My Wested Jacket looks Grey

[Jesus12PC]

Hi everyone, this is my first post, so I'm really exited about interacting with the community. Less than a mont ago I got a Wested Leather Raiders Jacket Standard (Not Hero) in BROWN GOATSKIN. So far, I'm really happy with the quality of my Jacket, and it fits me really nice. The problem is that, although I'm not behind of SA, it doesn't look at all like a Indy's Jacket. I have distressed it a bit to remove the "Glossy" finish of the Jacket, which has helped in looking more worn, but now it's even more Grey than Before. I also did the water treatment to get creases, which is something that has worked really nice. I already know that Goatskin is almost indestructible, but in the Wested Leather product page it shows a Dark Brown color, not what I have recieved in the end. My distressing has been rough in almost "invisible" spots. I used acetone and rubbing alcohol to bring up the brown color without any luck, and sanding the jacket in general only helped to removed the finish, but the colour is the same. Do you have some advices? I contacted to Wested and they told me that the Color settles after the jacket "starts to break-in", but so far, no luck. Do anyone knows if I could Re-dye it? Or if normal wear will make the color more brown?
Thank you all for reading me, I know that there are more importants things to consider but I'm a little bit dissapointed. Any advide/suggestion is welcomed. I leave photos below.

[Indiana Croft]

Welcome to COW, you’re in for good things.
That and

Jacket looks good on you. Once broken in, it’ll conform to you.

So, I too love to tweak my new jackets, even S&J who distress before assembling. Quite an art.

So I too had a Wested with the same grey undertones, has something to do with how the leather is finished.
No expert on the terminology, you do some searching in the distressing section, and you’ll find a lot of info.

So after I’d done my distressing on my Wested, I had the same grey undertone, there’s a dark brown leather dye (Fiebings leather dye).
Put on carefully but it’ll make the grey brown and you’ll be happy.
When I did mine I rubbed it all over, lightly.

Do some research and see me all over the place.

Croft

[Jesus12PC]

Welcome to COW, you’re in for good things.
That and

Jacket looks good on you. Once broken in, it’ll conform to you.

So, I too love to tweak my new jackets, even S&J who distress before assembling. Quite an art.

So I too had a Wested with the same grey undertones, has something to do with how the leather is finished.
No expert on the terminology, you do some searching in the distressing section, and you’ll find a lot of info.

So after I’d done my distressing on my Wested, I had the same grey undertone, there’s a dark brown leather dye (Fiebings leather dye).
Put on carefully but it’ll make the grey brown and you’ll be happy.
When I did mine I rubbed it all over, lightly.

Do some research and see me all over the place.

Croft

Thank you so much for your reply mate! I checked that dyer but it recommends using first a Deglazer. Do you think that this step is necessary, or simply by applying several coats will do the job?
Thanks!

[Indiana Croft]

My last S&J DoD didn’t have too much of shine to it.
With that said, be cautious and tred lightly.
Do your research.

Here’s what I did.
Give it a rub down of rubbing alcohol. This tends to help remove the shine some. And removes some of the color, acetone will remove more so be cautious.
Then get it wet, not soaked, you can do this when you can wear it out side and the heat and sunshine will help dry it.
But to start to bring out the grain.
Then I hit mine lightly with the acetone.
Allow to dry, rub down again with a heavy cloth with nothing on it,
Do your light distressing in the areas you want to hit. Remember, once you over due it, you’ve over done it. Light distressing goes a long way.

Then hit it lightly with Pecards to helps restore the jacket some. Chemicals can hurt the jacket so Pecards help restore it .
You can always do more later. I do, never stop playing with my jackets.

So once you do this, now you take a cotton cloth and put the dye on it and rub it all over, the grey will now have a brown, try it in area that you don’t see like underneath the pocket flap.

But I can’t stress enough, go slowly, do your research, I’m sure there’ll be others with there’s thoughts and process.
Some will do this, but I even tweaked my DoD and I’m very pleased.

And if you can somehow find a manaquin to hang the jacket on, makes it easier to see the areas to distress.

These are things I’ve done to an 800. Cockpit jacket, I like my jackets to look like I’ve owned them for years.
Some jackets can take awhile to distess naturally, so a little help never hurts, but this is me.

Heck I have U.S.A. jacket that was to big, soaked it, threw in the dryer to shrink it, then slathered them picards on it.

Croft

[Indiana Croft]

Just a before and after shots of my DoD
Don't have any current of my Cockpit jacket. Which is also Goatskin, which is very durable/harder to distress, but go slow, must be your manta, my Wested was lamb, but had the grey undertone, which didn't look right.
There's a thread that talks about it.

Before (and was already awesome, but as I said, i like to to tweak), my attempt was more of a blending. I don't like a heavy scratch look.





After my tweaking.





This jacket s breaking in nicely and the texture/grain of the leather, I need to try and take some close ups.

Croft

[Jesus12PC]

My last S&J DoD didn’t have too much of shine to it.
With that said, be cautious and tred lightly.
Do your research.

Here’s what I did.
Give it a rub down of rubbing alcohol. This tends to help remove the shine some. And removes some of the color, acetone will remove more so be cautious.
Then get it wet, not soaked, you can do this when you can wear it out side and the heat and sunshine will help dry it.
But to start to bring out the grain.
Then I hit mine lightly with the acetone.
Allow to dry, rub down again with a heavy cloth with nothing on it,
Do your light distressing in the areas you want to hit. Remember, once you over due it, you’ve over done it. Light distressing goes a long way.

Then hit it lightly with Pecards to helps restore the jacket some. Chemicals can hurt the jacket so Pecards help restore it .
You can always do more later. I do, never stop playing with my jackets.

So once you do this, now you take a cotton cloth and put the dye on it and rub it all over, the grey will now have a brown, try it in area that you don’t see like underneath the pocket flap.

But I can’t stress enough, go slowly, do your research, I’m sure there’ll be others with there’s thoughts and process.
Some will do this, but I even tweaked my DoD and I’m very pleased.

And if you can somehow find a manaquin to hang the jacket on, makes it easier to see the areas to distress.

These are things I’ve done to an 800. Cockpit jacket, I like my jackets to look like I’ve owned them for years.
Some jackets can take awhile to distess naturally, so a little help never hurts, but this is me.

Heck I have U.S.A. jacket that was to big, soaked it, threw in the dryer to shrink it, then slathered them picards on it.

Croft

Thank you for your tips! I'm quite an impatient person and after spending that amount of money I want to have it with the appropriate colour, but not taken the risk of damaging the jacket. Scratches and all of that is something that I prefer to get naturally, I was mainly interested in the change of colour. Thank you so much for your reply!

[Jesus12PC]

Just a before and after shots of my DoD
Don't have any current of my Cockpit jacket. Which is also Goatskin, which is very durable/harder to distress, but go slow, must be your manta, my Wested was lamb, but had the grey undertone, which didn't look right.
There's a thread that talks about it.

Before (and was already awesome, but as I said, i like to to tweak), my attempt was more of a blending. I don't like a heavy scratch look.





After my tweaking.





This jacket s breaking in nicely and the texture/grain of the leather, I need to try and take some close ups.

Croft

Wow, that jacket is truly beautiful, the color and marks are spot on, amazing job! Thank you so much for your reply

[fifthchamber]

The way Wested tan the leather for most of their standard jacket skins is with chrome tanning, which leaves the jacket core blue/grey..And when worn in, those inner, original colours will come out stronger..They changed to vegetable tanned skins for their Legacy line, which is the way they were tanned for the original movie, but vegetable tanning is a longer, more expensive process with less uniform results, so costs more, and looks a little different, the vegetable tanning leaving the leather much more brown/red to it's core...S&J also, use veg tanned leather, as do Kelso, and as I said, the Wested Legacy line.

This is why your jacket appears grey/blue when you've taken off the top layer of dye somewhat...It's just the natural way the tanning process colours the skin core before the colour in dye is applied....

What that also means is that your jacket won't ever end up looking like Croft's, no matter what you do it, the inner core colour is different...But you can re-dye it to make it look browner for sure...That would work...The undertones would still be the same, but it might give you what you are after!

Failing that, all you can do is find a veg tanned skin....Use S&J, Wested Legacy line or Kelso, I would....

[Indiana Croft]

Said better than long drawn out post.
The above pictures were not posted about any grey undertone, but rather what the acetone/alcohol will move the already brown color around.
The scratches are still there, just muted.

I’m going to try and take some close up of my Wested which had the grey undertone.

Croft

[fifthchamber]

Absolutely! But the acetone removes the dye, not the tanning process (at least, not unless you rip right through the leather), so the acetone just reveals what the basic (uncoloured) skin looks like, and with the chrome tanning, that'll be bluer/greyer, and with the vegetable tanning, it'll look like yours, Croft, with the lovely brown undertones coming through once the overlying dye colour is worn in/removed somewhat...

That's all..The OP referred to getting the Wested leather to look browner, and that might not be possible, unless you just cover the grey well with layers of dye (as it arrives), once you start distressing the leather, that grey colour will show through again.....So that's the "issue", not the manner of distressing he's using.. That was all..

By the by, your jacket is lovely! I really do love a well worn veg tanned leather!

[ChrisW]

Sorry just following up on this old post because while I was searching for threads om the grey issue, I realized there was another report of the grey on the Legacy line too:

viewtopic.php?p=954450&hilit=Grey#p954450


This would suggest that the legacy jackets are also, at least for some batches chrome not vegetable tanned (as per Fifthchamber)

The veg tan leathers aren’t stated as a given on the current pages. In fact they don’t seem to state how they were tanned.

Perhaps much like the pronged buckles the veg tan was while supplies lasted?

[Illinois_Jones]

They're not veg tanned and I'd be shocked if they ever were. They'd have to charge considerably more if they were veg tanned. It's a chrome tanned leather that's had a base coat put down, but it's not tip-top shelf leather so the base coat hasn't had the time to totally permeate the skin. You distress deep enough and you hit the grey.

[ChrisW]

Yeah agreed it seems all chrome tanned regardless legacy or not then.

Any idea or sources whether the original film ones were also chrome tanned?