Against the Grain

[Smithy]

Naturally mine are well mannered paragons with no vices whatsoever who are adept at striking artistic poses in idyllic landscapes....

View attachment 22253

...but even this old mare has her moments

Someone best grab the Cat O' Nine Tails as I obviously require some severe chastisement for going off topic

Granddad's farm is (my cousin runs it now) a large Kiwi sheep and cattle station so you need working horses to muster and traverse the property, it's a long, long, long way from one side to the other and pretty rugged country. Old Creamy was a bitch with people but good around sheepdogs and livestock. Granddad had a soft spot for the old nag but everybody else couldn't stand her. Not many shed a tear when she kicked the bucket!

 

[Technonut2112]

My Todd's custom Indy jacket is made from calfskin. It's at least 12 years old now, and is still in decent condition despite lot's of wear. I've worn it hard, and found it to be a VERY durable leather jacket. Not sure if it was veg or chrome-tanned. It's one of a few leather jackets that I would never sell. I don't have any recent pics handy, but here are a couple when it was new (damn, how quickly the years go by, and how much younger I look):

 

[Edward]

I flogged a horse... or two.. those thick skinned bastards!

 

[Edward]

... but don't worry, they always got me back... taking their temperature (not in the mouth) they would purposefully hold their tail down so I couldn't lift it but when I won they would fart on me... or pin me against the wall of their stall after I dumped their feed in their bucket.. they knew what they were doing! those thick skinned bastards! lol!

 

[Rutger]

Are you not a fan of goatskin because of the thickness or another reason?

I’m surprised someone hasn’t commented on chrome versus vegetable tanned leather yet. I know most on this site prefer the grainy/broken-in look of the original WWII chrome tanned jackets, but who could blame the reproduction manufacturers for using faster-to-age vegetable tanned leather when we whine about waiting a couple years for a new Good Wear? Patience doesn’t appear to be our virtue. Yes?

The chrome vs veg tanning has me baffled for a long time. Well not baffled, but you catch my drift. I'd want a chrome tanned repro but they're all advertizing veg tanned and proud of it while it's contrary to originals. But then, would one really notice? I don't think so. So…… why bother.

 

[Smithy]

My Todd's custom Indy jacket is made from calfskin. It's at least 12 years old now, and is still in decent condition despite lot's of wear. I've worn it hard, and found it to be a VERY durable leather jacket. Not sure if it was veg or chrome-tanned. It's one of a few leather jackets that I would never sell. I don't have any recent pics handy, but here are a couple when it was new (damn, how quickly the years go by, and how much younger I look):

View attachment 22254View attachment 22255

I had my Wested Raiders out earlier which I'm fond of and my wife said "Why don't you wear that more, it's better than those A-2 ones of yours".

Women eh

It's funny though I've had far more positive comments from women about the Wested than I've ever had about an A-2. Saying that the one leather I have which has had more positive comments from girls by a huge margin is a 70s style jacket I have, it's like a black version of the Fight Club jacket. I wear an A-2, not a squeak but if I wear that 70s thing out I'll have at least two girls say nice things about it.

I have a sneaking suspicion that we're alone in our love of the sexiness of the A-2. Not that I'm going to stop wearing one!

 

[Smithy]

The chrome vs veg tanning has me baffled for a long time. Well not baffled, but you catch my drift. I'd want a chrome tanned repro but they're all advertizing veg tanned and proud of it while it's contrary to originals. But then, would one really notice? I don't think so. So…… why bother.

The reason why I think makers focus on veg tanned is because there's an over riding thing with them to make jackets which look like a 75 year old jacket in a short space of time. That's why you hear so many guys saying, "wow it looks like an original". They want a repro jacket that looks like a 75 wear old original and not how an actual original would wear.

An original looks the way it does now because of operational wear and also the passage of time. If you went back in time an original after two years of wear would not look like repro now would look after two years of wear.

The new high end repros use leathers for the express purpose of weathering quickly and taking on a look which makes them look older than they are.

 

[Micawber]

Were not Sefton A2's chrome tanned? If I could another that fit the new / old me I'd snap it up.

 

[Smithy]

Were not Sefton A2's chrome tanned? If I could another that fit the new / old me I'd snap it up.

Those Sefton ones always (to my eyes at least) look more like originals than a lot of other repros at least in terms of leather with some wear. I personally think a lot of ELC stuff now looks overdone in terms of graining.

We have 4 originals at the museum here (used by 331 and 332 Sqns), each was used extensively operationally and they just don't have the grain that a lot of repros have. They have wrinkling and creasing in high movement areas but not excessive popped grain over the whole jacket.

I might be wrong but I personally think a lot of repros use too much grain. Once again trying to make a jacket look like a 75 year old jacket in short order.

 

[taikonaut]

I had my Wested Raiders out earlier which I'm fond of and my wife said "Why don't you wear that more, it's better than those A-2 ones of yours".

Women eh

It's funny though I've had far more positive comments from women about the Wested than I've ever had about an A-2. Saying that the one leather I have which has had more positive comments from girls by a huge margin is a 70s style jacket I have, it's like a black version of the Fight Club jacket. I wear an A-2, not a squeak but if I wear that 70s thing out I'll have at least two girls say nice things about it.

I have a sneaking suspicion that we're alone in our love of the sexiness of the A-2. Not that I'm going to stop wearing one!

Its the 70s pimp look that gets chicks attention

 

[taikonaut]

The reason why I think makers focus on veg tanned is because there's an over riding thing with them to make jackets which look like a 75 year old jacket in a short space of time. That's why you hear so many guys saying, "wow it looks like an original". They want a repro jacket that looks like a 75 wear old original and not how an actual original would wear.

An original looks the way it does now because of operational wear and also the passage of time. If you went back in time an original after two years of wear would not look like repro now would look after two years of wear.

The new high end repros use leathers for the express purpose of weathering quickly and taking on a look which makes them look older than they are.

On the contrary very few if any modern veg tanned repros look anything like a 75yrs old WW2 original in my opinion. Maybe because I know what an original should look like.

 

[jeremiah]

I rest my case

 

[Micawber]

On the contrary very few if any modern veg tanned repros look anything like a 75yrs old WW2 original in my opinion. Maybe because I know what an original should look like.

Hmmmm. I believe quite a few people here do too.

 

[jeremiah]

My BK dubow is pretty close boys. It’s veg tanned and pigment finished.

 

[33-1729]

Naturally mine are well mannered paragons with no vices whatsoever who are adept at striking artistic poses in idyllic landscapes....

I wish I could write like that ...

 

[Officer Dibley]

On the contrary very few if any modern veg tanned repros look anything like a 75yrs old WW2 original in my opinion. Maybe because I know what an original should look like.

That is a rather arrogant and rude statement to make and implies Smithy and the rest of us are clueless. How about playing nicely ?

 

[Juanito]

I rest my case
View attachment 22256

Boom, baby!

 

[33-1729]

The chrome vs veg tanning has me baffled for a long time. Well not baffled, but you catch my drift. I'd want a chrome tanned repro but they're all advertizing veg tanned and proud of it while it's contrary to originals. But then, would one really notice? I don't think so. So…… why bother.

I don’t doubt that chrome and veg tanned leather will age differently over the long haul as they are tanned differently, though they both look very nice to me. I suppose the item I noticed most when checking out the high end A-2 reproductions in London recently was how heavy they were. I know an original has a leather thickness of ~1mm, but these felt thicker. Is it just me or are the A-2’s of today heavier than the originals?

 

[taikonaut]

That is a rather arrogant and rude statement to make and implies Smithy and the rest of us are clueless. How about playing nicely ?

No. I respect what Smithy says, but I bet even he would admit that repros don't age like an original does. Smithy also says many times on here and I agree that repros does not drape like a WW2 original does.
What Smithy says and I qouted him is that repro makers is trying to make jacket that age quickly like a 75yrs old. Would it fool him? I doubt it.
If Smithy disagree about my post do you think he would not have spoken by now?
BTW I did'nt say everyone is clueless but its your problem you think that way.

 

[stanier]

The reason why I think makers focus on veg tanned is because there's an over riding thing with them to make jackets which look like a 75 year old jacket in a short space of time. That's why you hear so many guys saying, "wow it looks like an original". They want a repro jacket that looks like a 75 wear old original and not how an actual original would wear.

An original looks the way it does now because of operational wear and also the passage of time. If you went back in time an original after two years of wear would not look like repro now would look after two years of wear.

The new high end repros use leathers for the express purpose of weathering quickly and taking on a look which makes them look older than they are.

Sorry to have a different view, but I certainly do not want my jackets to look 75 years old. And I love grainy. Please don't let any of our respected opinions slip into being interpreted as VLJ fact.I go to Ken's pic from another post, however old this jacket is, it's not 75 years and it's stunning, in my opinion.

https://www.vintageleatherjackets.org/attachments/original-a-2-jerky-jpg.22160/