Anything made by man starts to fall apart even before its finished. A Ghillie Suit is no different. It gets an awful lot of help though from the end user. Crawling along uncertain ground, running through brush with branches grabbing for it all the way, and usually being stored wet and dirty. One look at a mans Ghillie Suit will tell whether hes got his heart in whatever he s doing. Whether it s hunting or paintballing or something else, he s going to put a lot of wear and tear on his suit doing it.
A lot of misled macho types believe that the suit should never be cleaned. These are the same ones that believe it has to be dragged through cow patties and such before it s ready for use. They also never wash their coffee pot. I should be promoting this behaviour since they ll be needing a new suit much sooner that way. I am not an advocate of this thinking and I would like for you to get a lot of years service from your Ghillie Suit.
The first rule is to keep it clean and dry. Cleaning a suit with the new synthetics is a breeze. I find that laying one out on the driveway and hosing it down is really effective. Use plain water, no soaps or chemicals. This works on the older suits too. The older ones just take a lot longer to dry. Dry is an absolute must. No matter how clean you think you have it, if you put it away wet, you won t recognize it when you pull it out again. Things grow in moist places. If you hang it up wet in a closet next to your wife s Sunday go to meetin clothes, you will discover another reason for keeping it clean and dry.
By the very nature of a Ghillie Suit its going to get snagged on branches and such and will most likely suffer some damage. Threads will become shredded or torn loose completely. Webbing Will break in places. Not to be concerned. You don t have to fly in your Hong Kong tailor. The threads are usually tied on with a simple overhand or a loop knot. Simply untie the damaged one and tie a new one in its place. If its the sort of suit that has thread sewn onto some material, shove your needle through the cloth, take it around the clump of thread, shove it back through the cloth and tie a knot.
If you have broken webbing, tie a piece of cord across the gap. You can only make it better. Very rarely will you find a suit damaged so badly that it has a big hole in it. In these cases, you just have more strings to tie. Of course if that doesn t appeal to you, I m always here for you. Just buy another.
Over time you may decide the colors have faded or you have moved and your new terrain is not coordinated with your suit. The thread can be bought in almost any color you like and tie it on as mentioned before. You are not confined to the thread we sell. Look around your house and find cloth in the colors you need and cut narrow strips of it and tie or sew it on. You can only make it better. Every time you go out in your Ghillie Suit look it over and see if there is a place that needs another color or maybe a little more density. If you are constantly improving it, there is no way it can deteriorate.
Happy Woodsying!
Author Resource:-
James Mizzell is a crotchity 'ol fart staying busy by working on his website: http://www.ghilliesandstuff.com. When that doesn't work, he hunt's for busy people and engages them in idle conversation.
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