Treatment of Vintage Leather for Daily Wear?

[Donovan303]

Hello,

I’m a new member to the forum but a longtime lover of vintage clothing, antique cars, motorcycles, pottery, and watches – hell I like just about anything old.

Recently I went looking for a good leather summer jacket. I’ve always wanted an old, well weathered jacket I could wear when riding my motorcycle in the Spring/Summer. Here are a couple pics of what I ended up with. I love the jacket; it fits well and is very soft and comfortable. I’d like to take care of it properly but I don’t have any experience with vintage worn leather.
I did use the search function and read a lot about different leathers, mink oil, Pecard’s, Obenauf's, Lexol, and others, mainly in this thread:
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?44676-What-leather-conditioner-do-you-use

I ended up getting a little overwhelmed and it also seemed that treatment really depended on the type of leather, what it is going to be used for, age and condition so there are a lot of variables in play.

Here is what I’m looking for in my jacket.

1) I would like my jacket to retain the worn look it has and not change the color if possible.
2) This jacket will be worn and used, a lot.
3) It probably won’t see much rain but the occasional storm is possible.

Any opinions from those jacket owners out there with more experience on how I should treat this properly?

Thanks,
Donovan

 

[Donovan303]

Well I went with an application of Lexol and it seems to have helped some.

Now I am interested in dating this piece. It has a "Ritsch" main zipper with Ritsch in quotes. The pocket zippers are Zipp without a lightening bolt but with BCWr-N on the back side. The side adjustment buckles are steel and the snaps do not have any name on them. There was something sewn on above the left breast pocket at some point but what I cannot tell. You can see the general outline in the first picture above.

I do not believe the shoulder boards are WWII pieces, but the button holding them down appears to be.

The little bit of info I could find on the zippers could place the pocket zipps around 1945.

Any ideas on this piece?

Cheers,
Donovan

 

[Peacoat]

Welcome to the Lounge. You will find there are a multitude of opinions about leather conditioners from the members of this forum. Do a search and you will find a multitude of suggestions. Most of the old timers here in the US, like Pecard. I don't think you can go wrong with that product. For the leather jackets, I tend to use Pecard more than anything else.

As to your question about zippers, unfortunately that isn't my area of expertise. One day I hope to make it another area of specialization, but so far the reference materials have eluded my grasp. There is a poster here who knows a lot about zippers, and vintage dating. Perhaps he will see this thread and give an opinion. It is a very arcane subject, much like vintage peacoat dating used to be. Good luck.

 

[Donovan303]

Peacoat,

Thanks very much for the reply. After a couple days of drying the Lexol is all soaked up. I might try another application but if Pecard is the way to go I can order and treat with that too.

My only concern with Pecard was some of the pics I've seen after treatment make the jacket look darker and seem to remove some of the worn look which I like. So if possible I'd like to find a treatment that will help the leather's life and not change the great patina that it has, but if that is not possible then I will do whatever is necessary.

Hopefully someone will chime in with some ideas about the period of this jacket.

Cheers,
Donovan

 

[garzo]

Fantastic looking jacket. Looks like a German pilot's jacket, very likely since it has a Ritsch zipper. Check out this similar looking Luftwaffe jacket from an old auction -- http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/ww-ii-black-luftwaffe-flight-jacket-leather

How's the treatment coming along?

 

[Donovan303]

Fantastic looking jacket. Looks like a German pilot's jacket, very likely since it has a Ritsch zipper. Check out this similar looking Luftwaffe jacket from an old auction -- http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/ww-ii-black-luftwaffe-flight-jacket-leather

How's the treatment coming along?

Garzo,

The treatment seems to be going well. The jacket is horsehide I think. It is very, very soft. There are two small cracks on the jacket and some heavy wear on the collar where it contacts the neck. Other than that just fine, but very broke in. The patina is actually what drew me to this particular piece.

I'm going to use the Lexol one more time and see how that goes. The first application was completely soaked up in 24 hours.

It would be great if the jacket turned out to be a WWII piece, but I know dating this stuff can be hard and I assume wartime material would have been used until gone in the post war years when many of the same style jackets were made. So I do not know that there will ever be a way to tell for sure.

Either way it is my new favorite jacket.

Cheers,
Donovan

 

[Seb Lucas]

Peacoat,

Thanks very much for the reply. After a couple days of drying the Lexol is all soaked up. I might try another application but if Pecard is the way to go I can order and treat with that too.

My only concern with Pecard was some of the pics I've seen after treatment make the jacket look darker and seem to remove some of the worn look which I like. So if possible I'd like to find a treatment that will help the leather's life and not change the great patina that it has, but if that is not possible then I will do whatever is necessary.

Hopefully someone will chime in with some ideas about the period of this jacket.

Cheers,
Donovan

Lexol is okay - I use it. Better on lambskin.

Pecards does make things look new and darker for a little while then it goes back to it's worn look, when the stuff drys and settles. I can't recommend it highly enough for worn leather.

 

[Spitfire]

Pecards - 'nuff said