How to calibrate a compass

I love your little forays off the subject, particularly those with history. Please don't cut them out!

Love your lessons and historical teachings. Keep up the fine work. I would love a trip to the UK and a field course with you! Wayne Canada

I’m glad you don’t cut out any of the side topics you’ve claimed you would, always interesting historical information! Thanks for the “degree” of knowledge(pun intended lol)

I completely forgot you were talking about calibrating a compass before. Fascinating ‘waffle’.

Carry on waffling....it is a breath of fresh air!

🎉😂😅Hurrayyyyyyyy. We have waffle! 😅 Thank you for another great video. And another lesson on history! ❤

What an interesting waffle! Keep them all in I say! Good video as usual. Thank you for your effort

One of the best waffles yet! I enjoyed that.

I subscribed specifically for the waffling.

Fully agree with all the comments. Love watching your videos for the scientific compass content just as much as the historical "deviations". Thanks for sharing.

thanks for not cutting out any waffling

Keep on waffling, it's always interesting.

Your videos are an excellent learning experience on navigation and history. Never delete a waffle.

This channel is pure education and entertainment. Most excellent.

You have beautiful countryside, and it must be something to sit on a wall that is so many hundreds of years old. Just the sense of history from doing that....

I open your videos to learn about map and compass, but your waffles make it interesting.

An excellent video - on a navigational matter I've often wondered about.

Absolute gem this man. Surely we all know by now, "I'll cut this out" means here comes the best part. 😄 Both your intended script and the spontaneous diversions are fascinating and fun. You deserve a much bigger audience than will likely be attracted by the channel's topic, important though it is!

For all practical purposes in the open away from any metal a hiking compass will point north +/- 2 degrees. When you get your compass out you have to check for 2 major issues. 1) The compass needle is spinning freely without sticking 2) The compass in not in a reversal state (which does happen), in this case the north points south etc, but its still useable. When you check it you have to be confident where north is. I am a pilot and all planes have a magnetic compass. However because they are in close proximity to metal they all exhibit a "swing" and when an engineer calibrates an aircraft compass they fill out a "compass card" which details the swing away from true at north south east west. This can be several degrees, so this is vital information for accurate navigation. A compass is your primary navigation tool, if it doesnt work , BIN IT, BUY A NEW ONE. They are cheap. Unless damaged in some way its very difficult for a compass not to point to north correctly. (assuming no external influences). My (1) (2) takes 30 seconds, and when walking with a group we all have compasses and you just check they all point to the same place otherwise you would by dying of hypothermia or sun stroke if you do all that nonsense.

Shakespeare and navigation - what could be better. As with your other devoted fans, I love the waffles.