Alpha MA1 / CWU Jackets

[legality]

Hi
I have just bought an Alpha MA1 and a CWU jacket, both sage nylon. I love the jackets, but the nylon is very shiny. I wondered if there was any way of 'ageing' the nylon - or does that just result in trashed jackets?

Any hints / guidance / previous experience of this?

Cheers

 

[Seb Lucas]

You can dry clean it and that'd take some of the sheen off. Problem with these jackets is that they don't seem to use the DuPont 6-6 flight satin any more but some generic nylon which appears to be thinner and shinier.

 

[legality]

Thank you - I'll give that a go. Sounds much better than my idea of sandpaper which I imagine would just trash the jackets!

 

[legality]

Tried the dry cleaning suggestion and it's helped. Still a bit 'new and shiny looking' so any other suggestions are welcome.

Thanks

 

[karhu21]

My experience with those jackets is that the shine fades with time. Wearing them in the rain often helps too.
I have an old one but could not stretch to expensive dry cleaning so I threw it in a warm (40deg.C) wash and
tumble dry and it still looks fine! Its up to you but thats my 10p worth.

 

[Peacoat]

Many of these old flight jackets have been unintentionally shrunk several sizes by washing and drying, rather than dry cleaning. If the label says "Dry Clean Only," that is what I would do. In the vintage jackets, any thing other than dry cleaning is the kiss of death. I have two left from my pilot days that that require dry cleaning.

You could try leaving them in the sun for a week or so and see how that goes. Or use 000 steel wool on the finish to remove the shine.

 

[Seb Lucas]

Steel wool is a good idea - use a light touch.