How can you age a goatskin jacket

[6148th T.C.Squadron]

Goatskin has a rather resilient finish, compared to horse, and cowhide. I have had several older goatskin jackets the look fantastic after a long period of breaking in. Is there any
way to speed up the process?

 

[Who]

A lot will depend on the tanning process. Older goat is more likely to be veg tanned which will age better than chrome tanned

Nevertheless, I take the sheen off them by putting them in a front load washer with detergent and running it through a full cycle. Hang in the shade to dry.

 

[galvestonokie]

i have not had a lot of luck aging goat. if you see many older, naturally aged jackets, you see a bit of fading, some abrasion on the edges and, if lucky, a beautiful patina. be careful with the washing machine, ensure you use cold water, or you may shrink it.
my advice, try using some solvent to see if you can effect some fading. try this under an armpit or inside collar flap. abrasion is easy with a wire brush, sand paper (fine grit) or other abrasive. for patina, you can use a little shoe polish and buffing.
you can look on the Fedora Lound or just google aging Indiana Jones jackets. there are some interesting stories about how the wardrobe people aged the movie jackets. best bet with goat, IMHO, is buy an older aged jacket or just wear the hell out of it. and no need to be gentle and worship the jacket.

i'm just sayin... bob

 

[6148th T.C.Squadron]

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Skyhawk]

Wear it like its the only jacket you own for awhile. Driving is really good for getting the ripples on the arms and getting that flown in look, if you don't fly on a regular basis. I have a long commute to work and I have broken in goat by zipping it up and driving in it for 2-3 hours a day. It don't take long to ripple the arms and get some grain going.

 

[Who]

I don't think you want to use sandpaper and a wire brush. Silly idea best left to movie costume people for that horribly fake aged Indiana Jones look.

A machine cycle won't hurt it a bit but will make it look broken in. Cold or warm but not hot. You can also use rubbing alcohol to remove the shine. Rub gentle and don't over do it.

 

[a2jacketpatches]

Rubbing alcohol is a good choice for slow removal of the coating, acetone for fast. I had an M422 many years ago that was Civied ( sliced up the back and stitched ) It had the perfect aging that I think you're looking for. Darker brown with all the high points being a perfectly transitioning lighter and reddish brown. There wasn't a sandpapered look at all, just that every seam and edge had been worn just enough to reveal the color beneath the dark brown. Depending on what's under whatever you have there are a few things you can do. Ever so carefully remove what you want at the pocket edges, seams, etc. and maybe the color suits you as is. If not, use some ecoflow to re-colors what has been faded but using a lighter brown. Star sparingly and work up to the shade you prefer. If using the acetone method (the one Id use) Take an old T-shirt, make a sort of semi-floppy paintbrush with it, soak the end with acetone, a sorta dragg it over the extreme high points. Not rub, but lightly drag instead. You can blend a little later with a moist (not soaked as previous) acetone rag anything that needs it.

The Indy Jacket was worn in a swimming pool from what I remember and the cameras don't pick up what the eye does first hand. Seeing some in detail close-ups of movie props show a pretty cheesy job a lot of times but looking good in the film.

Or you can send it to me, whatever the situation with how the finish reacts and other than perfect results will be countered and resolved. You just have to think like Father Time and what he would do to it, that and a little artistic license.

Hey, I just may offer a 50 mission, war torn, combat hide, azz beaten, or whatever else it could be called aging service on Ebay now :lol:

 

[Dr H]

I always prefect this comment with a 'teaching my granny to suck eggs type response', but please use acetone (or indeed any of the common volatile organic solvents that you might encounter) with care.

Natural rubber (8 mil latex) gloves for incidental contact with acetone, butyl rubber gloves for extended contact (rather than PVC, which has poor resistance) and eye protection, plenty of air/not confined space.

 

[a2jacketpatches]

Yeah, there's a black protective glove I buy from Walmart designed for automotive use, solvents etc. Your average rubber glove will wrinkle up and fall apart. And ventilation, absolutely. My Garage presently is like one big exhaust fan where the air enters the small back door and blows out the large garage door so I work accordingly hardly smelling the stuff at all. But a fan behind your head blowing the air toward your work is a good idea when outside, it'll keep most of the fumes traveling away from you, better than just floating around.

 

[6148th T.C.Squadron]

Thank guys for the help.

 

[FlyingYankee]

If people 70 years ago could hear us now about aging Jackets they would think we were crazy. Best advice is just to wear it as much as possible in all kinds of weather and work. If you need it aged quick go for a walk in heavy brush (thorns) after a rainstorm.

 

[a2jacketpatches]

I think he's going for a certain look in particular. In general, I think most guys like that look of it just being worn over many years which is hard thing to fake. The closest you'll get to that is removing finish without damaging leather and hoping the underlying color blends well. If it doesn't, being able to colorize it a bit in the right direction will improve the look. A very fine grit of sand paper might achieve the same results as a solvent and I might use it very sparingly on the extreme high points but be very careful.

Under normal conditions a flight jacket doesn't really contend with thorns and sandpaper and the look you'll achieve going that route is just that, thorns and sandpaper. It does get wet weakening the top coat a bit, it is rubbed by itself, straps, seat cushions, etc. It also forms wrinkles in which case the top part of those wrinkles are sort of stretched open exposing the pores and subjecting that part to quicker and more frequent water absorption and evaporation. Over time all of these factors result in a nice even wear of the high points finish without an even sand paper abrasive appearance.

The following pic is what I imagine to be a fine goatskin patina, the perfect aged goatskin look. There's two ways achieving this, hope the finish is conducive to this look and wear it for many years, or fake it by speeding up the process using chemicals with an artistic hand. You can roll around in the dirt, drag it behind your truck, soak it and drive across the country seventeen times, but you wont get what you see here. And also keep in mind that there's probably countless formulas being used these days to finish goatskin. Each one will react differently and require a little under the arm experiment in order to proceed with a fake aging process.

The wheels are turning after many years of seeing how guys and the top dogs in Flight Jacket reproduction strive to get this war torn look. At some point in the future I may offer an aging process with the only guarantee being that I'll do it better. In my opinion based studying originals, the first step is for the owner to develop the tunneling in the arms and form the first wrinkles by wearing it wet and letting it dry a few times. Then I move forward using a bunch of techniques i developed over about 20 years using every leather known to man as experiments. I've had cut up A2's, G1's and that M422 I spoke of earlier. Using less than a square inch under the arm would tell me all I need to know about how to proceed with that particular leather. Thinking that a service like this would be at an hourly rate.

I know the obvious only real way is to wear it normally for years, BUUUUUUT, the topic for this thread is "How can you age a goatskin jacket" so my best guess is that he wants to do it artificially.

 

[a2jacketpatches]

"with the only guarantee being that I'll do it better"

Just to clear it up, I'm talking about any new, non aged jacket. And my techniques are geared toward a jacket that's been worn a bit by the owner. I simply trust that I would be able to artistically age a jacket better than the average consumer of one using the suggestions of many. The time worn jackets being produced today are of fine quality and as good as it gets out of the box. The subtle aging methods being used are a very good start.

 

[6148th T.C.Squadron]

Great looking jacket.

 

[a2jacketpatches]

Think I know you well enough that it's the look you're looking for?