US gas mask bag / HK sling

Lord_Clarence · Post by **Lord_Clarence** » Sat Jun 23, 2007 11:11 am

In an effort to be different (and cheap), I'm adapting a kind of oddly-shaped US gas mask bag (still WWII vintage) to be my Indy bag. Pics of that later.

First, of course, we need a strap for that baby!

Yesterday I got an KH sling from ebay. It came from The Armorers Place ebay store; there were actually a few other slings from different sellers, so that may still be a good resource.

Anywho...

http://www.coreynitschke.com/indy/image ... _front.jpg
Front of sling in bag

http://www.coreynitschke.com/indy/image ... g_back.jpg
Back of sling in bag

http://www.coreynitschke.com/indy/images/buckle.jpg
Buckle detail

Nice and worn, but still feels strong, and the lobster claw has a nice strong spring.

Next time: the bag!

LC

Indiana Max · Post by **Indiana Max** » Sat Jun 23, 2007 4:27 pm

What a nice strap

Lord_Clarence · Post by **Lord_Clarence** » Sat Jun 23, 2007 8:40 pm

Indiana Max wrote:What a nice strap

Thanks!

Now for the bag... heaven knows who has had this thing, and what the markings mean! It has clearly been used and loved, and that's good. However, I do hope I can find a way to get some of this stuff off.

http://www.coreynitschke.com/indy/images/bag_front.jpg

http://www.coreynitschke.com/indy/images/bag_back.jpg
You can see here I have already removed the chest strap, which is a pretty cool web strap in its own right. I'll hang on to that.

http://www.coreynitschke.com/indy/images/bag_inside.jpg

Given where the strap mounts are, this bag will actually open in the front when worn, not on top. I'm not that enthusiastic about relocating them.

Soon I'll get that last web strap off there, and we'll see what it looks like with a proper leather one!

LC

Indiana Jerry · Post by **Indiana Jerry** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 12:05 am

1) That looks EXACTLY like the Tapco HK/CETME straps we were able to pickup before. As well it should...

2) If the writing on the bag is sharpie, I found something that actually takes that off - sort of, and mostly from harder surfaces, but if you are STUCK give this a shot in a hidden place on the bag in case it has a bad effect: sunscreen. Yeah, I use coppertone waterbabies on my girls, and found that I couldn't keep the bottles labeled no matter what, even with a sharpie, it just kept wiping off when I got the sunscreen on the bottle...

oh, hey, that works on other things, too! We used it to take sharpie off the desks in the daycare...

...not sure how it would work on fabric, never tried. If you seriously want to try it, start with a rag first and see if you ruin THAT before you try it on your bag.

3) Not sure you can do the same, but I moved the strap anchors on an M17A1 bag before I got a MKVII, so it would open on top instead of the sides. If you just mean that the flap loops over and secures to the front, that's not so bad.

Good project, looking forward to seeing how it goes...

Lord_Clarence · Post by **Lord_Clarence** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 10:57 am

If I do move the one strap anchor so that the bag opens on top instead of on the side, I will most likely wear it with the flap to the outside--which means I might not worry about those markings, as they won't normally be seen.

LC

RobbyT43 · Post by **RobbyT43** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 1:22 pm

Looks great!

Good luck with the rest of it

Indiana Jerry · Post by **Indiana Jerry** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 4:11 pm

Lord_Clarence wrote:If I do move the one strap anchor so that the bag opens on top instead of on the side, I will most likely wear it with the flap to the outside--which means I might not worry about those markings, as they won't normally be seen.

LC

Oh, excellent option, then. I forgot, the M17A1 I converted had ink stamps on the back as well, but no one could see them. Hmm...

...so, how's your sewing?

Lord_Clarence · Post by **Lord_Clarence** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 6:03 pm

Update:

I've made some progress. In an effort to cut as little as possible, I ripped the threads on the strap anchors, just below the metal rings (one ring is like a very skinny "O", the other is curvy and catches the hook). The idea was to free up some room to wiggle the rings around, locate the seam (hidden in the loop of webbing), and remove them to put in D-rings. If that makes any sense.

Whether it makes sense or not, it doesn't matter: the rings are solid all the way around, no seams. I would have to cut them.

Plan B: I took the lobster claw off my sling, took the hook off of the web strap, and put it on my sling, so I am using the native hardware. It works okay, but those rings are awfully big for my little 1" strap.

I think I'm going to go with Plan C, which is to simply leave the current hardware where it is in the web loops, and put in D-rings anyway. (I can't bring myself to cut the rings. At this rate all I've done is snip threads, which I can undo. I don't know who I think is going to need this thing in its previous condition; it's just one of those things.)

I don't think I'm going to be moving the straps anchors to put the opening at the top as I wear it; it's not worth it to me. Nobody is ever going to accuse this of being a British MKVII!

LC

Lord_Clarence · Post by **Lord_Clarence** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 4:29 pm

As some of you probably imagined I would, I went ahead and cut off the offending hardware. Just a small cut, mind you--enough to take it off and put it back on if need be.

With D-rings, bent a little outward to take the width of the strapping:

The result:

Now that I look at it on me, the bag looks pretty long. No matter; this isn't meant to be an exact replica, but an adventure bag in the spirit of Indy's that I can make my own.

Not that I won't want a MKVII in the future...

LC

Post by **Michaelson** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 4:37 pm

Nice job, my friend. The ONLY thing I HATE about the U. S. bag are those large D-rings. They tend to rotate in the cloth loop and make the bag hang cockeyed.

I carried camera batteries in one for years when I ran the video studio at Goodyear Atomic in Piketon, Ohio. The rings finally tore through the cloth loops due to the ring rotation. Really bad design.

If you can find large heavy round rings, I'd suggest you change out the D's for the round rings.

Just my experience with this bag. Other wise, it's a GREAT all purpose bag, and I believe a bit heavier canvas than the Mk VII. I still have that bag too...buried out in my garage attic.

Regards! Michaelson

Lord_Clarence · Post by **Lord_Clarence** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 1:46 pm

Michaelson wrote:If you can find large heavy round rings, I'd suggest you change out the D's for the round rings.

Interesting advice. One of the straps has already started to tear, before I even got my seam-ripper-wielding paws on it. I'm glad others out there have some experience with this thing--after searching and not finding a thing about US bags, I was feeling like some kind of oddball. Well, there wouldn't be anything unusual about that, come to think of it.

I'll be on the lookout for nice heavy round rings... thanks!

LC

JoelM · Post by **JoelM** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 5:09 pm

Indiana Jerry · Post by **Indiana Jerry** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 5:20 pm

Nope, not oddball at all...I still have my converted M17A1, I use it for non-Indy stuff.

And mine is odder than yours, seince I re-anchored the straps so it turned 90 degrees, so now it has snapped pockets on (gulp) the BOTTOM.

The bag may look a LITTLE long itself due to the bottom end (stocking toe?), but so long as you have it adjusted so that you can reach you hand INSIDE all the way to the bottom and the top DOESN'T hit your ribs then it should be workable.