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Five Star Pull-Up vs. Regular Mid Brown

CoopDog

Active Member
I have my eye on a Five Star Rough Wear A-2. I’m trying to decide between their pull-up horsehide and regular mid brown horse hide. Which leather is closer to what was used in WWII?
 

Juanito

Well-Known Member
I have not been to Five Star's website to see what they are calling pull up leather, but if it is the standard industry definition of pull up leather, it is about as far as what you could get away from the chrome tanned, pigment finished hides of WWII A-2 jackets.

Pull up leather tends to be fashion oriented.
 

WingAndaPrayer

Well-Known Member
I have my eye on a Five Star Rough Wear A-2. I’m trying to decide between their pull-up horsehide and regular mid brown horse hide. Which leather is closer to what was used in WWII?
I’ve had several of their jackets. The dubow goat and the mid brown are ok. Both are closer then the oil pull and Visky hides. Having said that, the best grained hide they have is the Visky. But it’s fake aged. And overly done imo. So if you want to re dye it, you could have a nice one.
 

CBI

Well-Known Member
I have owned two of their leather jackets, the second A-1(ish) jacket being pull up HH. Pull up would be your closest to WW2 era leather because (by today's standards) its poorly processed. Only vintage folks could say this as a positive!!! The dye work is solid but uneven, there are flea bite marks, uneven graining, scars, etc. Thats what make it good. The graining again is uneven with grainy areas right next to smooth on the same piece of hide. My streehide and pics of other HH seem to show more grain overall. The color is excellent.
 

CBI

Well-Known Member
Yes, I am making a GENERAL comment about ww2 hides. Yes, many of them were beautiful. Yes, there was such a variance that maybe any comments about ww2 hides doesn't really count. For me, the classic ww2 hide is pretty "crude/cheap" looking.............in an awesome way!!!
 

CoopDog

Active Member
Yes, I am making a GENERAL comment about ww2 For me, the classic ww2 hide is pretty "crude/cheap" looking.............in an awesome way!!!

I agree. They were work clothes, mass-produced in WWII by the lowest bidder. I have never seen a WWII jacket, but I don’t imagine that they had perfect leather or stitching. And there were a lot of variations in hides and dyes. They are beautiful for what they were. I image that the overall quality of a Five Star would be similar to a WWII garment contractor.
 

B-Man2

Well-Known Member
Most people who own and have owned original A2’s will tell you that they were never made with the care, exactness , attention to detail and quality of the current day top tier repro jackets. While we all acknowledge that these were work wear jackets that were adopted as symbols of swashbuckling fly anywhere , do anything pilots of the day ….. to most of those pilots … they were simply expendable gear that just happened to look good.
 

Smithy

Well-Known Member
The one thing with the cheaper companies is that they can't match the leather of the big boys because otherwise their prices would shoot up. That's why the big boys cost more, a lot of it is leather.

Shawn's doing great stuff but at his price point, his leather just won't be the same as say, GW.
 

CoopDog

Active Member
The one thing with the cheaper companies is that they can't match the leather of the big boys because otherwise their prices would shoot up. That's why the big boys cost more, a lot of it is leather.

Shawn's doing great stuff but at his price point, his leather just won't be the same as say, GW.
Makes sense. But is the Five Star leather comparable to WWII leather?
 
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