My 10 Month Old Wested Novapelle...

[Louisiana Jones]

So it's been nearly a year of pretty hard use for my Wested and I thought I'd show some pics on how beautifully grained the novapelle leather has gotten. The jacket has seen a fare share of abuse.. honest abuse.. no sandpaper, brick walls or washing machines here. Just hard wear in all sorts of weather doing all sorts of things from wearing to work to construction and chopping down trees.. It's been soaked in rainstorms completely through to my skin and I feel this helped a lot of the grain come out (with absolutely no shrinkage or any other problems from the rain.. so all you guys afraid to get that first drop of water on your jacket.. get out there!! ). I can't say enough how much I love this novapelle hide.. awesome.

When brand new, the hide would soak up water like a sponge, and now that it's had two coats of Montana Pitch Blend over the past year it does perfectly fine in light-moderate rain.. it takes a while for anything to really soak in. If any of you guys are on the fence about which Wested leather to order, and you want a jacket that will really age nicely (mind you that mine is still only ten months old.. it has plenty of aging to do) I would highly recommend their novapelle.

Just for reference, the last coating of leather dressing was applied around Oct.. so after the past few months the color has really lightened up somewhat from how it looks just after the dressing is applied.

Edit: I just wanted to add that when new the jacket had very little grain... nothing like there is now.


















LJ

[crismans]

Very nice! I really like the grain on your jacket.

[Mac]

Nice grain, LJ. Wear it well.

The jacket has seen a fare share of abuse.. honest abuse.. no sandpaper, brick walls or washing machines here.

Michaelson would approve!

- Mac

[CM]

Man, that's nice!

[Orl]

Nice! I like it looks!

[Zendragon]

very nice

[whipwarrior]

Looks great! I love novapelle forever.

[Weston]

It's a beauty! Thanks for showing it off.

Weston

[jacksdad]

very nice jacket.

[Louisiana Jones]

Thanks guys!

LJ

[Cowboy]

Didn't you have problems with the hand warmers being too small? Did you ever get them modified or do you just not use them?

[Louisiana Jones]

Yeah the handwarmer pockets are too small and the side straps are too short (you can see in the pics how short they were made) and the yoke is too low so the action-back is pretty much useless so when I reach forward the back of the jacket just tightens up rather than the pleats extending. But when I got it I just wanted to wear it...rather than deal with sending it back. With summer coming I may send it in to have the side straps made a few inches longer, but I'm not sure if I'll bother them with fixing the pockets.. we'll see. It's sort of become second nature to keep my hands in fists when in the pockets.. it's the only way my whole hand can squeeze in there. We'll have to see though.. I may not send it in at all if I'm still wearing it in the warmer months.

LJ