The Swedish LK70

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The Pack:

 

History:

The swedes have always had a talent for making proper army kit. Few people today, who have a hobby that has anything to do with old military kit, haven’t heard the words “Swedish army” and thought “PROBER KIT!”. I have previously reviewed the m1939, and as you may remember, I absolutely adored it! But now we are into the future and I give you the LK70 (LastKapacitet 70 Liters) meaning “Load Capacity 70 Liters”, and as you might have guessed it’s called that because the volume is 70 Liters.’

The history of the pack is unclear, but it seems it was first issued in the 1960s as the Scandinavian armies went through a major overhaul. First off, the armies shrunk in size as huge conscript armies were steadily replaced by professional soldiers. These professional soldiers were thought how to operate independently and with the very minimum of infrastructure. This called for bigger Rucksacks, as this meant the soldiers had to carry more stuff with them.

The main difference between the m1939 and the 1960s stuff is the materiel. The m1939 is a wool uniform and a rough cotton rucksack at about 40 liters. The 1960s is a cotton uniform and a 70 liter operational rucksack in soft cotton and a 35 liter daypack(Known as the LK35 Guess why..)

The LK70 comes in two models, a new one and an old one. The old one, like the one I got is made of soft cotton. The new one is made of slightly more durable Nylon.

Features?

A monstrosity! “IS THAT GODZILLA COMBINED WITH KING KONG, ONLY ROOMIER AND IN ARMY GREEN?” no, calm yourselves…

But all jokes aside, this pack is a big one, I have tried filling it. At first I tried to put the usual stuff in it, like sleeping bag (my huge winter one), my two man tent, and lots of clothes, it wasn’t even close too full. So I tried other stuff, like books and duvets, and a big fat Swedish winter jacket from the 1930’s, which is literally as big as a polar bear, still wasn’t full. And because of my FIGHTING SPIRIT! I then proceeded to give up. My point is that this is one huge rucksack, when you start putting stuff in it, you may believe you are actually just throwing your stuff into Narnia! Don’t be silly it’s a fairytale, grow up…

The stuff I was carrying in and on the rucksack at the time the pics were taken are the following.

 - Rucksack (of course…)

- Winter sleeping bag

-         - Swedish army winter coat (Slaughtered polar bear)

-         - Self-inflatable sleeping mat

-          - 2 bottles of water, 1 liter each(that’s about 34 ounces to my American friends)

-          -  My Swiss army rain jacket, in the beautiful “Alpenflage” camouflage

-          -  An extra shirt

-          -  Another extra shirt

-          - Clothes for 1 week

-          - Food for 1 week

-          - Primus Gas burner

-          - Gas for 1 week

-          - My Summer sleeping bag

-          - The complete edition of Tolkiens Lord of the Rings

-          - My Kuksa cup

-          - Eating utensils

-          - My hip flask(With Whiskey)

-          - And of course a pair of skies.

“But it’s summer! Why do you need a pair of Sk…” “SHUT UP, that’s why”

Overall features include the massive main compartment, which I hope you understand the hugeness of.

The pack also has 2 side pockets where I could fit two 1 liter Nalgene bottles into, and there was room to spare. On the front there is a nice big pocket for stuff like books, or a shirt, or whatever you want to put in there, you decide, it’s your rucksack.

Two small zipper compartments are also present, one on the front of the rucksack:

And another on the inside of the lid.

The one on the outside is a good place to store fire-steel or small things which are important to have at a quick access point.

The other pocket is bigger and fairly useless. This is because if you try to put anything in it, it’s going destroy the ability to close the lid. The next picture shows you the rough size of the pocket. 

The carrying system consists of metal-bars welted together, the rucksack then strapped on there with leather straps, nice a simple! Love it!

Anything special?

Well yeah!

Everything on this thing is either canvas, leather, or steel. The stomach belt is thick patted canvas with a nice solid leather belt, I can’t even begin to describe how comfortable it is.

The closing mechanism looks like this:

You pull the cord through, and then you pull on the pointy end, and the big round end makes sure that the rucksack stays closed:

You might also have noticed the dark green nylon present at some of the pockets, this is actually snow-locks, meaning if you use it in the winter you can use them to make sure your gear stays dry! AWESOME!

Negatives?

Nope. None. In my opinion this is a heavy duty workhorse of a rucksack. I love this thing and this is the best rucksack I have ever owned.

I sincerely regret any of the large modern rucksacks I have bought before this one.

Price?  

Bought mine at my usual site, www.varusteleka.com  for 55 Euro (46£ or 73$)

At ebay they go for somewhere between 40 £(46 Euro or 62 $) too 60 £(70 Euro or 93 $)

This time I’m not going to say that if you pay above some amount you are getting screwed over, because this is really a good rucksack, and if you get the chance, GET ONE!

Verdict?

Best rucksack I ever owned, I give it 6 mustached Belgian Officers out of 6.

Thanks for reading
Chris

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