I would think that there are still surveyors who keep some data in a bound field book and who plan on maintaining that data in their office records permanently. Field books are very much a specialty item, particularly if you want one with at least 50% rag content in the leaves and a binding that will go the distance. I began my career using K&E transit books and, when K&E moved on to other things, switched to Penninsular who had evidently been making the books that K&E sold under their brand.
Today, I needed some more field books and stopped by the local survey supply company to discover that Penninsular was no longer on the shelf, ready to go. That would have been much sadder, had there not been a field book made by Bogside Publishing of Bow, New Hampshire available to fill the gap. For those who have not seen the Bogside product, I can tell you that they are an excellent one. Made in the USA. Printed on 50% cotton rag paper, Excellent binding. Would recommend.
According to the Bogside website, all of their field books have soft covers. I've always used hard-cover field books, so that would give me pause. (Perhaps that makes me hide-bound.)
I've gone through a couple of manufacturers over the years, and am currently using Sokkia Mining Transit books (No. 8152-20).
I print a form onto letter sized card stock. I also have a form which I cut the sheet in half (two on one letter sized page).
I use the Bogside B-320 S field books printed under the Hixon Mfg. name. They have hard covers and are a great product.
Jim Frame, post: 427482, member: 10 wrote: According to the Bogside website, all of their field books have soft covers. I've always used hard-cover field books, so that would give me pause. (Perhaps that makes me hide-bound.)
I've gone through a couple of manufacturers over the years, and am currently using Sokkia Mining Transit books (No. 8152-20).
I have one on my desk right now and its a hard cover. Field Book 320 L B 64-8x4K
I use Rite in the Rain Transit field book No. 300F and a Rite in the Rain Pen.
I see them now, they're under Case Bound Pocket Size Books rather than Specialty Books.
Do they offer other patterns?
We use the Rite in the Rain No.370NF (Universal Grid pattern on both pages w/ page numbers). They are $20 each but well worth it.
Jim Frame, post: 427482, member: 10 wrote: According to the Bogside website, all of their field books have soft covers. I've always used hard-cover field books, so that would give me pause. (Perhaps that makes me hide-bound.)
The Bogside books I bought were what they designate as Field Book 320 (64 pages) and are definitely hard-cover, well bound books.
The last few years we've had the Elan E64-8"X4" bound field books, the bindings have been getting all screwed up and falling apart. We've blamed it on the field crews jamming the books in a tight vest pocket or something, they claim the build quality is not what it used to be.
RADAR, post: 427490, member: 413 wrote: I use Rite in the Rain Transit field book No. 300F and a Rite in the Rain Pen.
I am with you on that. They now have a huge variety of sizes, but not inexpensive.
A few months ago I bought a few of different styes (hard and soft) a few months ago. Being good in the damp conditions is pretty important to me, be it rain or sweaty hands. Most papers get soggy and tear.
Kent, does humidity effect your new paper?
Kent McMillan, post: 427475, member: 3 wrote: I would think that there are still surveyors who keep some data in a bound field book and who plan on maintaining that data in their office records permanently. Field books are very much a specialty item, particularly if you want one with at least 50% rag content in the leaves and a binding that will go the distance. I began my career using K&E transit books and, when K&E moved on to other things, switched to Penninsular who had evidently been making the books that K&E sold under their brand.
Today, I needed some more field books and stopped by the local survey supply company to discover that Penninsular was no longer on the shelf, ready to go. That would have been much sadder, had there not been a field book made by Bogside Publishing of Bow, New Hampshire available to fill the gap. For those who have not seen the Bogside product, I can tell you that they are an excellent one. Made in the USA. Printed on 50% cotton rag paper, Excellent binding. Would recommend.
Along with several others here, I'm partial to Rite in the Rain 300F (The F, for Fabrikoid cover, is important. The plastic-covered ones are a drag). I tried the Peninsular books and they were great in the dry...but they absolutely didn't cut it in the wet.
Peter Ehlert, post: 427505, member: 60 wrote: I am with you on that. They now have a huge variety of sizes, but not inexpensive.
A few months ago I bought a few of different styes (hard and soft) a few months ago. Being good in the damp conditions is pretty important to me, be it rain or sweaty hands. Most papers get soggy and tear.Kent, does humidity effect your new paper?
No, it has a water-resistant sizing and seems to perform just as the Peninsular books did.
roger_LS, post: 427504, member: 11550 wrote: The last few years we've had the Elan E64-8"X4" bound field books, the bindings have been getting all screwed up and falling apart. We've blamed it on the field crews jamming the books in a tight vest pocket or something, they claim the build quality is not what it used to be.
I've been using one of those. I think what damaged my binding was clipping my pen to the pages to mark the page I was using, and then somehow letting it get squashed so the leverage partially tore the binding.
Could be your guys did similar?
It would be nice if Elan and whoever else reproduces those very old tables would recognize that most modern users don't need railroad curve tables, but would benefit from a good collection of curve formulas for calculators, and other simple formulas that are easy to get turned around. And the unit conversions should be carried out to more decimals.
I have written in these:
-Trig formulae add law of cosines
-arc definition curve formulas
-chord definition curve formulas
-Geodetic az = grid az+ convergence = astro + Laplace
-Scale factor = Grid distance / ellipsoid distance
-Elevation factor = 1 - height / 20,906,000 ft = 1- height /6,372.160 m
-CF = Scale Factor * Elevation factor = grid/ground
-international foot/us survey ft = (12*0.0254)/ (12/39.37) = 0.999 998 exactly
-Railroad gauge = 4 ft 8.5 inches = 4.7083 ft = 1.435 meter
What reference info have you added to your books?
Bill93, post: 427518, member: 87 wrote: It would be nice if Elan and whoever else reproduces those very old tables would recognize that most modern users don't need railroad curve tables, but would benefit from a good collection of curve formulas for calculators, and other simple formulas that are easy to get turned around. And the unit conversions should be carried out to more decimals.
I have written in these:
-Trig formulae add law of cosines
-arc definition curve formulas
-chord definition curve formulas
-Geodetic az = grid az+ convergence = astro + Laplace
-Scale factor = Grid distance / ellipsoid distance
-Elevation factor = 1 - height / 20,906,000 ft = 1- height /6,372.160 m
-CF = Scale Factor * Elevation factor = grid/ground
-international foot/us survey ft = (12*0.0254)/ (12/39.37) = 0.999 998 exactly
-Railroad gauge = 4 ft 8.5 inches = 4.7083 ft = 1.435 meterWhat reference info have you added to your books?
I am with you on this, went I started college I went with the field book that had the most pages of Tables and Formulas I could find at the time. I ended up with a National 407 Field Book.
It has
Slope Stake
Stadia Correction and Horizontal Distances
Trigonometric Formulae
Natural Trigonometric functions curve formulae
Tangents and Externals to a 1 degree curve
useful relations (which I did and still do find useful)
Inches to Decimals of a foot
minutes to decimals of a degree
middle ordinates of rails
short radius curves
rods in feet, 10ths, and 100ths of a foot
links in feet, 10ths and 100ths of a foot
roger_LS, post: 427504, member: 11550 wrote: The last few years we've had the Elan E64-8"X4" bound field books, the bindings have been getting all screwed up and falling apart. We've blamed it on the field crews jamming the books in a tight vest pocket or something, they claim the build quality is not what it used to be.
Elan is who we've used for several years, and we got a really bad batch a year or two back. Paper was poor quality, binding fell apart in less than a month's field time, and cover was coming apart at the seams. I called them and bitched, so they sent us a free box but didn't offer much explanation as to the cause of the poor quality. The ones we received from them were same as always, good condition, none of the problems we'd just encountered. Haven't had another problem since then. We only pick up 10-20 at a time, so we've been through a few batches since then, but still no problems like that one in particular.
As it stands now, I've got a nice, organized shelf full of pretty orange field books, with the exception of one ugly, tattered mess that stands out like a sore thumb.
FrozenNorth, post: 427506, member: 10219 wrote: I tried the Peninsular books and they were great in the dry...but they absolutely didn't cut it in the wet.
As a rule, I don't work in the rain or write in the rain, although I realize that there are some waterlogged places where dry weather is a novelty and some accomodation is necessary.
Recently we got done scanning in field books for a job. There were 27 of the things, and they must average 250 pages. That makes over 6000 pages. Just for the one job, sure do it different now.
They are much easier to look through after the scanning. Not to mention I don't have to dig them out of the archives.
My company switched to Bogside after several shipments of sub-par Elan books. I have been told that Elan has moved their binding facility to China over the last few years. Bogside does everything in the states. That may be why the longevity/quality of the Elan books has slipped a bit.