Middle Earth Ranger Forum

So far I've been for afternoon walks in kit which this relies on not needing to bring anything much. To be able to go on full day hikeing trips in kit I definitely needed a smallish pack, when I first started thinking about it a while ago I came up with a list of requirements:

• Reasonably small but big enough for a pack lunch, flask and coat
  Not to heavy when empty
  Some smaller pockets both inside and out, to keep smaller items safe
  Reasonable water resistance
  Earth tone/green color scheme
  Easy to use fastenings
  Points on the outside to tie extra things to

Starting point
I didn't really want to make it from scratch, the main reason being I never managed to get hold of fabric thick enough, on Saturday I found a bag in a thrift store that seemed to match my size requirement, and almost match my looks requirement.
The downside being it was untreated cotton and not even slightly waterproof, all the leather trim was fake and nasty and it had a cheep scratchy nylon lineing
However I liked the simple design and plain webbing straps

Modifications I made
The first thing I did was strip the fake leather trim and nasty lineing out (which I kept for the paturn to remake the lineing later). While it was nothing more that a shell I took the opertunity to wax it, which darkened the fabric a lot, and gave it reasonable waterproofing (still not great because the weave is quite loose, but it seemed to help). Then I stitched a new strip of thick fabrick at the top to work as the draw string, and lined it with some grey linen I had left over from a previous project (now the inside of my bag matches my trousers ).
Finally, the finishing touches were to put a real leather strap buckle on the front ( made from an old belt), leather straps on the smaller pockets (which will be fastened by buttons when I find some I like) and brass eyelets for the drawstring.
And add all my stuff:
The only thing left to do is work out how to wear a pack with a cloak, both frodo and Sam seem to manage it in lotr, although I think that's movie magic, for now I think I'll stick to ether/or

Seems like a pack of that size would fit under a cloak quite easily.

Nice design. It seems hard to make a backpack that looks appropriate, but I think you've done a good job.

SierraStrider wrote:Seems like a pack of that size would fit under a cloak quite easily.

Nice design. It seems hard to make a backpack that looks appropriate, but I think you've done a good job.

Thanks yes I can wear it under a cloak easily and am probably being to picky when I say I'm not keen on the 'hunchback' look it gives me I haven't quite decided what to do yet
At the weekend I found perfect buttons for the leather tabs and your post reminded me they existed so I sowed them on this evening: (terrible image quality, sorry)