You may remember that I recently mentioned a clever new flexible bail for Guyot Bottles that is made by Marion Outdoors. Marion was kind enough to provide one of his bails for review and I have good news… It is every bit as clever as it looks.
The Flexible Bail can be seen here attached to a Guyot Bottle. Click to enlarge.
Stainless steel Guyot Bottles are great gear. These bottles do way more than just carry water. They can also be a portable cooking and water purification bottle. This is because they are made of single wall stainless steel, just like a pot or pan you might have at home. They can be placed directly on or hung over a fire (after removing the lid). However, the challenge with using them in this manner is how do you handle the hot bottles.
- Simply slip the loop over the “stop” to fasten the Flexible Bail to the bottle. Click to enlarge.
That is where the Flexible Bail from Marion Outdoors comes in. It quickly and easily attaches to any stainless steel Guyot Bottle to provide an easy handle for moving it off a fire or a bail for hanging it over a fire.
The clever design allows you to use a notched stick to safely and easily move a hot bottle on and off the fire. Click to enlarge.
The Flexible Bail is made from braided steel wire so it is quite capable of standing up to the heat of a fire. When it is off the bottle it is a simple loop with a smaller loop at each end. The smaller loops are fastened around the main loop which makes a sort of sliding loop that can be fastened to the collar of the bottle. One of the smaller loops is held in place by a stop. The other smaller loop is just large enough to fit over the stop. This is what allows you to open up the bail enough to slide it onto the collar of the bottle. The installation is simple and intuitive.
This is the sliding loop that fits over the collar of the bottle. Click to enlarge.
The Flexible Bail weighs next to nothing and takes up almost no space in your pack. It folds down small enough that you probably have space for it in the same pouch that carries your water bottles. Every ounce counts when you are carry everything you need to survive for multiple days and the function of this Flexible Bail far overcomes its small weight penalty.
- The Flexible Bail easily folds down to about the same diameter as a Nalgene/Guyot bottle (it can be folded even smaller if you choose). Click to enlarge.
This Flexible Bail is so simple and so functional that this review nearly wrote itself. If you own stainless Guyot Bottles, but you don’t own one of these Flexible Bails you are missing out on the full experience of what these bottles can do. Marion Outdoors really has a winner on their hands.
The Flexible Bail is compact even when it is completely unfolded. Click to enlarge.
You can contact Marion to order your own Flexible Bail at BladeForums or on his blog, Marion Carry.
