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17 Years of hard wear

Ken at Aero Leather

Well-Known Member
MaineHorseA-2.jpg

2001
a-2 Ken 2017.jpg

2017

One I made for myself, worn hard, never oiled or pampered, soaked thru many times, worm when I fished my Collie out of the river up to the armpits, never needed any repair
 

johnwayne

Well-Known Member
Love it!!! Do like rust/berry knits hence I've recently purchased a rust knit B10 and if I go for another A2 I'd like a seal rust knit combo.
 

Garylafortuna

Well-Known Member
I follow Edward on this. Like a Fine Wine:
Great Body,
Cheeky but not Pretentious,
Aged Well, and,
With a hint of Devil May Care.
 

Falcon_52

Active Member
Thanks for posting, Ken. I'm also a believer in your philosophy. I wear these jackets in all weather - they get used for sure sometimes close to the abuse line. They look all the better for it!

Noel
 

Cocker

Well-Known Member
Same here. I have my Aero A-2 for one and a half year, and I've been using her in all possible scenarios.

Ken, your jacket looks AMAZING!
 

Ken at Aero Leather

Well-Known Member
Ken, you have the patience and confidence in that jacket that very few here with theirs.

You are so right John, I'd say it's had well over 1500 wears, how many members give an A-2 half that many chances before getting the next one and the next one........
This jacket was made at top speed against the clock, WW2 style, took just under two hours start to finish. We were trying to gauge how many were made per day back in the 1940s
The leather was one scrap front quarter, the zipper wouldn't please the folk round here, a Levi Vintage supplied Chinese Talon Sunburst, there are a couple of bits of stitching less than pristine, one inside, the other when the spool run out and the join isn't 100% perfect.
That't said it's a decent job even by our high standards and way better than anything from Aero Beacon in the 1940s
Our knit has always stood up better than any other I've seen, the cuffs are still perfect, there are a couple of holes in the front of the wauistband where I didn't bother changing a blunt needle to do the top stitching but otherwise I've seen worse in a two year old jacket
 

Smithy

Well-Known Member
I am a great fan of wearing the brown stuff out of repros and my jackets. Mine have been slept in, shimmied up trees and through hedges in, been tobogganing in (and the accompanying crashes), worn in rain, sleet, hail and snow, worked on the car and boats in (in the B-10 I dismantled a verandah and built a new one whilst wearing it earlier this year), they've been stood on, puked on (my daughter parked her custard on the Irvin), stuffed unceremoniously in relocation boxes (the poor Irvin again was stuffed in a box in a ball when we moved from Norway to Oz and left in the box in storage for 16 months before being pulled out, actually looked better afterwards once it had relaxed a bit), played rugby in (that's a wee while ago and was late at night after quite a few beverages and involved a watermelon as the ball, amazingly survived), been to concerts and gigs in, etc, etc.

I wouldn't do this with an original wartime jacket but with the high end repros, they look so much better worn hard and when they develop a strong patina like Ken's one above. Although with the prices that repros are now you can see why a lot of people are so scared of using them and fret about every little thing. Truth is they look the best when you don't baby them. Those boys in WWII didn't carefully lay their jackets flat on the floor and didn't wear them if the weather was inclement. They didn't give a flying fig about them and that's why they look so good in the photos.

Hard use = Patina = Great looking jacket
 

regius

Active Member
Ken, you have the patience and confidence in that jacket that very few here with theirs.

Well put. I always pictured Ken in his one & only self-made jacket, with a cap, a cigar, & working on patterns and cuttings, year after year after year.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Thomas Koehle

Well-Known Member
worn jackets have much more character like just brand new ones

nice "before and after" comparison - really surprising how thight the knitting still looks
 

Grant

Well-Known Member
Hey Ken,
Nice looking A-2! Just curious, the horsehide/knits in the after photo look much darker than the before pic. Is that just different lighting?
Wish I woulda thought of taking before pictures with my well worn A-2's!
 
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