Rucksack
(upgrade of donor "Hiki" pack)

The plan as far as Finnish pattern rucksacks is concerned it to make these from scratch, once the new sewing machines are set up and have been tested out, etc. so I am familiar with them.

For now the short term "fix" is to upgrade the just passable from ten feet away rucksack made by Hiki .
Doing this upgrade is I know, more time consuming than it would be to make a rucksack from new canvas, as the canvas is the ONLY part of the donor rucksack left untouched during my upgrade work.
ALL the upgrades carried out are based directly from a WW2 era rucksack in my collection.

ALL the leather is replaced, as are ALL the metal buckles.
At least three different type of rivet are used - and several types of leather hide.
The Hiki fittings are not only low quality but incorrect in design/detail, so all of them as binned.
The straps they use are too low a grade of leather, plus are the wrong shape for WW2.
The leather strengthener panels at the top of the pack which the straps attach to are also improved.

This conversion work can, for now, ONLY be carried out on an exchange/donor basis
= you supply your Hiki rucksack & I either upgrade that
or ship back to you one that has already had the upgrade done; as this work takes quite some time to do.