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ELC Werber A2 re-vamp

Roughwear

Well-Known Member
I love the new Warhorse hide, which appears to be closer to the original Gary owns than the previous hide used.
 

TOMG1401

Member
prefer original hide used, don't care for hides they are currentlyu using. Something is "off" can't really put my finger on it
 

dmar836

Well-Known Member
Tom, Have you seen or worn the original Werber hide? It was typical ELC cardboard. This looks much better but to me it's a bit late.
Dave
 

TOMG1401

Member
I have 2 of the first 100 made, a 44 and a 46, both hides are beautiful thin griained HH, I believe them to be the truest shade of russet they have used. I looked at them after my earlier post, I think what is bothering me with ELC is the uniformity of all their A-2 hides as of late - IMHO
 

Skip

Well-Known Member
dmar836 said:
Tom, Have you seen or worn the original Werber hide? It was typical ELC cardboard. This looks much better but to me it's a bit late.
Dave

Going on Dave's experience is this warhorse better, i.e. not cardboard and more like leather, supple etc if anyone has a recent experience of such?
 

Silver Surfer

Well-Known Member
i have one of the first werbers made with the new hh, and it is about as close to an original as can be made. light russet grainy in some areas, smooth in others. some of the panels are darker then others. the hides take on dings, scrapes, etc very easily, yet when rubbed, the blemishes nearly disappear. the high areas that receive a lot of wear will get darker. also, elc is now using this hide for their cable, and a version of it for their rw 1401. pretty amazing stuff. as best as i can figure, gw, aero, and elc have all stepped up the game regarding hh sourcing.
 

dmar836

Well-Known Member
Silver Surfer said:
the hides take on dings, scrapes, etc very easily, yet when rubbed, the blemishes nearly disappear. the high areas that receive a lot of wear will get darker.

Sure sounds like oil-pull to me. Mine would not develop grain except at the arm bends - it appeared to be the thinnest and grainiest on the arms - maybe for that quick effect? The abdomen and pockets stayed like cardboard. I admittedly never bought one new but really would never take that chance again. Same struggle with the Star.
Kinda burned on them myself - they were in it early enough and Gary is knowledgeable enough that they should have been far ahead rather than sitting on a disappointing product(think house or earlier RW), not to mention the hides. Their self-promotion, though, has always been outstanding.
It's when JC and later BK blew by them in quality that they stepped it up. Because of that I feel their prices should take a place below some of those who did their homework and constantly improved.
The proof was in the pudding but I never could see it.
Glad these look better.
JMO,
Dave
 

mindful

Active Member
dmar836 said:
Silver Surfer said:
the hides take on dings, scrapes, etc very easily, yet when rubbed, the blemishes nearly disappear. the high areas that receive a lot of wear will get darker.

Sure sounds like oil-pull to me. Mine would not develop grain except at the arm bends - it appeared to be the thinnest and grainiest on the arms - maybe for that quick effect? The abdomen and pockets stayed like cardboard. I admittedly never bought one new but really would never take that chance again. Same struggle with the Star.
Kinda burned on them myself - they were in it early enough and Gary is knowledgeable enough that they should have been far ahead rather than sitting on a disappointing product(think house or earlier RW), not to mention the hides. Their self-promotion, though, has always been outstanding.
It's when JC and later BK blew by them in quality that they stepped it up. Because of that I feel their prices should take a place below some of those who did their homework and constantly improved.
The proof was in the pudding but I never could see it.

I would like to add that Eastman leather are a more established company world wide compared to BK
Glad these look better.
JMO,
Dave
 

Rutger

Well-Known Member
Isn't Aero very much into oil pull? I can't recollect Eastman combined with oil pull leather A-2's but I may of course be wrong.
Oil pull leather is kind of impregnated with oil/waxes during tanning, what I understand from it. Not the kind of impregnation that'll make it sweat oil and turn into a flaming torch when you're too close near a camp fire ;) .

Never heard of oil pull leather being used for A-2's back in the old days either.

I got an old Eastman A2 that's like rubber: when raining it doesn't get wet. That has nothing to do with oil pull effect though!
I also have an Eastman Werber with the Warhorse stuff that I bought three years ago and that's not cardboard, in fact it has the same suppleness of my two GW. It has an obvious, decent, evenly distributed grain, and the collar stand is the only thing I have against it.
Most makers are well into heavy graining it seems nowadays. I've seen a few occasions where I think that the effect has been overdone, sort of cherry picking so much heavily grained leather that it tends to look over the top.

The ELC Werber from their current web site seems to have a nice grain (more pronounced than mine), not overdoing it in any way.
 

Peter Graham

Well-Known Member
I have an ELC Werber that I bought second hand last year. I don't know how old it is but as far as graining goes, it's just right. I think they try too hard these days.
 

dmar836

Well-Known Member
I had a very early GW Dubow that was oil pull. I did my RW in oil pull. It has a lot of grain from the get-go and is often thin. As said, it is the stuff that is impregnated with oils so that it has an uneven finish and shows blemishes that disappear after a few minutes. The problems with oil pull is that, while it has it's own nice grain, it doesn't really develop grain of its own.
Dave
 

mindful

Active Member
Peter Graham said:
I have an ELC Werber that I bought second hand last year. I don't know how old it is but as far as graining goes, it's just right. I think they try too hard these days.
Any pictures on that one please
 
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