Pigskin

[pak]

Why is pigskin not offered as a garment leather. I have a few leather items in pigskin and I like the bristle pattern. Welders I work with have jackets in pigskin. Am I missing something?

 

[ButteMT61]

I have a number of pigskin boots from the WWII era. They get very hard if not kept treated/used. A pair of Soviet jack boots were like cardboard and took a lot of work to get useable.
Maybe it's just the look - kinda bumpy and all. You don't want to look like this:

lol

 

[simonc]

Looks like something else on a cold day.

 

[B-24J]

Why is pigskin not offered as a garment leather. I have a few leather items in pigskin and I like the bristle pattern. Welders I work with have jackets in pigskin. Am I missing something?

While pigskin is hard-wearing, it is the only leather in which the hairs go straight through, leaving holes. So it cannot be thoroughly water proofed.

I got this info from a book regarding leather printed in Britain in 1946.

John

 

[armscye]

First, footballs aren't really made of pigskin, and actual pigskin is not pebble grained.

As others have noted, pigskin has large pores that go diagonally through the hide. Pigskin is a fairly thin skin, with moderate strength, and is difficult to flense (remove from the animal) in a uniform way. So most pigskin is used in smaller pieces, with much of current production employed for suede.

I have purchased a couple of lower-grade mall jackets in pig, including one effort at an A2 that I bought for a child. None would merit serious consideration by a jacket aficionado.

 

[ButteMT61]

You better explain the pigskin Soviet boots that are pebble-grained then.

 

[Dinerman]

It looks like most of the pigskin jackets of the 1930s were actually capeskin (sheep) that had been processed to give it a pigskin grain.
1934


1935


1937

 

[Bunyip]

We use pigskin in Australia as protective sheets on our cricket bats...it's glued to the face of the willow and then oiled with linseed. It's harder than Chinese arithmetic ....wouldn't be very keen for a jacket of pig skin, and they wouldn't sell too well in Muslim countries either...

 

[reeks1]

What's all the fuss with a "Talon" zipper. I see it in those old-time adds above and I know Aero offers them as an option. What is it about them that makes them a selling point?

I'm still learning here, gents....

 

[handymike]

They were once a quality American zipper, possibly the oldest (Dinerman??), but now the name has been bought by someone else and they are made in China.

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?72287-Talon-Zippers

 

[Atticus Finch]

I have a pigskin jacket that I bought from L. L. Bean in the late 'eighties...at least L.L. Bean advertised it as being made from pigskin. It has a knit collar, waistband and cuffs and looks like a leather version of the mid-sixties USAF L-2b, but without the cigarette pocket. It's leather isn't football-like at all. It has a brown suede finish and is not "pebbly". If I were at home, I'd post a photo.

It is a good windbreaker, but lacking insulation, it isn't a warm jacket.

AF

 

[armscye]

To reply to the questions about pigskin grain, leather is a protein and therefore heat formable, so its grain is easily changed. Remember that most leathers can be "calendared" or embossed, meaning rolled between hot metal rollers to form a desired grain. There are basketweave leather grains, crocodile grains, snakeskin grains, etc.

http://www.rodenleather.com/faqs.html#embossed-leather

 

[Blackadder]

Pig leather MA-1
http://global.rakuten.com/en/store/pine-avenue/item/tmal-350m/

 

[Atticus Finch]

My 1987 or 1988 pigskin L. L. Bean jacket evidently made from Chinese pigs.

AF

 

[ButteMT61]

Fitting. First flight jackets were Chinese dogs...Woof!

 

[reeks1]

They were once a quality American zipper, possibly the oldest (Dinerman??), but now the name has been bought by someone else and they are made in China.

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?72287-Talon-Zippers

The knowledge of the minutiae around here is fascinating!! I would never have imagined that these sorts of details made a damn bit of difference. But I get it. I totally get it.
Thanks!!