How To Avoid Gortex...

Restoring a Vintage Swedish Army Rucksack...

... Or at least pepping it up a bit.

Not a stitch of technical fabric in sight.

The search had been on for a while for a decent vintage or reproduction rucksack or day sack. The Swedish outdoor brand Fjällräven make fantastic retro inspired, and very durable, trekking kit. However, their price point is rather high - at nearly 1,800 Swedish kronor (approx £200) for a 40 litre bag I decided to look elsewhere.

It's clear that Fjallraven have taken as their inspiration the original Swedish and British Army commando rucksacks from WW2.

So I set about finding one. This example was £20. According to the seller the pack is post war. Metal framed and made from thick field grey canvas and heavy leather, 60 odd years on the rucksack was still in pretty good condition.

A few minor repairs have been done on the canvas and the leather was a little tired, but that's it.
The stitching was all in good condition, with no repairs needing doing.

I set about washing the canvas first. I scrubbed the lot with a hard brush in warm water. No soap. This supposedly expands the canvas fibres, and as they re dry they become even tighter - hence more water resistant.

As this was drying I turned to the leather, applying a liberal coat of Leder Gris leather grease to all of the harness and straps. Leder Gris is made of entirely natural ingredients, with none of the degrading chemicals you find in normal polishes like Kiwi. This helped to moisten the quite dry leather fixings after what presumably had been long years of storage.

Despite years in storage the dry leather responded wonderfully to a working over with some leather grease.

I was in two minds as to whether it needed waxing. There are separate schools of thought here. The first says just wash the canvas - the wet fibres will expand and then shrink tighter with drying. To wax a vintage item will only push the dirt you could not wash out deeper in to the fabric, shortening its lifespan.

The second argues that a coat of wax will obviously increase the waterproofing - more important on something designed to spend its working life outdoors.
There was a district whiff of paraffin prior to the wash, so the pack had clearly been waxed previously.

You can try making your own with a mix of bees wax and paraffin, but I had some Fjallraven Greenland wax to hand anyway.

I applied a thin layer all over, but paid particular attention to the seams, bottom and lid - all points that get the most wear / exposure.

You simply warm the wax and rub it in to the canvas as evenly as possible. Once that's done the wax needs drying - I stole the wife's hairdryer and just worked over the pack panel by panel.

It should be good for quite a few Danish winter downpours now.

However you choose to treat your pack, if you're going to be out in inclement weather you'd use a dry bag inside the pack anyway.
When the pack next needs waterproofing, I might try making my own wax and applying it melted with a brush - this is supposed to give a much more even finish.

Tool attachment loops. Not that I have an ice axe, but if I did these would be most useful.

A simple top loading pack with heavy duty draw string closure.

To wear the pack is surprisingly comfortable, and at 40 litres, is perfect as a overnight or weekend bag. There are loops for a bed roll and an ice axe / entrenching tool, so it is definitely still functional in it's original role. I'm not sure I'd want to take it on a long trek though.

With minimal expense, time and effort you can easily bring one of these bags back to life. Why waste money on modern branded examples?

Bed roll or sleeping mat straps .

If you're tempted they are still readily available from Ebay and various surplus stores.

Chaps Can Bake Too.

Swedish Saffron Buns.

No Swedish Christmas is complete without buns... 

Saffransbullar, traditionally made for Sankta Lucia on 13th December, are eaten over the course of Advent. Most Swedish families will have their own recipe, however there are umpteen available online.

Along with pepparkakor (ginger-snaps) the smell of them baking, for me, is about as Swedish as it gets. For Swedes, these two things signify Christmas and the mere thought of a yuletide without them would provoke social collapse. (Well, people might start openly disregarding traffic laws or not retuning library books on time, which amounts to the same thing.)

By weight saffron, derived from dried stigmas of the Saffron Crocus, is the world's most expensive spice, so it is no surprise it's used only for high days and holidays. Your supermarket will generally have small sachets of the stuff available.

Interestingly, Cornwall has a long tradition of baking with saffron too, both in bun and cake form. As with Sweden this was only done on special occasions, as the name Revel or Tea Treat buns would suggest. The Cornish tradition is to spice things up with cinnamon and / or cardamon. A fantastically moist spiced saffron fruit cake we tried in St Ives lives on in the memory. (Alas the name of the bakery escapes me.)

The Swedes keep things simple, just adding raisins to the mix. (Well, they do consume cinnamon buns (kanelbullar) for the rest of the year, so advent probably comes as a welcome break.)
We've taken the liberty of adding a dash of rum - this intensifies the flavour and deepens the golden yellow colour of the finished buns.

Easy to make, saffron buns really are a treat, especially when washed down with lots of glögg. (Female Swedish helper optional.)

Ingredients:

• 1g saffron
• 2tbsp rum
• 50g fresh yeast
• 175g butter, room temp
• 500ml milk, room temp
• 200ml sugar
• 1/2tsp salt
• 800g white flour
• 100ml rasins
• 1 beaten egg, for glazing

Procedure:

• Mix the rum and saffron together in a glass and leave for a half hour to infuse
• Cube the butter
• Crumble the yeast and mix with the milk, butter and the saffron rum in a bowl or mixer
• Add the sugar, salt & flour and work together for 15 mins in a mixer, or 20 mins by hand
• Cover & leave to rise for an hour at least (or over night somewhere cool - some say this improves the flavour)
• Soak the raisins in water for 30 mins. (This way they won't rob the buns of any moisture when baked)
• Take the dough out of the bowl and, with a little flour, work in to shapes. (The S shape called Julgalt is most common, but there are several others)
• Place them on a baking tray, lined with paper, and leave to rise for 30 mins
• Pre heat oven to 225°C
• Plonk two raisins at the tips of the S and glaze with the egg
• Bake for 8 to 10 mins.
• Leave to cool on rack under a tea towel

Perfect for a boozy elvakaffe!