Bought a new Wested for the fun of it, thought I would share!

[Bogie1943]

This takes me back to the old days at COW, my gosh, well here are some pics of my new Wested. It's the Authentic Lamskin with all the perks. This is my next to last Indy Jacket I plan on buying, I want a lambskin from FS and then I think I will call it quits, four jackets may be enough. This is a size 38R, if anyone has a size 38 or 40 FS lamb and wanting to sell let me know.

[Bogie1943]

Back

[Bogie1943]

No, I am not doing some form of martial arts...

[Bogie1943]

Time to compare...old wested cowhide...

[Bogie1943]

FS Goat...

[Bogie1943]

My new Authentic Lamb....

[Bogie1943]

cowhide pocket...

[Bogie1943]

goatskin pocket...

[Bogie1943]

authentic lamb pocket...

[Bogie1943]

the whole shabang...enjoy...

[Bogie1943]

Color compare, shot with my Canon XL-2, please excuse the slight fuzzy appearence, this is a screen grap from video footage.

[Matt Deckard]

congratulations. You know you need to wear it on all your adventures to give it that Man of action look.

[Cienfuegos]

Congratulations my friend!!

Take her with health
You there is heco a good buy. I possess a Raiders GOAT, and the truth I am very satisfied with her.:)

Regards;)

[Bogie1943]

Thanks Matt, yes, indeed, I need to distress it, I have thought about it. It's just hard when they are new, ya want to baby them, but after a while that wears off. If and when I do distress the jacket, I am going to be much more gentle than I was with my old Wested cowhide. Cienfuegos, thank you also for the kind words. Yes I love my goat skin jacket as well.

[Chamorro]

FYI. I just talked to the people over at FS and the wait is now into late January of 2005 for a new Expo.

Their customer service sucks now too. They used to be the best in the business but ever since Dave left that's all shot to hell.

My advice is to buy now if your going to buy and buy the ready-made old showroom stock.

It can't be too long before quality suffers too under their new Reich.

[Cienfuegos]

How is at present the service that FS gives?
I don't Know. Only I that does aprximadamente one year bought an A2 of them, and the service and the quality were very good.
The truth is that I cannot complain, So much with FS, Eastman and Wested I have had very good experiences.

Regards

[Strider]

Wow, that cowhide Wested looks gorgeous. Pure Indy, man. Did you distress it yourself, or is that distress from natural wear and tear?

[BellyTank]

Hey Bogie- when the time comes and you want to "age" your next jacket try the "hot water technique", this is a technique which has been used by many of the members of the Vintage Flight Jacket forums to age repro flight jackets-
It envolves applying hot or even boiling water to areas of the leather and then scrunching, wringing, abrading, jumpin-up-and-down-on, etc. of the jacket to relax the hardness of the finish and hide and give some fatigue, character and
wrinkling to the leather- the achieved effect mimicking years of naturalwear.
It can be an on-going work- see how you go- cautiously at first and then more daring- try a small part first- then a bit more. You can get good wrinkling at the inside of the elbows by saturating with hot water and then flexing your arms a lot.
But you should be cautious at first- it's difficult to predict how the particular hide will react due to hide weight and finish . Most of the ageing that has been done is on horsehide, which is pretty robust and achieves great looking character and natural looking grain on a nice A-2 repro.
Sandpapering and other similar "ageing" techniques don't have a patch on the technique mentioned, although a combination of both is better than just removing the finish to acieve the effect.
If you want more information, I can direct you to some images.
BT.

[Cienfuegos]

I would like to see some pics, to see the results.

Regards

[schwammy]

Not to curb your enthusiasm, but as an authentic lamb owner, I would dissuade anyone from intentionally distressing this leather. Normal wear will take care of that in short order. I have had mine for about a year now and it looks much older, simply from everyday wear. The edges of the cuffs, in particular, are in danger of getting worn through, merely from daily contact with the wrist rest on my keyboard. This is not your father's Wested lamb. This stuff ages like dog years - for every year you own it, it ages seven years. Artificially aging it would only accelerate the arrival of the day when you will need to order a replacement jacket.

[BellyTank]

Of course, as you mention Schwammy, Lambskin is far too unsustantial for this type of treatment- it's much more suited to more rugged hides such as Horse or Steer- those which would normally take years to wear-in. The "hot water treatment" is good for loosening up a new jacket- making it more comfortable and taking out the "squeak" of a new jacket.
I'm sure someone with a Lambskin jacket would see the logic in not applying hot water to it...
Attached are pics of 2 a fellow flight jacket enthusiast's repro A-2s which he has aged with this technique.
-the following is his text-

"Repro Jacket Aging
These photos are of two jackets that I've aged, using the hot water technique and sanding, wrinkling, and even finish removal. The results are quite realistic if one wants a jacket to look older and more used than it is. For the hot water technique, I simply let the leather sit under running hot water for about 30 seconds, and then dry it off (not letting the non-leather elements get wet). I then wrinkle the leather and try to get the natural texture to come out, sometimes with very vigorous mashing. Afterwards, I let the leather sit naturally, or wear the jacket, as the leather really is wet all the way to the inside. Since the leather's been mashed, the natural texture comes out and it looks a lot more like the older leather, rather than stiff and straight. The modern techniques of tanning tend to add a little too much of the pigment on the leather, and it becomes too stiff and featureless, so hot water relaxes it. I've never seen a finish completely removed, but only softened to a state of looking more natural. The McQueen jacket is a prime example. It takes a little while and will hurt the hands after about ten minutes, so you may take a couple days to get a jacket softened."

-The Russet jacket is a Real McCoys New Zealand pre-war "Werber" contract and the Seal brown example is a copy of the Virgil(Great Escape)Hilts, Roughwear Clothing A-2. These are premium repros in Horsehide and pretty expensive but similar results would be obtained with other Horse or Steer jackets.
BTank.

[BellyTank]

Oops- the pics-

[BellyTank]

Oops again-

[Cienfuegos]

I am impressed by the result.

I possess an A2 Horsehide de Eastman that is the one that it is usual for me to use there is diary to work, and there are times I am with the quandary of if the jacket must get worn out naturally or on the contrary accelerate the process.

Has it proved this system with the jackets of Goatskin?

Regards:)

[BellyTank]

Cienfuegos, you'd have to try it a little.
The idea is that the hot water softens the finish and the hide a little depending on how much you apply and how much you let it soak in. But when a jacket's wet, yopu can wrinkle, skrinkle and generally abuse the leather to give it some character before it would attain such an effect with normal wear. I hate wearing a new, squeaky leather jacket.
I have used this method on horse and steer hide jackets and it works well- although I don't have a digital camera, so I can't show you- I've sold both jackets recently anyway.
I have no experience with the technique and Goatskin but it's grain and fibre characteristics are quite different from horse and cow/steer.I'm sure it would work though- but you just need to be careful how you go until you feel that you can predict what's going to happen. This is my disclaimer!
It just looks a lot more natural than an otherwise new looking jacket that has had the finish scraped and scratched and sand-papered off. You can also use acetone or whatever solvent works with the particular finish but again be very careful. Steel wool(wire wool?) works a little better than sandpaper- it's a little gentler- and again if the leather is damp when you scratch at the finish it has a gentler, not so harsh effect on the leather. Experimentation is the key but generally wearing the jacket all the time, screwing it up in a ball and sitting on it, putting it in a cold tumble drier fro 30 min. And rubbing it around in your hands while your watching TV- a few weeks of that results in bringing out some grain and sore hands- the hot water accelerates this though.

What type of Goatskin jacket do you have?
Attached is my favourite jacket.
Belly.

[Cienfuegos]

Thank you for the information Belly Tant!
I like this jacket!!!
At present I possess in Goatskin a Raiders Jacket of Wested,
Also I possess as I said previously an A2 Horside de Eastman, and a Hartmann of the luftwaffe also of Eastman but this one is of Steerhide, the last one is the one that it is usual for me to use for the motorcycle.

I have tried to fix some pics, but I have not been able:cry:

Regards

[shadwell55]

Is that a raiders or ToD style?
How long did it take to get?
I am real close to ordering this jacket, but need to be sure. Flightsuiuts is too dang expensive and everything I hear about US wings is to stay away.

Is the dark brown lambskin the closest color to that which was in the films???

[wemedge]

Bogie1943:

I like your new Wested jacket. Looks very good! Nice fit on you. Looks like we're the same size. I wear a 38R too.

I ordered a Horsehide Raiders-style from Wested on January 1. Hope they get some horsehide soon!

Regards,

wemedge

[Mr. Rover]

So how does this technique get the water on? Do you just take a pot of hot water and pour it on the jacket? Or a cup and pour it on certain little spots? Or do you dip a towel in it and wringe it out onto the jacket?

ray

[bfrench]

Is that a raiders or ToD style?
How long did it take to get?
I am real close to ordering this jacket, but need to be sure. Flightsuiuts is too dang expensive and everything I hear about US wings is to stay away.

Is the dark brown lambskin the closest color to that which was in the films???

Hi, Folks,

I mostly lurk here but in the past four months I've bought a M-422a and a vegetable tanned goatskin historic A-2 from Flights Suits.

I had to return the A-2 because of sizing problems - mine - and their service and turn around time were fantastic - couldn't say enough about them.

The turn around to make another A-2 was less than two weeks and they missed their deadline and they're fast freighting the jacket to me at their expense.

You pay a little more but you do get service and quality.

It shows when the wait time for a new Indy's jacket is 5 months - must be a lot of satisified customers.

Bill French

PS - Just got off the phone with FS - 10:30AM EDT - and the wait for an Expedition jacket is two ( 2 ) weeks not five months.

Best to check things out for yourselves.

[scotrace]

Pants and jackets... Maybe just a little marketing bump.

http://cgi.ebay.com/INDIANA-JONES-TROUSERS-PANTS-BY-WESTED_W0QQitemZ8327121988QQcategoryZ15669QQssPage NameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/INDIANA-JONES-LEATHER-JACKET-Raiders-By-Wested_W0QQitemZ6794387887QQcategoryZ52755QQssPage NameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem