What’s your favorite leather for a jacket?

[photo2u]

Vegetable tanned leathers are not waterproof but some are water repellent. Last week I wetted this elmc roadstar with a spray bottle. 5 minutes later the water was still in droplets / puddles on top.

View attachment 371743
I only took an 'after' pic lol.

Dude, I thought you were going to go out riding in the rain for at least half an hour? Or walking on the rain for some time. LOL.

 

[torfjord]

My favourite is probably goat. I currently have four goat jackets which means almost half my collection are goat. Goat is easy to wear, mid weight, drapes well and have a pebbly grain and it is one of the strongest leathers (only bested by kangaroo I think?).

Honestly I don’t think the tannery matters that much. Of my jackets I actually have no idea where the leather came from. Every tannery will have a variation in their product. Shinki will have hides with different characteristics coming out of their process. I think it is more important that the manufacturer have a relation to the tanneries that they are working with so that they can get what they want. I’ve seen leather from no name tanneries side by side to big brand tanneries and honestly
I don’t think anyone could tell them apart. There’s lots of high quality stuff out there that is not known to the general public.

New Thedi olive goat, washed and waxed.

70 year old goat:

 

[Marc mndt]

Dude, I thought you were going to go out riding in the rain for at least half an hour? Or walking on the rain for some time. LOL.

Lol, for those purposes vegetable tanned leather is useless.

 

[photo2u]

Sometimes when I ride, I get caught in the rain. By rule, I try to avoid it, but there are times when I get caught by mother earth and get wet on my leathers. Lucky for me, my riding leathers can take the abuse and then some. LW is the very best in this field. My Reeds also do incredibly well and build character and grain every time they get wet. The Vansons do excellent also. The jackets I use in my place in Bulgaria are strictly out in the town and I usually have a thinner layer like cashmere sweater. They hardly ever get any snow on them.

 

[Craig from Craigslist]

I would parrot a lot of what others have said in that I don't think the tannery should have much influence as long as you like the look and feel of the leather and you have a specific idea of the weight and style. In the spirit of answering your question though, if you're interested in trying a mid-weight leather that you can wear daily try goatskin. I imagine that would look excellent in the 30's half-belt style but beyond that goatskin is a bit more water resistant in my experience and will not burn you alive in the warmer days of spring and fall. The pebbly grain will also give the jacket a unique look that will make it stand out in your wardrobe and therefore it wouldn't fall prey to the classic leather jacket problem of "I own 2 jackets of similar hides and styles and I only wear one of them for whatever reason"

 

[JMax]

Shinki stinks. Except for the Shinki used to build my SB CR. Then Shinki good.

To withstand the elements, hard to argue against LW or Vanson. And imo the leathers also are beautiful.

 

[navetsea]

vegtan looks so good after being wet, it transforms totally into a sculpture ... but just don't make it a habbit

 

[Carlos840]

Vegetable tanned leathers are not waterproof but some are water repellent. Last week I wetted this elmc roadstar with a spray bottle. 5 minutes later the water was still in droplets / puddles on top.

View attachment 371743
I only took an 'after' pic lol.

Sure, they can deal with a little bit of spray bottle action, but not real sustained rain.
The first time i wore the Thedi i bought from you in the rain i was wet in about 15 minutes, the leather offered virtually no protection from the elements. When it dried, it dried leaving a bunch of white blotchy marks everywhere (almost as if the water had brought the waxes back to the surface of the hide), i was really not impressed.
Both my ELMC jackets react similarly to the rain, they are really useless...
To me that makes these jackets fashion jackets to go on a night out in town, not a "functional leather jacket" i can depend on.
I might give too much importance to rain for some people here, but in Belgium we get 199.6 days of rain a year, that means we statistically have rain 54% of days... We have years where that reaches 60%.
(I mean, Holland isn't that much better, but maybe i spend more time outside than you do).

Edit: That doesn't make ELMC or Thedi bad leather jackets, it just means i will only wear them when i know it is "safe to do so", ie going to the restaurant, going shopping, cinema, things like that.
Basically an indoor leather jacket.

 

[Marc mndt]

(I mean, Holland isn't that much better, but maybe i spend more time outside than you do).

We get as much rain here as you do in Belgium.

I live close to the city center and I can go pretty much everywhere I need to go within 10 minutes (when riding on my Vespa with windscreen that keeps me dry). Everywhere else I go by car. If I do need to go out in the rain for a longer period of time, I wear wool coats. (Or a vintage chrome tanned jacket lol)

 

[Carlos840]

We get as much rain here as you do in Belgium.

I live close to the city center and I can go pretty much everywhere I need to go within 10 minutes (when riding on my Vespa with windscreen that keeps me dry). Everywhere else I go by car. If I do need to go out in the rain for a longer period of time, I wear wool coats.

Interresting that you prefer to wear wool when it rains.
I would have thought that would be even worst! I know wool stays warm when wet, but doesn't it soak through pretty fast?

I was just thinking about my "obsession" with rain resistance, and i see it might just be me being weird/different.
I have always done a lot of gardening work, forestry work, I spend a lot of time outside.
When you do these things you don't usually stop for rain, you just put protective clothing on and carry on.
If it starts raining i don't usually stop and go inside to shelter like most people are "programmed" to, i just think "my jacket/coat can take it" and stay out...
I think i like being out in the rain more than the average person. I would rather go out for a walk in the rain than under the summer sun.

 

[MrProper]

I know wool stays warm when wet, but doesn't it soak through pretty fast?

Good loden fabric is not waterproof, but strongly water repellent. For hours, however, I would not like to stand in the rain even with it.
Otherwise I take an umbrella or pull a rain jacket over it (motorcycle time earlier)

 

[Marc mndt]

Interresting that you prefer to wear wool when it rains.
I would have thought that would be even worst! I know wool stays warm when wet, but doesn't it soak through pretty fast?

It depends on the quality of the wool and how it's spun. Heavily felted wool is very dense and pretty much waterproof.

I was just thinking about my "obsession" with rain resistance, and i see it might just be me being weird/different.
I have always done a lot of gardening work, forestry work, I spend a lot of time outside.

I'd love to spend time outside, gardening. But a house with a garden will sett you back at least €1.5 million here in Amsterdam. Far out of reach for me unfortunately.

Do you really go gardening wearing a leather jacket? I can think of more practical garments to wear for gardening

 

[MrProper]

Do you really go gardening wearing a leather jacket?

I was camping with leather jacket. When setting up it has rained in torrents. But a thin rain jacket over the leather and the problem was solved.
But I join Carlos. If the jacket alone can withstand all weather, then that's already a good point. My CXL was pretty good in the rain.

 

[Carlos840]

It depends on the quality of the wool and how it's spun. Heavily felted wool is very dense and pretty much waterproof.

I'd love to spend time outside, gardening. But a house with a garden will sett you back at least €1.5 million here in Amsterdam. Far out of reach for me unfortunately.

Do you really go gardening wearing a leather jacket? I can think of more practical garments to wear for gardening

Sorry i wasn't clear, i don't do gardening in a leather jacket, what i meant is i have been used to being out in the rain because i do a lot of work in the rain. Like last week i was cutting hedges all week, it rained a lot, if i stopped everytime it rained i would have done no work at all.

 

[Pandemic]

Interesting discussion about leather jackets and practicality in the rain.

I’ll admit that my love of leather jackets is mostly about how they look, but as far as function goes I’d say they can offer great compromise.

For true rain resistance, modern technical fabrics are hard to beat (that’s hard to admit, given my other love is waxed canvas).

For warmth, it’s hard to beat thick, oily wools and furs.

For abrasion and fire resistance, Kevlar seems to be preferred.

For wind resistance, there are a lot of strong thin fabrics that can do this now.

For looking good, nothing beats a leather jacket!

For doing pretty well at all these things and remaining durable for decades, the old leather jacket is still a great all-rounder.

 

[Adam K]

I have fallen in love with THEDI Buffalo leather. It is thick yet not to thick to the point where you need a few months to break it in. THEDIS Buffalo is durable smells great and is water repellent. My second favorite leather for a jacket is HORWEENS heavy CXFQHH. I have two AERO LEATHER jackets in this type of leather and it took about 3 4 months of consistent wear to break the jacket in and become comfortable to wear, but during the break in period it will seem as though you are fighting the jacket. You can’t go wrong with either of these leathers.

 

[willyto]

My preference so far is Goatskin and Deerskin.

 

[Brandrea33]

Interesting discussion about leather jackets and practicality in the rain …

For looking good, nothing beats a leather jacket...

Agreed.

I understand that for many here, a leather jacket is a practical garment and used in rain or shine, but for me this the only reason I own a leather jacket

 

[handymike]

I don’t wear mine in the rain either, but here in Southern CA that is only about 4-5 days a year.

 

[Will Zach]

All this talk about vegtan vs chrome in the rain made me wonder - would a Pecards treatment make vegtan leather more water-resistant? Not that it matters much, but the stuff is advertised as waterproofing treatment, and consists mostly of paraffin wax, which is hydrophobic. FWIW, I recently bought a low quality anilin dyed belt blank and treated part of it with Pecards, heavily. I mean three thick applications, each hit with a heat gun. The leather, although brand new, drank it all up. When I left the blank in the rain (accidentally), the part treated with Pecards had droplets and puddles on it, while the untreated part was uniformly wet.