See my B-3's Airing on the Line

[Dumpster Diver]

Good Day Gentlemen.

Today is a beautiful day, I decided to open the vaults and put some fresh oxygen into the fleece of some of my WWII B-3 Bomber Jacket collection and thought I would share with you some photos.
The weather is now becoming more cool and crisp, There is a very calm breeze and a perfect balance of moisture in the air right now, the sun is moving further back and the light is not beating down as severely. Perfect weather. The Garden is growing fine, the Deer (Deerts I call em') seem to get in once in awhile but they haven't touched the Eggplants, Just knocking down a few posts which I was repairing the other afternoon. These Jackets are mostly kept hidden and wrapped up in a big pioneer hutch and don't get enough attention with all my current projects to attend. They will hopefully do well to freshen up a little before I Wrap them back up.

Eventually I would like to make some shadow boxes to hang them on the wall like you would see most people doing with their sports Jerseys. I'm very proud of my Jackets and Love them near and dear to my heart.

 

[SPLINTER]

Its not very often you'd get a chance to do that over here in the uk ------ its always pissing it down lol

 

[Doctor Damage]

Great photos Dumpster, gotta get those things out to breathe sometimes. Do they get musty when stashed away, like old wool does?

Glad to see you posting again, too.

 

[ButteMT61]

Load like a road trip through northern England or Scotland.

 

[Dumpster Diver]

Baaaaa-aaa-aa!!!

That's not including the trousers or three Irvin Jackets either...those are holding up twice as well as these because of the way they must have been tanned, you better believe it!!! maybe even the breed of sheep has something to do with it, those tough British sheep I tell you!!!

They don't get too musty no, I'm mostly worried about the Cotton thread eventually rotting. The one Aero mixed batch smells of moth balls even after Eucalan treatment to the fleece, but Since it's stored I'm happy to report it has kept moths away for the time being, this place is notoriously bad for Bugs being so far out in the country. Each Jacket has it's own story to tell.

Leather Is incredible. The Snaps and buckles have some oxide on them or completely rotted out on a couple examples long before I got to restoring them, most of these examples came cheap because collectors dont want Jackets with blown Zippers and bald cuffs, I'm not boasting but I'm a bit of a genius when it comes to going the extra mile with innovative repairs beyond what most people would bother to do for these things that are very time consuming by hand, so if you have a blown Jacket I can show you how to repair it by hand yourself via Walk-through or simply love them so much I would be happy to see what I could do for you from either repairing it myself or at least point you in the right direction on your own Bomber Jacket Restoration Journey. More or less the leather is doing Just fine on most of them in terms of PH Levels, some have a couple fragile spots of course... especially the one Redskin I have which is the dirty looking one, god knows how it got so grimy, that's not in wearable shape, unfortunately dry rot is setting in and time got to it before I did, The collar is ready to blow so that's a total resto project I've been saving for a rainy day. Cigarette smoke doesn't mix well with leather....it's also weird that Jacket and one other in particular have a slash in the EXACT same place on the left breast in an identical pattern, forensic evidence I am yet to determine the cause of.

 

[John Lever]

Exposing sheepskin to direct sunlight can cause shrinkage.

 

[Dumpster Diver]

They ain't gettin' any more shrunker believe me this.

I'm only giving the fleece a bit of air, Not keeping the hide side up. Only time I'd give em a real bit of sun is to oil them, a little sun cooks the oil in real nice, and that's only a short treatment of about 20 minutes, that only needs to happen once to really get some of the fragile spots that can't be man-handled to get the oil saturated. I'd prefer NOT to treat them, but these one's like I said are all Jackets that no one wanted because they were already in poor condition and in need of a restoration.

They aren't sitting there like a DC-3 in an Airplane graveyard basking day after day....and I heard here that storing them in a dark closet will shrink them up too so It seems like, what's the lesser of two evils here honestly? one way or the other the leather is going to shrink no matter what!

I hear ya, UV Damage aside...this wasn't midday summer sun beating down on them so not to worry.. it's pretty damn shady here and they weren't really getting more than a small patch of light on them in the late afternoon and evening. Trusssst me I'm a professional!

 

[John Lever]

Exposure to a few days of full sun is a gentle way (compared to washing ) to weather and shrink leather. Obviously I'm not talking Death Valley sun here.

 

[Dumpster Diver]

I believe you, This leather has not been exposed to direct sun for even half a day, I leave them Fleece out and leather down for that matter barely any sun is remotely hitting them under the shade of two tall cedar trees, they are in Full shade for less than 6- 8 hours only from late afternoon to sunset...what would you have me do versus leaving them to shrivel up in a dark wardrobe going stale over the years...This is a real double edged sword you are pointing at me.

Again I raise the point that they will ultimately shrink a little if I'm not wearing them either way.

I'd like to hear a solution rather than have this be wedged between a rock and a hard place.

Skin is the biggest organ on the body and it takes in Oxygen through absortion, I'm not sure how much we're talking here, but I'd presume it's ok for leather to breath a little air, sunlight and Radiation is agreeably going to weather the leather, But my point being leather needs to breathe a bit. Again these Jackets have seen better days, and I guarantee they've been through worse than a little UV damage in their time.

 

[bn1966]

I believe you, This leather has not been exposed to direct sun for even half a day, I leave them Fleece out and leather down for that matter barely any sun is remotely hitting them under the shade of two tall cedar trees, they are in Full shade for less than 6- 8 hours only from late afternoon to sunset...what would you have me do versus leaving them to shrivel up in a dark wardrobe going stale over the years...This is a real double edged sword you are pointing at me.

Again I raise the point that they will ultimately shrink a little if I'm not wearing them either way.

I'd like to hear a solution rather than have this be wedged between a rock and a hard place.

Skin is the biggest organ on the body and it takes in Oxygen through absortion, I'm not sure how much we're talking here, but I'd presume it's ok for leather to breath a little air, sunlight and Radiation is agreeably going to weather the leather, But my point being leather needs to breathe a bit. Again these Jackets have seen better days, and I guarantee they've been through worse than a little UV damage in their time.

Nice to see you back J

 

[Dumpster Diver]

Ah, thanks Lee, Glad to be back in with some proper blokes...as long as you're all willing to be subjected to my Diatribes I'm happy carry on brimming (note the clever pun, brim...hat...fedora...huh? ...huuh? *Sound of a lone cricket*) People are bound to love me or hate me puns rhymes and all.