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The small 1932 memo hints at the reason the horsehide B-2/A-2 winter flight clothes would soon give way to the sheepskin B-3/A-3. Quality horse even then was in short supply, but sheep was plentiful. (There were also cost considerations - horses don 't come with fleece attached!)
What do you suppose the specification of "quality" was back then?
"Okay, that's sort'a grainy, but let's not get too overboard with the wrinkles."
I guess we need to keep in mind that this was an item designated for a uniform and we weren't involved in a war yet, where qualifications may have lowered some in direct proportion to availability and need.
My thoughts exactly, I think that the hides became lesser and lesser in quality as stocks ran out. Then they probably started using hides from old/sick/worked to death horses ? and then goat and then even cow. (what if the A-2 was born in Australia I wonder ?)
The wrinkles occur at places where the limbs move, in the upholstery business these are cut out and thrown away
(if you want quality workmanship) a hide is aprox. 5 square meters,and you can only use about 3.5 or 4 of a low quality hide a
and maybe 4 or 4,5 out of a grade 1 hide.
So I can inmagine people working in a hurry, on a budget and making something that was made
as workwear meant to last only a few years is the reason that some of these jackets look so
bad (as in good)