Simon King
Member
Hi,
I had a lovely sheepskin flying jacket from (Cirrus in Norfolk-who seem to no longer exist) many moons ago but it became holey and started tearing. Cirrus patched it up for me but new tears kept appearing and finally it was no longer wearable unless I wanted to look like a vagrant.
I had worn it day in day out for years, in all weathers so thought I had probably had fair wear out of it, but I do wonder what I might have done to better preserve it.
I suspect that it didn't help that I often wore a bag over one shoulder (or the other) with a camera in it, but it was more various places on the back rather than the shoulders where it tore/had holes/wore away, also on the sleeves (see pic) and I can't think why that would be.
The skin had become weak and thin as you can see in the pic below, as if something (too much rain/snow?) had weakened it. At the time I do not believe there were any wool moths anywhere near me or my abode, I certainly had seen none at the time and in fact until more recently knew not what they looked like, so I doubt they were the culprits [unlike now as after we recently stayed at a hotel where we saw them, we later found they had infested our house and now I can't get rid of the blighters- they have eaten the wool lining of my Aero Highwayman- but that's another story]
What I do wonder is whether my sweat was responsible. Sorry to be yucky but I used to walk fast (to keep warm) in lousy weather and in good (because I walk fast everywhere) and used to turn the sleeves inside out to help evaporate it after I got home. However I'm sure that wouldn't have caused deterioration around the sleeves and lower back so I don't really think that was the main culprit. I'm guessing years of doing this can't have helped the integrity of the skin, but is this a known problem with causing the deterioration of sheepskin?
So my questions are:
-is this sort of wear amount normal?
-can I /should I wash sweat out of my flying jacket when I Get a new one?(probably fromAero)
-what can I do to help maintain the quality of the skin?
- how do I kill wool moths without poisoning myself and family and pets?
-was the exposure to weather to blame?
Here's a pic to show that condition of the skin (you can also see a couple of the patched areas-the back was worse).
by contrast this much older (inherited)vintage sheepskin flying jacket is , apart from a tiny repair, still fine
thanks
Simon
I had a lovely sheepskin flying jacket from (Cirrus in Norfolk-who seem to no longer exist) many moons ago but it became holey and started tearing. Cirrus patched it up for me but new tears kept appearing and finally it was no longer wearable unless I wanted to look like a vagrant.
I had worn it day in day out for years, in all weathers so thought I had probably had fair wear out of it, but I do wonder what I might have done to better preserve it.
I suspect that it didn't help that I often wore a bag over one shoulder (or the other) with a camera in it, but it was more various places on the back rather than the shoulders where it tore/had holes/wore away, also on the sleeves (see pic) and I can't think why that would be.
The skin had become weak and thin as you can see in the pic below, as if something (too much rain/snow?) had weakened it. At the time I do not believe there were any wool moths anywhere near me or my abode, I certainly had seen none at the time and in fact until more recently knew not what they looked like, so I doubt they were the culprits [unlike now as after we recently stayed at a hotel where we saw them, we later found they had infested our house and now I can't get rid of the blighters- they have eaten the wool lining of my Aero Highwayman- but that's another story]
What I do wonder is whether my sweat was responsible. Sorry to be yucky but I used to walk fast (to keep warm) in lousy weather and in good (because I walk fast everywhere) and used to turn the sleeves inside out to help evaporate it after I got home. However I'm sure that wouldn't have caused deterioration around the sleeves and lower back so I don't really think that was the main culprit. I'm guessing years of doing this can't have helped the integrity of the skin, but is this a known problem with causing the deterioration of sheepskin?
So my questions are:
-is this sort of wear amount normal?
-can I /should I wash sweat out of my flying jacket when I Get a new one?(probably fromAero)
-what can I do to help maintain the quality of the skin?
- how do I kill wool moths without poisoning myself and family and pets?
-was the exposure to weather to blame?
Here's a pic to show that condition of the skin (you can also see a couple of the patched areas-the back was worse).
by contrast this much older (inherited)vintage sheepskin flying jacket is , apart from a tiny repair, still fine
thanks
Simon
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