Knife/gadget blanket

[Steinar]

Problem: Keep nice toy... gadget... necessities(!) separated and protected without adding a ton of extra weight to the total.

Added problem: All those nice EDC thingies often have odd shapes and edges.

Added problem: I'm lazy. And all thumbs.

Oh, and it would be nice if the solution was compatible with long term storage. One obvious solution is of course a furoshiki style wrap. These have the disadvantage that they're not the quickest to wrap or unwrap, at least not for me, and the require a fair bit of cloth. But, building on that basic idea, why not simple tie a piece of cord to the corner of a piece of cloth and roll it up as a lazy man's furoshiki? Then it would be quicker to (un)wrap and it would need less fabric. Bonus: Everything can be repurposed as needed.

Now for some math. Consider the figure below: A more or less rectangular thingamajig is to be wrapped in a quadratic piece of cloth. The length of the thing is 2l, the width 2w, the length of the cloth is o. We need c extra clearance to the edge of the cloth to pack it all up properly. (Refer to the figure below.)

cos(45°) = sqrt(2) / 2. This gives the distance from the center of the cloth to a corner as (l + 2(c * cos(45°)) + w) = l + c * sqrt(2) + w. This gives o = (2 * (l + c * sqrt(2) + w)) / sqrt(2). Solving for a clearance of a "metric inch" (25 mm) and the thingamajig as CyberTool L, in other words 2w = 33 mm, and 2l = 91 mm, gives us o = 137.68 mm.

So... I took a piece of cloth about that size, in this case one of my microfiber wipes for my glasses, tied a piece of cord to a corner, and wrapped up a CyberTool L to see if it all was as easy as it sounded. It was.

QED.

Hope this can be of use, or at least entertainment to somebody here.

[zoidberg]

Hope this can be of use, or at least entertainment to somebody here.

It was indeed, thank you. 

[NKlamerus]

Cool to see the math behind the problem.

But why not just sew a pocket with a drawstring at the top??

[Steinar]

Mainly because I'm lazy, but also because this is a little more flexible and becomes a tighter fit. That's useful if fumbling around without looking. A wrap takes the size of what is wrapped, a pouch does not adapt the same way.

And as I mentioned, everything here is easier to repurpose on the go than with a proper pouch.

Edit: What I was getting at above was I think it is better using wraps than pouches if you have many small, irregularly shaped things that must be kept separate going into your pack. if we are talking about a single pocket knife you are going to use often, a pouch would of course be quicker.

[zoidberg]

I often wrap up tools and knives going into a pack in a tea towel. Add item fold roll, add item fold roll etc. Works really well for me.

[TazzieRob]

I often wrap up tools and knives going into a pack in a tea towel. Add item fold roll, add item fold roll etc. Works really well for me.

Plus you have a tea towel to wipe up with if needed