Dulling down the shine

Discuss technique for prolonging the life of your gear or giving it that aged look

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RedburnIV
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Dulling down the shine

Post by RedburnIV »

Hey Guys, I was wondering if you knew a way to dull down the shine of a goatskin jacket, I'm not lookin for totally distressing but just so that I dont blind people on a sunny day...haha



Regards, Dan
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Post by Alabama Jones »

I think the gurus say rubbing alcohol will reduce the shine, if you aren't looking to necessarily distress.
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Post by Luisiana Jones »

But wouldnt alcohol harm the leather? :roll: just a thought...
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Ken
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Post by Ken »

Alabama is right - just give it a rub down with some alcohol - don't put on too much pressure aas this will start to remove the color but giving it a wash as it were (in painting terms) with alcohol should hopefully remove most of the sheen.

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Post by Scandinavia Jones »

Rubbing alcohol does the job. Not harmful if jacket is cared for properly (i.e. apply leather dressing once a year or so).

The Swindiana Method works as well. Simply wear your jacket when it rains. Shine is reduced and jacket conforms a bit to your body, making it look more like "your" jacket. A nice, non-chemical method (well, to an extent - beware of acid rain...) :wink:
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Post by Texas Jones »

Acetone or alcohol will remove the shine but be careful--chemicals will alter the color a little. Be sure to "test" it in an area unseen like the inside of the jacket.
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Post by Swindiana »

SJ; Thanks buddy. :)

As it were:
NEW
WORN in rain.

Tumple dryer, no heat, inside pillow case, zipped up, -will also reduce it a bit and soften it up.

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Post by Scandinavia Jones »

And there's that pic of the old gearhead with his red cotton Wested again! :lol:
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Post by Swindiana »

Scandinavia Jones wrote:And there's that pic of the old gearhead with his red cotton Wested again! :lol:
And at that time, he had more accurate pants. (I think he pointed that out to me in Finnish, though I should've had you or VP there to translate the whole thing for me...) :wink:

I'm the wiser of us know though! :D

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Post by Scandinavia Jones »

Swindiana wrote:And at that time, he had more accurate pants. (I think he pointed that out to me in Finnish, though I should've had you or VP there to translate the whole thing for me...) :wink:
You bet he did. He wasn't too nice about his pant advantage either:

Image
:lol: :wink:
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Post by Ken »

Swindy

So Sacandanavia hasn't swayed you to distressing your jacket yet with the marvellous job he did on his?

Sacandy

Whats with the Blackadder look?

Ken :)
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Post by Scandinavia Jones »

Indiana Ken wrote:Whats with the Blackadder look?
Well... wanted to change my avatar, came across this cheerful little pic of me in a cavalier's outfit... a bit of change to all those pics of that strange man wearing a brown felt hat. :P

Besides, Blackadder has been discussed on the forum - thus, my avatar is very up-to-date with current COW issues... :wink:

Thanks for your kind words re: my jacket, Ken! Again, that means a lot coming from you... :D

Your sinister, albeit loyal padawan,
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Post by Indiana Texas-girl »

There's also fingernail polish remover, which has acetone as the main ingredient.
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Post by Mola Ram »

Scandinavia Jones wrote:And there's that pic of the old gearhead with his red cotton Wested again! :lol:
oh no!

not that again :lol: I remember the entire conversation like it was
last week.
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Post by Indiana Jess »

Scandinavia Jones wrote:And there's that pic of the old gearhead with his red cotton Wested again! :lol:
Maybe Indy IV is going to be a cross between Indiana Jone and Mr. Rogers ... :-k As far as using alcohol goes - after years of research I know for a fact it does a great job of distressing and taking the shine off ... your liver.
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Post by Ken »

Indiana Jess wrote:
Scandinavia Jones wrote:And there's that pic of the old gearhead with his red cotton Wested again! :lol:
Maybe Indy IV is going to be a cross between Indiana Jone and Mr. Rogers ... :-k As far as using alcohol goes - after years of research I know for a fact it does a great job of distressing and taking the shine off ... your liver.
Now thats one instance where I will advocate natural distressing!

Ken
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Post by Swindiana »

:lol:

You'll have to translate that again, SJ. That's EXACTLY what he said!! ;)
Swindy

So Sacandanavia hasn't swayed you to distressing your jacket yet with the marvellous job he did on his?
Well... I've already done a bit! But it's so subtle that it will not show up in any pictures. :lol: I've gone Volvo on it, safety first. ;)

I'd say it actually shows up best in THIS 1 shot.

Here are three more though;

TWO
THREE
FOUR

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Post by Ken »

Jacket looks good - certainly doesnt look shiny brand new anyway! Just do what you're comfortable with. You can always distress somethign more - undistressing, now thats a different story!

Ken
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Post by Swindiana »

Thanks, Ken. Most of it comes from wear I guess, and the distressing is actually more of highlighting of the seams and edges I think, though some of the "open area" distressing doesn't show up in the shots. We'll see if I'll leave it as is or take it any further later on. ;) One tough goat!

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Post by VP »

Scandinavia Jones wrote:
Swindiana wrote:And at that time, he had more accurate pants. (I think he pointed that out to me in Finnish, though I should've had you or VP there to translate the whole thing for me...) :wink:
You bet he did. He wasn't too nice about his pant advantage either:

Image
Se kirjoitetaan kulläkin pienellä: Kadonneen aarteen metsästäjät. Ähäkutti on yhteen ja suuresti muistuttaa ei ole hyvää suomea.

Nice pic. :lol:
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Post by Scandinavia Jones »

VP wrote:Se kirjoitetaan kulläkin pienellä: Kadonneen aarteen metsästäjät. Ähäkutti on yhteen ja suuresti muistuttaa ei ole hyvää suomea.
Nice pic. :lol:
Cheers, VP.

Olen tosin hieman toista mieltä. "Ähä kutti" on täysin hyväksyttävä muoto. Näin myös "ähäkutti" sekä "ähä-kutti". Olet täysin oikeassa muista kieliopillisista seikoista - "muistuttaa suuresti" on selvästi a case of hoono soomi, myönnän... se siitä seuraa kun unenpöpperössä yrittää kirjoittaa leukavia... :oops:
Filmin nimen suuret alkuirjaimet ovat, sanoisinko "in Finglish"... :wink:


And, without further ado, back to our original programming...
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Post by ob1al »

It's all double-dutch to me. :wink:
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Post by Scandinavia Jones »

ob1al wrote:It's all double-dutch to me. :wink:
Just clearing up some points re: insults in Finnish... :wink:
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Post by Captain D »

It's funny that this dude probably has no idea we're chatting about him here on COW... us gearheads don't miss anything, eh? lol :wink: .

Neo: Just as a suggestion, as it was said ealier, perhaps take it easy with the rubbing alcohol on the jacket...Goatskin is a pretty good water repellent leather. However, too much may reduce this benefit. If you use the rubbing alcohol on your jacket, try to keep er' Pecarded down every once in awhile to keep it, at least, in good condition. Take care of it and it will take care of you...Congrats once again on your jacket my friend!

Kind Regards,
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Squeak?

Post by Ghos7a55assin »

Does the use of alcohol on the jacket cause it to get squeaky? I tried some acetone nail polish remover on the bottom of the back panel to ty to reduce some shine, and the area lost the shine, but got really squeaky. I put some pecards on the area to reduce the friction.

ray
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Post by AceTachyon »

Scandinavia Jones wrote: The Swindiana Method works as well. Simply wear your jacket when it rains. Shine is reduced and jacket conforms a bit to your body, making it look more like "your" jacket. A nice, non-chemical method (well, to an extent - beware of acid rain...) :wink:
Interesting method.

If there's no rain pending, could you get the same result using a spray bottle?
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Post by Indiana Jerry »

AceTachyon wrote:If there's no rain pending, could you get the same result using a spray bottle?
Actually, if I'm right, they mean a lot more water than that. Probably a better substitute would be a garden hose. One of those threads out there discussed 'water distressing', or something like that - taking new jackets and absolutely deluging them w/ water and then letting them dry out, to change the surface look. (Not that I advise this, especially if you have a lamb, which could soak up water.)

All that said, I got pretty durn soaked walking in the rain - torrential, over last winter (it only rains here, no snow), and I still have a shine.

Is there any other method that might work, SHORT of acetone or alcohol?

(It's an authentic lamb.)

Thanks,
J
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Ken
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Post by Ken »

I wouldn't recommend letting a leather jacket get too wet. One of the stunt jackets I used in my films ended up in the swimmin scenes and it is now creased to heck. Don't get me wrong it looks amazing and like a true Indy jacket but its quite stiff and way beyond casual distressing

Ken
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