How to age (or destroy?) a CXL FQHH Highwayman (pic heavy)

[Jejupe]

I have never tried it with leather, but one thing that works excellently with wood is to burnish it with raw, unwashed sheep's wool. It takes forever, but the lanolin gives it a special texture and sheen.

That might be a good idea also for my finishing my jacket. Now if I only could find some raw sheepwool I could try it...

 

[Jejupe]

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[red devil]

Thanks for sharing the experiment, if anybody is still babying his jacket this should cure him

The end result is much better than most distressed jacket on the market, although doesn't look as good as a 50 years old jacket. I really like the mindset you had to select a jacket and start experimenting!

 

[Jejupe]

I will continue this experiment by using some leather oil on the jacket. It should make exposed light areas darker and the effect of my sanding a little more subtle.


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[Jejupe]

Stage 2 - the oil.

Makes also the extra nipples go away!

In my opinion. Looks much better with very thin coat of oil. More liberal use of oil can hide mistakes like the ”nipples” I did on my jacket.

 

[Guppy]

It will be interesting to see how it looks after the oil has dried, but that does look better.

 

[red devil]

Indeed, I wonder if several coats of oil would make a difference

 

[Jejupe]

Indeed, I wonder if several coats of oil would make a difference

I think that several coats of oil will make this jacket look like oilpull. That’s what its like in areas where I put more oil.

Of course, like Guppy said we will see the end result when the oil has fully dried.

I would bet it will look very much the same is in my photos above, because the thin coat didn’t even wet the leather, it just changed the colour of sanded areas.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

That looks much better with the oil rub...but I wouldn't over do it. To me it looks good now.
You should be able to get a sheep's wool small hand buffing pad at any shoe shop or maybe even near or with a shoe polish display in some larger stores.

 

[El Marro]

Otherwise I would have also rubbed it with oil, road grime, food, beer and all possible bodily fluids and excrements.

Be careful now. I once tried ageing a jacket with bodily fluids and excrements and I wasn't terribly happy with the end result...

 

[Jejupe]

Be careful now. I once tried ageing a jacket with bodily fluids and excrements and I wasn't terribly happy with the end result...

I can imagine. Its a tough choice between making a credible looking vintage replica jacket and not smelling like busload of unwashed hobos. So far I am content with less authenticity.

 

[Jejupe]

Stage 3: The feces

 

[Butch_Coolidge]

I initially thought you were nuts , before I saw the process of what you did. However, your pictures and descriptions tell otherwise. The final product looks very cool [emoji41], not unlike my favorite jacket that has gone there naturally per say from years of service. Nice job, and for any naysayers it is your choice to do what you want. You seem to know your craft, and thankfully it does not resemble the acid washed denim of the 80’s. I’ll bet you will get a lot of compliments.


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[ProteinNerd]

It looked great after the dryer...but I think as others have said, the sanding made it look too artificial imo....

The oil helped a lot, I'd leave it as it is if it were mine but as you said its your jacket.....very intersting thread though, thanks for sharing your experiment!

As a thought, have you seen this guys instructional video?

 

[BlueWallpaper]

Stage 2 - the oil.

Makes also the extra nipples go away!

In my opinion. Looks much better with very thin coat of oil. More liberal use of oil can hide mistakes like the ”nipples” I did on my jacket.

This really looks great. I think at all stages your jacket looks better than it did new, but not as good as if you'd distressed it by wearing it for ten years (the last iteration is really close in my opinion though). So other than robbing yourself of the distressed look you might get if you'd worn it for ten years I'd say this is a really good job!

I just don't have the balls to do it to my Aero BR! I sort of wish I did... but I think I could only do it to a jacket I effectively didn't wear in it's original state, not a 'main' jacket.

EDIT: "Nipples were indeed an amateur mistake by me" is my favorite part of this post.

 

[zebedee]

I reckon it looks great. I'd never do it.

 

[58panheadfan]

Sometime it doesn't take long to reach a real patina* (depending on leather). In this case 3yrs nearly daily wear on a Golden Bear HH tea core jacket

*The fading on left shoulder comes from the strap of a bag...

 

[Jejupe]

Sometime it doesn't take long to reach a real patina* (depending on leather). In this case 3yrs nearly daily wear on a Golden Bear HH tea core jacket

*The fading on left shoulder comes from the strap of a bag...

Nice jacket! I don't own any teacore jacket, but I reckon those create this type of patina a lot quicker than for example CXL.

I could never achieve this type of patina naturally, because I rotate between about 15-20 jackets. I have hard time braking in new jackets. Getting patina on any of those would take me 100 years.

 

[Jejupe]

What I don't like about my jacket after this treatment is the matte, oiled nubuck kind of feel the leather has now. Maybe I can try to polish that with sheep wool later on.

 

[Jejupe]

Question for the experts here. Why is it called "Patina"?Patina should be something added to the original material, sort of a new layer over the leather, or it's like this among the museum quality artifacts makers. It is what happens i.e. with old leather such as bags. Intensively handled over the years or decades they develop a glossy layer due to the fat left by the hands. Here I just see a loss of color, scratches bringing to light the original, natural color of the leather. Just curios.

I cannot give you a proper answer. English is not my first language. Most of the time I just pick random words and hope they are correct.