Club Obi Wan

It seems many people who order a Wested jacket want a "distressed" worn look to the leather of choice, nothing really wrong there as this is a major part of the "Indy Look". Wested jacket owners are spending a lot of time & trouble in attempting to get that "just right" worn look when doing this by hand. I would like to ask Peter B. of Wested, or any other members who know, to explain the type of "distressing" that Wested can do to a new jacket on their site before they ship it out? What exactly is their "distressing process" and how many different types of leathers are they willing to do this distressing processing to, and most importiantly...what will it look like after they do it? Are they reluctant to do whatever it is they do to rough up the leather on a new jacket? Would like to hear more about Wested in this "Worn" aspect. It would seem like they could save a lot of jacket owners time and worry if they would distress more jackets on site.
M.L. Jones

As far as I know Wested doesn't offer any artificial distressing to any of their jackets with the exception of the distressed look cowhide which is not true distressing anyway. The wardrobe department of the Indy movies applied all of the distressing you have become familiar with using I believe it was a wire brush and a pocket knife among other things. They received their jackets in new condition from Peter. I recall from other threads that Peter has been amazed when he has seen one of his jackets artificially distressed by one of our members. You will have to grab the alcohol and acetone and get to work yourself if you want the "Look". Be aware some skins/color combinations distress better than others and results vary. I haven't brought myself to do it to my goat yet. When I get big enough cajones I might attempt it. Right now I love my jacket the way it is.
Fletch

It would seem like they could save a lot of jacket owners time and worry if they would distress more jackets on site.

With the exception of a nametag, this is one of the best ways to personalize your jacket as no two distressing jobs look quite the same. Most new jackets do. I believe that Wested's predistressed cowhide is distressed prior to making the jacket, but I could be wrong. Any mass-produced predistressing will look - artificial. You need the worn spots to match up with your body. Elbows, shoulder blades etc.

That's pretty much it, Rick. the cowhide leather is distressed before making the jacket. it does not have the 'acetone and alcohol' look as a personally distressed jacket, but rather the leather looks 'worn in'. This process, however, makes the jacket a light shade of brown, rather than the proper dark colour, as is evident in this pic

http://public.fotki.com/gater2/halloween/13.html

(forgive the pose) but you can see in the left shoulder just how light the colour is on the predistressed cowhide.

Now then, I DO have 2 of them, so clearly didn't have a problem with the hide, but I also got a lambskin in natural brown for Christmas, too.

And I will go on record as saying that I simply cannot bring myself to artificailly distress the new jacket. I'll let nature take its course. (altho I do appreciate the work involved, and the final result of an artificially aged jacket, for sure)

Its funny Gater,
I can't seem to bring myself to wear a shiny new Wested. Just doesn't look or feel right to me. If its any reassurance, if you feel that you have overdistressed your jacket (providing that you haven't sanded the stitching off or something) a coat of Pecards will actually take much of the distressed appearance away and you may want to do it all over again! My experience with distressing these jackets is that they look much better and it is not nearly as scary as I feared. I think you really need to work hard to ruin one.

Why is the cowhide distressed BEFORE the jacket is made, is the process used to distress the leather limited in some way? It would be interesting to know exactly HOW the cowhide is distressed before the hide is cut and sewn into a jacket. It would seem to me that a "finished sewn" jacket could be distressed by possibly the same type process, producing the right amount of "wear" to the right areas. If it is a machine tumbling type process, I would think the more prominant areas, such as seems, raised areas and alike would get "worn" a little more in the distressing just as people are trying to accomplish by hand. I see no reason why such a process couldn't be developed and "tweaked" for finished jackets to render results which are quite satisfactory. I'll be quite honest about most of the artifical or hand distressing that I've seen with acetone, It doesn't look all that great to me, it tends to look "artificial" and obviously done by hand, I think a machine process could be developed!

M.L. Jones

The distressed cowhide is not distressed at Wested - the hide itself is pre-distressed cowhide meaning that when Peter receives it, it is already distressed.

So if you wanted a predistressed lamb hide or goat hide jacket, it is not a matter of PEter performing an extra process before making the jacket it means locating an alternative hide from a supplier which is in itself pre-distressed.

As to what is done prior to the predistressed hide reaching wested to give it this appearance is another issue to look into.

Ken

Indiana Gater wrote:
And I will go on record as saying that I simply cannot bring myself to artificailly distress the new jacket. I'll let nature take its course.

I will go on record saying that although it may start to show wear, the jackets are tough and it will take a LONG, LONG time to naturally distress a jacket to look like Indy's. I have a 70 year-old jacket that after a few oil treatments looks only a few years old. Let's see how you feel when the newness wears off You will be grabbing the sandpaper, alcohol and acetone and joining the rest of us (except Michealson, of course). The Raiders jacket is a nice jacket, but it doesn't look right without it being beat up to some degree, in my opinion.

Shiva wrote:
If its any reassurance, if you feel that you have overdistressed your jacket (providing that you haven't sanded the stitching off or something) a coat of Pecards will actually take much of the distressed appearance away and you may want to do it all over again!

Artificially distressing a jacket is permanent unless you add pigment. Scratches and color removal are not easily removed - if at all. Using Pecard's dressing will darken the leather to the point where the distressing is not so noticable, but once the Pecard's wears off, the distressed areas lighten and once again become visible.

I think it may be misleading to let folks think that you can "erase" your mistakes. They are permanent. If you do not like it, you can cover them up a bit and make them less noticable, but they will always be there.

Do it properly, do it correctly and do it using a lot of patience and you will have a great-looking jacket. Screw it up and you have an expensive screwed up jacket.

Shiva and Rick.

Were it not for having two other Westeds as well as the new lambskin, I would probably do something about the 'newness', but since I already have the other two that I have put a beatin' to, I can wear a 'beater' Wested when I need the 'distressed' look, and the new one for a 'dressier' feel.

The new lambskin, with the Wested shirt and pants looks really sharp, and I wore the outfit to Christmas dinner at the in-laws, and was lookin good. I know it's a conflict in terms to have a 'dress-up' Wested Raiders jacket, but I also don't plan on babying it, either. if it gets scratched or worn, so be it.

Rick,
You are right about dye removal being permenant. I don't want to mislead about erasing mistakes. I made that statement because of two experiences that I have had with two jackets. Maybe I should be more specific.
The first jacket that I tried to distress was a Lambtouch Wested. I noticed that in the case of this leather it was impossible to get the dye to come off with acetone, or at least to any noticeable degree. I gave up on the acetone and went over the whole jacket with a 220 grit sandpaper and it took off the shine and slightly lightened it. After this I tried applying Pecards and the lightening from the sandpaper went away completely! Not wanting to sand it again I just wore the jacket and it has remained dark to this day (though the surface is beautifully soft with no shiny glaze).
The second jacket is from a brand new cowhide Wested. This jacket very easily responded to acetone and distressed beautifully. When it was done I was again curious and applied Pecards. In this case the Pecards darkened the distressing some (maybe 50%) at first. after a few days the darkening effect is less and you can certainly see where dye had been removed so I guess my actual experience is that Pecards will darken the leather some and if the surface is lightened by sanding it can erase the light color caused by a sanded surface. It won't replace removed dye but can in some cases darken areas that may have been lightened.
Bottom line. If you are unsure about distressing your jacket, I would suggest trying it on an inside spot where it won't be visible and see how it looks.
Hope I didn't confuse anyone.

I've been off and on disstressing a Wested ROTLA auth. goat, I'll do a little bit here and there abot 2-3 weeks between the sanding/acetone/scuff pad treatment, this way I can see how it looks.
The goat is incredably tuff to disstress, I mostly want to give the jacket a dull appearence along with some wear to it.

I believe small scratches weather there natural or artifficaly done can be covered easier than some may think. It involves acetone and a q-tip, what you do is dip the q-tip into acetone and rub it on a hidden area or another area you want to distress and when you do this the color of course comes off the jacket and you immedately apply the q-tip to the scratch, it doesn't go away completely but it does all but dissappear. Those of you who are into the distressing try it and let me know what you think.
Croft

While I have not seen a pre-distressed Wested the photo of the leather on the website looks very much like the "painted" type distressing commonly seen on many leather products. I lighter base coat with deep browns and blacks sprayed over it in a random mottled finish. It is very uniform, meaning normal wear areas and those protected like under the arms all look the same, well worn (or well dyed depending on your taste).
Now US Wings uses a machine distressed or scuffed leather on it's vintage jackets. It does really look worn because it is, but, it is still very much the same eveywhere, wear areas and protected areas.
I think the only accurate ways to get the real look are either to wear the #### out of you jacket in ways we would be afraid to do (working on the car, being dragged by the car, etc...) or to age fresh, dark, smooth leather as a finished jacket in the places wear would occur.

Now I could see a real niche here for an enterprising member to distress jackets to order. Many have done excellent jobs from the photos I have seen and I for one would gladly trust (and pay) someone with a few under his belt to do mine. I have aged a pre-distressed jacket before by adding dye to darken areas but am a bit afraid to dive into my new Wested for fear of messing it up.

So, any basement industries ready to start up to fill a need?

Best,
Tony