Looking at placing an order for my first custom Raiders jacket. Have it narrowed down to the novapelles. I've seen some great pictures of the copper looking that beautiful chocolate brown after a bit of Pecards and weathering, but I've also seen some great DB novapelles too which looked even better. I've heard that the DB can come out looking very grey. Just wondering overall which do you guys think is the bettter. I prefer a nice dark brown color as opposed to a tan or light brown. Also, for those of you that own a Novapelle how heavy is it and is it stiff?
I had a dark Novapelle one. It was brown/gray and a coat of pecards darkened it. It is a heavier jacket but very soft.
I passed it on as the dark brown even after a coat of pecards did not have a true dark brown color. This leather is also full of thousands of tiny dark dots on the whole jacket. It was alright but ended up not being what I was looking for.
Glenville86 wrote:I had a dark Novapelle one. It was brown/gray and a coat of pecards darkened it. It is a heavier jacket but very soft.
I passed it on as the dark brown even after a coat of pecards did not have a true dark brown color. This leather is also full of thousands of tiny dark dots on the whole jacket. It was alright but ended up not being what I was looking for.
Not sure how the copper one looks in person.
Sorry to hear that! Was this a recent purchase? If not hopefully they've got a new batch of it by now that looks better. The ones I've seen that look really great are about a year old now so they must have changed it before you bought yours.
Due to Peter's unfortunate passing, the site is down for two weeks so I have more time to research the other skins. I've seen your posts quite a lot. You seem to have had a fair few different jackets. Which leather would you reccomend if I wanted that SA dark brown colour but in something a bit sturdier than lamb, but not as heavy as say the higher end cow or horse hides?
Pris, I am with Glenville on this. Also had a dark brown novapelle. Incredibly heavy jacket, but grey finish full of small black holes. Never liked it and I regret to say, money wasted.
The copper has a better review, there are other reviews on the site. I think you should think about if you want a jacket that heavy.
As alternatives, I have a Wested Raiders in distressed cow which I love to pieces. You could also try Magnoli's white label in grainy cow, a lighter leather than the Wested but absolutely beautiful. Indy offered this to us a while back and it is a great jacket.
Good hunting. You do realise this is addictive, the first one only narrows down what you will want in the next ?
I have Wested jackets currently in goat, regular lamb, cowhide, thin lamb, rosetta, horsehide and distressed cow.
The regular lamb is a thicker jacket than what I expected. Goat and thin lamb is a lighter jacket.
The cow jackets are good for colder weather with layering. Horsehide is also a good colder weather jacket with light layering. Leather jackets are an insulator and when colder, it depends on the layering. I have seen some people wearing the lighter skins in Winter with a good heavy fleece underneath.
Other makers also make some nice jackets if you look at others besides Wested.
