Refurbishing My Old Messenger Bag
This last weekend I reconnected with an old friend. I bought an L.L. Bean messenger bag almost 15 years: ago and it served me well for several years. A few years ago I replaced it with a posh leather briefcase. But out of curiosity I recently looked at messenger bags again, and I learned that my old Bean compares quite well to the latest and greatest, and is actually better than most of the current messenger bags I looked at. Delaminating polyurethane. It normally sheds off in small flakes but you can see a patch in the upper-right where it's completely come off. Unfortunately, after sitting in my closest for a long time, some of the nylon on my bag had started to delaminate. The nylon or polyester that is used in most tents, backpacks, and bags is coated with polyurethane (PU) to improve the fabric's water resistance and flexibility. It's that rubbery layer on the backside of the fabric. Heat, humidity, mildew, and other factors will eventually cause the coating to delamin