Freewheelers La Brea - Rude Black or Black Jack

[Aloysius]

Well let's clear up a couple of things first.

1. I think CXL is overrated as all hell and isn't that great. I try to avoid CXL at all costs.

2. It does seem like there are different types or "levels" of tea core. I think I only have one super "fast" aging tea core jacket and it's not even from Japan or made with Japanese leather. My current teacore Freewheelers jacket is aging quite slowly. I've worn it at least 150 times and while the top coat has come off in some places, you can hardly tell in most photos.

3. I agree that there are many other great leathers. My second favorite leather in the world after Shinki is Badalassi Carlo Minerva from Italy. This whole discussion has included tea core leather that isn't just Japanese. I'm just mentioning it because I personally have very little experience with tea core leather that isn't Japanese. My fairly new Mister Freedom Campus Stallion is my first one.

4. Patina is the wrong word for leather aging and it actually bugs me that it's become part of the lexicon. Patina is a layer that forms on top of leather. It is additive. "Patina" used incorrectly to describe leather aging is usually subtractive and simply transformative. So yes, it's weird that a lot of people view "patina" as just tea core chipping away. There is so much more to great leather than that. I agree with you entirely there. My favorite jacket leather of all time is the leather on my Freewheelers Caboose which hasn't chipped away in terms of "tea core" much, but it has changed in color and almost marbled in a way in some areas.

Sorry, it's been a busy week so I'm just getting a chance to reply at length. (I should add that only the first bit about your jacket collection was addressed to you; the rest was more general musing on workwear subculture.)

Your dislike for CXL is well known! I actually like it in some applications, like work boots.

I brought it up here precisely because of what you bring up as point 3– it's a widespread view in the workwear world that 'patina' means either the chipping away of a topcoat, on the one hand, or the darkening of undyed leather, on the other hand, to the point that I've met many people who think only undyed leather can patina! That was my basis for saying, by their standard, CXL due to its topcoat would be automatically better than the best dyed-through leathers.

But 2 really hits the nail on the head. Some repro leathers truly are a solid top coat, like the Freewheelers jacket you mention, or the seal 'Jerky' horsehide used by Aero; these actually replicate the pigment finish of the 'Golden Age'.

It's the ones that are basically designed to chip away that I find off-putting, for a number of reasons. I've seen unsightly splotches of chipped-away topcoat, which really look ridiculous on a fairly new jacket.

 

[dudewuttheheck]

Sorry, it's been a busy week so I'm just getting a chance to reply at length. (I should add that only the first bit about your jacket collection was addressed to you; the rest was more general musing on workwear subculture.)

Your dislike for CXL is well known! I actually like it in some applications, like work boots.

I brought it up here precisely because of what you bring up as point 3– it's a widespread view in the workwear world that 'patina' means either the chipping away of a topcoat, on the one hand, or the darkening of undyed leather, on the other hand, to the point that I've met many people who think only undyed leather can patina! That was my basis for saying, by their standard, CXL due to its topcoat would be automatically better than the best dyed-through leathers.

But 2 really hits the nail on the head. Some repro leathers truly are a solid top coat, like the Freewheelers jacket you mention, or the seal 'Jerky' horsehide used by Aero; these actually replicate the pigment finish of the 'Golden Age'.

It's the ones that are basically designed to chip away that I find off-putting, for a number of reasons. I've seen unsightly splotches of chipped-away topcoat, which really look ridiculous on a fairly new jacket.

Yes compared to those leathers, CXL would certainly be better.

Ah yes, then we certainly agree on that. I don't want my jackets or my boots for that matter to chip away too quickly. Especially if the case is as you mentioned where large amounts chip or wear away to create unsightly splotches which look quite weird on something that otherwise clearly has not been worn all that much.