I was wondering if anyone knew how to make the leather on the US Wings Vintage Cowhide wrinkle? I've done just about everything I can to it, but I can't get it to destress as far as the leather getting good and worked in. I've had it for over 2 years now but I can't get it wrinkle, the leather is real soft but firm and holds its shape. Any ideas to get the Indy look? Thanks!
Ditto with my USW Vintage Cow I bought three years ago.
I think it has to do with the fact that the cowhide is much thicker
than goat or lamb, and it tends to let any wrinkles that you may
start to get "hang out" and go away when you hang it up in the closet.
I have a Buffalo hide jacket from Aero that is like this as well. It
doesn't seem to want to develope any new creases or wrinkles. The only
ones that it has are the natural creases in the leather from when the
buffalo was alive!
I will say that my USW jacket is the same. It has some natural creases
in it from when the cow was alive.
This is also the reason you don't want to get any extra length added to
your sleeves when you get a cowhide jacket. They will not ride up as
with goat or lamb.
Since I have cowhide jackets which are thicker than others, I would only add that I noticed that it's not only the thickness but the coarseness and density of the pebbling effect on the surface of the hide itself, IMO, that contributes to it being one durable leather not susceptible to the same natural creasing or drape of smooth type leathers like lambskin.
You may have already done this, and if you haven't, two years worth of wear should have had more than the same effect. One way to soften leathers is to turn it inside out, zipped up, and put it in the dryer set on no heat for a while. This works the leather without beating it up. I put my distressed cow in for a couple of hours and it softened it up quite a bit. This may no give it wrinkles, but it may work it enough to get to the point where it wrinkles a little quicker.
I have the Wings goatskin. I've had it for about 2 years, very tough to distress. As for wrinkling, what worked for me was to put some rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle, adjust the spray so that it comes out in a fine mist.
Then I sprayed both sleeves just enough to wet them lightly, not enough to soak them. After that, I just pushed the sleeves up so the bottom of the cuff was at about my elbow. I wore it like that for about 5-10 minutes, after that I let the sleeves back down.
While not a totally permanent fix, (I had to repeat the process a few weeks later) it did give the sleeves some wrinkle for a while. I think that US Wings just uses pretty resilient leathers. Having gone after the goat with acetone and it hasn't lifted much if any color.
