The fag in >>648710 doesn't even show off the proper canteen we use. Fucking gay. It's the one on the left. All aluminium, can be used as a small mess kit if necessary or as a cup. And the airgap between the canteen and the hull turns it into a thermos that can keep your water from freezing even in -30°C for a long time, or keep it somewhat cold even in very hot weather.
In his video on messkits he also doesn't mention how you are meant to hold the entire thing in one hand. Second pic related. You are meant to hold everything in your left hand so you can use your right to hold your current cutlery (99.99% of the time it's the spoon). The small "cups" he mentions aren't really cups. They are supposed to hold food items that are not meant to mix with the stuff in the pot.
When you receive food you get one big ladle of soup or sauce or whatever into the big pot.
Then you receive small items like bread or apples separately, so you can dip them in the soup, or keep it separate and dry for later/breakfast in the small non-coloured cup above the soup. You also put the cutlery you don't currently need in the top with the handle attached to it. Everything in one container and in one hand, allowing you to eat comfortably without a table or losing anything. All leftovers will stay perfectly contained in that thing, ready for the next time you got some time to eat.
Also: the distance between the handle on the big pot and the actual top when closed is meant to accommodate a towel, which is partially wrapped around your messkit. This keeps everything silent, even if something bumps into you, and also is a convenient place to store a towel. Towels are underrated tbh. You will want one after fording a river, or for shaving if you got some time to do so.
Honestly, I could spend hours just talking about how ingeniously designed most of our old gear is. You can feel the greatest military and engineering minds from a hundred years ago at work.
>>648788
All right, spit it out. How many reserve-fags are lurking on /k/?