All the Gear ....

Gear
This time I took a different list of equipment .
polish lavuu tent
Msr pot and wood gas stove
US army cup and canteen set
Czech army sleeping bag and summer down inner bag
Gerber knife and cold steel tomahawk
Udc candle light
folding campfire BBQ
inflatable sleeping mat
a travel solar panel

Let's start at the tent. The polish Lavuu is two canvas ponchos that button together to form a teepee tent. It's old school.
If you leave everything behind such as the poles and pegs and just take the poncho it weighs in about 3kg. a tad heavy but... it is bomb proof.
Let me explain bomb proof. This thing has not plastic parts and is made of canvas. You can light a fire inside , and I have! it will be fine. I have run aluminum air conditioning  tube out one of the arm hold and used a mini BBQ as a heater with no problems at all, try that in your silver nylon over priced garbage.
Also as simple as it is , it can be tricky to set up. I am 5,9 and if I do not get the pole height just right I can either sit up. inside comfortably and have my feet poke out the bottom or I can have my head touch the roof but the feet inside. there is a trick to the set up!
Thing is though you don't need to use a centre pole . Run a ridge line and tie off the top from the outside means you have no centre pole and lots of room, I mean lots of room.
But the biggest problem by far is it is dark and I mean dark inside! pitch black!
this means that you can quite happily sleep through the night and half way through the next morning!  All for 3kg !
I like the thing.
If I were going long term into the wild this would be the tent for me. Bicycle , motorbike this thing would be perfect. Ultralight , short term, maybe not, my light weight hammock or bivi would be the thing.
next on the list is the MSR stainless pan and lid and wood gas stove.
Again bullet proof with good points and bad points. The good points are that they fit together nicely one inside the other , both are stainless steel with no parts that can break , maybe the handle on the MSR pot but you would have to be trying !
The drawbacks; well the woodgas stove requires a fire and firewood, also it's efficiency is a problem in that it needs a lot of attention compared with a BBQ. Also try lighting a fire with wet wood and no matches. it's a skill I can assure you. ( a later trip saw the axe handle being used for tinder !)
I use the lid of the MSR as a frypan or plate, this works well. giving me a big pot and a large frypan. and being stainless steel , both could be a little lighter!
The GSI canteen and cup. This is one of those ideas that have stood the test of time. A cup fits over the bottom of a canteen and a stove fits over the bottom of the cup, add to that a lid that sits under the whole arrangement and there isn't anything I cannot do! bake muffins Mrs Jones sure no problem! bread? easy as!
The only real problem with the canteen is the amount of water , only one quart. Not enough.
As you. may have noticed so far, I use a lot of military equipment. Military equipment is cheap longlasting read bomb proof but heavy. If you intend to use this stuff everyday door a long period , this is the stuff, but you must be careful. The weight will soon add up. so only take the minimum.
So on that note. The Czech sleeping bag. what do we say about this!. It buttons together, a cotton inner sheet to a woollen blanket which all buttons to a water resistant outer , which has a metal full length zipper. Really nice to sleep in , but oh boy,  is it big!  add a down 2 season sleeping bag and you have something that is good in to the negative temperatures, I know I've been there and have the hat!
The good thing about the bag is you can wash the and swap out the individual components and it zips out into a blanket . A very versatile bit of kit Don't ask about the weight , possibly a ton or a ton and a half !.
Now we come to the sharp end of the conversation. Cutting.
A well respected outdoor person called Gear part 2
Dave Canterbury uses , in his words, the "5Cs"
Cutting
Cordage
Cover
Container
Combustion
There are other ways of remembering this but I find this the most convenient.
Cutting:
I took with me a cold steel tomahawk and a Gerber fixed blade knife and a small opinel folding knife
All were used and abused.
All came through with flying colours.
The tomahawk was used for processing wood ,making tent poles and stakes and fixing my bicycle frame , yes I hit it with the blunt side of the tomahawk untill it worked ..it's the best method.
Edge retention on all of the knife was ok , not stellar but ok , and that was in part to my lack of care.
The Gerber was and continues to be abused , smashed through logs when battening wood , cutting through food onto stone , cutting through cans to make burners. It's almost as good as the ginza steak knifes as seen on TV...
I could probably get a better edge on it but , hey it worked.
Overall, what can we say about the gear . Honestly.  It all worked and had its place in the grand scheme of things. The tent while being heavy was very warm and dark and I did sleep well ( too well sometimes ).  Would alcohol stoves worked any better ? they are quick to light but then I have to find fuel . The sleeping bag could have been a goose down high-tech wonder but then I wouldn't be able to wash the sheets though if I can keep its basic shape but get more insulation i.e warmer that would be fantastic.I will look into this.
While the tomahawk did help to fix the bicycle and cut a few tent. pegs  I wonder if I could have got away with less.
and on that note , the answer to the question did I take too much .
possibly. I could have gone with a silver nylon tarp and hammock but then the sleeping bag would have felt the strain , would a woollen blanket have helped , too heavy ?  these are questions we will only find out next time in
Okinawa.