Vinyl or horsehide?

[AeroFan_07]

^^ Good story above - sadly your photos will not come up in my browser.

A few years back I was driving into SW Wisconsin and saw a sign for a "Barn Sale" instead of a garage sale. Curious, I pulled off and drove the 4 miles back on gravel to this very old farmstead. The barn looked stable enough go inside, so I checked it out. There were piles of stuff all over the farm yard as well, but I kept my attention only to those items in the barn, which offered at least a shade tree's amount of protection to all it's contents.

There were a few "leather" jackets and such, but all of them looked nearly covered over with debris, mold, dirt, etc. A bird landed on one of them just as I was about the check it out. About this time I decided to check out the interior of my truck, and moved along, not looking back....

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Claybertrand's photos don't show for me either...

 

[Will Zach]

Is there a place on the interior of the jacket where you could snip off a tiny strip and put a flame to it? Pretty sure you could tell a chemical smell of melting vinyl. Anyhow, it looks like leather to me, only with a topcoat that has plasticky appearance.

 

[Claybertrand]

Sorry fellas...... I went from Google Photos with a copy/paste like I do w/ eBay pics and it didn't work. SO this is an upload of a quick outdoor shot I took this morning in bright sunlight. Not ideal as it is a shiny, fairly reflective leather.


I should add this lil tid bit to sorta echo Will Zach:

On this jacket, I also performed the BURN TEST . Luckily, I had the little leather strip they have as a zipper pull tab from which to take a tiny sample to blaze. If its PLEATHER, it melts vs. Leather that sort of rolls up and dries out. I couldn't tell for certain from the odor of the smoke if it was leather or not. I think I got halfway high sniffing that old Soviet Pigment Dye which likely affected my uhhh..................................judgment.

 

[Alan@JohnsonLeather]

We have had a few jackets come to our shop for repair that the customers thought was leather. I had to tell them the bad news that it was vinyl. I opened the lining from the inside and showed them there was no nap (suede) to the underside of the leather (vinyl) they were surprised. That is one sure way of proving if its leather or vinyl. Just my two cents.

Be kind to your neighbors they know where you live:

 

[Claybertrand]

We have had a few jackets come to our shop for repair that the customers thought was leather. I had to tell them the bad news that it was vinyl. I opened the lining from the inside and showed them there was no nap (suede) to the underside of the leather (vinyl) they were surprised. That is one sure way of proving if its leather or vinyl. Just my two cents.

Be kind to your neighbors they know where you live:

Thanks Alan! Your two cents are worth more than most!!! Also, happy to hear that you have the shop open again!!!!!! I have a couple of your jackets and really respect your work. It's cool that quality craftsmen like yourself (and some others) are present and participate from time to time in the Lounge.

Regarding the looking for suede nap to determine real leather, in my case, the nap on the backside of the small zipper pull tab piece of leather was so shaved down and dyed it LOOKED like a bit of suede with a magnifying glass but it was inconclusive enough that I still wondered and it was the only piece I could find on the jacket that wasn't a closed seam where the suede side was inaccessible.

Good recommendation though for the OPer to look for a backside of the "leather" to determine authenticity. Curious to hear if this can be done.

 

[Mark Martin]

We have had a few jackets come to our shop for repair that the customers thought was leather. I had to tell them the bad news that it was vinyl. I opened the lining from the inside and showed them there was no nap (suede) to the underside of the leather (vinyl) they were surprised. That is one sure way of proving if its leather or vinyl. Just my two cents.

Be kind to your neighbors they know where you live:

Interesting how something looks like something but turns out to be something else very curious

 

[Alan@JohnsonLeather]

Thanks Alan! Your two cents are worth more than most!!! Also, happy to hear that you have the shop open again!!!!!! I have a couple of your jackets and really respect your work. It's cool that quality craftsmen like yourself (and some others) are present and participate from time to time in the Lounge.

Regarding the looking for suede nap to determine real leather, in my case, the nap on the backside of the small zipper pull tab piece of leather was so shaved down and dyed it LOOKED like a bit of suede with a magnifying glass but it was inconclusive enough that I still wondered and it was the only piece I could find on the jacket that wasn't a closed seam where the suede side was inaccessible.

Good recommendation though for the OPer to look for a backside of the "leather" to determine authenticity. Curious to hear if this can be done.

The best way is to open a seam in the inside of the sleeve and look at the underside and it should be suede. The seam in the lining can be resewn easily by you or any tailor. Hope this helps.

 

[handymike]

I’m still not 100% sure what it is....

 

[Alan@JohnsonLeather]

Based on what I can see in your photos it looks like the underside is suede and the edges by the seam look like there skived.
So my guess is your jacket is leather. Hope this helps.

 

[navetsea]

I will tell funny story.
so I walked into a local fabric supplier store looking for lining for my jacket, I asked if they have something robust and hard wearing, the young female shop attendant replied there is a semi leather one like
your jacket


she said it 2x too, louder and clearer the second time "synthetic leather" exactly like yours
in indonesian east java local dialect" ya kulit sintetis wes persis koyok jaket e mas e"

 

[regius]

thanks fellas! Paul Smith, that's him! Damn.

Anyhow, I did try two tests: apply conditioner, and soaking in water; also thought about the burn test but can't find a loose strip. Also, couldn't see an exposed underside, will keep looking.

The conditioner I applied was the Leatherique, supposedly the one product that really softens leather, but the coating is too thick and smooth, the liquid stayed on top for a couple of days, even under the sun. I'll try Lexol next.

I wore it for a bit, and the sleeves started to wrinkle a bit and started to feel more organic, so maybe it was a little worn item and stored away, on top of its low quality tanning/dying technique.

 

[Metatron]

Old thread, but I thought this would be worth knowing when buying vintage German jackets and would certainly explain Handymike's experience of wetting a jacket and it becoming 'hard as cardboard and white and grey undertones all over':
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presstoff

'Presstoff (also Preßstoff or Pressstoff) is the German-language term for a type of ersatz or artificial leather used during the first half of the 20th century. Made of specially layered and treated paper pulp, Presstoff was durable and easily adapted to be used in place of leather, which under wartime conditions was rationed. First invented in the 19th century, it gained its widest use in Germany during the Second World War.'

Then it follows that this was also made immediately postwar when times were hard in Germany and the factories producing it continued for some years after that as well... I owned one of these jackets and was surprised to find that in some flexible areas new cracks would form very easily-Once I had decided the jacket was probably beyond saving, I wanted to test various areas of the jacket to see whether the leather had completely dried out-I found that I could tear the leather, surprise surprise, like paper, once applying some force. Surprisingly, the underside actually had a 'mock suede' effect making it a lot more convincing than plastic imitation leather.

 

[handymike]

That’s gotta be it!
We have “shantung” jackets.
In context, this is very interesting, thanks.