Date Posted:Friday, December 01, 8:42am Author:Fred Baker Subject: Re: 1855 Knapsack In reply to:
Jay Reid
's message, "1855 Knapsack" on Thursday, November 30, 4:30pm
Jay,
Dell's Leather Works is junk. Poor quality leather and he has been known to use synthetic thread. A waste of funds, in my opinion.
Making one is a very complicated thing, even from a pattern. Most 1855 double-bags used a heavy-duty chain-stitch in some spots. As well, the period correct tarring recipe is tricky and takes a good while to set up.
Bob Serio at Missouri Boot and Shoe makes a solid 1855 at probably the lowest price you'll find. I own two pairs of Bob's shoes, a Mex war single-bag knapsack, and a full set of US accoutrements from him. The knock on Bob's stuff is his tarring recipe which isn't 100% period correct.
If he's doing any right now, Nic Sekela does very stout work. My double-bag is from him and it's excellent.
Next would be Don Smith and Tim Welch. Don runs the Trans-Mississippi Depot and Tim is LD Hanning. Those two run the most but each of those fellows are craftsmen who take great pains to do it the right way.
I'm not saying that folks should not try to be industrious and do some things at home, but a knapsack is a very, very tricky project. I would start with shirts, drawers, maybe jackets and trousers. Working with leather, tarred linen, and metal hardware is a whole different animal. Finding correct grade linen, high quality leather, and hardware cast from originals (or original hardware proper) is even trickier.
The last thing you'd want to do is spend a bundle on something that might end up looking like a project from "look what I made in knapsack class."
