Has anyone seen a Golden Era leather jacket made from Horween CXL FQHH or Steer

[Plumbline]

I did look at some vintage CHP jackets and while they were made of thick leather (2.5-3oz) .. .they were generally steer ( I only ever saw a few horsehide examples and the hide was always significantly thinner ( max 2.5oz) than CXL and while it looked chrome tanned it didn't have the same "hand" as 20-30 year old Horween CXL ( this is the oldest Horween I could find for comparison). In general there were no labels / madrkings to identify the original tannery either.

I have looked as some extremely thick leather motorcycle jackets but mostly from the 60's and 70's. I've studied Rin's books and various other publications .... spoken to most latter day manufacturers who can still be found and who still have corporate memory that far back ..... and the general view is that the fashion was simply not to wear really thick leather.

Look at the materials which made up the A-2's, the early bike jackets and also the early fashion jackets and it was predomiantely thinner hides which draped beautifully ... look at the Hartmann and Luftwaffe jackets, the French M/C jackets even the early (30's and 40's) US M/C jackets ..... even the "tough" work jackets were still not on a par with 3-3.5oz CXL steer or horse of today. It's beautiful leather but I still come to the conclusion that it is an "industrial" product which "we" have re-invented as a GREAT jacket product ... but it is by no means either "original" nor was it common.

As I said .. I've yet to see a golden era jacket in anything like as thick leather !

 

[Baron Kurtz]

even the German stuff?

 

[HDRnR]

Doesn't answer the question but interesting blog from Horween http://horween.com/101/by-request-whats-the-difference/

Also cool blog on CXL process http://horween.com/101/chromexcel-2/#more-522

 

[HDRnR]

I decided to contact Horween directly on this topic. Nick Horween was kind enough to check on this with his father and to his recollection the earliest use of Chromexcel in jackets was the early 1980's. He said its very possible that there are jackets made from other Horween leathers from even earlier than that. So I think as far as CXL goes the early 80's is pretty much the beginning of its use in jackets. BTW Nick said he really appreciates how we ( the end users) discuss his products in such detail as it makes it rewarding for them. ( I sent him a link to this thread).

 

[Capesofwrath]

I decided to contact Horween directly on this topic. Nick Horween was kind enough to check on this with his father and to his recollection the earliest use of Chromexcel in jackets was the early 1980's. He said its very possible that there are jackets made from other Horween leathers from even earlier than that. So I think as far as CXL goes the early 80's is pretty much the beginning of its use in jackets. BTW Nick said he really appreciates how we ( the end users) discuss his products in such detail as it makes it rewarding for them. ( I sent him a link to this thread).

Did he say who he thought it was who used it first? The eighties was my guess, but I thought the later eighties.

 

[HDRnR]

He didn't say, he asked his father and he relayed the info above to me. I just asked him when the earliest use of CXL was for jackets. I figured it was Aero. I'm not sure how it works but its possible that Horween might not know what exactly their customers were using it for in every instance which may add to it being a bit vague. If your consistently selling CXL to a shoe company then you can assume its for shoes but anyone could have called them and bought hides from them and experimented with different products. So it may be impossible to nail it down exactly. I'm sure the 80's reference must be due to a particular customer tho that bought significant numbers of hides for them to place the date.