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

[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.....

[Karol]

@Giles has the construction possibilities changed since? I can’t even express how much I would love the hand warmer pockets on this or the pale rider.

[Giles]

I've been thinking about how we solve the issue for 13 years......

[jfox1980]

I hope you solve the issue at hand soon, pun intended I enjoy your shirts with the hand warmers living in Alaska they come in handy, pun intended again

[WhiskeySandwich]

@Oaktavia hell yeah! thing looks well loved, just as it should be. Wearing it nicely.

[Oaktavia]

Here is my Big Buck today, nearly dry and looking much cleaner. Overall, the spots and stains are gone (aside from where I tried removing a couple small stains on the right front, the black has been worn away there). It has actually turned out better than I expected. I wore it around for about ten minutes in an effort to reset the creases on the arms. The have mostly folded back where the wear marks are. The fades are much more prominent on the right arm. They left arm still has wear marks, but they are more subtle at this stage and are still emerging. The leather is still super smooth and soft. It might be a tad stiff but I imagine that it will soften up with wear. Simialr to air drying any shirt, they become bit stiff. Below are fit pics.

It appears I have not folded the collar properly upon wearing it in the photos. You get the idea. Overall, I am definitely happy with the results and look forward to wearing it some more.