Handmade leather hunting shoulder-bag

[Dryfired]

Here is a bag that I stitched up this weekend. The leather is goat leather that I have veg tanned myself. All the lacing on this bag is leather and hand done. I'll post better pictures of the finished bag soon.

Cutting the rough bag pieces:


Punching holes and lacing the bits together:


The bag without straps etc:


Internally divided into two compartments:


Finished bag:

[Bill]

nice, remindes me of my school days leather back pack and that's some fifty years ago.

[Gringa Bows]

looks like a neat job,and it'll be handy out bush.....

[Dryfired]

Thanks guys!
TJensen, this goat leather is around 3mm thick, but it is remarkably strong. I put it on par with kangaroo leather for strength and abrasion resistance. I used feral goats skins from around Bathurst and they are really good, billies are thick all over and kids are soft as silk.

[AndyD]

Nice bag with a trad feel about it.
Could you replace the swivels with brass so that over time they would dull and not scare the game off?
Cheers

[Dryfired]

Andy I agree that brass would be much better. I also want to replace the front buckles with something quieter without a roller.
Here it is finished, it works really well

[Gringa Bows]

Looks like something Dannel Boon would have worn.......Keith (yowie) has a simaler bag he wears hunting but his is made of canvas. comes in very handy for him...

[Dryfired]

Cheers Rod! I saw a number of older, experienced Trad hunters really like this style of bag in the US. I got the notion that they are useful for shorter >3h hunting trips. You can chuck in your gear and easily access it and they are surprisingly quiet.

One day I hope to have a picture of that bag alongside a big (very motionless) edible mammal, better go hunting and stop making stuff

[Gringa Bows]

Yeah mate only a matter of time,

[perry]

Nice work Dryfired, especially like that you processed the leather yourself.

I have a similar Hunting Bag - quite reminisent of a double pouched Black Powder bag. I did not make mine but bought it from 3 Rivers some years ago. It has a German Ridge Bow Quiver attached. It has proven very handy for short Hunts

regards Jacko

[Steven J]

I love it. It has a similar style to my 'man bag' which is a Duluth Double Shell Bag.

Steve

[jonow]

Nice bag, when you say veg tanned, what method are you using? by the looks could it be tea leaves.
Am somewhat into tanning at the moment so am interested in what particular "stuff" you used for this one as the commercial chemicals are expensive and probably not that good for the environment.

jono

[Dryfired]

Hey Jono. Tanning is simple when you get it right. Otherwise it can be very frustrating. The best online resource for learning to tan is at Paleoplanet.com. You can tan with modern chemicals or do it the old, honest way with bark tannins ("vegetable tanning"). Veg tan leather is available nowadays but is very expensive for quality leather. Most modern leather is chome-tanned in factories. This includes the little tanning kits most people use on their hides.

You are right about the commercial tannin chemicals being nasty. Nearly all are bad for the both environment and the person who wears the leather. I extract tannins by putting Acacia bark in water for a few weeks. It's like a tea, but made of bark not tea leaves. You can use tea I suppose but you'd need an awful lot of tea-leaves. Many different plants contain tannins and each will make a slightly different coloured and textured leather.