Musa1989

Awesome thread, I definitely joined the right sight when it comes to answers and opinions of people who have actual experience in this field. I built one of these bags recently as an exercise with the plans on copying the pattern pieces and warping them into something I like better. To be honest I am not happy with how mine came out. The fish stencil they provide looked like a good idea, but now I have a massive fish I didn't tool well on the front leather panel. Otherwise, I am not fond of the simple two pocket interior which I find rather narrow. I will post pictures when i figure that out. For those of you looking to buy this pack, I think it is a good starting point as many have said, but I would like to point out a few issues that everyone has touched on but no one really discussed in detail. 1) the rivets are one size, medium apparently, and the manager at a nearby Tandy even mentioned they are kind of a generic item with little thought being put into the variation of leather thicknesses and the effect that has on rivets. and thus the rivets pop out all over the place. She alluded this was a poor kit design flaw that I went through as did many others, popped rivets on a finished product. 2) have some curved needles on hand, or heat and bend some like I did to my Osborne saddlers /harness needles. Well worth it for the gussets. Also this ties into how much attention you need to pay to what you are doing in sections 12 and 13. These sections should have instructed you to hold the interior panel over the back or front and count how many holes it will sit bellow the tops of either. 6 not including the rivet hole or the start of the thread. 3) The holes in this project are large, enough so for a saddle stitch and then some. When coupled with the absurdly thick Tandy thread this isn't a problem. I also ran out of thread which came in this project which I thought was maybe my doing but I am doubting that. I wound up using some black tiger thread in 1mm I just got offline. stuff lays out amazingly as usual. 4) several of the members mentioned the handle is a weak point. I noticed that from the get-go and reinforced mine with my own large rivets and some .080" thick Kydex at 1" wide by long enough for about 1/2" over hang on both ends beyond the last rivets. I tested the bag out with heavy books first and the handle feels like any professional bag I have carried with no sag and complete load share. just my two cents on that. I really like what a few of the members here have done with this kit, or the basic Idea that was this kit. @ FoamerAce, I really like your interior. How did you do the pockets on the inside? I was thinking about doing something like that and making one of the compartments larger by another half of their original depth but thought to construct the basic bag first. I actually have some nice harness leather from Wickett and Craig that I decided to use for the next bag. Really would like to do something like FoamerAce did and line it + add pockets inside and out side on the front with a second panel. I plan to use some Kydex as stiffeners and protectors for key items. Any thoughts you guys have would be appreciated. I am especially interested in the lining techniques used; FoamerAce did you use some fabric textile cloth for yours? how does that hold up over time? I really like the idea of an inside sleeve for an Ipad/ macbook. Overall I like the general aethetic of the bag, but feel it needs some updates to be competitive with it's modern enviorment. I like some functions but at the same time dislike it's limitations. Tandy, as usual, has a great idea that they executed on a level maybe not as great as the idea itself.