Club Obi Wan

Hello,
Just joined the Forum, after ordering a Raiders goatskin from Wested.
I was going to get some rubbing alcohol to take away the gloss on the jacket when i recieve it. Is it best to water this down or use it neat?
Sorry if this question has been asked a dozen times.
Thanks

Leighton

I would think you shouldn't have to water it down. The 75% rubbing alcohol IS watered down in comparison to the 91%.

As far as using neat, I can not help you there.

Just my $.02,
Pyro.

I just used the rubbing alcohol straight on my lambstouch. No need to do anything else beforehand.

Oh, and by the way Pyro, your new blinking pic is freaking me out! At first, I could've sworn something happend, but then passed it off as morning cobwebs, then saw it again. Very cool.

Mike

Does the rubbing alcohol actually damage the leather? I was reading someones reply and he said not to use this for at least a year.
I was going to do this as soon as I got the jacket

Mike wrote: Oh, and by the way Pyro, your new blinking pic is freaking me out! At first, I could've sworn something happend, but then passed it off as morning cobwebs, then saw it again. Very cool.

Thanks

LEIGHTONWILL wrote:Does the rubbing alcohol actually damage the leather? I was reading someones reply and he said not to use this for at least a year.
I was going to do this as soon as I got the jacket

I might be in the minority here but I say just wear the thing. Be patient and wear it and the sheen will eventually dull out on it's own. Crumple up the jacket and throw in the corrner at the end of the day and sit on it at work and it will look lived in before you know it. Why take the chance of ruining the leather with rubbing alcohol?

Leightonwill,

I have an old A-2 goatskin jacket that my parents gave me when I was 18. It is too small now but I still keep it around. The other day I bought some 75% alcohol and rubbed half of the jacket down. It definitely reduced the sheen on the leather but not a ton. The leather looks fine and more dull and there is no damage to the leather. Waiting for a year makes no difference. Leather is leather. Let me know how it goes if you do this. I just ordered a TOD goat and I plan on giving it a rub down if the sheen is too much. By the way, how does the jacket look? How is the goat?

LJHood

Mike wrote: Oh, and by the way Pyro, your new blinking pic is freaking me out! At first, I could've sworn something happend, but then passed it off as morning cobwebs, then saw it again. Very cool.

Mike

Oh my, I had thought I saw that on another post out of the corner of my eye, but just dismissed it as my eyes playing a trick on me. Very freaky and cool! Did you use Photoshop to do that?

Thanks for the reply guys,
I suppose I'm being a bit impatient really because I only ordered the jacket two weeks ago, but hopefully It'll be delivered soon as I live in the UK. I've just been reading through the forum and all the different kinds of advice to age the jacket, very useful.
I nearly ordered the TOD instead, looks great, I think I'll get that one when I've got the money again(I'll start saving). I think I'll try the rubbing alcohol, maybe water it down a bit first.

Thanks
Leighton

Mike wrote:.....by the way Pyro, your new blinking pic is freaking me out! At first, I could've sworn something happend, but then passed it off as morning cobwebs, then saw it again. Very cool.

At 5:30 in the morning and I haven't had my coffee---I thought I needed to log off and go back to bed after seeing an avatar blink at me!
There's no way I was going to bring that up in coversation. "Honey, I was posting on Indygear this morning and one of the avatars was blinking at me." That would not have gone over well......

Very cool, Pyr!

It wasn't the blinking eyes of Pyro, Indiana Joe, that bothered me. But rather, that strange shadow behind your avatar pic. Look, it's there again. YOu better do something about that, IJ.

-Sergei

Sergei,

No joke. There is a heavy thunderstorm as I type this.

And...and, I think I just saw that shadow thing behind my avatar. No, waitaminute----there's a shadow moving on the wall so the thing must be behind me!! ARGH!!

I tried white spirit on my lambskin and it had absolutely no effect whatsoever no matter how hard I rubbed except to make the jacket smell for a day or so of white spirit. However ordered some acetone and it is by far the most effective way I have used.

Ken

Be aware that while acohol is a very mild solvent, acetone is heavy duty stuff. It'll dissolve most plastics, and is quite toxic. I'm not sure what it might do to the leather, if anything, but be careful when applying it. Take off your watch and such.

Also, no matter what you use, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to follow it up a few hours later with an application of Pecards. I'd wait a few hours though, to give the solvent time to evaporate (being that they're both fairly volatile, I'd think a few hours should be plenty). You wouldn't want to seal them into the leather.

Indiana Cojones wrote:Also, no matter what you use, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to follow it up a few hours later with an application of Pecards. I'd wait a few hours though, to give the solvent time to evaporate (being that they're both fairly volatile, I'd think a few hours should be plenty). You wouldn't want to seal them into the leather.

I have to disagree. Pecards will reverse the desired effect and may actually make the leather shinier than before.

FYI: Without solvent you can not have a leather jacket. That is how the leather is dyed or tanned. Leather is often times drum dyed. That means the skins are marinated in dye which is mostly solvent.

I have been known to hand age some of my jackets with solvent. When I say hand age, I mean giving the appearence of age by removing some of the dark color creating highlights. This gives the illusion that the jacket is older than it really is. The life of the jacket is not changed.....just the color.

More recreational reading about leather, solvents and mad men who use them can be found here:

http://www.regular-guy.com/jacket.htm

Hi (Indiana) Ken,

I'm from the UK too, just in case I want to use them in the future do you know where you would buy acetone and fullers earth from in the UK.
I'm Hoping to recieve my jacket next week but probably won't touch it for a while.

Regards

Leighton

"but I say just wear the thing. Be patient and wear it "


Absolutely! swim in it . drag it behind the horse. leave it in the corner of the tack room. sleep in it. After all, Indy's got a hole in his...... ( upper left arm).....& blood spatters!

Hi,

I just gave the jacket a rub down with alcohol, let it evaporate did some light sanding to take the sheen off then a coat of pecards. It looked just how I wanted it to look. I'll leave the rest up to nature now.
Thanks for the help.

Cheers
Leighton

I'll never understand why people distress their jackets like that... I too thought about it but I won't do that. It makes me wanne

Oh well.. just my 2 eurocents

To buy acetone in UK:

www.cfsnet.co.uk

Ken