Water treatment for my Lost Worlds J24L

[Americanaaa Mark]

I'm considering doing it since this jacket is just so damn stuff and I can't see it breaking in for years. How should I do it do you think? Should I expect anything bad to happen? I'm going to do it in luke warm room temperature water. It has your standard quilt lining. Should I? yes/no

 

[jacketjunkie]

I am no fan of artificial aging; just wear it. You're young, you've got years ahead to give it all that nice patina. It's never gonna be the same if it's artificially done; no emotional attachment to the jacket or the times you wore it, watched it slowly change. That's the best part about this hobby, for me anyway; wearing a jacket and see it change, gradually, over time and then look at it and appreciate the work done. Buying used jackets who need no break in are not half as much fun or satisfying to wear.

 

[navetsea]

quilt lining will take forever to dry, how about just spray bottle in your case, emulate drizzle of rain, and you walk around in it until it get dry, then spray again and so on, walking in real drizzle is the most natural, but then the rest of your outfit probably are not as weatherproof as your jacket.

 

[handymike]

Take a steamer to it!

 

[seres]

quilt lining will take forever to dry, how about just spray bottle in your case, emulate drizzle of rain, and you walk around in it until it get dry, then spray again and so on, walking in real drizzle is the most natural, but then the rest of your outfit probably are not as weatherproof as your jacket.

I agree... just mist the jacket and wear it. After 6 months of intermittent wear, my LW is starting to break-in.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

quilt lining will take forever to dry, how about just spray bottle in your case, emulate drizzle of rain, and you walk around in it until it get dry, then spray again and so on, walking in real drizzle is the most natural, but then the rest of your outfit probably are not as weatherproof as your jacket.

I agree with the spray bottle water technique to soften up most leathers, bring out grain and shape. I've used it on all my CXL FQHH Aero jackets. I sprayed them until soaking wet or quite wet..worn them until dry then repeat several times. However, the one LW jacket I tried it on was really unsuccessful. The LW finish is just treated so much, heavily dyed, or such a different type of tanning that it was barely affected even after many water soaking attempts.
HD

 

[red devil]

quilt lining will take forever to dry, how about just spray bottle in your case, emulate drizzle of rain, and you walk around in it until it get dry, then spray again and so on, walking in real drizzle is the most natural, but then the rest of your outfit probably are not as weatherproof as your jacket.

That sounds like the best way to go at it.

Which leather did you take, 4oz?

 

[Monitor]

Water by itself won't do much difference, if any. You need to apply the Japanese rope bondage technique if it's the creases you want.

But yeah, not much you can do to speed up the break-in process other than wear it.

 

[Americanaaa Mark]

That sounds like the best way to go at it.

Which leather did you take, 4oz?

yup 4oz

 

[Carlos840]

I have always used the spray bottle method with success.
Spray yourself down every half hour or so, and do a lot of weird movements, do the T-rex arms, do the zombie walk, do the twist, just make sure you girlfriend doesn't see you do it...
A few days of doing that should help a lot, and will not damage the lining.

If you really want to speed things up, go for a run in it, or get in a sauna.
IMO leather absorbs humidity from the inside much better than the outside.
As much as spraying the outside helps, what really breaks in a leather jacket fast is to be sweating profusely inside of it.
Nothing sweatier than being at a red light on a bike in the summer heat in a black leather jacket! That will break it in in no time.

 

[thor]

As crazy as that may sound, I agree with @Carlos840
I used to go jogging in my LW A-2, especially when it was raining. That jacket broke in amazingly quickly and in no time at all it was soft, pliable and conformed to my shape, plus it had some great creasing and wrinkling in the 4oz HH.

 

[Hh121]

Stiff? I have two black horsehide LW jacket, they soften pretty fast, the really stiff one and take years to break in is his brown horsehide.... just my opinion.

 

[AeroFan_07]

Wear it, shovel snow in it (Tony's contribution) and yes, take a nap or 20 with it on. I'm wearing my J23 LW 4-OZ jacket as I type this, hung in the closet all during Christmas till now. Time to get that underway.

 

[roadking04]

I am in the "just wear it" camp. But the older I get, the less I like to ride in the rain, especially in 40 degree weather. Now I like to cheat a little when I get a brand new, stiff jacket.

Step one: Get beer and wait for a rainy day.

Step two: Zip up jacket (mainly so the interior doesn't get too wet)

Step three: Lay jacket flat on the driveway in a downpour

Step four: Go in warm house and drink a cold beer or two

Step five: Retrieve cold, wet jacket and wear inside a warm house and drink more beer with the jacket on.

 

[red devil]

yup 4oz

Mine is the 3.5 oz and took about a year to get soft. Have been wearing it a lot.
I think body heat is key to softening it, so the advice to run with it or just do some activity that makes you get all warm and or sweat is definitely a sound one

 

[MET]

Treat it gently. Patience is a virtue.

 

[Monitor]

I've done everything you guys recommend with quite a few of my jackets and never got any to become significantly different. Extensive wear did the trick but none of the methods involving water affected the jackets. I guess it depends on the leather. . .

 

[bn1966]

I'm a fan of the 'water-treatment' especially wearing it out in the rain..I have been known to use a 'spray' too Worked for me as long as I 'wore' it lots too

 

[sweetfights]

I agree with the spray bottle water technique to soften up most leathers, bring out grain and shape. I've used it on all my CXL FQHH Aero jackets. I sprayed them until soaking wet or quite wet..worn them until dry then repeat several times. However, the one LW jacket I tried it on was really unsuccessful. The LW finish is just treated so much, heavily dyed, or such a different type of tanning that it was barely affected even after many water soaking attempts.
HD

LW jackets are really waterproof. One of the LW assets. All weather jackets.

 

[sweetfights]

I have always used the spray bottle method with success.
Spray yourself down every half hour or so, and do a lot of weird movements, do the T-rex arms, do the zombie walk, do the twist, just make sure you girlfriend doesn't see you do it...
A few days of doing that should help a lot, and will not damage the lining.

If you really want to speed things up, go for a run in it, or get in a sauna.
IMO leather absorbs humidity from the inside much better than the outside.
As much as spraying the outside helps, what really breaks in a leather jacket fast is to be sweating profusely inside of it.
Nothing sweatier than being at a red light on a bike in the summer heat in a black leather jacket! That will break it in in no time.

So true!