Backpack from write-offs and scrap

[AndrewWR]

Well, guys, what a long strange trip its been. Three years ago a friend brought a couple of horse collar fasteners back from San Francisco, which never found a home. Two years ago I got a hide with 'unusable' surface defects. Last year China supplied a carbon fibre sheet that was all scratched up. This year I thought, hey! Maybe if I put this junk all together...

 

The carbon sheet was 1.2mm thick. I laminated it between this 2mm leather and 1.5mm calf suede as a lining. The front and sides are soft but the back is carbon reinforced and so is the base and those little quadrants the D-rings ate mounted on. It makes for a rigid structure for the harness to anchor to. 

The reason those horse collar fasteners never found a home is that they're not very secure as bag closures. I've seen Marchellino in New Your use them for years but he generally has a tie-down to secure them. Tip the bag and gravity will open those little suckers. Ok, so I could do that - Tie the hasp down - But how fiddly is that? Might as well just have a buckle and strap. But wait! I've got offcuts of Carbon fibre! It's really springy. What if...

Look Ma! it ain't gone floppy like before! Better than them little blue pills!

A one inch (its actually 25mm) strip of carbon in the 'pocket' made by the leatherwork gives just enough springiness to act as a retainer. These fasteners have a cam on the back. The 'spring' act as an over-centre detente, holding it open like the picture but also holding it closed so tipping the bag face down won't cause the latch to spontaneously open. And no extra fastening to do (like with a tie-down.) It has the bonus value of stopping the cams on the casting from wearing dents in the hide. The 'pull' on that 'trigger' is under two pounds.

Not one with carbon yet: The really observant among you gentlefolk will have potted the hinge on the flap. I posted back in 2020 about my idea to make bridle leather butt hinges. After two years using a couple of them daily without any adverse wear and tear, this bag has a ten inch butt hinge with a 2mm carbon rod as a pin, capped decoratively with the smallest Sam Browns I could find in my buckle box. Caveat: These hinges have their limitations but the flap/lid is not under any kind of load and the hinge is kept straight by that carbon back plate. The benefit is that the flap lays really flat on top of the bag body and stays the heck out of the way when opened.

There's a closer look at the hinge. The grab handle has sat in my scrap box since I built the Gladstone hold-all back in 2020. I changed my mind about how to attach the handles to that bag so this was never used. More write-off material.

There are a couple more sam browns on either side panel because I have them in my briefcase and I wanted all my add-ons to be interchangeable. In there you can see my Leatherman case and pen case but I have a spectacles case, a bushcraft knife sheath and a blood sugar testing kit that all attach the same way. 

On my to do list is a small pouch for a charger and a detachable back board pocket for a laptop. There's also plenty of room on the sides for external pockets just as soon as I have some appropriate scrap.

 

All in all, as a 'for me' bag, I'm very happy with getting all this bag for not a single penny spent Even all the hardware was surplus from old projects. Overall dimensions (in metric) are 30cm internal width by 40cm internal height by17cm depth at the bottom tapering to 15 cm at the top, giving it a volume of about 18 litres.

 

Stay safe, all of you.

[Bert03241]

Well aren't you the clever Clever Nicely done. Looks great and very functional

[AzShooter]

All from old pieces?  What a fantastic job.  Looks and functionality.  I wish I could do from good leather what you produced from scrap.  

[chuck123wapati]

the best things in life are free!! Thats some good work there nice looking and well thought out.

[JayEhl]

Man, that looks fantastic.  Was the carbon fibre hard to cut? And what did you use to cut it?

[AndrewWR]

4 hours ago, JayEhl said:

Man, that looks fantastic.  Was the carbon fibre hard to cut? And what did you use to cut it?

at 1.2mm thick, it cuts pretty easily with a jigsaw. I normally use grit blades for thicker stuff but I was all out of them so I actually used a thin wood cutting blade. In total I had to cut four feet of edges and you can see what that did to the teeth.

Sewing through it is the time consuming bit. I punch the top leather before laminating it to the carbon then dremel through the punched holes with a 1mm drill bit to preserve the diamond profile of the punching and get that nice saddle stitched look. Then, from the back I dremel through only the carbon with a 1.5mm drill so my needle will get through. Finally debur with a blunt 2mm drill so as not to cut my thread. Then sew, then laminate on the suede lining. An alternative is to skip the deburring, line the inside then pass a 'sharp needle through each stich hole to pierce the lining, then sew through. The lining protects the thread from any sharp edges pretty well. 

Either way, I've had no issues with cut threads. The contact glue for the lining gets into the thread and the holes in the carbon and pretty effectively prevents any movement. No movement equals no chafing.

For this project, one line of the hinge stitching (the outer line) is through the carbon but the inner line is through the rolled edge. The d rings are all attached through carbon. The quadrants on the bottom corners look like this.

The intent (and effect) is to create rigid corners for the bottom/back of the bag.

If it all sounds fiddly, it is. But I have been using a hold all with a carbon base board for five years and there is no hint of any wear and tear issues. It's as flat and rigid as the day I made it. Given what good bridle leather costs and what a hand-made bridle leather bag retails for, the carbon isn't a huge extra and it is light, thin and super rigid. 

Also, if you talk to your carbon supplier about what you're going to do with it, they may have damaged pieces at reduced prices, since they usually can't sell scratched or scuffed or, slightly off dimension pieces, but for an invisible stiffener, none of that's an issue.

Stay Safe.

 

Andrew W-R

[JayEhl]

wow, yea, you're right.  Very 'fiddley' but a great result.  I haven't made such an item so I'm not well versed in things like this so as always, this forum is a great resource.  And speaking of resource, for my own self, where would I begin to look for a carbon supplier?  What industry or support industry would have such cast offs?  I live in Houston so we have lots of industry not too far away. 

TIA

[AndrewWR]

1 hour ago, JayEhl said:

wow, yea, you're right.  Very 'fiddley' but a great result.  I haven't made such an item so I'm not well versed in things like this so as always, this forum is a great resource.  And speaking of resource, for my own self, where would I begin to look for a carbon supplier?  What industry or support industry would have such cast offs?  I live in Houston so we have lots of industry not too far away. 

TIA

You could try Hillside Composites in California. They can supply it as small as 6 inches square up to 4x8 feet. The really thin stuff (0.5mm) makes a nice inlay for a sheath (like the ray skin inlays) for a knife with  carbon handle, which is becoming more popular.

Etsy also has small volume suppliers and some very exotic carbon 'blend' handle materials for knife makers.

[JayEhl]

Hi, thanks for this.  Would you know what industry uses these sorts of products?

[DrmCa]

That's some fine scrap.

[AndrewWR]

On 2/9/2022 at 12:56 AM, DrmCa said:

That's some fine scrap.

The lighting and camera are doing it a lot of favours but the entire butt was delivered inconsistently dyed and with way more wrinkles than was acceptable. If I'd been charging myself for the time I spent getting enough of it looking good enough  for this project, I'd have doubled the cost of the hide. As it was, the supplier agreed when I complained (with pictures) and replaced it with a decent quality one. Take it as an indicator of just how bad it was, that the supplier didn't want the crap one back.

In bright daylight, the leather still doesn't look so good, even after hours of TLC. Fortunately, I live in North Wales where bright daylight is something old men tell tall tales about seeing once, when they were lads.

Meanwhile...

Back at the bench...

I've been adding on bits. A pigskin laptop sleave and a little removable pocket for a spare shopping bag because there are some groceries I just won't trust in a suede lined bag.