Bushcraft Back Pack

[baldtaco-II]

I'm about as retro-grouch as they come, but I don't get the appeal of canvas luggage. Canvas luggage has real strong appeal among the retro cycling crowd these days. But I'm not buying it.I've owned and dealt with tons of canvas gear. Canvas boat tarps, (partially) canvas backpacks, canvas bike messenger bikes (original Doc Martins!), canvas pants, canvas tents, etc, etc...I've also owned and abused a ton of Cordura gear. Bike panniers and backpacks mostly. IMO, there is just no comparison in terms of durability. Cordura wins by a long country mile. It's not even close. Canvas is heavier, soaks up water, fails at crease points, fails from abrasion faster, rots from sweat and rots faster from the sun. In my experience, anyway.If I was looking to replace my packs today (I'm not, my TNF pack purchased in '84 is still chugging along), I would look at Jandd, Mystery Ranch (I knew them as Dana Designs), and Gregory.For a small, midsized rucksack, I've been beating on a Jandd Zoor Alpinist since the early 90s. All Cordura outer. Insanely tough pack. I'm less impressed with Jandd's big packs, but their small packs are great.

I get the appeal to a point but it depends on what it costs. I suppose I could consider my favourite load hauling pack to be made of a sort of canvas type material. The bottom of it is Cordura for pure toughness but the rest is made from Macpac's Aztec fabric – a tightly woven polycotton saturated with a wax/resin substance. I love it. I've had it for years now and for me it works better than any other huge pack I've used. I've said it before on here that it was the pack that Ed Stafford cooed over after walking the Amazon with one [there's a bit of video floating about that captures his gushing]. I wasn't surprised at all that one of those got picked after using mine for yonks. That said, by the current trend in very light packs it is heavy. Sure it's big, but at 6lbs it's also hefty.................................That said, I don't find all that weight very costly because it is a superb load hauler. The thing that I find abhorrent about the pack we are considering above is there's no way it is an excellent load hauler for all the weight, and that makes having the design made in that material very damn expensive. At 7lbs for something much smaller without a decent back system, decent hip belt, and what are from a design point of view a pair of crude straps to stick your arms through, you've given up a huge amount of stuff just for the look. And if you tried to address that by adding all the things that makes packs good to that 7lb base weight it's going to be even heavier. You're paying all those penalties just for the image and little of any substance. Even if I could keep that back stiffness on my pack but had to cut the hip belt off and replace the straps with simple bits of leather I just wouldn't do it because it would make for misery...................... On that, I can't say as I'm opposed to canvas type materials as such. I'm totally open to the possibility that they can be used in the construction of fine packs. For that to work though I need to look at the whole thing both in terms of design and materials. The thing I have the most problem with here is that it as all about the materials and nothing whatsoever to do with design. For all that weight and prettiness in pack design terms is just a crude sack. To me, that's what makes it expensive. All weight that for such a pathetic performance return.

 

[brandondferrier]

I get the appeal to a point but it depends on what it costs. I suppose I could consider my favourite load hauling pack to be made of a sort of canvas type material. The bottom of it is Cordura for pure toughness but the rest is made from Macpac's Aztec fabric – a tightly woven polycotton saturated with a wax/resin substance. I love it. I've had it for years now and for me it works better than any other huge pack I've used. I've said it before on here that it was the pack that Ed Stafford cooed over after walking the Amazon with one [there's a bit of video floating about that captures his gushing]. I wasn't surprised at all that one of those got picked after using mine for yonks. That said, by the current trend in very light packs it is heavy. Sure it's big, but at 6lbs it's also hefty.................................That said, I don't find all that weight very costly because it is a superb load hauler. The thing that I find abhorrent about the pack we are considering above is there's no way it is an excellent load hauler for all the weight, and that makes having the design made in that material very damn expensive. At 7lbs for something much smaller without a decent back system, decent hip belt, and what are from a design point of view a pair of crude straps to stick your arms through, you've given up a huge amount of stuff just for the look. And if you tried to address that by adding all the things that makes packs good to that 7lb base weight it's going to be even heavier. You're paying all those penalties just for the image and little of any substance. Even if I could keep that back stiffness on my pack but had to cut the hip belt off and replace the straps with simple bits of leather I just wouldn't do it because it would make for misery...................... On that, I can't say as I'm opposed to canvas type materials as such. I'm totally open to the possibility that they can be used in the construction of fine packs. For that to work though I need to look at the whole thing both in terms of design and materials. The thing I have the most problem with here is that it as all about the materials and nothing whatsoever to do with design. For all that weight and prettiness in pack design terms is just a crude sack. To me, that's what makes it expensive. All weight that for such a pathetic performance return.

Wrong, Just wrong.
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