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Opinions on Jacket please

hermithillnz

New Member
Hi Gentleman I’m a New Zealander and new to the forum and would appreciate your opinion on a Jacket I’ve recently purchased...it has a lovely aged looked to the leather and hasn’t been well looked after with cracking of the leather on the shoulders and stitching that has separated from the collar. Lining seems to be a silk type material and it has a Conmar zipper. I am thinking it might be prewar maybe. There are no collar clips as such only a push type stud. It has an original RAF pilot eagle sewn to the left side of the jacket and it could have been wartime purchased or gifted to an RAF pilot as was the case at times. Im no expert on American jackets and have been collecting RAF, RNZAF wartime militaria so would be really keen to see if this could be a war time Jacket. Many thanks Garth
 

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mulceber

Moderator
It’s very clearly influenced by the A-2 style, so no way it’s pre-war. My guess is a 40s or 50s civvy A-2. There are other here who could give you a better estimate though.
 

Ken at Aero Leather

Well-Known Member
Yes, 50s American civilian jacket suffering from dry rot...no way that can be rescued, I'm afraid.

It is US Civvy from the 1950s but it CAN be fixed to wear, I've sorted worse than this in the past
Get a piece of very thin leather, glace kid is good, it's very thin, very strong
Cut it to roughly the shape of the back yoke
Open up the lining behind the back yoke carefully glue the new leather to the old (sueded side to sueded side), using a rubber solution (important), Copydex is good, starting with the worst tears and working away from them towards the edges of the yoke. Do not glue right to the edge of the internal repair section or it'll show from the outside as a hard line
The tears, if glued carefully and pieced together neatly like a jigswaw will look like scars. A light rub over with a matching boot polish and it'll have years of wear left in it

Enjoy
 
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