Hard Kit is all other accoutrements that are not clothing, weapons or armour. This includes pots and tents, and flint & steel, and other things like that.
This is a backpack I made for one of our fellow forunites here. I completed it about a month ago but being the electronically challanged individual I am I decided to wait until I could hopefully post the pics by myself.
I'm not sure if that time has come but we shall see:
The backpack was to be something for use by a Ranger which meant I wanted it to be sturdy yet as light as possible. The weight restraints altered some of my original design but ultimately came out fairly light weight for a leather backpack.
I started by making a scale drawing on graph paper which I then converted to full size. To make it as strong as possible I made the entire pack from 1 piece of leather. I did this to reduce the number of seams.
After cutting out the main pack piece I formed the back inside out, glued and clamped the seams to be sewn.
After setting I punched the stitching holes, made a reinforcing strip to cover the seam and glued the strips in place. I then punhed stitch holes in the reinforceing strips and did a saddle stitch up the reinforcing strips and through the pack itself.
After that I attached the shoulder strap and their supports. These supports( where it attaches to the pack) have mirrored supports on the inside of the pack.
I then attached closing buckles and some decorative hardware (the lion motif on the lip of the flap and some eight pointed stars on the straps.
I was originally going to use buckles for the sides straps but as this would add about 1/2lb more after buckles and heavy belt strapping I decided to go with reinforced ties.
Last edited by Peter Remling on Thu Jun 12, 2008 1:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
That's a sharp looking pack, Pete. I can't make out the pattern well, but it looks to be something like 16 x 12 x 6 inches in dimensions, is that close to what it was?
The one I'm working up is 16 x 13 x 6 with the seam edges outboard and covered with strips, rather like my Roman marching pack in some ways.
I have chosen to use a cross stitch that sort of butts the edges together...you sew them flat then work them out to the necessary positiion, which keeps it tight. Glue and saddle stitch the reinforcement strip over the seam, which can be done inside and out if one is really into strength. I use a stitching awl for holes and waxed linen thread for sewing, but those can vary as best suits a person. Of course I oil hell out of the leather before working on it.
I'm considering some oilskin for helping protect what goes in the pack too; I can get raw linseed oil readily enough; you have to be wary of some of the commercial stuff as some of that is made with lead.
I'll see about borrowing my partner's camera and getting some pics.
Hey Sinai: Any possibility those pics might be available?
Pete, your work looks great as always. I like that despite a Ranger's need to stay unobtrusive when trekking and whatnot to minimize visibility, you're still willing to put decorative metal hardware on your work. It seems more realistic to me to add some decoration to a few of the pieces of one's kit. The Dunedain would've built most of their gear for function, but they had a good deal of stuff made by the elves, too, and they spent a great deal of time lovingly crafting their work for beauty as well as function. Passing off a few pieces of one's gear as "elvish" seems natural to me. My current bracers were made by a guy who runs Silverleaf armory, which sells a huge amount of leather armor, belts, frogs, and etc. on ebay. The bracers have steel riveted studs on them as well as a medallion in the center for decoration. They're pretty shiny, so I've worked on developing a patina on them, but it just seems right to be that SOMETHING has some decoration built on. When I went to design my new quiver (almost ready to ship!) I based it off of my bracers and adorned it similarly. A small amount of shiny stuff can be dealt with, and I think is almost necessary.
Good stuff! Someday I hope I can take a closer look at your leatherworking exploits; they're quite impressive.
Throughout history people have individualized their gear. Leather carved and dyed saddles made way for that pair of fuzzy dice hanging from the rear view mirror. Even lowly soldiers in the Middle Ages altered or decorated their belongs to match their characteristics.
