Dengar wrote:after my first wested, i've chosen not to distress anything....but if you want advice....go very, very, verrrrrrrry slowly as too much all at once may leave you with something you don't like.
So you would recommend not distressing it? Do you think its unnecessary?
Now, as a lot of people here can attest, I've been down the artificial distressing road, almost to the point of no return. On my first Wested lamb, I distressed it with sandpaper, as I had a goatskin Wested on the way, and thought meh, why not? The advice to go slow is some good advice. I went overboard my first time, and let me tell you, it is a really sick feeling you get when you start to think you have ruined something that means so much to you, as Bufflehead Jones put it to me at the time. I was lucky, though, I was able to use brown Pecard dressing to revitalize the jacket, and it actually turned out alright, but man ... until then, I felt AWFUL. Since I only have one Wested right now, I am allowing it to distress naturally, because I see no reason to go ape on it when I might be able to use it as a nice jacket to go someplace cool in, so I figure the longer I can use it for that purpose, the better.
However, if you want to distress your jacket, and trust me, there's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to do it, here is what I think you should do.
Don't use acetone, because acetone is PERMANENT. I mean permanent in the most heavy sense of the word. Whatever you do with acetone will NEVER be able to be undone, and you don't want to make a mistake and have your jacket be like that forever.
Get yourself some light grit sandpaper, and go to
www.pecard.com to grab yourself some brown Pecard leather lotion. Distress one area at a time, going slowly, and evaluate what it looks like when you're done with it. Remember, judge with a critical eye. You don't want to delude yourself into thinking it's okay, when it really isn't. That's what I did, and the fall from that high up is dreadful indeed ....
If you find that you don't like how an area turned out, you're not sunk, just rub some of that brown Pecards into the leather. I use my fingers, but if you have an old white t-shirt you don't need anymore, go with that. Massage the Pecards into the leather (a little Pecards goes a long way..do it in layers if you have to to avoid overuse), and re-evaluate the distressed area. Pecards saved my jacket from complete ruination, so if you take things slow, it should be able to make anything you do look better.
Remember not to do the distressing too evenly. If you distress the entire jacket evenly, it looks artificially distressed. Some of the best artificially distressed jackets I've seen had sporadic distressing, mostly on the places that would see the most use. A little bit here and there on the pockets, the front panels, some on the sleeves, a tad on the seams, a little bit here and there on the collar and back of the jacket ... use judgement.
Lastly, don't be afraid to do it. It's only irreversible if you go overboard, and after reading this, I don't think you will. With judgement, I don't think you'll go through the same things I went through.
Hope that helps.
Well, actually my chin, if you believe the smilie. 
