HOW TO USE?

How to use

"Your bag is your partner."

The bag you choose is a partner that will live with you and enrich your life. The Morino shipboard canvas (Vinylon canvas) and domestic cotton canvas used by Yokohama Canvas Bags are strong and durable fabrics, but they are not indestructible. Depending on how you use it, the fabric, handles, belts, and metal parts can become damaged and tear, rip, or break.

Raising and lowering the shoulder belt

Yokohama Canvas Bags with shoulder straps have D-rings that fasten the leather parts with round rivets. A high-density nylon woven tape is inserted inside to prevent the leather parts from stretching. As long as the metal rivets are not damaged, it's fine, but if you swing the bag around by holding the shoulder strap or take it off roughly, gravity will be added to the weight of the bag and cause stress.
For example, if the weight of the bag (including the contents) is about 3kg, and you drop it from your shoulder to the ground, gravity (weight x 9.8) will apply a load of about 30kg to the D-ring fasteners at the joint of the shoulder belt for an instant. Since the shoulder belt is joined at two points, each D-ring fastener will be pulled by a force of 15kg. The bag weighs 3kg including the contents, and you are not carrying anything that heavy, but it broke. You will be left lamenting that.
Please also be aware that the seams where the bag is sewn together are also subjected to similar stress.
Therefore, Yokohama Canvas Bags are made from a single piece of fabric and are not sewn together at the bottom. If the bag was made from two pieces of fabric and sewn together at the bottom, the weight x gravity would be applied to the seams, which could cause the threads to break and the bag to puncture. Yokohama Canvas Bags are fine as long as the fabric is not torn.

Raising and lowering by holding the handle

The same goes for handles of tote bags, etc. When lowering a tote bag that you are carrying on your shoulder to the floor or a bench, drop it from your shoulder without waiting for the handle and grab the handle. In this case, the load of weight x gravity is applied to the connection between the handle and the main body (sewing thread, rivets, etc.) just like in the case of shoulder belts, so please do not handle it in this way.
After all, we want you to treat your bag with the same kindness you would treat your partner.
That is the secret to its longevity.

Zipper opening and closing

Yokohama Canvas Bags has products with zippers, and AKB (Aviator's Kit Bag) products in particular have a double zipper with two sliders that allow you to open and close it freely at any point. There is no problem if you place the bag on a table or bench and open and close the zipper, but when you are carrying the bag across your shoulder and try to pull the zipper slider to open and close it, you will inevitably pull the slider toward the selvedge (the part of the fabric where the zipper selvedge is attached) on either the left or right side of the line, even though you should move the slider along the line of the zipper selvedge (the metal part that locks the zipper). If you do this, the metal part of the slider will rub against the zipper selvedge, and if this is done repeatedly in the same place, the selvedge will tear, or the selvedge will tear and the selvedge will come off, making it impossible to open or close the zipper.
Each person has their own way of using things, so just like with shoulder straps or handles, if you treat it roughly, it will break.
The zippers used in Yokohama Canvas Bags products are the world-famous YKK zippers. We use them because we believe they are the best quality product for zipper parts.
I hope that people will once again be considerate of their bags, which have become their partners, and think carefully about how they will use and handle them.

Bag handle to be sashed

This is a Yokohama canvas bag product that comes with a shoulder strap so you can carry it over your shoulder or across your shoulder. It is a model with a handle, such as the AKB (Aviator's Kit Bag) M18B1, M17B2, M19A2, and M17A3.
Many people carry their bag with the handle part sandwiched between their body and the bag when it is sashed. If the handle tape (most Yokohama Canvas Bags use high-density woven acrylic tape) is sandwiched between the body and the bag, it will rub and wear down, causing the woven threads of the handle tape to break or fray.
Therefore, when carrying the bag over your shoulder, be careful to carry the handle part (the part you grip) so that it is not pinched between your body and the bag, but is folded down on the side of the opening of the bag.

MAINTENANCE

Various maintenance methods

We will guide you through the maintenance methods for different fabrics and materials.
(For customization and repairs, click here )

Type-A

About products using Morino Ship Canvas

Handling of markings

The markings on the products are stamped using Shachihata's multipurpose pigment-based ink called TAT. Because it is a pigment-based ink, it will not bleed or peel off even if it gets wet with rain or water, but the markings may peel off and fade if exposed to organic sprays (such as waterproof sprays) or detergents. It is also weak against friction, so the markings may rub off and fade with use, but please enjoy the feeling of them fading with use over time.
Occasionally, some customers rub the marked area with their fingers, but the oil from your fingers and the friction from rubbing can cause the ink to bleed, making it look like it has been erased with a chalkboard eraser, so we ask that you refrain from rubbing the marked area with your fingers.

Caring for Vinylon Canvas

Remove dirt with an eraser

Everyday dirt can be removed to a certain extent by rubbing it with an eraser, so if you are concerned about dirt, be sure to rub it frequently with an eraser to remove it.
Morino Ship Canvas fabric will not easily remove stains caused by water-based or oil-based inks such as ballpoint pens, or stains from color-fast clothing such as denim.
We also use this eraser to remove dirt during production in our workshop, and the best way to remove dirt is to rub it with this eraser.

Remove dirt with household cleaners

Morino Ship Canvas is a waterproof fabric, so just like washing cotton sneakers, scrub with household laundry detergent or a scrubbing brush to remove dirt, then rinse with water. For product models that use leather parts, wash only parts of the product, taking care not to let detergent or water come into contact with the leather parts. If water does come into contact with the leather, wipe off the moisture and dry it in the same way as with leather shoes, and then apply a leather cream oil or similar to the surface.

Remove dirt with solvent

We also use it at the Yokohama Canvas Bag Workshop, where we remove any dirt that may have accumulated during production with a special glue-removing solvent called "Mitsuwa Paper Cement Solvent" by Fukuoka Kogyo Co., Ltd. This solvent is sold in the stationery and art supplies section of Tokyu Hands.
Soak a cotton cloth (such as an old cotton T-shirt or underwear) in the solvent and rub it on the stained area to wipe off the stain. As explained above, this solvent cannot remove stains that have faded from ballpoint pen ink or denim.

For details on Fukuoka Kogyo/Solvert, click here

Type-B

About products using domestic cotton canvas

Paraffin-treated fabric

This is a No. 9 cotton canvas fabric that has been permeated with paraffin (wax), making it water-repellent. Therefore, even if you soak it in water, the fabric will not absorb the water, so it cannot be washed with water. It is physically possible to wash it by soaking the fabric in hot water to dissolve the paraffin (wax) that has permeated the fabric, but this will remove the characteristics of the fabric, so we do not recommend it.
Basically, even if it gets dirty, you can enjoy the changes that occur over time (aging) as evidence of use. The fabric is more permeated with paraffin (wax) than non-paraffin-treated cotton canvas fabric, so even if the surface of the fabric is rubbed, it will have a nice texture with a slightly glossy finish similar to that of leather.
To remove dirt, use an eraser, just like Morino Ship Canvas.
Also, paraffin-treated fabrics may have white streaks caused by chalking on the folds of the fabric, which is a characteristic of paraffin-treated fabrics. These white streaks are caused by the paraffin soaking into the fabric, so you can remove them by placing a cloth over the streaked area and ironing it at a low temperature.

Canvas fabric

The domestically produced cotton canvas fabrics used are No. 8 canvas (thin) and No. 6 canvas (thick).
This item can be washed with water using household detergent, but since the surface has been printed, silk-printed, or flocked, please avoid using bleach or other cleaning agents.
Also, because the bag is bag-shaped, if you wash it in a washing machine in the same way as clothes, the water pressure on the bag itself will be greater than the bag's capacity, which may cause the seams to tear, so we recommend washing it by hand as much as possible.

Cotton and acrylic handle

Many of the B Model B11K series and B15-18 cotton handles and other high density woven acrylic handle tapes are off-white in color, so if you want to remove dirt from just the handle, apply detergent to just the handle and hand wash it. For off-white types, it is easier to remove dirt by using detergent mixed with bleach.

Other usage methods
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