DIY Haversack

My buddy Jeremy Moran was having a hard time finding a haversack or other lightweight pack that he liked for a two or three day trip into the woods so he gave up looking at built his own out of top grain leather. The video below is a walk through of his personal kit and a look at the bag and its construction. He has made several of these since this one and his skills with leather have greatly improved with each version. His latest one he made for a friend and fellow outdoorsman includes a hatchet look nearest the body, interior map pouch, Interior Bacho Laplander storage, interior flap storage, interior flashlight storage and a dump pouch for fire tinder so you can easily gather on the go. If you are interested in a custom haversack shoot me an email (joshsemailfilter-7psblog@yahoo.com) and I will gladly put you in touch with him so you can talk about customization options.

Here Are a few alternatives. Duluth packs they will outlive me my hypothetical children! 

Just click the picture for more details or to purchase

 

I will for the most part let the video do the work for this DIY Haversack overview but wanted to highlight a few things I like about this setup.

His haversack is longer and thicker than a traditional haversack. The one featured in the video is 18"x14"x3" where his subsequent editions have been closer to the 14"x14"x3" size.

Add-on's, while I'm a bigger fan of his latest design than his first one (due to the extra dedicated storage for a Bacho Laplander and flashlight in the interior) his cheap and simple bacho sheath works well for him and I love having easy access to an empty tinder pouch so I can pick up items for building my fire as I go.

His simple belt fire kits is quite functional and simple. You could easily carry most of your survival essentials in just this belt pouch and supplement it with a blanket roll, bottle bag and knife.

Interior storage! Not a lot of haversacks have anything but a main compartment. his newer models have a map pouch, tinder pouch, Bacho sheath, and flashlight pouch build in. I'm Also trying to talk him into the idea of moving the map pocket down and putting two Altoids holders and a ferro rod loop above the map pocket providing you with a ton of storage options.

Everything is hand stitched and is quite durable. While it may not be the prettiest girl at the dance it will be the most dependable girl at the dance.

Conclusions: 

What is the best thing about making your own gear? It meets your needs and can be customized to your hearts content. The flip side of that is that you must have the skill set, tools, materials, time and desire to make your own gear. Jeremy has made a ton of gear this winter including a wool boreal Coat (See instructions HERE- LINK), Altoids tin pouches, Bacho Laplander sheath and a belt fire kit in addition to making several of these items for other people. While many may shy away from making their own gear as I did for quite awhile its really just as simple as practicing your sewing skills and then imagine what you want/need (I recently made a ditty from old cargo pants LINK-HERE). While it was hard to admit that I needed to learn how to sew it has come in very helpful when it comes to creating gear, making field repairs and even stitches in the woods if necessary. So here is my call to action..... get started in the manly (and womanly) art of sewing. 

Have something outdoor/bushcraft/trapping/preparedness/hiking/camping/fishing/hunting related you want me to make a post about? Leave me a comment and I will see what I can do! As always feel free to leave your questions and comment below! Also if you enjoy the blog please vote for us on the following websites to help us reach a wider audience:

 

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Handmade Ditty Bag From Old Cargo Pants

Handmade Ditty Bag From Old Cargo Pants:

If you know me and are reading this post.... no I'm not sick :). Now onto the content- As part of the Bushcraft USA Bush Class Intermediate Certification I was tasked with making a few types of ditty bags (don't worry I will only subject you to one more sewing project when I reveal my handmade clothing item from the advanced certification course). To achieve this task we were asked to use the leg of an old pair of pants, so I found a pair of rip-stop 5.11 BDU's that were no longer in use and made myself a tactical ditty bag for all of my woodsman needs. A few things I learned along the way: 1) I haven't got any better at sewing since the last time I tried in home economics class (at least my cooking has improved by leaps and bounds); 2) rip stop material is difficult to work with and probably isn't the best choice of fabric when sewing for the first time in ~15 years; 3) I was surprised it turned out as well as it did as my bears back in home economics looked like a jigsaw creation from a horror movie; 4) BDU's make the perfect DIY pack as you can re-purpose all of those amazing pockets and not only double your storage but add next level organization to your bag; and 5) This took an entire evening, if you are planning to sew my only advice is to practice so your stitching isn't as bad as mine and your able to do this process much faster.

Process In Pictures:

 

1) The starting point was this pair of 5.11 BDU pants (moment of silence as they were great pants in their day)! I chose these pants due to the ripstop material, water retardant treatment and abundance of pockets.

2) No going back now (glad my new years resolution wasn't to get back into these pants). All of the main pockets were salvaged and will find a place on the pants before we are done.

 3) First item to go on was the 2nd BDU pocket on the same side as the current BDU pocket.

 4) One Side complete

5) On the opposite side i decided to place the deeper pocket on the bottom to act as a tinder collection pocket or something to that effect. I would also place the phone/leatherman pocket and the key ring on this side as you will see below.

 

6) After securing all of the exterior additions to the pants I then sew the bottom of the pants together to create a bag.

7) Last step is to add a cinch closure to the top of the bag by sewing in a piece of shock cord which will become my draw string.

 

 8) Quick look into the interior of the bag prior to trimming up the spare material

9) bag containing a thermarest mattress, inflatable pillow, grabber tarp, 6 tent pegs, 50' paracord, bungee cord and a few other assorted items.

10) Side 1 which i place both of my cargo pockets on.

11) Side 2 contains the large slit pocket, key ring and phone/leatherman pocket

Conclusions:

Something I learned immediately is for it is better to buy quality gear instead of making my own gear as I don't have the level of sewing skills to make something I would be willing to bet my life on. With that said if I'm making an article of clothing I may need to practice a little before I go and attempt that as I have a feeling it may be a boreal coat from an old wool blanket I have laying around. While this ditty bag is far from pretty it does fill a void  I had in my current kit a place to throw all of my shelter elements in one place with multiple storage options. I believe this will be a shelter supplement to my 10 C's haversack (SEE MORE HERE- LINK) when hunting that can be dropped in camp and will free up a good bit of room in my haversack. So have any of you re-purposed some of your old clothing and if so what did you decide to make?

Have something outdoor/bushcraft/trapping/preparedness/hiking/camping/fishing/hunting related you want me to make a post about? Leave me a comment and I will see what I can do! As always feel free to leave your questions and comment below! Also if you enjoy the blog please vote for us on the following websites to help us reach a wider audience:

http://www.topprepperwebsites.com/vin.php?s=7ps
You are only able to vote once DAILY using this site! Currently we are just outside the top 20 on this site. 
                        AND

http://bestprepperwebsites.com/
You are able to vote DAILY on this site! We are currently ranked # 2 on this site!