Swiss Army knife

[Indiana Max]

Anyone in here ever tried to treat his Wested etc. with a Swiss Army knife, like the original in the film was treated:?: Any special methods :
I want to try this, but first ask, if anybody know some tricks about

[raider 57]

Just some ideas. :idea: ...First off...I've never tried to treat a jacket this way myself, but I have used knives to distress woodworking and model projects. The technique probably involves dragging the blade perpendicularly across the leather with the top of the knife ahead ,and with the blade edge trailing. Work on small areas, Sort of scraping the leather's surface. You would want to start with light pressure and increase it until you get the desired abraded look to the leather. Changing the blade angle also changes the effect. You'll need to have the jacket flat on a large table or bench work surface and have someone hold the particular jacket area steady while you work on it. Of course any style knife can do the job. Another idea is to use several blades of different sharpness. I've found somewhat dull blades are often good for this type of work, since you can apply heavier pressure without causing deep cuts or severe damage to your work. Also, WATCH YOU HANDS! Heavy gloves may be in order if you use a sharp knife. Again, I never did this to a leather jacket, but I think this would work. If you proceed slowly, some authentic abrasions could be made. Maybe begin on an inconspicuous area, then you can bailout if it doesn't go well. You could also practice on any leather scraps you may have, like an old belt or something. Hope that helps.
raider 57

[Anderson]

I used the pocket knife method on my Wested Lambskin and liked the results, though I was going for minimal distressing. I went along all the different seams and edges with the knife, just sort of scraping the pigment off until I got the look I wanted. The look was, in my opinion, much more natural than sandpaper.

However, a pocket knife isn't practical for distressing the rest of the jacket- I tried for a while, with little result, to distress a small section of the main body to see if it could be done, and it did little other than taking the shine off nicely. That's where I'm guessing the sandpaper/steel wool came into play with the original Raiders jacket.

Personally, I'm a student of the Michaelson School of Natural Distressing, even though i did want those seams slightly scuffed

M.R.