Bushwalk Australia

I have a 30 year old Paddy Pallin canvas water bucket in otherwise good nick. About every three bushwalks the canvas loses its waterproofing. Each time I fix it with a proprietary silicon spray used on shoes etc.
Does anyone have a more lasting solution?

Yes, stop worrying about the leakage.
You could wax it but only on the outside and I think the taste of the wax would still get into the water.
They were never meant for permanent water storage, just for walking back from the creek with enough water to wash-up etc

If it is green or blue heavy canvas then the water should swell the threads and it should not leak very much once filled. If it's lighter weight black cotton japara, its waterproofness depends on maintaining its "oliskin" properties. Like the old japara jackets, a regular re-proofing with a mixture of linseed oil with drying agent added was the way it was done. I gave a recipe in this thread back in 2009 - viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1956&start=0

The water buckets were made in a lightweight canvas (late 70's early 80's when I worked for Paddymade) - I am unaware of a japara version; maybe a different manufacturer? Originally it was a pure cotton canvas (before mid 70's) and later Cordura (a canvas made with a thread with a polyester core wound with a cotton sheath). A suitable waterproofing would be either the parrafin wax dissolved in kero which was used to reproof japara tents or one of the paint on cotton canvas proofings. Silicon spray is unlikely to work for any length of time. There used to be 2 sizes with zip or no zip. They usually leak a little when first filled but the cotton swells as it wets through and they become fairly waterproof. Any external moisture evaporates and cools the contents like a Koolgardi safe.

This is one of my MYOG projects yet to see light of day - a sil-nylon version or maybe in cuben. I am hoping to bring it in under 30g. I have made a pattern but yet to decide on material and find time to sew it up.

Thanks everyone.
It is lightweight, light tan colour, zip top. Used to hold water at least overnight but without treatment lasts only about an hour. I will experiment a bit.

Ah yea but depending whats been used on the thing before.
Im a bit reluctant to admit it but the gutter grade silicon disolved in metho kind of works well.
There are plenty of dills upload wonky attempts on youtube but if you give it a go and work it out on test strips, it's not rocket science.
I use it on small bags out of non waterproof that the other half stitches up for me.
Just dont go near your local panel beater or fibreglass boat maker, you are likely to wind up in a shallow grave.

As long as you arent talking about a cooler that relies on evaporation through the weave.

Mark F wrote:The water buckets were made in a lightweight canvas (late 70's early 80's when I worked for Paddymade) - I am unaware of a japara version; maybe a different manufacturer? <snip>

Hi Mark F, the Paddy Pallin water bucket I purchased in the late 1960's was an olive green cotton oiled japara material with a zip. Used it through the 1960's to 1980's. Here's an extract from my late 1960's Paddy Pallin catalogue that confirms that the smallest water bucket was japara.

My decrepit brain is playing tricks on me. I must have been thinking of the vinyl coated cotton versions and forgotten about the japara. Both proofing methods suggested would still do the trick. The olive green I expect was the standard japara tent fabric but I seem to remember that it changed to the brighter green of the stormtite japara at some stage. I certainly remember we made some in the stormtite material. The trick to making them was getting really tight close stitching (2 lines) and preventing any puckering in the material.

Mark F wrote:Any external moisture evaporates and cools the contents like a Koolgardi safe.

Or like wearing a jacket on a rainy and windy day