G'day guys how are we going well you've just bought yourself your first
swag and now you want to get it seasoned so
it's going to be waterproof for its first camp trip
how you going to go about doing that well stick around because i'll show you
how i've seasoned these three swags here and it's worked
an absolute treat let's get into it all right so the methods that i'm going
to show you how to season a brand new swag now these aren't brand new
but the method i'm going to show you is exactly the same and that's how i have
seasoned these three swags here and it works an
absolute treat now where this method comes from it's over
45 plus years ago when i went through the scouting movement
and it's how we used to season our big canvas tents our 12 or 12 so
in the old school 12 foot by 12 foot and that's how we used to season those
canvas tents so i'm going to do exactly the same way as i've done with these
and these have never let me down now this one here that my big one there's
got to be bedding everything rolled up in it that one there has been used
more times that i've nearly slept in my own bed and it's got all my bedding rolled
up in it so and it's been absolutely fantastic
but before we get into the seasoning side of how we go about it there's a
couple things we're going to do first we'll do a semi sort of quick setup and
pull some of the bits and pieces out inside it and then we'll go on the next
stage so we'll get that bit out first and then we'll roll in the next stage
all right so for this stage we just got to take all the
insides out there's not much in these ones just got to get the
mattress out of the inside of it so let's unroll in there
take everything out we don't need so we don't need poles they can all come out
ropes can all stay on they're all good pull those out
now we'll get the mattress out of the inside
you don't we need to waterproof your mattress so you've got to make sure you
take that out
throw that back there mattress out of it don't be in that can stay there
peg bag and that's it and that's all we're going to take out
and from here we're going to go inside and you're probably thinking what are we
going to do inside well we'll take this inside and i'll show you
what we're going to do with it in the bathroom
let's go
okay so this is where the waterproofing takes place
i've already got the bath bit under half full uh ready to put the
swag inside the water here and he probably thinking well yeah not gonna be
waterproof sit in a tub of water but this is exactly how
the waterproofing stage takes place so this is how i've
done my three swags and they've been absolutely fantastic so
we're just gonna pick this swag up the whole thing
and we're going to soak it in the bathtub
open up like so and just push him down inside the water there
get as much water
okay that's going to be absolutely enough that's nicely sitting
in there starting to sink down into the water now
get the rope in there there we go now that is going to sit in
the bath overnight i'm going to soak it overnight
and then we'll go through the next stage from there
um so we'll see you guys tomorrow when we finally get this out and then
we'll go through the next stage and show you explain why i'm soaking in
the bath overnight um so we'll see you guys in
the morning and we'll go from there
g'day guys how are we going well welcome back to the next day
uh swag's been sitting in the bath here all over night last night
well and truly very well soaked with the canvas which is ideal what you want but
look you know i use the bath but yeah you
guys might have this option one you might not have a bath at all or you you might
be able to give your bath up for the night because you've got family and kids
and stuff but um look you another way of doing this
too if you if you can't use a bath as an option
just grab yourself a big tub or a big drum just anything that you can
you know put your whole swag into and fill it with some water and just soak
the whole thing overnight it's certainly ideal but
i've just always used the bath so that's why i'm showing you with this option
here but now we've got to get it out of here and
then out in the backyard and set it up in the sunshine
so let's go through that stage firstly get this plug out
and get rid of as much water as we can put that up there now i've just got a um
because this is where it can make a bit of a mess getting this and dripping water
all over the floor so i've just bought an old drop sheet one
of the old drop sheets that i do a bit of painting with so i'm going to
wrap the swag up inside that just so i can get it outside
and uh we'll go and set him up all right let's drain as much of the water out of
it as we can
just roll him over
oh that's very well soaked up which is absolutely perfect for what you want to
do with these either no worries at all right
drain as much water out of it
now i know into the drop sheet
now we'll wrap him up
now it's not to drip over the floor we can get from here and the backyard so
we'll go out there we'll get into the next stage
all right now it's time we've got the swag out of the bath
now it's time to get it out here beautiful sunshine great day for it
let's get it unwrapped and get this swag nicely dried out
ready to go for its next camp trip we don't need the old tarp anymore
that we go
reason why i like to do it this way where i like to
you know soak it in a drum of water and then bring it out here in the sunshine
dry it out on these nice warm sunny days is because with a swag
nine times out of ten the reason why they leak it's not so much the canvas
where they leak it's generally through the stitching
where the needle holes have all gone through there while it's stitching the
swag together that is generally where they leak
through there so the idea of this this is get that canvas
nice and well and truly soaked up as i've had in the bath there
set up in the sunshine and then the canvas is going to shrink
and then what happens there all these needle holes
where the stitching's been the canvas shrinks nice and tightly around all
those needle holes and that's generally what seals up your swag and
makes him nice and waterproof so i'll get him set up
now before you go putting any poles and all that sort of stuff on
just make sure you do your zips up inside
before you set it up
like that and we'll come back over here we'll get some poles going on it
get it set up yeah as i say you know this is how we use to season our
you know big scout tents you know 40 odd years ago and
i don't know i just like some of the old old-school ways away i was sort of
taught back in those days and yeah and i still don't adopt those same
methods you know today more because they just work they're
simple easy and it just works we'll put these clips
on here like that then we'll get the one up
around the head
put that one in there
that one on that one
so we'll come out here grab a couple of pegs now when you peg
it out don't go pegging it out too tightly
right you just want to peg it out enough just so it's going to
um get allowed to expose the swag to the
sunshine so just want a bit of a loose setup is
all we want
so let's set up here
that one in there i wish all the ground was always
this soft when you go out in the bush but that's not
so yes i just just want to loosely stand him up there like so
and that is all it needs and now it's just a
waiting game now just sit out here in the sunshine
and just another another little tip when you do set him up in your backyard here
have a little bit of think about you know where where the sun
comes up in the east every morning and yeah it sits in the west
so have a little thing about the direction where your your swag's facing
when you suit him up so i've pretty much got this one north
south facing which is the ideal way how you want to set him up
so when the sun comes up you know both sides
are going to get a fairly good coverage whereas if you've got your swag facing
east-west in the direction of the sun well pretty much only one side is
seasoned my brand new swags that same way i'll be pretty keen to
hear how you guys go about doing yours so until then my fair chance i'll see
you out in the bush some day