Club Obi Wan

No matter what we may have seen in the Indy movies, these old bags were not designed for daily use or rough wear and tear. Most of them will show damage after a time and the ring attachment will probably succumb first. I carry my bag on a daily basis and really love it for that purpose, so some solid repairs and upkeep were in order.

Wadeventure gave me an idea to repair the ring attachment on these bags. I wasn't crazy about the leather/rivet look so I figured out a way to repair the attachment, make it stronger, more durable, and maintain the original look.

On my particular bag my old carry strap was made from the same material as the ring attachments. So this repair uses the old strap and a hidden nylon strap sewn in under the ring attachment that will help take most of the weight of the bag.

Materials and tools needed:

-old cotton webbing strap
-a razor/knife/scalpel/stitch cutter
-heavy duty hand stitching tool (Speedy Stitcher, etc.)
-brown colored heavy waxed thread
-1 inch wide nylon webbing
-a lighter to melt the cut nylon edges
-scissors

What I did was carefully remove the damaged ring attachment webbing from the bag with the tip of a scalpel. A razor blade or very sharp knife would do equally as well. Just cut every other stitch and carefully remove it. The old webbing is very fragile and you will need it to form a pattern.

Second step is to open up the webbing and cut a section of your old strap to the same length. At this point you may want to use an iron and spray starch to crease the webbing along the folds. This will make it easier when sewing the attachment to the bag.

Now cut a section of the 1" nylon strap that will fit inside the new ring attachment. Cut it to a slightly longer length than the cotton webbing. Make it long enough so that when it is doubled over it will be able to be securely stitched in place. It will be holding the majority of the weight, instead of the cotton webbing.

Once you have the parts cut out and folded together you can start stitching them onto your bag. On my bag the factory conveniently marked the exact placement of the ring holders on the sides of the bag. You may find the same thing on yours, depending on the orginal maker.

In this pic you can see the old damaged ring holder and the new one next to it. The colors are close enough that it's not noticeable except when they are placed side by side. I have another MKVII bag where the ring holders match the strap perfectly, so there must have been quite a bit of variation on the assembly line.

I ironed the creases into the new piece with a touch of spray starch. The heat also served to help form the nylon strap. Otherwise there is no way that this part would hold it's shape long enough for a photo.

Something I thought I should mention is that new heavy cotton webbing is still available online. I went ahead and ordered a short section of it to try out. It is very cheap and cost less than $5 shipped for about a meter length. I'll post when it comes in and we will see what it looks like.


I'm sure there are more brands of this type of device. This is an inexpensive one that I've had for years. It uses a waxed polyester thread that works really well for heavy duty hand stitching with canvas and leather. Get a brown thread though. The tan or natural coloring looks white when used on the MKVII bag.


I'm sure that any one of you could do a much better job of handstitching, but at least it's functional at this point. I will be redoing these when the brown thread comes in. A heavy duty machine would be ideal, but I don't have one of those.

I will also be looking at a khaki colored nylon webbing. If that looks close enough to the original cotton webbing then I will just use that.

Finally! THIS is what I was on about in the last thread! WELL DONE!

Stitch Nazi or not, I just couldn't understand why on Earth somebody would sacrifice THAT much of the Indy look just to repair and/or add durability. Leather and rivets simply don't belong on an 'Indy' bag. IMO you lose the 'Indy' element in making such an alteration.

Very nicely done! Great write up. Even someone as inept as I should be able to handle this! ;-) The things I learn from you guys! Logging in to COW is almost like logging in to an online university course!

If you really want added durability, paint the canvas strip on the inside with liquid latex before you sew it all together. It won't fray at all then.

Snakewhip_Sable wrote:If you really want added durability, paint the canvas strip on the inside with liquid latex before you sew it all together. It won't fray at all then.

That might not be a bad thing to try, but on my bag the material wasn't just fraying at the edges, it was separating from tensile pressures of the ring and the weight of the bag. It is a surprisingly thin and weak material with very little defense against any abrasion such as from the relatively smooth surface of a galvanized steel ring, or even a smooth brass ring such as I have on one of my bags.

Looks great! Thanks for posting!

NIBS

Wow...that's great. I just had the ring attachment fail on a NOS MkVII bag from WPG after about a day of use, so this thread is timely.

Would you mind sharing your source for the replacement cotton webbing? I found some online that was 2" wide, but the color and weave are not a good match for the original article. I'd rather not sacrifice the old strap.

I like the idea of hidden nylon webbing; that's a better solution than a thin strip of leather as I was considering.

I haven't yet received the new cotton webbing so, even if I could remember right off hand where I ordered it from, there wouldn't be much point in telling you. It might be the same stuff you have. I should know in a couple days when it arrives. I have some other strap material on the way that I'm going to take a look at also. I'm not above using a manmade strapping material as long as I can maintain the proper look.

But as far as the cotton goes, I have a feeling that the only thing we can get nowadays is relatively thick cotton webbing. I have never seen the really thin stuff that they used in these old bags. I have decided that even if the new cotton webbing is a good match and it is a usable replacement I will still sew in the hidden reinforcement.

I had a similar idea in using a thin leather strip. The problem was that in order to gain enough strength I would have to use a relatively thick piece of leather. It would be difficult to sew and impossible to hide under the replacement webbing. I put the project in the back of my mind for a couple of days. Then last week when I was straightening up my office I came across a nylon strap that I had removed from another bag. It all clicked into place and I repaired my MKVII daily carry bag.

My office is still messy.

Hey Cammer,

Brilliant!! I hadn't removed the web strap yet. I'm ordering a strap from wadeventure and an AB buckle. Now I know enough to save the web strap! Brilliant!!

Dan S

Looks great Cammer! I've kept plenty of the original straps around to do this as well, but I'm using leather under the canvas instead of webbing.

That's a hard sew, great job!

Thank you so much for posting this. !!!

An alternative material that would provide the best strength and still look reasonably appropriete is polypropylene strapping. This doesn't have the same shiny plastic finish as nylon, it is MUCH stronger than cotton, and the color, while a bit dark, certainly won't stand out as incorrect.

I use my bag on a daily basis so this is a great option for me, or anyone who has a bag with bad ring holders and doesn't want to cut up their original strap, or maybe doesn't have an original strap.

Here is a comparison pic. The different sizes are just the perspective and angles that the pieces are laying. They are all exactly the same size.

The top left is as close as I could find in cotton webbing. I did not do an exhaustive search, however I'm not a huge fan of cotton in a stress connection. I has very little resistance to abrasion and the tensile strength is low.

The top right is the polypropylene strap. If I could find a color slightly lighter toned it would be perfect, but this is really not bad. The picture makes it look darker than it actually is. This will provide more strength than you could possibly need, and it will outlast the rest of the bag. Really good abrasion resistance. This sample is the tan color of heavy duty polypropylene webbing that I received from Strapworks.com. Strapworks is a truly great online merchant. I've dealt with them for years.

The bottom two I have included for comparison. The left is the strap, and on the right is the original part. The color variation is more related to individual manufacturers and lot runs. I would consider either one fine to use. For this reason I don't have a real problem with the tan polypropylene color.

I don't know if anyone else is really going to do this, but I'm a little bit of a nut when it comes to working on my gear. I've done this kind of stuff all my life. Hope you enjoy it!

^ It looks like we may both have stumbled upon the same cotton webbing. I got mine from Jontay, advertised as being "camel" colored; this was the closest match that I could find in a 2" width after several hours of online searching.

The new webbing is thicker and has a looser weave than the original article. I steamed and pressed a piece of the new material to give it the correct shape and then added a thin strip of leather on the inside, held in place with some rubber cement. I then hand-sewed the replacement ring attachment to the bag using a backstitch. Below is a picture of the repaired bag with a bit of the original webbing strap pulled out for a color comparison. On my bag, the strap webbing matches the ring attachment webbing.

I had also saved the original webbing strap and when my ring holders started fraying, I took the back that the original strap to a local shoemaker/cobbler and this is precisely what he did to my bag - used the original webbing strap for the new ring holder, but hid a stronger modern strap inside it. Should last for a long while and only cost me about $20.

Great idea, my friend! I, personally have only had one issue with the strap attachment coming apart, and I just sewed it in stronger and then no problems. Other than that I've never had a problem and my hiker bag is weighed down with a ton of gear! They are made pretty sturdy unless you get a dry rotted or very used bag, but the new, unissued ones should really be fine. But your fix is pretty awesome, indeed!

TR

Cammer wrote:The top right is the polypropylene strap. If I could find a color slightly lighter toned it would be perfect, but this is really not bad. The picture makes it look darker than it actually is. This will provide more strength than you could possibly need, and it will outlast the rest of the bag. Really good abrasion resistance. This sample is the tan color of heavy duty polypropylene webbing that I received from Strapworks.com. Strapworks is a truly great online merchant. I've dealt with them for years.

I've been thinking about this topic again recently and the suggestion of supplier has come in handy. The new-manufacture cotton webbing I used (with internal leather reinforcement) works, but could look prettier, as in my previous photo. To that end, I've ordered some tan and khaki nylon and polypropylene webbing and will play around with it once it arrives.

One option is to re-use the torn original cotton attachment as a covering for a full-width new attachment. There is a bit of excess folded under the torn attachment that should facilitate this process. As a result, there's no worry of cutting up an original strap or having a color mismatch.

I might give this technique (suggested to me by my mom over Thanksgiving) a try. I also managed to get my hands on a sewing awl so that my future stitching won't look so horrid.

I'll try to post some comparison shots once I have my new webbing in hand.

After reading this I had to run and check on my bag. Luckily for me, everything looks good. However, I'd like to add my thanks for the research and posting you've done. Great stuff!

Would this be for just the original bags or does it go for the replicas as well?Im still a kinda noobie

^ Just the originals with thin cotton webbing ring attachments. I'm actually not sure what material is used for the attachments on the reproductions.

The replica bags use thicker attachments, but the actual canvas that comprises the bag itself isn't as sturdy as the original densely woven canvas. In fact, once the original bags have become saturated with water they will hold water quite well if you plug up the drain holes.

That old style canvas was GOOD stuff.

Thanks got a little worried there.

I did the very same thing (thank God I kept the old strap!) But, I didn't add reinforcement and I sewed it by hand with some thick camel thread. It looks great, but the nylon idea had never occured to me. Thanks!

Help me, Club Obi Wan, you're my only hope!

So I indulged my OCD tendencies and ordered a variety of webbing samples from Cammer's suggested vendor, strapworks.com.

The two photos below are comparison shots with the original cotton webbing in the middle, one without flash and one with. I had to use a sniff test to tell some of the webbing apart as I ordered similar colors in two different materials.

At the top left and top right are nylon khaki and nylon tan, respectively.

The bottom row contains polypropylene samples. At the left are two tan samples (one thick, one thin); at the right are khaki samples.

I'm leaning towards the tan polypropylene sample to the immediate left of the broken original cotton webbing piece. Thoughts?






I hope this was of some use to those contemplating a similar repair.

-Tim

With new webbing in hand and being unsatisfied with my quick-and-dirty repair pictured earlier in the thread, I re-did my ring attachment repair using thin khaki polypropylene webbing. I used a sewing awl for the stitching as well, which vastly improved the result. The repaired bag is pictured below; I have added no internal reinforcement or external covering to the new ring attachment; the thickness is therefore about the same as that of the original. Apart from the shininess of the polypropylene, the new material is a good match for the original.

I think this would be a good repair option for those who wish to retain the historical integrity of their bags by leaving the original straps intact.