basic idea and adapters will also function with numerous other daypacks and rucksacks, feel free to experiment!

Layered clothing

This article is written from a Finnish viewpoint based on the Nordic climate. And since we are utterly commercial the clothing presented is based on Varusteleka's selection.

Särmä TST RP80 recon pack assembly and adjustment

The pictured RP80 is an early production piece, some details such as buckles and has changed since then but the assembly is done exactly as described in this tutorial.

Washing textiles

Washing clothes and other textiles sometimes raises questions. We try to give care advice on each product page the best we can, but a separate article still defends its place for spreading knowledge on the subject.

Shemagh-how-to

A guide to wrapping a Shemagh-scarf around the head Shemagh-scarf is a convertible piece of gear. Unlike your everyday neck-warmer, it serves as a balaclava, or even as a makeshift backpack if it comes to it... Keeping it to headgear: this scarf offers protection against wind, sand, and snow as well as against extreme colds AND extreme heat. This might come in handy if you leave your cap somewhere during winter but still have your scarf.

The Care for Your Shoes and Boots Explained

Proper shoe care is vitally necessary to prolong the service life of your boots or shoes. This article covers how to take care of footwear sold by us, and generally army and outdoor boots. Fancy dancing shoes and fashion items are not included, to keep it as simple and short as possible.

Paracord bracelet DIY instructions

Be ready for the situation where you might suddenly need a short length of string, line, or cord - for example, pitching a tent or to replace a snapped shoelace - by wearing a paracord bracelet. By following these instructions you will get a paracord bracelet, so you'll have a 3-meter / 10-foot piece of paracord always with you. No extra parts such as buckles are necessary.