Lacquer on sheepskin jackets

[better duck]

Hi gang,
A repost from a thread on VLJ3: some pages, reproduced in Sweeting's Combat Flying Clothing, descibing how to repair "unsightly" sheepskin, where the lacquer seal finish has split or pealed off.
Hope you can read this (if not: please PM me, I'd gladly e-mail you the original photos I took from the book. Then you can enlarge the text as much as you like):

 

[John Lever]

Peter, I wonder if the skins of today are still coated with cellulose lacquer ? It's so shiny and I can't imagine that it would last long without peeling. Some of the contemporary photos show very shiny jackets much more so than today, where fashions are for more dull finishes.
I remember seeing an early ELC B-3 that peeled off it's outer skin and it looked like a bad case of sunburn

 

[better duck]

Peter, I wonder if the skins of today are still coated with cellulose lacquer ? It's so shiny and I can't imagine that it would last long without peeling. Some of the contemporary photos show very shiny jackets much more so than today, where fashions are for more dull finishes.
I remember seeing an early ELC B-3 that peeled off it's outer skin and it looked like a bad case of sunburn

Hi John,
Here are some photos of my own ELC B3 after some 12 years of wearing it during the winter months. These are not the best photos, but you can see the seal paint has cracked and split in places. I thinks it looks quite authentic, without (yet) being unsightly. From a few feet away the paint still seems OK and the impression of the jacket is a uniform seal colour.

 

[John Lever]

Peter, that is the acrylic coating coming off. The lacquer would be completely transparent and I doubt that your jacket is coated with it.

 

[better duck]

Peter, that is the acrylic coating coming off. The lacquer would be completely transparent and I doubt that your jacket is coated with it.

You're right of course. Wouldn't a lot of WW2 jackets just have the acrylic coating and no lacquer finish?

 

[John Lever]

I think the lacquer was probably only an in theatre fix.

 

[tamoko]

I have lost this link, but i remember that Jackets "lacquer finish" have same formula like transparent nail lacquer. I don't know what makes it more elastic for big piece of leather but i think you can use to repair some scratch.

 

[zoomer]

"Acetone will be handled with care, the flash point being 3°F."
:? Does that mean it is liable to spontaneously combust at anywhere above deep-freeze temperatures?
Or is flashpoint simply the temperature at which it can ignite from an outside source?