Waxed Canvas Satchels - Cheap Christmas Presents

[Wook]

I bought a bunch of these dirt cheap canvas satchels. I then:

• melted a 50/50 mix of beeswax and paraffin wax in a pot
• painted it on them with a brush until every inch was covered
• melted it into the canvas using a hairdryer
• stuffed the bags full of newspaper
• carefully sculpted them into the desired shape while the canvas was still supple

... and hey presto, waxed canvas satchels. You can see an unwaxed satchel at the front for comparison. When done these bags will stand upright and hold their shape even when empty. And they're waterproof.

I was a little disappointed with the strap length because even on maximum it's a little short for a man, but my wife, daughter and sister all want one as a purse. I may snag the tan one anyway and look at putting a longer strap on it.

 

[Trotsky]

Nice work, I've toyed with doing similar to a satchel of mine but, instead of wax a 50/50 mix of boiled linseed oil and white spirits. A little modification and they could be made into nice little pannier bags for a push bike, the wax would certainly keep the weather out!

 

[Wook]

Be careful with Linseed oil. If I'm not mistaken fabrics soaked in it can spontaneously combust.

 

[Trotsky]

Be careful with Linseed oil. If I'm not mistaken fabrics soaked in it can spontaneously combust.

You're quite right there, the trick I've found is to open them up as much as possible to increase the surface area and keep them somewhere well ventilated while it dries, which takes some considerable time. It's how I treated my Hungarian Zeltbahn, I had that airing for over a week before I dared to fold it up and even then I kept checking to see if it was getting warm. It was worth it though as it water proofed it and got rid of the smell of old Soviet warehouse

 

[SCOMAN]

I had a number of them as schoolbags in the '80's, great kit. That tan one might look better with a nice inch wide leather strap.

 

[Bishop]

Those bags bring back some memories.. all of them painful.
For five years they were my 'Go-To' bag, go to school that is
but they were incredibly tough items having served as rugby balls, melee weapons and water bombs. Aside from the odd bit of fraying and occasional chisel hole held up rather well.
Never waxed them but instead just painted the top flap with whatever was available to make it quickly recognisable from others.

 

[Wook]

I guess if I want one I'll have to make another. The tan and blue ones have been snagged by my sons, in addition to the 3 dark green ones claimed by my wife, sister and daughter. Unwaxed no one seems to think these bags are anything special, but when waxed you're beating em off with a stick.

My wife even had a hipster stop her in the street and ask where he could buy one. He was disappointed when she said you had to make them yourself, and intimated he'd have been willing to pay £20-£30 for such a bag. There's about £8 materials cost per bag including the wax, although altogether they do take an hour or two each to make. In principle you could make real money waxing and reselling canvas bags to hipsters with more money than sense.

I'd rather keep hipsters away from waxed canvas bags though, or they'll ruin them for the bushcrafters

 

[Trotsky]

I guess if I want one I'll have to make another. The tan and blue ones have been snagged by my sons, in addition to the 3 dark green ones claimed by my wife, sister and daughter. Unwaxed no one seems to think these bags are anything special, but when waxed you're beating em off with a stick.

My wife even had a hipster stop her in the street and ask where he could buy one. He was disappointed when she said you had to make them yourself, and intimated he'd have been willing to pay £20-£30 for such a bag. There's about £8 materials cost per bag including the wax, although altogether they do take an hour or two each to make. In principle you could make real money waxing and reselling canvas bags to hipsters with more money than sense.

I'd rather keep hipsters away from waxed canvas bags though, or they'll ruin them for the bushcrafters

Hipsters ruin everything, look at what they're trying to do to beards!

 

[hog]

Often thought about doing this but does the wax not leach out onto other items and make oily marks even after 'soaking up'?

 

[Wook]

Often thought about doing this but does the wax not leach out onto other items and make oily marks even after 'soaking up'?

It leaches through during the waxing process, which is why I stuff the bag with newspaper as well as sitting it on newspaper. Once it is "set" though the bag does not really feel waxy and it doesn't mark things. It has the consistency of cardboard.

The only way I can really see it marking things is if you allow the bag to get warm enough that the wax trapped in the fabric starts to melt again. Then the fabric quickly becomes floppy and wet and could definitely mark things. Don't sit it on a heater or carry it on a trip to Death Valley and it would be fine.

 

[hog]

Hipsters ruin everything, look at what they're trying to do to beards!

What is a Hipster ?

 

[Wook]

What is a Hipster ?

Please see attached:

Link

The problem I have with hipsters is I'm always being accused of being one. I had a long bushy beard and a thrift store look long before it was cool, and I'll still look that way long after it's cool. They're copying me, not the other way round.

 

[Wook]

I think I've caught the waxing bug I've been to Endicotts and bought the following canvas haversack. Oddly the strap is exactly the same length as the "school bags" so I'm guessing such things have a fairly standard length. Maybe they're not meant to be worn low down but rather carried in the small of the back?

I'll give it a good wash, but once it is dry I'll wax this as well.

The entrenching tool has no relevance to what I'm talking about here, I just felt like showing off the other thing I ordered. It was inside the haversack when I unpacked it

 

[Wook]

During:

After:

 

[leaky5]

I need to wax two pieces of canvas approx 3 foot sq each. Do you have any idea how much wax I would need for this ? There is an E Bay seller selling this mix in 200 or 500g packets.

 

[Robson Valley]

Some measure of weather-proofing is a good thing. One holds my bocce set. One holds my "red-neck golf" game pieces.
Another holds exactly 2 boxes of 25 x 12 ga trap loads for a round of doubles.

When you're looking for differences in strap length, there's a good solution: Find a "farm store" which has a broad selection of horse tack and parts.
They should have spools of webbing in various colors and widths. What I can find is nylon so the cut edge can be fused easily with any flame.
Doubled over, I can force holes with a big awl and secure everything with a couple of pop rivets.

 

[Wook]

I need to wax two pieces of canvas approx 3 foot sq each. Do you have any idea how much wax I would need for this ? There is an E Bay seller selling this mix in 200 or 500g packets.

I dunno but around 1 kg of wax has so far done around 7 bags with quite a bit to spare. A little goes a long way.

You don't actually need to paint it on. The last bag I did I melted the wax into a bar of soap shape, let it set and then rubbed the bag all over. Then I applied the hair dryer. Doing it this way means a little wax would go a long, long way. The painting method is slightly more spendy on the wax.

 

[leaky5]

I bought a bar of Greenland Wax as I was passing a shop that sold it. I have now done the pockets about four times each using a hair dryer in between. Using the hair dryer seems to make all the wax
melt right in (the last time I did not let it melt in as much as the times before) and I really wanted it to look more like the bottom piece in the picture, but maybe a bit more even. Perhaps wax is not going to give the finished I was looking for.

The material between the pockets has not been done yet.

 

[Wook]

Yeah the wax doesn't really alter the finish of the canvas all that much. It maybe makes it a little darker, and it really changes the feel. I did it for the weather proofing more than any aesthetic reason.

 

[leaky5]

I tried heating it some more and now all the wax has soaked in and it looks a bit more how I wanted it to.