Club Obi Wan

After a year of wear, the color has worn off my Wested lambskin quite evenly down the edge of the storm flap and along the edge of the sleeve cuffs. No surprise. This kind of wear is to be expected of super soft lambskin that has been worn frequently. I was just wondering if similar wear naturally occurs on the other Wested leather types or do certain leathers hold the dye better even along the edges?

Of the Wested's I've owned over the years, I've seen cowhide as the next leather that distresses naturally in a fairly even pattern, though more wear appears along the sleeves, pocket edges and down the front of the jacket from motion.

Goatskin, I've only seen wear around the cuffs, and a little along the pockets and flap front. Everything else held it's color, though the shine was toned down quite a bit.

Regards! Michaelson

I've worn my Wested goat for over a year now. The only wear is around the cuffs and down the storm flap. The shine has dulled down, and it has molded to my body shape, but other than that it looks pretty new. As a comparison, I have a vintage A-2 that was given to me by my dad. he wore it 25 or more years before he gave it to me. It is the most beautifully distressed jacket I've seen. So the moral of the story is that its gonna take a LONG time for a goat jacket to distress to the point we've seen in the movies. But boy does it look good after it does.

I even got some distressing on my lamb Raiders after two days of wearing!

Hey Guys,

Ive had both my Authentic goat Raiders and Cow hide temple for about two years and they don't even look like they're distressing much at all! Think it depends on how much you wear them and how hard.

Bullit

I've worn my horsehide pretty much since last September. The cuffs and storm flap have seen some visible wear. The top shoulder seam at the yoke on both sides is a bit distressed (from seatbelt I presume). There's just a tad on the collar stand, and a few random spots on the back panel and arm to body seams from random contact.

All the distressed areas darken after a bit..I snagged my right arm on a staple when I opened a box at work...I thought for sure I had torn up the leather surface, but it was so very minor (love the hh), that after a day or too, the "newness" of the scrath darkened and now I can't tell it was even there.

J,

Quit teasing us with this old A2!! Pics my man!!

Bjones wrote:Quit teasing us with this old A2!! Pics my man!!

If only I had a digital camera. I swear, one of these days I gonna shock COW with pics!

I've said the same thing, old buddy. It hasn't happened yet.


Regards! Michaelson

Yup...another hat, another jacket, another gun. Something always comes up and pushes the camera farther down the list.

I have had an authentic lamb for a couple years and I have a little distressing on the edges of the sleeves and that is it. I am so easy on things.

I was the same way with the race car. Ran up front, but was real easy on the equipment. I saw guys beat their cars to death tryin' to keep up with me. Of course, that just means being smooth, which is the fastest way to drive a race car.

There is a picture in the IndyGear Journal of a car on its way up to about 30 feet, doing an impression of a helicopter on the first turn of the first lap of a race at Summit Point Raceway in West Virginia. I drove right underneath of him while he was in the air. The accident took out about 15 cars at the front of the field. Me....not a scratch on the car.

How do you guys get natural distressing on the storm flap? I don't generally let anything get that up close in my face to cause friction against the front of my jacket. My storm flap looks like it did when I took it out of the box.

Natural distressing is going to take me a looooooooong time. Good thing I got lamb and not goat. I'm going to be an old goat before my lamb gets distressed...wait a minute...I am an old goat.

I have an Authentic Lamb about 10 months old, it too has the lighter edge on the storm flap (caused by my seatbelt rubbing on it). There is also a little wear on the lower edges of the cuffs but not a lot.

My favourite part of it's wearing-in is the wrinkling of the sleeves and grain that's popped out in various places where it creases.

Bufflehead Jones wrote:I saw guys beat their cars to death tryin' to keep up with me.

Okay, I must be one of THOSE guys. My lamb has become...distressed, to say the least. Naturally, too...in just a year and a half.

Bufflehead Jones wrote:How do you guys get natural distressing on the storm flap? I don't generally let anything get that up close in my face to cause friction against the front of my jacket.

Easy, I have two little mini-Hovitos...I also seem to be moving a bit too fast most of the time, so I bang into things a lot...

My lamb not only has the storm flap and cuff distress, but it has random scratches and minor digs on the pocket flaps, sleeve seams, elbows, chest panels, shoulders, collar, minor bits on the outer edges of the facings, and serious distress/wear on the top corners of the back panel. (Time for some pecards, before I start losing material!) I also have some odd double-marks on the left chest panel onto the left shoulder. I *think* that was from carrying one of my little monkeys while they were holding or wearing something w/ an edge on it. All the enamel/paint is gone from the press stud on the bottom of the storm flap, although the top one still looks like new. The imprint of the zipper head is starting to show in the wear on the bottom of the storm flap.

How did all this happen? Not sure. (Alien abduction? Hmm...no.) Just love the jacket and wore it as much as possible, aside from the summer when I couldn't. It's just about the end of the season for it again now, unless we get some more good storms...time to do some repairs now. I already sewed an inner pocket lining that came undone (something must have poked it), but I also have to re-sew the lower left where the back and side panels split apart at the bottom - my bad, landed on it wrong and something gave - hey, at least it was the stitches, not the leather, right?

But the point is in a year and a half - two full years worth of wear, really - this lambskin has got some serious distressing, but I understand that's not typical of all Wested lambs - it's more typical of me. Considering how I go through stuff, as far as I'm concerned, this IS tough. I've owned other things I've gone through in a season. I'd buy another no question. If I'm still in Cali when I do, I'd even buy another lamb.

I'll have to take some pics before I pecard it...hmm. Maybe tonight. Will post when I do.

J

P.S. I guess Buff and I would make a nice set of 'before and after' pics.

It was about time to take pics anyway...doing the math, yeah, it's been about 18 months since I got this.

Don't worry, I won't post EVERYTHING...just a few highlights to give you a sense of the - natural - distressing at this point.

First, left elbow, w/ & w/o flash, just to show that in naural light it doesn't look as distressed as everything you'll see in the flash photos, but I'm going to use flash or else you can't see ANYTHING.

Here's the other elbow, which I was SURPRISED to just notice how much it's distressing...but it's just lost color. Also here is that left shoulder that always has children on it, and the backpleat which got extra distressing due to an odd pop-out near the top. Guess I might have to hit that w/ some brown pecards...hmm...we'll see after a regular pecard'ing.

I've worn my authenic goatskin for two years now and apart from the wrinkles, doesn't seem to be showing any real wear. This jacket is tough! And I don't baby it, either. I give it a coating of Pecards maybe twice a year, but that's it, really. Maybe I should take some acetone to it? JUST KIDDING!!!!!

bink

I think that the only way for me to have a screen accurate jacket is for me to start babysitting Jerry's kids. Hey, I'm retired and don't have anything else to do.

Actually, buff, the FIRST sign of natural distressing on ANY of my jackets has always been on the storm flap.......from the shoulder strap of any vehicle I'm driving coming across my chest.

Regards! Michaelson

You know that I like to drive a lot and I ALWAYS wear a seatbelt. My jacket is not showing any distressing from the seat belt. I wonder if it is because I never zip my jacket and maybe the jacket hangs to the side somewhat, and the seatbelt doesn't come into contact with it as much?





BUFF'S LAW: There is no valid reason for not wearing a seat belt, just excuses.

If the strap isn't physically crossing your jacket, then it won't wear, so I agree. In MY old cold vehicles, though, my jackets are pretty much ALWAYS zipped....so there's the different.

An a big AMEN to your last line!!

High regards! Michaelson

But, the seat belt does touch my jacket on both sides, the place where it touches is just not in the center of my chest. And, it touches the jacket in various places as the jacket moves instead of just one spot, so, over time, I hope it distresses in a bigger area.

But, with my luck, it won't. Twenty years from now, it will still look brand new. Now, if my truck does the same thing, it may be a good trade off.

Jerry! .... ... Now, I'm scared to see the boots.

I've had my lamb just under a year and a half and its more like Bufflehead described, just a little bit on the cuffs. And you have to look hard to see that. Minor surface scratches come out or "disappear" with Pecards. Its surprisingly tough.

Michaelson wrote:Actually, buff, the FIRST sign of natural distressing on ANY of my jackets has always been on the storm flap.......from the shoulder strap of any vehicle I'm driving coming across my chest.
Regards! Michaelson

Yeah, I've had that happen on my US Wings aniqued lamb and my old lamb Wested that I sold. I didn't have that one more than a 3 or 4 months and it was basicly new when I got it. (though maybe dryish)

Bufflehead Jones wrote:I think that the only way for me to have a screen accurate jacket is for me to start babysitting Jerry's kids. Hey, I'm retired and don't have anything else to do.

I have purchased their tickets, they will be there Tuesday... ...see you in the fall!

Alabama Jones wrote:Jerry! .... ... Now, I'm scared to see the boots.

er...ah...no comment.

Wheeew, I'm just barely going to make it then, Jerry. Mrs. Bufflehead and I are renting her sister's two kids for the weekend. We should have them returned just in time for yours to arrive.

We do this periodically just to remind ourselves, why we didn't have kids. After a few days, it refreshes our memory and we return them to their mother.

As a matter of fact, I can hear them outside, below my office window, with Mrs. Bufflehead as I type this. They are in the hot tub. I don't know how they think something that small is a swimming pool. I just drained it, cleaned it, refilled it, and put new chemicals in it last week. I hope when I go out there, they have left SOME of the water in it.

Oh no! Mrs. Bufflehead just told me that there is not as much water as there used to be. They did simultaneous cannonballs into the hot tub.

They could at least take Grampa's Wested with them and get some good water-distressing for you...

Im supprised that no one has done any Experimentation of the durability of wested's leathers! or maybe they have?

Bullit

MK did, and posted his results on his website (as I recall).

Regards! Michaelson