Looks great! But how does it feel? My first aero jackets were premier cut highwayman. In pics they looked awesome on me. I had to all but dislocate a shoulder to put them on. One reason I moved to johnson leather. For me they have an appropriate width shoulder for the chest size. I am a 40 inch chest too.
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Aero Highwayman fit pic and 1st post
- Thread starter Horseoak
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Horseoak
Familiar Face
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Thanks for the comment. It feels better and better every time I wear it. The jacket is slim fitting on me, so taking it off requires some elbow grease but that's ok with me.
Thats all that matters looks awesome !
Dphillip
Familiar Face
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Outstanding!
Me very jealous!
Me very jealous!
Horseoak
Familiar Face
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I was just admiring the jacket myself as I'm doing some work around the house. Minimal design and quality craftsmanship make it a special item. Aero hit the mark with this design. Thanks for the shout out
Horseoak
Familiar Face
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- Philadelphia, PA
An updated shot of my Brown FQHH Aero Highwayman after a new zipper and conditioning.
Alan from Johnson Leathers did a great job with the zipper repair. The YKK zipper he used is double the size of Talon's & it's what he uses on heavy Horsehide Jackets.
For conditioning, JL personally recommended Leather Honey and after two treatments by me in April & August I can say it's much more supple.
Great all around jacket for me. Thanks for looking and be well.
Alan from Johnson Leathers did a great job with the zipper repair. The YKK zipper he used is double the size of Talon's & it's what he uses on heavy Horsehide Jackets.
For conditioning, JL personally recommended Leather Honey and after two treatments by me in April & August I can say it's much more supple.
Great all around jacket for me. Thanks for looking and be well.
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jeo
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Looks great! Johnson Leathers is my go to for any kind of repairs. Nice to see leather jacket love coming out of Philly.
Horseoak
Familiar Face
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Good people over at JL. I'm talking with them about making a Cordovan HH M200 in the heavy stuff. Great to hear from another Philly guy - be well!!
jeo
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Do it. You won't be disappointed. I feel that JL is one of the most under rated makers out there.
If you see a short dude wearing a leather jacket walking around center city, it's probably me haha! Be well my friend!
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Horseoak
Familiar Face
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I'm somewhat of a leather worker, so I've seen a lot of product and even make my own based on beeswax, lanolin, castor oil, almond oil and coconut oil. I read about leather honey a long time ago and seen it on Amazon, but never tried the product. Leather Honey exceeded all my expectations - it's an amazing product and great recommendation from JL. The jacket soaked up 3oz during each hand applied treatment.
After applying the honey like substance to the jacket by-hand it appeared darker, though it lighted up very quickly and was back to 'normal' from a color and feel perspective in about 2 days. No oily residue or spotting - nice even finish. No odors.
In my opinion the jacket is the same color in my fit pic compared to the picture I posted yesterday, but the difference in feel is incredible. She was so dryyyyy - I'm lucky I didn't damage the jacket prior to conditioning.
When it comes to conditioning these jackets, I'm sticking with Leather Honey.
Horseoak
Familiar Face
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Same here man - we should do coffee some time and show-off some leather. Take care
jeo
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I would love that! I'll DM you.
TooManyHatsOnlyOneHead
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most conditioners are going to darken per se, especially brown shades. In reality, the leather is drying and fading, so you're "restoring" it back to it's original color, kind of. So it's sort of an optical illusion, but there's no doubt some darkening, especially if using an oil like coconut. Those really light shades of brown are a pain no doubt to maintain. I think I've tried 10 different kinds of treatments. There really is no one size fits all solution because obviously there's different kinds of leathers, tanning process, etc.
I've also made my own kind of hybrid mix, mostly coconut oil and beeswax. But I'd only use that on black leather and even then, I'm careful about it. Smiths Leather Balm is probably the best smelling (cocoa butter... need I say more) and probably the one that changes the shade the least (that I've discovered so far). Otter Wax is similar, but darkens slightly more IMO. Like someone said, in most cases, most conditioners will darken at first and within a few days fade mostly back to where you were when you started.
There's also Cadillac Leather Conditioner. People swear by it and there's sort of a cult that uses it on Louis Vitton bags. I've used it on a 20 year old pair of Justin boots and it did wonders and preserved a lot of the patina without overly darkening. But I've never used it on a nice leather jacket.
From what I understand CXL leather really doesn't need conditioning, especially in the first several years. I mean if you're a motorcycle rider, maybe. The leather is so saturated with waxes and oils, it should be fine for years. Then there's certain conditioners that are supposedly special for CXL leather. Venetian Shoe Cream and Saphir Greasy Leather Cream (their marketing should really come up with a better name). Again, I've only tried on shoes/boots, never tried on a jacket.
The one conditioner that also has a lot of followers claiming it will not darken is Bick 4. But no one really knows what's in it and there's always this worry about putting chemicals on expensive leather. Generally most people say stay away from silicone and petroleum based oil, but even then there's contradictory info. And Neatsfoot oil is apparently pretty mellow on darkening, but doesn't really penetrate much (probably why it doesn't darken much).
You can thank all the above info to my covid boredom with all this spare time on my hands, I've gone deep down the rabbit hole. Basically I've learned a lot, but really not learned anything. I'm still confused as to what I should use. But generally I've settled on coconut oil/beeswax for black and Smiths Leather Balm for brown. But even with that, I'm really nervous about putting anything on my 100 series Schotts, which are "naked" leather and supposedly don't need anything for a long time.
There used to be this person, Gail, on the Schott forums who worked for the company for years. And anytime a question came up about leather conditioning, she pretty much said do nothing. Every once in a while she would suggest mink oil if someone really twisted her arm, but I'm not a fan of it. Really stinks and who knows what you're buying nowadays anyway.
edit: forgot to mention the more interesting one I came across, although makes total sense.... Lexol. The guys in the LA Schott store say that's what they use.
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Just beware, some tend to over do it and grease up their leathers ruining any chance for a 'nice' patina. First thing they want to do is rub conditioner onto a new jacket. I've never conditioned any of my leather jackets. I like the character of honest wear and used appearance, but that's just IMO.
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