Club Obi Wan

I've just placed my order for my new Wested. Here's the specs:

TOD dark brown goatskin
Cotton body + satin sleeves
2-piece gussets
Gun metal or black sliders
X-box stitching in side straps
Hidden elastic
Back panel extending to the inside edge of the sleeve seams
Press-stud fasteners on the storm flap
No inside leather facing on the right breast side.
Collar no wider than 3 inches at the tip.

...did I miss anything?

So now, I must wait.

No inside leather facing on the right breast side.

That's an interesting request - why did you opt for that?

The rest looks good - I see you have gone for the dark brown colour rather than the authentic brown - any particular reason for that?

That's an interesting request - why did you opt for that?

I wear a lot of dress shirts, and I plan on doing some minor acetone work. ...you get the idea.

As for the color -- 2 reasons: I already have an authentic lamb, and I have more of a preference for dark colors. I really wanted the two jackets to be clearly distinguished. Simply put, I just wanted it that way.

...you get the idea.

Sorry, I dont.... maybe I am a bit slow.

Ken

Nice choices Flattery. I ordered an almost identical jacket recently. The ommision of the leather facing on the right breast side will give you a more accurate drape as the original did not have it either. I chose to omit it as well. The downside is your zipper teeth may snag your lining which is why Peter made it standard later. When is yours coming?

Oops forgot to mention something. You may want to to tell Peter that you want the zipper to go all the way to the bottom of the jacket if you want to ascribe to the holy grail of screen accuracy. Standard it stops about an inch and a half or two inches short. I was really impressed with Maul's goat and got many of my specs from his order.
It may not matter to you because I see you are putting in hidden press studs on your storm flap (remember, the male side will be visible) but it was just another detail I picked up pouring over these forums before I placed my order. I asked that it be made as low as possible without the zipper pull showing. It great to be able to order a jacket customed to the way you like it isn't it? I would love to see some pics when you get it.

...you get the idea. icon_wink.gif



Sorry, I dont.... maybe I am a bit slow.

With my authentic lamb, even after that area was two days dry from acetone, I wore a white shirt underneath and some color same off onto it. I'm not sure how, but since this will be a darker jacket, I'm taking precautions.

The ommision of the leather facing on the right breast side will give you a more accurate drape as the original did not have it either. I chose to omit it as well. The downside is your zipper teeth may snag your lining which is why Peter made it standard later. When is yours coming?

Omitting the leather for screen accuracy wasn't my primary goal, but having researched it and later making that discovery, that's what sold me on having that modification done. As for the zipper... that's not much of an issue for me. I haven't heard from them yet, so I'm not sure how long the wait will be, but I'm expecting word from Peter tomorrow.

Oops forgot to mention something. You may want to to tell Peter that you want the zipper to go all the way to the bottom of the jacket if you want to ascribe to the holy grail of screen accuracy.

I knew I forgot something. Will do -- thanks!

It great to be able to order a jacket customed to the way you like it isn't it?

Yes... yes it is.

So why loose the facing on just the right side, as opposed to both sides? Frankly, I don't understand the purpose of this either? Now you're going to have the storm flap plus the facing on the left side, won't that much weight make the jacket lop-sided without the rightt side to balance it out? Won't the distressing on the inside of the storm flap and the left facing rub off just like the right would? I'm sooo confused?!?!?

Removing just the right side had the dual purpose of reducing the amount of potential "rub-off" and for screen accuracy. And you're right about the left side. I decided that I didn't want that much weight on that one side, so I decided to leave the facing there since I don't know how I would feel about it in, say, five years.

Also, I just received word from Peter -- jacket should be dispatched in approximately 28 days. Not bad.

Wested has already dispatched my jacket! A full 10 days ahead of the schedule quoted to me. Needless to say I'm very pleased, and quite anxious. I'll post pics as soon as I'm able.

Hey Fletch,
I think you are the closest gearhead to me, Im nextdoor in Concord!

I J

My tracking shows as follows:

Your item was prepared for dispatch in COVENTRY, GREAT BRITAIN at 12:23 am on December 11, 2004. Information, if available, is updated every evening. Please check again later.

Has anyone else's jackets stayed in this position for this amount of time? Just wondering if this is typical.

When I ordered mine the tracking did seem to be a bit on the slow side with updates, but not as slow as that. It did, however, show that my jacket left England twice! Don't worry Flattery you will get it soon and then you will forget about the wait!

I think there may be a problem with the parcel force tracking system. First the page wouldn't load, and now that it does, it shows that my jacket entered the international hub this time last month... so there have to be errors. I'm on the lookout for it.

Yesterday I received my ToD goatskin, and there are no problems with it. As soon as I took it out of the envelope I was absolutely enthralled by it. I'll have to soften it up a bit -- thus far I've been sitting on it and wadding it up into a ball when I'm not wearing it, and I'm planning to give it a run in the dryer soon. I'll post pics as soon as I'm able.

Congrats Flattery! I'm glad to hear you got your goat (pun intended)! How stiff is your jacket? My authentic goat was a lot softer than I expected. Now, lets see some pics!

It's pretty stiff, to the point where it'll stand by itself on the floor. I've been working some of that out just by kneading it a little while while I have time. I'll be able to post some pics in a few hours, but probably not of me wearing it.

How are the pockets, size wise, small enough, could ya send me the demensions on your TOD jacket pockets?

6 inches wide, 7 2/8 tall. Perfect for me. The pockets on my authentic lamb are a bit bigger, but I haven't measured them to be precise.

...and my camera's acting up, so pics are delayed.

Some pics I just took. No one was available to take some of me wearing the jacket, so these will have to suffice for now.

In this first pic it looks like the jacket is distressed, but I swear it's the lighting in the room. I've not distressed the jacket (yet).
http://img140.exs.cx/img140/4760/goat17qo.jpg
http://img140.exs.cx/img140/9360/goat21bb.jpg
http://img140.exs.cx/img140/3679/goat34nf.jpg
http://img140.exs.cx/img140/3059/goat43fr.jpg
http://img140.exs.cx/img140/6241/goat56ak.jpg

I know this is common, but I've never seen a jacket stand like this in person.
http://img140.exs.cx/img140/2706/goat66ly.jpg

Wow! That is stiff! There's no way my Authentic goat would have done that, even when I first got it. I am definitely beginning to think that Peter has switched to a softer authentic goat hide that is softer and distresses faster.

Great looking jacket Flattery. Wear it in good health!

Flattery,
Great jacket. I ordered a TOD in early December and was not thinking much about it until seeing yours. Now I can hardly wait. Peter was thinking mine would be ready the week after Xmas.

I got the authentic lambskin w/double gussets under the arms like on yours. Cotton/Satin lining, double inside pockets (I think)

Enjoy your jacket,
Tony

Thanks guys. This jacket is truly amazing. I love my authentic lamb, but I the goatskin leather is just beautiful. I've already decided that I'm going to distress it to a certain degree, but aside from that age-accelerating process, I'm sure this jacket will stand the test of time.

I'm still trying to soften it up. So far I've been wadding it up and sitting on it, laying it flat and walking on it, and running through a dryer. Thus far -- no change whatsoever. The jacket still stands just as much as it did out of the package. I expected this much, but at the same time I'm surprised that there isn't a minute difference. Since I'm already going to distress it, does anyone know of any alternative methods to soften it up? It's really not comfortable to wear right now being so stiff.


Heirphoto -- you'll love that jacket, I guarantee it.
Excellent choice.

Awesone jacket, great pics too! I'm waiting on a dark brown goat TOD jacket with basically the same options as yours. Mine will probably be cut from the same goat leather as yours so it was nice to be able to get glimpse of what I might be expecting!

You'll be thrilled with it, Crusader. Just be forewarned that it'll be stiff as *#&@, but once broken it a little bit, it's heaven.

Here's a few pics that I took a little while ago. I've distressed the jacket over the course of the last few days. I'm still planning on refining it, as I'm clearly going for an LC look here, but I think I've layed the foundation.

http://img86.exs.cx/img86/7431/distressed18kn.jpg
http://img86.exs.cx/img86/8728/distressed24js.jpg
http://img86.exs.cx/img86/705/distressed36fp.jpg
http://img86.exs.cx/img86/7629/distressed49zj.jpg

The flash exaggerates the acetoned areas as opposed to common lighting, of course.

Looks great Flattery! How did you do the distressing? Did you just use the paper towel and acetone method? Also, some parts in the pics looked sanded or was this also done with the acetone?

I followed MK's method (as described here: http://www.regular-guy.com/jacket.htm)

Rubbed it down with alcohol twice, although this didn't take away much of the sheen. Then I applied the acetone with heavy duty paper towels. This particular jacket was fairly easy to distress -- I didn't have to rub with the paper towels hard at all. I used cue-tips (spelling?) on many of the seams and edges, then used sandpaper to highlight those areas and add some minor grooves and scratches into the leather.

Overall, this jacket was much easier to distress than my authentic lamb. It must just be the individual dye job done on this jacket.

looks awesome. i see the back panel is extended. so much for wested's excuses about not being able to extend.

Looking good my friend, I am slowly working on my ToD Wested, I am not sure what hide I want at all, I can't decide at all right now, lol. Crusader, what part of Ohio are you from?

Flattery,

Thanks for the info on the distress method you used. Is the alcohol rub down necessary before using acetone? At this time the only thing I would really want to do when I get my jacket is to remove the sheen. I prefer a flat non-shiny jacket so I may do a light rub down of alcohol and acetone just to get a nice flat color.

Bogie1943,

I'm in a southeast suburb of Columbus, are you near by?

Is the alcohol rub down necessary before using acetone? At this time the only thing I would really want to do when I get my jacket is to remove the sheen. I prefer a flat non-shiny jacket so I may do a light rub down of alcohol and acetone just to get a nice flat color.

I haven't done a whole lot of distressing on jackets, so I don't know if I can talk too intelligently about it. What I have done is used acetone on test areas, one with alcohol and one without. It worked better on the area that I wiped down with alcohol prior to the acetone. It did a good job of removing that protective layer and allowing the acetone to lift the dye more.

I didn't do as thorough of a rubdown with alcohol as I would've liked on mine due to the dye job -- the alochol started to lift some color and I wanted to save some dark areas. Be sure to test it first to see how much color is removed before you rub down the whole jacket. I used 70% alcohol. If the alcohol doesn't remove any color (the paper towel/cotton balls/etc will darken no matter what), it'll do a great job taking off that sheen and giving you that nice matte finish.

Looks really good Flattery! I bought a gotskin Wested for my son and also wanted to take off that sheen I just used acetone, no alcohol and it worked fine. Pretty easy actually. I think that Peter must be using different hides or dye since many have said in the past that the goat was hard to distress

Flattery, If you're still looking for ways to soften up the jacket, I've got a couple of suggestions from my past experience. For each of these, be sure to zip the jacket all the way up. I think this helps stretch out and shape the leather a little. First, sleep in it for a week or two. This will go a lot smoother if you're single. Second, wear it while doing stretching exercises. Twist your body around, raise your arms, cross your arms. Do everything you can to make the leather move while it's on your body. Third and most extreme, take the jacket off, wrap it in a thick, soft towel, and hit it with a baseball bat. It's just like tenderizing meat for cooking. Please use a wooden bat for the sake of tradition. These methods have worked for me in the past. Above all, don't let anyone witness you doing these things. You could be hauled off to a psych ward.

Flattery, did you ask for any mods on the zipper? I remember some people suggesting a request for a smaller guage zipper... Yours looks fine to me, so I was just wondering if you had many any such requests.

Nope, none whatsoever. I'm pretty happy with the way it is.

So, now that you own both an authentic and a dark brown jacket... any comments regarding the color (authentic versus dark)?

I'm still wrangling with the decision of which way to go. I've requested samples from Wested, but am interested in an opinion on a recently received dark brown goat.

The authenic brown is a very nice color. That can always be a terrible term, "nice," but I mean it as decent and versatile. It can be worn with just about anything and varies well with lighting.

However, I prefer the dark brown color. It more closely resembles the jackets from the films. Even when Indy is in direct sunlight, I've never noticed his jacket to look like the authentic brown. For screen accuracy and overall prefernce, I'd chose the dark brown every time, as it goes with just about everything in my wardrobe, and to me it's just more like Indy's jacket.