Replacing strap keepers on a Swiss Rucksack

[livewire516]

I have a Swiss Military rucksack from around the 50's-60's. One of the leather keepers for shoulder strap had dry rotted and feel apart  - I plan to replace it. My question is how best to go about it? My main concern is the canvas appears weakened from the original stitch holes - it seems likely to eventually rip if I were just to stitch a comparably sized keeper in roughly the same place.

I'm not especially concerned about it appearing entirely original. At present, I'm thinking I'd either making a larger keeper that will allow me to stitch elsewhere on the waxed canvas, patch the canvas, or perhaps both.

I would love the community's input - below is an image where you can see the intact strap keeper on the right, and the stitch holes in the canvas where the other keeper was.

[fredk]

Put a thin piece of leather on the other side, a piece much bigger than the keeper. Hold it in place with a few stitches outside the damaged area.   Then when attaching the new keeper sew through the canvas into the other leather piece. You'll be sewing leather to leather with the canvas sandwiched between 

Edited December 16, 2023 by fredk

[chuck123wapati]

. yeah what Fred said!!!! i have one like it and it has the leather pieces sewn inside here is a picture on the far left upper corner you can see the piece the loop is sewn onto on the  inside..

you can actually see both smal pieces of leather backing

 

[TomE]

Another idea is to sew the keeper on a leather shield (any decorative shape) then sew the shield to the bag. A single needle backstitch is a good choice for sewing leather to woven fabric. The double length stitches on the back side gather more threads in each stitch. This is one time when I pre-punch holes in the leather and use a harness needle to pierce the fabric. An awl will cut threads in the weave. 

[livewire516]

On 12/16/2023 at 2:26 PM, fredk said:

Put a thin piece of leather on the other side, a piece much bigger than the keeper. Hold it in place with a few stitches outside the damaged area.   Then when attaching the new keeper sew through the canvas into the other leather piece. You'll be sewing leather to leather with the canvas sandwiched between 

That's a great idea: the originally were small pieces of leather on the other side, but were only stiched to the keeper. I hadn't though to make it oversized.

chuck123wapati thanks for your photo - it's fun to see the many variations of these rucksacks. This is the inside of mine; you can see why I didn't feel as though this would be adequate.

 

[livewire516]

On 12/16/2023 at 5:49 PM, TomE said:

Another idea is to sew the keeper on a leather shield (any decorative shape) then sew the shield to the bag. A single needle backstitch is a good choice for sewing leather to woven fabric. The double length stitches on the back side gather more threads in each stitch. This is one time when I pre-punch holes in the leather and use a harness needle to pierce the fabric. An awl will cut threads in the weave. 

Definitely a good option. I agree, I definitely plan to pre-punch and not use an awl. Is there an advantage to do a back stitch rather than a saddle stitch? In the past, when using a stitching chisel, I would use the needle in the right-hand like the awl for me to find/chase with my left-hand needle.

[TomE]

10 hours ago, livewire516 said:

Definitely a good option. I agree, I definitely plan to pre-punch and not use an awl. Is there an advantage to do a back stitch rather than a saddle stitch? In the past, when using a stitching chisel, I would use the needle in the right-hand like the awl for me to find/chase with my left-hand needle.

I use the single needle backstitch for attaching new girth straps to the canvas webs of an English saddle.  The idea is that the double length stitches on the canvas side gather more threads per stitch and are more secure than a saddle stitch.  The front of the sitch looks like a normal running stitch.  The back side is a bit loopy.  I think either the saddle stitch or the backstitch would be fine for your project.  Here is a video showing the backstitch for creating a running loop (sliding keeper). 

 

[chuck123wapati]

14 hours ago, livewire516 said:

That's a great idea: the originally were small pieces of leather on the other side, but were only stiched to the keeper. I hadn't though to make it oversized.

chuck123wapati thanks for your photo - it's fun to see the many variations of these rucksacks. This is the inside of mine; you can see why I didn't feel as though this would be adequate.

 

that is how mine was sewn also, they are just as strong as one piece of leather, but doing it either way is correct repair.

Man I love my old salt and pepper, its been many a mile with me.

[livewire516]

5 hours ago, TomE said:

I use the single needle backstitch for attaching new girth straps to the canvas webs of an English saddle.  The idea is that the double length stitches on the canvas side gather more threads per stitch and are more secure than a saddle stitch.  The front of the sitch looks like a normal running stitch.  The back side is a bit loopy.  I think either the saddle stitch or the backstitch would be fine for your project.  Here is a video showing the backstitch for creating a running loop (sliding keeper).

Thanks for the explanation - I'm sold. Also, the more I think about it, a big reason I'd procrastinated on this is how unwieldy double-needle stitching is on the bag (I hadn't figured out a good workholding solution). I appreciate you sharing the tutorial as well - I'll be sure to use it.

3 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

that is how mine was sewn also, they are just as strong as one piece of leather, but doing it either way is correct repair.

Man I love my old salt and pepper, its been many a mile with me.

Agreed - the additional stitching is what's key here. It's my go-to bag! I found it in an Army-Navy store without shoulder straps - making shoulder straps for it was one of my first leather projects and served me well for several years.

 

I really appreciate everyone's input! With the craziness of the holidays, I'm unsure how quickly I'll get to this but will be sure to post my results for those who might be interested.