I rescued a big pile of garish woolly blankets from the bin at my Mum's a couple of weeks ago. They're enormous and really heavy, couple with silky edging and a couple with chunky blanket stitch - it'd cost me a fortune to buy equivalents!
It's handy that everyone knows I'm into my camping (and hoarding) as I get given all sorts of stuff. My hubby's 90 year old grandma recently gave me an aluminium triple split pan with bakelite knobs and handles that she used to use on her canal boat and on the same visit I was given a folding table by my hubby's stepmum - this is one of my current favourite bits of kit, it's brilliant! Lightweight, stable on uneven ground, easy to put together and it fits the Cobb perfectly! I even like the dodgy rose motif on a fake marble background No idea where she got it from or how old it is but I'd love another one...
Table in bits - the top's just a tin tray, did think about trying to find a replacement but the roses grew on me!
We always joke that most of our kit 'doesn't owe us anything'. OH started camping with his hobby about 25 years ago, very basic stuff. Most of the kit he bought we are still using, bowls, cups, cutlery, windbreak for stove. Someone gave him a gaz lantern with a mantle and a cracked glass. One day in a hardwear shop in France, we saw spares for it, so it now has a new glass, and spare mantles.
We've borrow a toilet tent and toilet for our trip out next week.
I don't know about equipment and tents being old, but our car we should be taking is 50 years old this year and the one we normally take is 55 years old.
I still have my old RAF mess tins, one of which had to be straightened out after a New Forest pony came into the tent and squashed it.
Recently a work colleague gave me some stuff that used to belong to his dad: a table with adjustable legs and a big bag of pegs made from roofing bolts, which are superb.
I've permenantly borrow my Dad's Campingaz dual cooker and grill, i remember going on hol's 25yrs ago + and him using it, must have been brand new.
He even had a 907 gas bottle with £4.60 wrote on it, ive traded that in though as the seal was failing.
I think that the only new things I've got are a table, some additional pegs and a mallet.
Got my Cabanon Pyramide 4000 off of ebay a few weeks ago. Cooker and kitchen bought second hand 20 years ago. Aerobed borrowed from friends stuff I'm storing in loft. 40 odd year old kettle was given by parents after they upgraded.
Forgot that I did get an inverter so that I can inflate the aerobed, but I use that for work so I'm not sure if it counts.
I have an ancient tilley lamp I bought from a sale at the local scout group when they closed down. No idea how old it is, but there isn't much paint left. It does however work a treat.
I also have a battered trangia stove for cooking with, again, no idea how old it is, but I got it from the same sale.