I recently bought a Duluth Wanderer pack off Ebay, as I wanted a good sized canvas pack to use as cabin baggage and for weekend city breaks. Although I liked the pack from the start, I wanted to replace the cotton webbing shoulder straps with leather and wax the canvas.
For the skilled work of replacing the straps, I contacted Hamish of Half Goat Leatherwork (Dreadhead on here). After a few emails to sort out what I wanted, I sent Hamish the pack, and very soon afterwards hed returned it to me. To say that Im pleased with the results is an understatement; hes done a fantastic job that instantly made the pack look much better.
My next task was to wax the pack. I used this Youtube video for guidance on how to make the wax:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BAHx0KBpT4
The only difference between the way that he did it and my technique is that I applied the molten wax with a paintbrush. I left the pack overnight and sewed on a new Duluth badge the next morning (this is about the extent of my sewing skills). The previous owner had removed the original badge, and there was a circle of stitch holes where it had been.
Once the pack had been waxed, I wanted to add an internal pocket. There is one on my smaller Frost River pack and I find it really useful. I searched Ebay again and found a perfectly sized waxed cotton zipped pouch that Ive attached to the drawcord with mini carabiners.
The only thing remaining is to add a removable back pad. Im going to glue a piece of thin, flexible plastic (Ill cut a small piece off one of the roll up sledge sheets that the kids didnt get to use last winter) to a cutoff from a CCF kipmat.
http://www.ultimateoutdoors.com/equ...&istBid=tztx&gclid=CM2z-LXY78wCFYMehgodQ2sGYA
This will provide a bit of padding and stop hard objects poking through the back.
Cheers, Michael.
For the skilled work of replacing the straps, I contacted Hamish of Half Goat Leatherwork (Dreadhead on here). After a few emails to sort out what I wanted, I sent Hamish the pack, and very soon afterwards hed returned it to me. To say that Im pleased with the results is an understatement; hes done a fantastic job that instantly made the pack look much better.
My next task was to wax the pack. I used this Youtube video for guidance on how to make the wax:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BAHx0KBpT4
The only difference between the way that he did it and my technique is that I applied the molten wax with a paintbrush. I left the pack overnight and sewed on a new Duluth badge the next morning (this is about the extent of my sewing skills). The previous owner had removed the original badge, and there was a circle of stitch holes where it had been.
Once the pack had been waxed, I wanted to add an internal pocket. There is one on my smaller Frost River pack and I find it really useful. I searched Ebay again and found a perfectly sized waxed cotton zipped pouch that Ive attached to the drawcord with mini carabiners.
The only thing remaining is to add a removable back pad. Im going to glue a piece of thin, flexible plastic (Ill cut a small piece off one of the roll up sledge sheets that the kids didnt get to use last winter) to a cutoff from a CCF kipmat.
http://www.ultimateoutdoors.com/equ...&istBid=tztx&gclid=CM2z-LXY78wCFYMehgodQ2sGYA
This will provide a bit of padding and stop hard objects poking through the back.
Cheers, Michael.
