Using Flex Seal on a Canvas Pack

Description

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Dave Canterbury, David Canterbury, The Pathfinder School,Bush Craft ,Survival skills, Historical Lore, Primitive Skills, Archery, Hunting, Trapping, Fishing, Navigation, Knives, Axes, Fire, Water, Shelter, Search and Rescue

Tags: Bushcraft,Survival,David Canterbury,Dave Canterbury,Pathfinder,The Pathfinder School,Archery,Hunting,Fishing,Camping,Primitive Skills,Fire,Water,Shelter,Navigation,First Aid,Search and Rescue,Signaling,Prepper,Preparedness,Self Reliance,Survivability,The 10 C's,Knives,Axes,Saws,Bow Drill,Ferrocerium Rod,Ferro Rod,Tarp,Hammock,Canteen,Cooking,Longhunter,Trapping

Video Transcription

morning folks I'm Dave Canterbury with self-reliance outfitters in the pathfinder school what I'm going to do today is I'm going to do a little bit of an experimental mod never done this before but I have used these Duluth pack socks for quite a long time and I've got lots and lots of different models of pack sacks from Duluth but the most popular is probably the number three canoe style pack and it's just a large envelope style pack and I really like that style of pack because it affords you if you're smart enough not to overfill it a pack is big enough to carry enough stuff in for a week if you have to but enough stuff in it for a day hike if you choose to and this one is waxed canvas and that makes them fairly water resistant but it doesn't make them waterproof so what I'm going to do today is I'm going to use this flex seal liquid black rubber and I'm actually going to try to seal the bottom five inches of this pack on both sides and the seams so that when it's sitting directly on the ground it doesn't have a chance of absorbing moisture at all and it's a fairly expensive mod - a very expensive pack but it's something that I've been wanting to do for a long time so I thought today I would go ahead and do it on video now this stuff is flex seals fairly expensive but it dries basically like a rubber and vulcanized or rubberized canvas material has been used for a long time in with in environments in fact the vulcanized or gum blanket was one of the most prized possessions of the Civil War soldier and that process was done by Goodyear during the Civil War and they made thousands and thousands of those gum blankets and southern soldiers would oftentimes steal them from dead northern soldiers because they were so useful at being a moisture barrier to the ground because they were almost completely waterproof piece of canvas and even if you set them directly on a wet surface like a pack would sit down on wet ground it's not going to absorb moisture so this one is going to get painted on the seams here it doesn't have a

on the bottom because it is an envelope style design which I like and I'm just going to take a board to give myself a fairly straight line and SWAT it on there with a cheap dollar 25 nylon paintbrush here and let it dry so stay with me now I want this to be a fairly neat job I mean I could just throw this stuff on here and brush it on and hope for the best but I'd like to get it fairly neat on here so I'm going to try to get a fairly straight line across here in fact I'll probably lay the thing this packed in this direction I've got the straps I've been worked in really good and they've been coated with fixing wax they can use a couple more coats you can see some of the wax build up on the straps now and I will wax them a few more times before I start to use this pack this pack has never been used yet it's brand spanking new again like I said this is kind of an expensive modification to a pretty expensive pack but I have faith that it's going to be a good one so I'm going to go right below this and do the bottom part of this pack you could probably do this with a pack that was not already waxed as well to waterproof the bottom of the pack but this is just going to add security for me as far as waterproofing goes to this bottom area of the pack even though I know the whole pack is already made water-resistant now before I turn this over fold it to get this portion here where the fold is I'm going to try to get up against this board alright so we'll let that dry a good bit and then we'll come back out and do the other side and the seams on the outside and this area is folded right here on the bottom as well right so there she is hanging over a rope completely painted now was have to let that rubber cure got one spot right there I'm going to touch up real quick while I get the brush wet and looking pretty good alright so we've left this pack dry now for two days with this liquid rubber on it and it's dried out still pliable doesn't show any signs of cracking or anything like that it's not really putting any residue off of my hands at all now so I'd say it's ready to go now what's the test of something like this to quantify whether it worked or not really it's just used because I could fill this thing up of water and it probably wouldn't leak anyway because the fabric would swell up canvas swells up with water in it that's why canvas buckets work the way they do and this one's already got wax on it as well so it's probably fairly waterproof with water standing in it for a few minutes either way this was really just two more protect the bottom because that layer of wax doesn't wear off over time and this is if it was just sitting on the ground in the snow or falls into a puddle or sitting in the bottom of this trapping sled or something like that it gets water in it or blood or anything like that it's not going to soak into the bottom of the pack that was the whole idea behind putting that liquid rubber on this pack and you know a lot of guys ask me about packs and I carry lots of different packs but most of them are a large bucket style pack like this number three pack sack some of them are a little smaller but they generally only have one to two maybe three pockets on the outside like in a large Alice pack would have and very little on the inside other than the bucket because in a situation like this where I'm on the trapline or if I'm hunting or if I'm going to be in camp for a few days or I'm trucking away from the base camp for an overnight I really want to be able to put you know a full sized axe down in that thing and just have the handle barely sticking out I want to be able to put a full-size will blanket water it up in there a full-size tarp a nice big roll of cordage and something like a container of some sort of big 2 quart Bush pot so it's large items I just want to

shove inside here be done with it that aren't going to have to be compartmentalized and just covers my bases with the five C's I've got all my fire starting equipment implements in my pockets I've got my knife on my belt if all the other five C's are covered inside this big bucket and it weighs a total of twenty twenty-five pounds I don't care that's fine with me that's all I really need so this whole thing with putting this liquid rubber on here was really an experiment of mine to see how well it would hold up over time which again only times going to tell that and how good it would do at sitting places where it might get my gear what or might wear on the bottom of this pack and where that wax coating off over time which does happen I've got a bushcraft pack that I've had for several years now it's got a mouse hole in one of the pockets even from sitting in a tent and mouse ate a hole in the pocket but it's a very comfortable pack it's a very flexible pack it does everything I wanted to do but it's getting to the point now where that waxing of the canvas is starting to wear off of a little bit and I could reproof it easy enough but I carry a large pack like this one at our last Scout class it was out here will we travel out into the wildlife a for 4 days and 4 nights and I carried a big pack like this the only difference was it had a gusset in the bottom of it it was another style of canoe packed by Duluth and it met my knees perfectly the tump line that comes with these that goes on the top of the pack if you start to get too much weight on your shoulder and start to get tired you can throw that tough line over your head lift that weight off your shoulders a little bit walk for a while and take a rest and it's just a very very versatile pack system even for packing some distance with your gear it's not just for canoeing and things like that there's been lots and lots of writers write about this pack as being the most versatile of all different types of backpacks that were available back in the days of wood craft and camping and I still believe that it's one of the most versatile style packs today I appreciate joining for this video I thank you for anything you do for school for a family or business for our sponsors instructors affiliates and friends and I'll be back with another video as soon as I can thanks guys