Keeping your gear dry in a survival situation could mean the difference between a quiet night by the fire or freezing to death so having a waterproof pack is of the utmost importance. But if you’re not that inclined to spend a lot for a backpack with all the bells and whistles, Jason’s here with a homebrew trick to improve what you already have.
In In this video Jason shows off some of the backpacks he made for himself, but also a very important technique using wax and linseed oil to improve your backpack’s capacity to stay dry, but also its durability.
maybe you could preheat the pack in an oven or over a fire to get it to absorb quicker?
It was worth my time watching your video. I’ve used linseed on many things, but not with real bees wax. A few comments:
1) I would have liked to have seen how water resistant the pack was before you started, and in the same creek. That would have been interesting. I have Cordova material also, but I have not done any of these “tests”.
2) I have a baseball cap like the one you are wearing at the end of your video. Mine also is worn-out on the “beak” (so to speak. I suspect that your Cordova treatment added water-proofing to all your seams and zipper area, but beyond that it hurt nothing else. My near worn-out baseball cap is also stained and it won’t come out in the wash. So, if you were to ever “add to this video” I would want you to add the same linseed/bee wax treatment to your ball cap; but first splash water on it (before treatment) and then again (after treatment)..
3( When I rucked out into combat theatre we were told to literally spray paint the bottom of our big bag, and then write our unit and name on the bottom. It worked great and held up in my 6.5 month desert experience. But I do wonder about your linseed-bee-wax treatment about whether it gets “greasy” in the hot sun. I have put linseed on wood items, mostly indoors, and they do dry out, but it takes some time.
4. When you advertised on video I didn’t know in advance that you were going to linseed and beeswax it. I thought just the wax. So sometime when you update your video, please comment upon how well it held up in hot-sunlight, and if it gathered too much dust that stuck (not to suggest that this would be bad, but “just saying”)..
5. I could not exactly see/visualize your BIC lighter holder and how it would prevent pockets from “push down and release gas”. I do agree with the principal, but I could not determine how the lighter pouch you used would be a protective fix. .
How about a video on trapping and cleaning small game?
People talk about eating squirrels, rabbits, etc. but few of us would know how to do so if our life depended on it (which is the occasion when we would want to do so!)
If you have already made such a video, I apologize for being ignorant of the extent of your work. But if not….
Thanks again for an informative segment!