Alright, so I have had this project for a long time now and finally decided to give it a try. I had looked through WWII leather goods before, but never gave it much thought. I usually didn't like it. But this was more of a challenge to myself to make something original.
It seems everyone and their brother has been making ammo straps the past few months. So being the OCD guy that I am, I decided to immerse myself in the knowledge available. I am not meaning to put down anyone else's ammo straps or say theirs is crap or anything like that. I just found certain things to be true, and thought I would share them with you and see what you all thought.
1. I found that most of the ammo straps being made were from Swedish or German ammo packs. Both of these are available as surplus for around $3.00 a piece. They have never seen any action, and usually come from some crate that never saw the light of day.
2. A lot of these straps were not complete, meaning they had the front looking nice, but the back was bare and rough.
3. The finishing on these looked horrible. I know it's supposed to look vintage, but a lot of them had holes that had been poked in to them. Not original holes that the packs came with.
The above is a short list and is not comprehensive. There are other things I could mention as well, but for the sake of keeping this kind of short, I'll leave it alone.
So then, the things listed above really bugged me and I sought out to correct this in the strap I made. First off, I needed to find an ammo pack that actually saw action and was an allied forces ammo pack (sorry, but I cannot consciously support German WWII wares, no matter how many hands it has passed through). So I found a Mosin Nagant ammo pack ( http://www.russian-mosin-nagant.com/ ) that came from an Estate sale of a WWII vet. Then I decided to do two layers to have a "complete" strap. Thirdly, I finished it by hand burnishing and slicking it down.
Lastly, and this is where the originality comes in, I harvested most of the thread off of the Ammo packs. This was NOT easy at all. It took a very long time, with careful and steady hands. I then stitched the strap with the original thread it came with. Again, NOT easy. I am using over 60 year old thread that was used in a World War. (just as a side note, the thread was hemp thread.). All of the stitching done on this strap is done with the original thread it came with. :shock:
So then, enough with all my jabber, here are the pics. It is not as clean as most of my other straps, but it's not supposed to be
Let me know what you guys think.
It seems everyone and their brother has been making ammo straps the past few months. So being the OCD guy that I am, I decided to immerse myself in the knowledge available. I am not meaning to put down anyone else's ammo straps or say theirs is crap or anything like that. I just found certain things to be true, and thought I would share them with you and see what you all thought.
1. I found that most of the ammo straps being made were from Swedish or German ammo packs. Both of these are available as surplus for around $3.00 a piece. They have never seen any action, and usually come from some crate that never saw the light of day.
2. A lot of these straps were not complete, meaning they had the front looking nice, but the back was bare and rough.
3. The finishing on these looked horrible. I know it's supposed to look vintage, but a lot of them had holes that had been poked in to them. Not original holes that the packs came with.
The above is a short list and is not comprehensive. There are other things I could mention as well, but for the sake of keeping this kind of short, I'll leave it alone.
So then, the things listed above really bugged me and I sought out to correct this in the strap I made. First off, I needed to find an ammo pack that actually saw action and was an allied forces ammo pack (sorry, but I cannot consciously support German WWII wares, no matter how many hands it has passed through). So I found a Mosin Nagant ammo pack ( http://www.russian-mosin-nagant.com/ ) that came from an Estate sale of a WWII vet. Then I decided to do two layers to have a "complete" strap. Thirdly, I finished it by hand burnishing and slicking it down.
Lastly, and this is where the originality comes in, I harvested most of the thread off of the Ammo packs. This was NOT easy at all. It took a very long time, with careful and steady hands. I then stitched the strap with the original thread it came with. Again, NOT easy. I am using over 60 year old thread that was used in a World War. (just as a side note, the thread was hemp thread.). All of the stitching done on this strap is done with the original thread it came with. :shock:
So then, enough with all my jabber, here are the pics. It is not as clean as most of my other straps, but it's not supposed to be
Let me know what you guys think.
