IHSB-BIGBUCK-BLK - Black Deerskin Western Shirt - The Big Buck

[Giles]

You can wash it gently in warm water....Which is what I would do.....I think @Chap and/or @goosehd have done so.....It's basically just Chamois, and see what we do to Chamois washing leathers.......

[Chap]

@Giles exactly but I would use cold water, hand wash, no detergents and recommend a try on and bringing it back to shape before it is completely dry. Mine was a bit out of shape after drying. If you put it on a hanger use one with broad support under the shoulder! Carefully stretch t back to shape during the drying process. No spinning!!! No dryer and no drying close to a radiator.

[Chap]

Oh and with mine the leather was bit stiff after drying and less soft and velvety, it is important to brush it. Sorry that I can't give more updates to mine, not much wear, I got one of the prototypes which is a bit tight for me.

[Chap]

There is a lot of oil (cod liver oil) in this leather (remember the hammers that tumbled the oiled hides @Giles ?) giving it the softness. Washing it with warmer water temperatures means oil will be removed and the leather gets stiff.

[Oaktavia]

@Chap @Giles OK I believe today is a good day for a handwash. I will update when dry. I'm going to reread Dennis's write up he has re: washing.

[Mizmazzle]

@Oaktavia gotta say it’s pretty rad the progress yours has made man. I always thought these would age really slowly, but it seems with a lot of wear they will come along quite nicely!!

I’m super excited to see how the hand wash turns out.

[Oaktavia]

How its going...wow. Lots of brown dye (the turquoise is the wall paint color reflection) is coming off. I was fully expecting black. This may explain why Haraki's shirt turned brown. I suspect the black dye is actually an extremely dark brown. The brown dye was in the tub after the soaking with no agitation. All I had to do was move the shirt a bit to get the dye to move as it is in the photos.

I soaked the BB for 25 minutes in my tub using cold water. I then used a soft bristle brush to super gently loosen dirt and debris. I paid close attention to the front where most of the stains and spots were. I was also careful not to pull the shirt to much out of the water while doing this. I was concerned the weight of the shirt in the water may cause it to pull and stretch. The spots may well still be there, as I was careful not to brush too much or too abrasively. I could feel the oils residing on the leather itself and was careful not to remove this. It was like a slimy film all over the shirt.

After rinsing with the shower head and removing the BB from the tub, it dripped more brown dye. This also surprised me.

Now following Dennis's technique, I have the shirt laid flat on top of several old towels. I then put a towel inside of the shirt so that less of the wet leather was laying on more wet leather. From there, I put another towel on top of the shirt after closing a towel inside the shirt. I put hand towels inside partway into the sleeves and another around the collar. It is now laying like this, sandwiched between towels and more towels. I was sure to lay the leather as flat as possible, to avoid it drying in odd shapes from unwanted folds.

So now we wait. I feel pretty confident about this wash and am optomistic about the results. I hope it all works out and will post again when it is fully dry.

[Giles]

Remember, the "black" dye is just literally painted onto the surface of the natural deerskin....

[Oaktavia]

@Giles right, makes sense that it was leaking into the water. I would say it was about the same amount of dye that one would see after handwashing indigo denim. But not nearly as much black dye that came off the 25ozbb denim though. That was like an octopus was in the water.

[Mister_Brue]

This post is deleted!

[Denimhead 0]

Want one of these sooo bad in 3XL

[long_john86]

@Oaktavia thank you for sharing this

[tody]

@Oaktavia Super cool stuff. The dye in the water must have been a mesmerizing thing in itself, the pictures look rad.

[Twistlock]

@Oaktavia , will bookmark this for when ever i feel the need to wash my olive BigBuck. Thanks for sharing. Can't await to see the results.

[Oaktavia]

@Twistlock @long_john86 happy to share @tody it was indeed.

[Chap]

Awesome @Oaktavia thanks for sharing! That looks perfect! Will be super helpful for upcoming generations of BB owners

[jfox1980]

Has Iron Heart ever made one of these shirts with hand warmers like the cpo style shirts?

[goosehd]

@jfox1980 They have not.

[Oaktavia]

@Chap happy to help for sure, the more info out there about these amazing shirts, the better. I have been changing out towels as the shirt dries. It is definitely a process, but worth being careful to ensure the shirt is taken care of. I tried putting it on a hanger but the water weight in the shirt will create stress on the shoulders...I think there would be stretched out bumps. So, I'll keep it laid flat until it's dry. I imagine it will be wet for a couple days.

[Giles]

@goosehd said in IHSB-BIGBUCK-BLK - Black Deerskin Western Shirt - The Big Buck:

@jfox1980 They have not.

Well, actually we did make a few about 10-15 years ago. But the way we made them at the time, meant that the hand-warmers were constructed a little clumsily (internally), and I did not like them.....