Teacore leather jackets - post yours here!

[Canuck Panda]

How come? Do you not like the Ponyboy? When I saw that jacket online, it was love at first sight.

Funny enough, I was considering ordering the Speedster from Barnstormer a few days ago. It looked great on me when I tried it on in their store in Japan. But I just couldn't pull the trigger because the double front pockets just feels off to me. It's definitely not everyone's cup of tea.

How long do you reckon it takes to break in a jacket like the Speedster or Ponyboy? I'm sometimes embarrassed walking in public wearing such a stiff jacket lol.

Speedster (different kind of teacore leather than the pigment Shinki but general idea is similar)

Only teacore in high abrasion area and one side of the zipper wears faster. The brown tape blends well. Something to think about, tape color and stitch color if you were going custom

The big panels of the jacket is just black. But nice wrinkles, the same is with Shinki teacore, but the RC teacore leather has more translucent finish on top. It's just makers trying to differentiate themselves. Both does that horsehide wrinkle well, basically shrunken grain of some sorts, the wearing agitation and the weather moisture tightens and pops the grains. And horsehide got lots of them. Higher the wax content the more they look wrinkled by wearing.

Tumbled black CXL, four years:

@livioli don't worry too much, just wear your jacket when it arrives. Should be soon I think, isn't the usual pre-order delievery in march or april?

 

[Marc mndt]

French sheepskin perfecto

 

[jr30]

French sheepskin perfecto

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Amazing! The leather (and the jacket) looks wonderful!

 

[Peter Bowden]

My Route66 in horsehide-Not old or a great deal of wear but now looks like this.

 

[JMax]

Cal

Aero

I’m looking for a pic of an old Oakbrook D pocket I had that totally fits the bill for this thread.

 

[livioli]

Speedster (different kind of teacore leather than the pigment Shinki but general idea is similar)

Only teacore in high abrasion area and one side of the zipper wears faster. The brown tape blends well. Something to think about, tape color and stitch color if you were going custom
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The big panels of the jacket is just black. But nice wrinkles, the same is with Shinki teacore, but the RC teacore leather has more translucent finish on top. It's just makers trying to differentiate themselves. Both does that horsehide wrinkle well, basically shrunken grain of some sorts, the wearing agitation and the weather moisture tightens and pops the grains. And horsehide got lots of them. Higher the wax content the more they look wrinkled by wearing.
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Tumbled black CXL, four years:
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@livioli don't worry too much, just wear your jacket when it arrives. Should be soon I think, isn't the usual pre-order delievery in march or april?

Arriving between February and march.

 

[navetsea]

Is this considered tea core, i want to darken the color with some translucent black again to some parts that are too far brown

 

[TartuWolf]

My Route66 in horsehide-Not old or a great deal of wear but now looks like this.

Perfection as far as tea-core goes in my opinion.

 

[handymike]

My Route66 in horsehide-Not old or a great deal of wear but now looks like this.

Is this from 2016? There was a beautiful batch of CXL with a thin top-coat. I had two jackets from this run- aged quickly, but gorgeous!

 

[Canuck Panda]

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Is this considered tea core, i want to darken the color with some translucent black again to some parts that are too far brown

Your jacket project inspired me to overdye a few of my jackets myself. I've found that when I cut the dye with water it gets more translucent like aniline finish but the wears much faster than no cutting with water. I've got some clear topcoat stuff I want to try to seal everything in. So still cut with water to dilute the dye but another clear coat over it so it doesn't fade, just translucent. Also gonna try to do a 10% black and 90% water base coat first to see if I can get it to wear to grey before it gets to brown...

 

[navetsea]

thanks for your indepth analysist with diluting dye, my black dye is also waterbased , and I also didn't seal with any "varnish" post dyeing it the first time, I did not dilute the dye but I only apply it with patting stamp so from the start it was already not a solid black more like cloudy shades of black, I plan to do the same but with smaller/ much smaller stamp made from wool dauber covered with cotton t-shirt material.

 

[Chris_K]

I will give a mini one week update on how the Mccoy Shinki teacore (pigment) wears, which I believe is the same leather Greg uses. The factory calls it SF Horse, and I think it can come in either softened (through staking process) or regular no staking. The Joe Mccoy branded jackets seems to come with softened leather and Buco line seems to come with the non softened ones and also no skiving, but I don't have enough jackets to make this a truth, just from my few jackets this is the case.

It's also very water resistant. I had some very wet days last week and they didn't get soak (at all) through. All pigment finished jackets I have (other than Shinki) is all like this too. The acrylic coating does wonders to make water bead and not let it through. To be fair I was never out for more than 15 minutes at a time in an urban setting but my cotton pants both thighs would soak through jacket stayed dry with water beading and shedding off.

Unfortunately not a lot of fade, only super high traffic areas starts to show a tiny bit of wear. It would take years to get some brown lines down the welts and cuffs and zips...etc. imo. The top coat is quite sturdy. I did pick up one scratch mark on the back from constantly leaning against the concrete wall of my office building. I am surprised there aren't more. All and all I wasn't trying to be careful with the jacket, in an attempt to speed the browing up, but not a lot of it.

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One side of the zipper wears faster than the other and the Hookless is causing premature wear at the start. Other than that, it looks fairly new. The grains are poping mostly due to me throwing the jacket around, not being too careful about it. Brushing also pops the grains ime.

I've been looking at older RMC jackets, as far back as 90s when they were still made in New Zealand. Back then I believe it wasn't Shinki, but something different. Not sure what it was. But the main difference is that it turns grey before it turns brown, which I thought is quite cool, not unlike many vintage jackets I've seen. And one side of the zipper also wears faster than the other like my Shinki pigment so I guess that's the norm.
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In summary I don't think you can go wrong with Shinki pigment leather. It's one of the best on the market. It would come down to whether or not you want edge / seam skiving or not. They do make quite a difference in the feeling and wear of the final product. The J-24 feels like a CXL level stiff jacket and Joe Mccoy feels much softer, and the former has bulky seams no skiving at all.

Appreciate the wisdom as always, Canuck. I have a new J-24 high on my target list, for this very reason - it seems the pigment dye shinki apply and more generally their entire method, dyes the entire top layer of the hide - so it ages just like the vintage steerhide Buco's I have seen, which also very clearly have a brown flesh/core - they seem to age in the exact same way, as testified by Mysterio's 10 year example above and also the Youtube video you linked.

I am definitely not a fan of the black jacket turning brown look, especially the high speed leather some brands seem to use. However, with Shinki, this does not seem to be the case - it seems like true, old school tea core - once again, like the vintage Buco examples that can easily be found. That is my idea of perfect tea core aging, beautiful.

 

[Peter Bowden]

Is this from 2016? There was a beautiful batch of CXL with a thin top-coat. I had two jackets from this run- aged quickly, but gorgeous!

Looking back I bought it in 2018 but I couldn't tell you the date of manufacture.It had a very strong and pleasant leather aroma but faded very quickly from solid black to its present state.It seems to have stabilised now without further fading.

 

[mvilla]

Thanks for all the pics, fellas! I think that is settled now, I'm gonna go with the pigmented Shinki

 

[Aloysius]

I am definitely not a fan of the black jacket turning brown look, especially the high speed leather some brands seem to use. However, with Shinki, this does not seem to be the case - it seems like true, old school tea core - once again, like the vintage Buco examples that can easily be found. That is my idea of perfect tea core aging, beautiful.

Once again, there isn't a single "Shinki". Many brands order an ultra fast-fading Shinki horsehide that looks decades old in about a month.

 

[Chris_K]

Once again, there isn't a single "Shinki". Many brands order an ultra fast-fading Shinki horsehide that looks decades old in about a month.

Absolutely, should have specified, McCoy's Shinki.

 

[Aloysius]

Absolutely, should have specified, McCoy's Shinki.

Even then, I don't think they've only used one type, haha.

 

[BloodEagle]

RMC Buco J24

 

[BloodEagle]

RMC Buco JH-1

 

[Marc mndt]

Steerhide Buco J82