Club Obi Wan

Anyone bought one recently from What Price Glory and if so, are people still happy with what they have received and requests (ie: lighter olive colour)?

While I'm happy with my Magnoli, I was thinking of getting one as a present for my brother (start him down the dark path of Gear).

I bought one a few months ago. It's ok. Color's good. There was a little dry rot in mine however. I still prefer my Magnoli, though.

I've only seen a photo of the reproduction, and something looked 'off' about it. Maybe it was just the colour.

His originals are supposedly unused but I have bought items with that claim before, that were certainly used.

PSB I hope you didn't find dry rot in a repro bag

I bought one from WPG in November and it was in NOS condition. There was some dry rot to the webbing and I had to replace one of the webbing ring attachments after it broke.

What exactly is dry rot? Is it more of just a mildew smell or is it an actual weak spot in the fabric of the bag?

And what is NOS condition? Is there a thread around here for all the gearhead acronyms?

NOS = New Old Stock. This refers to something (like a bag) which is old or vintage stock, but is in new, unused condition.

Dry rot here generally means the integrity of the garment is decomposing and weakened, leaving it susceptible to falling apart.

My WPG bag came in unissued condition. However the sling was seriously dry rotted as were the pieces on the side of the bag that hold the rings in place. I replaced these with a similar material. However the rest of the bag is in good condition. This my be due to the British Army treating the bag with an MRT (Mildew Resistant Treatment). Who knows?

I had one where the drainage holes had reacted with the canvas. It basically had turned to dust there.

It's worth searching round for a good one. It's the real thing!

I have purchased probably 20+ MK VII bags from WPG and have had mostly great results. Two of the bags had dry rot on the web ring attachment, but that is an easy fix as I've got a bunch of the original strap webbing here.

If you write a short note to Jerry and let him know you're COW and ask for a good one, he will make sure they check it out thoroughly before sending it to you. Their bags come from United Arab Emerates or Dubai I think. But if you ask him, he will try and make sure you get a good one.

When I spoke to him last year he claimed to have the last 2000 bags in existence. I don't know if that's true, but they are going to get increasingly harder to find in working condition.

W.E.

alphared6 wrote:My WPG bag came in unissued condition. However the sling was seriously dry rotted as were the pieces on the side of the bag that hold the rings in place. I replaced these with a similar material.

And it's a pretty easy fix too. Check out this thread, which helped me when I had the same issue: viewtopic.php?p=512414.

Wade Egan wrote:.............

If you write a short note to Bill .............

Bill? Jerry has an employee now?

Wade Egan wrote: When I spoke to him last year he claimed to have the last 2000 bags in existence. I don't know if that's true, but they are going to get increasingly harder to find in working condition.

if I may add an info here, I've heard that story since I first joined to COW. Once in a while that information is posted on COW and MKVII prices sky rocket on ebay for a month or so.

Obviously these bags are not in unlimited numbers but they were so massively produced that just by visiting some british surplus stores you will still find, now in 2009, at least one or two. Some over priced some cheaper than ebay.
Just to give you an idea of how many they had, Kevin Endicott told me that in the past many surplus vendors used to dump loads of them in the bin because they had too many and to little request (bet they regretted it later on!)

Wheter true or not the story of the 2000 last bag in existance (wordwide or in the USA?), it sure helps the business... so I reserve not to trust their word on that.

Whoops! Meant Jerry, Bill is another supplier of all things military. Regardless, when I ask for a good one I get a good one. I neglected to ask once and got a dry rotted bag that had a short life.

RCSignals wrote:

Wade Egan wrote:.............

If you write a short note to Bill .............

Bill? Jerry has an employee now?

Just an FYI on this topic. I purchased two more bags from WPG the other day after posting and they just arrived today from Salinas, not from the UAE as the previous two bags. The canvas on these two is great and they are unissued. One interesting point, the webbing bag ring attachments on both of the bags have been fixed with new thread and webbing. The thread is a different color on one of the two rings on both bags. So it looks like WPG fixed the dry rot on the bag prior to sending them out. This is something that plagues the original MKVII owner and I am very happy with these two fixed bags.




W.E.

I got a bag from WPG not that long ago, and there's no dry rot at all. I was very happy with it.

This helps quite a bit, I got a WPG original MK VII from him a couple years ago was my first piece of gear. Looks great, there is a bit of a smell, but for something over 60s years old, it is probably going to smell. You can wash it or febreeze it, probably washing works best. But hey I am going to send Jerry a message and get another one. Looking for one so I can put Wade's awesome strap on it.

IndianaChris

Wade Egan wrote:If you write a short note to Jerry and let him know you're COW and ask for a good one, he will make sure they check it out thoroughly before sending it to you. Their bags come from United Arab Emerates or Dubai I think. But if you ask him, he will try and make sure you get a good one.

Who is this "Jerry" and how do I go about contacting him? I wanted to order one in the next couple days. I'm quite anxious about getting a good one for I plan on using it to replace my other everday bag. I suppose I want a WPG because they're the genuine article, but also because of the complaints I've heard about the actual functionality pertaing to certain elements of the bag. i.e. vents, etc.

Will it be a problem contacting this person if I'm ordering through the internet or is best to call? What exactly do i say in order to get "the pick of the litter", as it were? I'd hate to take up a bunch of someone's time.

Also, can anyone tell me if the WPG $12 "optional leather strap" is up to snuff?

Arch Stanton wrote:

Wade Egan wrote:If you write a short note to Jerry and let him know you're COW and ask for a good one, he will make sure they check it out thoroughly before sending it to you. Their bags come from United Arab Emerates or Dubai I think. But if you ask him, he will try and make sure you get a good one.

Who is this "Jerry" and how do I go about contacting him? I wanted to order one in the next couple days. I'm quite anxious about getting a good one for I plan on using it to replace my other everday bag. I suppose I want a WPG because they're the genuine article, but also because of the complaints I've heard about the actual functionality pertaing to certain elements of the bag. i.e. vents, etc.

Will it be a problem contacting this person if I'm ordering through the internet or is best to call? What exactly do i say in order to get "the pick of the litter", as it were? I'd hate to take up a bunch of someone's time.

Also, can anyone tell me if the WPG $12 "optional leather strap" is up to snuff?

Jerry Lee, is the owner.

Just keep your request simple, don't sound too picky or like an uber nerd about it. He doesn't react well otherwise.
(if you read some of his comments reacting to 'silly' questions he gets from people you'll understand. Similar sort of thing to the guy who runs 'At the Front')

Argh!!! But how do I send this notation as a COW member? I see no portion set aside for notes or special requests on the online order form.

Feel free to PM me if it's some kind of private email or something of that nature. Sorry for sounding like a broken record, it's just that I'm still just as in the dark about how to make a special request as I was before.

And thanks for the review of the strap, Tundra. Is there one that you recommend ordering?

One of my first purchases in the Indy gear world was 2 of these original bags from WPG.
One was really great and the 2nd was just pretty good.
I tried to wash the good one in a bucket of warm water with fabric softener and it simply disintegrated.
It was sickening to think that I had destroyed this 60-year-old bag. Not WPG’s fault, but I decided right then to put up the other bag and get a repo bag.
I will display my 60-year-old MKVII but for everyday wear it will be my Todd’s repo.


RKG