Fancy restaurant tablecloth bread crumb sweeper thingy

Roger,

You could be on to something. I "scoot" water off my body with my hands after a shower and thereby reduce how wet I get the towel. Early on, my wife wondered WTF I was doing and now she does it.

I've got a squeegee in the shower to ocassionaly take off all the water because then scale from the water hardness doesn't build up.

And a dewy car window, if wiped well, takes all the dust with it.

If you get more water off the fabric than if you shook it, you'd save much more weight than any little strip of plastic.

I'd suggest something about 6 inches long, so you could get a decently wide swath at one time. In metal, a "scoopula"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoopula

Is a little curved metal thing used in labs that could easily double as a tent stake and spoon.

A scrap of titanium bent for stiffness would be lighter.

In plastic, really thin rigid PVC pipe like Class-100 pipe in 3/4" could be sawn (very fine toothed saw!) to leave a similar shape.

Maybe a pack stay?

Or a credit card of driver's license if you have it with you.

The thought that came to my mind when I read this was a piece of screen door weather strip. You know the replacement one you get at a hard wear store, light weight crimped piece of aluminum and a little bit of rubber "wiper" edge. CTF your desired length. Just a thought.

Interesting ideas, everyone!
I have an old aluminum horse sweat scraper hanging up in the barn that would be perfect. You can also buy table crumb sweepers in various colors for under $3 on Amazon or at any local restaurant supply business.

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A plastic scraper work too well: the water drips (pours) all over the groundsheet and my gear.

I use a cheap thin sponge. A bit of Wettex would do, or American equivalent. Very light. But I have to squeeze it out frequently!

Cheers

In Roger's vein of a sponge, a few thoughts:

Masons use a very absorbent sponge to sponge off the excess grout after laying tile.

Kayaker use a "bailing sponge" to get the water out of their boat (not a boat full, you use a pump for that. But for pints or quarts of water).

Either of those very low density sponges could be trimmed in width to leave something wide enough to cover a decent area but overall lighter and less volume.

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But why a sponge? I'm not sure what else I'd use it for because for dishes I have a scrap of scrubbie only, no sponge. How about using a pak-towel? Those super absorbent, easy to wring out, readily avilable towels for bathing / drying yourself. I always BP with one and have different sizes for different trips – family/solo, normal / UL, etc.

> But why a sponge?
Because I think it was lighter than a bit of towel, and anyhow it was sitting in the kitchen cupboard!

Cheers

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This is what I use .Super Chux :

I usually have three. One is my tent towel (to dry and "brush" the tent with, another is my personal towel and the third (about half that size) is my kitchen towel.
15g is not that light but it does the job very well .
BTW, the personal and the kitchen one also work as filler/cushioning material when stored.

Franco