Oil skin for hiking

[Rlgm12]

Does anyone use an oilskin while hiking or the likes?

The longer oilskins meant for horse riding I think would offer nice protection from rain and the likes. The only consideration I suppose would be weight and bulk.

For winter conditions I think it would be appropriate protection from rain and wind. Your thoughts?

[Franco]

I think you have the answer : weight and bulk.

[Strider]

Not breathable either. There is often a reason for leaving the past in the past.

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[Sammy38]

I have two Driazabone oilskin coats, I have never worn them on a walk. When they get wet you feel the cold through them and they lack a hood. I prefer my hard shell fleecy lined "Superdry " Artic coat with hood.
A quick spray with water repellent and it is better than a rain coat. Plus if I get stuck it will keep me warm. My son and I did the Queen Mary falls circuit on Monday and it was 7 deg and very foggy.
Both stayed warm and dry with the same type of coat. Well worth the money.

[nq111]

I used a no brand oil-skin driz-a-bone ripoff when I was younger and lived in Tassie. Was too cheap for anything better.

It'll keep you sort of dry, but the proper WPB shells available are much better. As mentioned, the oil-skin is heavy, bulky and cold (in large part due to the amount of condensation that builds up in time). As an example, my eVent shell (why noticeably lets the breeze through the fabric) is much warmer.

[McGinnis]

I have a Drizabone with a liner (and a hood), and it's fantastic. Warm as, comfortable, and it's kept me dry in some truly abominable weather. It's not, however, even remotely useful for hiking. It's too heavy and too bulky - you lose the agility necessary for negotiating certain sections of hikes.

It's hard to beat a goretex (or other) jacket for hiking; or, if it's warm enough, just a shirt and shorts that can be packed into a plastic bag at the end of the walk.

[wayno]

fjallraven use waxed cotton..

[FootTrack]

Their oily nature makes them a lot dirtier to use then a modern hardshell as well...

[Moondog55]

Used them when I was a tadpole
In a weight light enough for bushwalking the traditional New Zealand black oilskins were only marginally waterproof for long walks and became showerproof only in about a year and needed to be reproofed
However they were cut long to cover ya bum when sitting and were "good enough" for most of us.
The modern "Dry Japara" jackets use the same cut and are just as functional; even more so if you use a decent DWR on them
I rather like my Drizabone Lite coat actually for around town use but for raincoat use simple polyurethane coated polyester or nylon is lighter and just as strong
Just a note on Waynos comment too; Greenland wax is very different to the original impregnated oilskin, as it has little effect on the underlying fabric where-as traditional oilskins used a linseed oil and a lead based hardener which degraded the cotton substrate cloth quickly if QC wasn't up to scratch and i lost several oilskins over the decades to this accelerated cotton rot.
Given the quick drying of modern insulation and UL windproofs; hardshells are no longer really as crucial as they once were and can once more be separated into two garment layers that share the job UL windproof plus UL raincoat [ medium weight/heavy weight if you are scrub bashing or in an area hard on gear and clothing]

[Gadgetgeek]

I wouldn't call the fjallraven stuff water-proof, unless I need to add another half bar of wax into my jacket! But it does greatly reduce the amount of water that soaks into the fabric, and is far more spark resistant than goretex. So it does its thing, in the conditions its suited for. But for most stuff I'd be looking at modern synths.

[Bushman_Craig]

I have used a 3/4 length drizabone style (Burke & Wills brand) for "trad" walking. It's heavy, you become wet from condensation and if the cotton liner becomes wet it takes an eternity to dry, plus you know... wet cotton... The only plus I have found with one of these is it's windproof and can add a bit more bulk to a wool blanket swag at night during the cooler months.

I have moved forward with the times to the 1910s and now use a mackintosh raincape/groundsheet Doubles as a groundsheet, covers the swag too, and is a lot lighter than the oilskin gear. While the ventilation is better than oilskin, this is only because the coverage isn't as good.

For modern adventuring I use an old Crossfire AWACS goretex set I picked up off ebay a couple of years back.

As for waxed cotton, I am experimenting with an oilskin pattern out of one of Ron Edwards' books which I intend to dye traditional "bushwalker's japara" black and then dry wax treat it.