"New" Thurlow Deerskin leather jacket-Help identifying Purple seam/scratch discoloration

[stweet]

Hi Everyone,

I've never posted here, only sporadically lurked; please excuse any naïveté.

Whilst waiting for my first Johnson Leathers' jacket, I started surfing Ebay, and ended up "accidentally" buying this Thurlow...

According to the original owner, it's a 1980's vintage jacket. Anyway, I just received it, and am curious about the purple discoloration shown in the attached photos. What the heck is it? I've seen discussion on teacore patina, and other natural colors coming through abrasians or bleaching, but not this. It's on the seams, and also myriad abrasians.

I'm a leather-jacket novice, was planning on rehydrating the somewhat-dry leather with recently ordered Obenauf's oil or some Renovateur I have, but wanted first figuring what this was.

Aside: I think it's a pretty neat jacket, despite some cracking on the collar. Any commentary on the jacket is appreciated (read a nice thread by TMitchell59, will likely ask Alan @ JL since he commented)

Thanks for help identifying, and in general the informative discussions you all generate.

 

[Tom71]

Hi and welcome.

Nice jacket. For the quoted age, conditions looks fine to me.

Don’t worry about the rub-offs. That’s just the top layer(s) of the hide flaking away, revealing the non-dyed inner parts. Normal wear and tear, I dare say.
If your unhappy visually, you can apply some dark shoe polish on the affected parts and rub it in to subdue the effect.

 

[raf]

I'm observing that the purple color displays on worn leather very near sewing stitches.

Maybe a coincidence, but I have a Cockpit cloth A-2 "Pseudo-Repro" whose brown leather patches, on the ends of the cloth Epaulettes, were "unstitched" and removed. Underneath were purple marks/stains exactly where the stitching lay. I'm guessing from the thread used bleeding into the cloth after becoming wet, or maybe the stain used on the leather patches "wicked" into the fabric when the patches got wet. A few careful applications of common Hydrogen Peroxide gently bleached 90% of the color away.

I would take great care when applying Hyd Perox to leather. May bleach, and/or dry out the leather.


You have options. Perhaps a simple Professional Cleaning (without added post-cleaning bells and whistles) might remove the purple stains. For sure, re-dying the afflicted areas will camouflage the purple color, at the risk of altering the Patina of the jacket. An application of a thin film of leather conditioner or leather oil might do, but applying oil/reconditioner first will make subsequent dyeing much more problematic.

See the appropriate Leather Care/Conditioning threads here.

It all depends on what you want.

 

[tmitchell59]

Don't worry about the color, just enjoy the jacket. I think they are great. I still have some Thurlow jackets.

 

[stweet]

Thanks for all the replies!

Yes, I don’t mind the appearance, just wanted making sure I wasn’t causing huge issues by hydrating the leather. It is quite dry and brittle.

I don’t see these mentioned much, so thought I’d share; it’s a really neat jacket imo, and the deerskin hide is something I rarely see mentioned.

Thanks everyone!

 

[stweet]

re: shoe polish

I have some black Saphir Medaille D'or lying around. It's better to apply *before* rehydrating the leather? I'm guessing just rub a tiny bit in w/ finger/cloth, a light buff?

 

[Alan@JohnsonLeather]

Hi Everyone,

I've never posted here, only sporadically lurked; please excuse any naïveté.

Whilst waiting for my first Johnson Leathers' jacket, I started surfing Ebay, and ended up "accidentally" buying this Thurlow...

According to the original owner, it's a 1980's vintage jacket. Anyway, I just received it, and am curious about the purple discoloration shown in the attached photos. What the heck is it? I've seen discussion on teacore patina, and other natural colors coming through abrasians or bleaching, but not this. It's on the seams, and also myriad abrasians.

I'm a leather-jacket novice, was planning on rehydrating the somewhat-dry leather with recently ordered Obenauf's oil or some Renovateur I have, but wanted first figuring what this was.

Aside: I think it's a pretty neat jacket, despite some cracking on the collar. Any commentary on the jacket is appreciated (read a nice thread by TMitchell59, will likely ask Alan @ JL since he commented)

Thanks for help identifying, and in general the informative discussions you all generate.

Hi,

Based on your photos the jacket appears to be Deerskin and the condition looks fine. I knew the Delores who was the daughter of the original owner a sweet person. They were known for their Deerskin garments and the 80s looks about right for your jacket. As for conditioning the jacket you can but go lightly and enjoy the jacket.

Alan

 

[Tom71]

re: shoe polish

I have some black Saphir Medaille D'or lying around. It's better to apply *before* rehydrating the leather? I'm guessing just rub a tiny bit in w/ finger/cloth, a light buff?

After hydrating the leather. The polish may prevent the conditioner from penetrating the leather.

Apply with the fingertip and rub in gently with a cotton cloth. I don´t think you can do much wrong here.

Re conditioning: easy does it here as well. Use as little as possible and see how the leather behaves after a day or two. You can always re-apply, but too much will likely damage the leather.

 

[stweet]

Thanks Tom, I’ll hydrate the jacket tomorrow, some obenauf’s oil, see how it’s looking in a few days. If anyone’s interested, happy to share fitment shots once it’s wear-ready.

Alan, thanks for history on Thurlow; yeah, I saw your detailed reply in tmitchell’s 2019 thread, the thurlow catalog pdf’s you shared. Amazing how connected you are . See you in February for jacket-fitting! This thurlow will tide me over until then. -Jeff

 

[raf]

I recently applied a thin film of Pecard's Leather Oil (I'm told very similar to Obenauf's) to my sheepskin AN-J-4 jacket which was showing signs of finish abrasion/flaking on the sheepskin, although the many goatskin (shiny finish) did not "accept" the oil. Looks great now, and the oil darkened the color of the seal brown sheepskin to "as new".

A thin film of oil/conditioner is much preferred to really "laying it on". If the leather is very dry, wait a few days and re-apply a second thin coat. You might find it useful to make sure all the stitching holes in the leather get "their share" of oil/conditioner.

 

[Jon Crow]

I recently applied a thin film of Pecard's Leather Oil (I'm told very similar to Obenauf's) to my sheepskin AN-J-4 jacket which was showing signs of finish abrasion/flaking on the sheepskin, although the many goatskin (shiny finish) did not "accept" the oil. Looks great now, and the oil darkened the color of the seal brown sheepskin to "as new".

A thin film of oil/conditioner is much preferred to really "laying it on". If the leather is very dry, wait a few days and re-apply a second thin coat. You might find it useful to make sure all the stitching holes in the leather get "their share" of oil/conditioner.

Nice, I used similar on the vintage sheepskin Avirex ANJ I bought, used Sapo oil what a difference

 

[raf]

Nice, I used similar on the vintage sheepskin Avirex ANJ I bought, used Sapo oil what a difference

Interesting that the "before" pic shows considerable surface finish on what is usually "shiny-finish" (impermeable) goatskin reinforcements, and little surface damage to the sheepskin.

 

[Jon Crow]

Interesting that the "before" pic shows considerable surface finish on what it usually "shiny-finish" (impermeable) goatskin reinforcements, and little surface damage to the sheepskin.

Yeah I noticed that but anyway I got it back in condition and a shine to it anything else was a bonus

 

[Jon Crow]

Interesting that the "before" pic shows considerable surface finish on what it usually "shiny-finish" (impermeable) goatskin reinforcements, and little surface damage to the sheepskin.

If you see pic 2 whatever roughed it up took it back to how it should have looked, the Japanese seller listed it as ' junk ' because of that and listed it mistakenly as a B3 no reserve