Caring for an original United Sheeplined A-2

[ausreenactor]

vasiline is just about all that ya need if ya want to soften the feel. if it soaks in fast, give it another rub in.

Did somebody say rub?

 

[mulceber]

reweaving is buco expensive. doing some home darning aint. a once over on the hides with vasiline is just about all that ya need if ya want to soften the feel. if it soaks in fast, give it another rub in.

Yep, you called it: took it to the tailor and she quoted $300 to repair all the holes. She told me I should just get a new one.

I’ll work on darning the holes and rub in some Vaseline after the freezer quarantine.

 

[Flightengineer]

I’m a little reluctant to do anything so extreme as giving it a bath - I just start counting the ways I could mess that up and I shudder. I’ve put it in a plastic bag and stuck it in the freezer though, as that seems like a good precaution that I can’t really mess up.

Hmm..Flightengineer, do you know anything about how she does it? Like is it a special machine, a particular technique? I’d love to chase down someone who could do this, because I’d really like to keep the original knits.

Everything is done manually, with some special hooks and needles. Not machine. The result is overwhelming. This is not just suturing holes, but the full restoration. She told me that she was passed specially education in this knitwear restoration technique.

 

[Silver Surfer]

freezer quarantine? wtf? any nicks in the hides are from when the donor animal was alive. many modern, and assume, back in the day tanneries tried and try to hide these "blemishes". eventually they reveal themselves. moths are long gone also.

 

[mulceber]

freezer quarantine? wtf? any nicks in the hides are from when the donor animal was alive. many modern, and assume, back in the day tanneries tried and try to hide these "blemishes". eventually they reveal themselves. moths are long gone also.

Pilot suggested sealing it in a plastic bag and putting that bag in the freezer for 48 hours, just in case there were still any bugs hanging around. Glad to know that it wasn't necessary, but the jacket seems to have come out the other side just fine. I just finished putting a light coat of vaseline on the jacket (mostly just rubbing the vaseline into my fingers, and then massaging the leather with my hands), and it's already at least half absorbed, which tells me I didn't overdo it.

 

[jeremiah]

Putting a WWII original A2 in a freezer was perhaps the worst thing you could have done to this. You would have frozen any moisture still present within the cell structures of the hide. Good luck with it now.

 

[mulceber]

Putting a WWII original A2 in a freezer was perhaps the worst thing you could have done to this. You would have frozen any moisture still present within the cell structures of the hide. Good luck with it now.

I rather wish you had said something sooner than now. At any rate, the jacket seems to be fine.

 

[jeremiah]

I just checked that part. Missed where it was suggested too.

Eh. Probably will be fine. I wouldn’t sweat it.
I probably just over reacted in shock when I read you actually did it. Ha.

 

[mulceber]

Ah, gotcha. Well, lesson learned, and (knock on wood) without any ill effects.

 

[ausreenactor]

It rubs the lotion on the skin or it gets the freezer again!

 

[Silver Surfer]

i put vodka or rose wine in the freeze for a chill. jackets? nope, not unless i can pour them into a glass when properly stirred, not shaken.

 

[jeremiah]

 

[Pilot]

https://www.quora.com/For-how-long-...too-fragile-to-be-treated-by-any-other-method In 27 years of collecting...never had an issue with the 40++ jackets treated that way...Will continue to do so with all my jackets WW2 leather jackets and others...plus, never had holes nor moths bites nor any other little bugs... No worries with vaseline freezing (or any other petroleum based leather conditioner) ..it starts at approx. -44deg. C...so a lot of safety margin left.
BTW, if petrol ( or synthetic) based oil would freeze in a freezer, there would be not a single commercial aircraft in the air anymore, nor any weapon working in countries like CIS and or others with the mercury dropping far below -20deg.C.

 

[mulceber]

Yeah, I'm not worried about the vaseline - I only applied that later. I think the others were talking about whatever fluids are left in the leather at the cellular level from the tanning process. Although would those even be water-based?

 

[jeremiah]

Yes not the vasoline. I have used that myself in the past.
When hides are tanned the oils and fats in the fibers of the hide are replaced with either the chromium salts in this instance, or tannins from the veg tan process. These chemicals and compounds bind to those fibers and give them longevity as well as flexibility. All leather tanned would turn to rawhide without those.

Think of what happens on the molecular level when freezing takes place. If you could take a microscope you would see the expansion Of those fibers. But lots of factors would be needed for total destruction of the fibers. That said, the WWII replicas we have now are already well beyond their way in that department.

Anyway, like I said. Don’t sweat it. Live and learn. It’s like that old myth that told you to put kerosene in the oil pan after draining the old oil out to clean out the rest before adding fresh oil. Yeah that was a thing being spread around. In certainly sounds good on some level but would ruin the engine if you actually did it.

Ps. Years of sweating and mostly likely other weather would ensure there was good amounts of lots of things which absorbed into that jacket.
Time will tell through but in that you may never know if it was just continued deterioration or the freezer abuse. Ha.

 

[Pilot]

Talking about expansions...Oil and fat does not expand when ( and if) freezing...only water does...all other materials shrink...slightly and if at all.
So unless the hide contained water/moisture, it could not expand not even in molecular size nor at all...dry out a bit ...yes...
My service garage always drains the oil out of the Panamera engine, gear box etc...when putting new oil in it... at least they charge me for it...

 

[jeremiah]

Right. Point is the fats are what are replaced when hides are tanned.

Look at this way.
Fibers are flexible because they are saturated with the tanning compounds and receptors that bind to them. These , even in chrome tanned leather, evaporate over time. More so when leather is wet then left to dry.
As this happens the leather begins to become less pliable and flexible. Think new work gloves and then how they are when you throw them out.
So now let’s freeze it and the fibers already in the way out now have a shock and the expansion can rip the fibers more and when dry now you have broken fibers which contribute to weakened leather which results in tears and breaks.

If the jacket is left to warm up gradually without handling this can be mitigated to some extent.
I was an outdoor guide. I am trained in wilderness medicine as a certified wilderness First Responder through NOLS. I have to be able to detect frostbite or frost nip and know how to treat in the field. Same thing occurring in our body with the freezing. Just more so because we are mostly water. Ha.
Anyway all this happened on a level which we can’t see or even know if it happened. Unless we have a nice microscope. Time will tell.

Hey, that jacket survived who knows what already.
Freezer is just one more battle it went through. Ha.

It rubs the lotion on!!

 

[Pilot]

Will still do it on all my coming leather jackets...especially from WW2 ( and WW1...one Fliegermantel , German Imperial flying coat)...Have no worries at all.

 

[jeremiah]

You are just a balls to the wall kind of guy though. Ha.

 

[Pilot]

You are just a balls to the wall kind of guy though. Ha.

Thx...not at all...just a few years older than you...with a bit of try and errors behind...
Thx. anyway...and “ no guts no glory” ( saw this as art work on a jacket).