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I find that many reproduction flight jackets are very smooth and often have leather unlike original leather used over the last 60 years. I've tried a few techniques of
aging reproduction jackets, and hot water plus wrinkling and sanding seem to work best. There are many ways that one can add age, wearing the jacket often of course being one, but the
kind of leather produced today isn't as full of character (wrinkles, bubbles on the surface, pebbling, and striations) as the leather
seen from the WWII period, so I've created a technique which appears to work at aging modern leather.
These photos are of two reproduction A-2 jackets that I've aged, using the hot water technique and some light sanding, wrinkling, and
even finish removal. The results are quite realistic if one wants a jacket to look older and more used than it is.
For the hot water technique, I simply let the leather sit under running hot water for about 30 seconds, and then dry it off (not letting the non-leather
elements get wet). I then wrinkle the leather and try to get natural texture to come out, sometimes with very vigorous mashing of the
leather with my hands.
Afterwards, I let the leather sit and dry naturally, or wear the jacket, as the leather really is completely wet. Since the leather's been
mashed, the natural texture comes out and it looks a lot more like the older leather, rather than stiff and straight.
The modern techniques of tanning tend to add a little too much pigment or finish on the top of the leather, and it becomes too stiff and featureless,
so hot water relaxes it. I've never completely removed the top finish, but have only softened it to a state of looking more natural, or
realistic as an original does.
The Real McCoy's New Zealand Real McQueen A-2 jacket is (below, darker jacket) a prime example. It takes a little while to work all the leather
of a jacket, and your hands will hurt after about ten minutes of such activity, so it may take a couple days to get a jacket softened.
Using hot water on leather may cause it to shrink a little, and become stiff at first once it dries. If it's mashed over a period of time, it will be even more
soft than when it was new, so the work involved can be quite a bit.
For sanding, I've had several ideas. One is to use the green side of a kitchen sponge and lightly go over the wet surface of the jacket, and it will
take some of the top finish off on the edges. I did this on the russet Real McCoy's New Zealand Werber A-2 (lighter jacket) and the results are excellent.
I had to add several coats of Peckards conditioner after doing this, which really made it look aged but healthy. Another idea I've tried is sanding with 2000 grit sandpaper
which is pretty soft and light. The leather finish will come off just on the edges with this sandpaper. I prefer the sponge technique.
Note: each jacket may have different tanning processes, and have a different response to the techniques shown above. I've had some jackets respond incredibly
to hot water and sanding, and some which have had little effect. These ideas aren't everyone's cup of tea, and I would certainly hope that
the results of anyone trying them would be positive, rather than negative.
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