Hi guys, how are you doing? Hope well,
Here it will take more than a bit before wearing the coats, but I figured that waiting for cold season and having to deal with waxing again if needed, wasn't a good idea.
In the end, I decided (for me, just my humble pov, possibly well matching
Mechanismo 's vision) that SR, despite being great and coated anyway, was needing for a heavy Otter wax coating.
After having tried on both coats the 3 main waxes designed for fabric dressing (Otter both dressing and bars, Barbour dressing, and Greenland bars, I would have tried also Kuhl but it wasn't that easy to be bought here where I am), I can give a personal view of these waxes and what about any possible good improvement on Bep laminate and SR, my very last:
- in the end, I must say that, if the color was more SA and the lining more quality and sturdiness, I personally and honestly don't see that big difference between Bep laminate and SR, but that laminate, as originally received, needs a bit of light sanding to loose the excess of plastic-like effect, which is not too much, but a step back than SR. The laminate, for the brave ones, may have a strong need to be tweaked in color (so, discolouration -very carefully- in a large tub bleach bath without folding it, then I would suggest powder dyes in a single washer cycle at 60° (very tough to be withstood, but if just one and not thousand like a I did, you might avoid having to deal with minor scratches / lining to be replaced etc), I would say using a total of about 1000-1200g of powder in a mix of grey in the larger part, emerald green, a bit of blue denim (light/sky blue) and a very little part of brown, just to give an example of what I did, and than, why not, adding a final lite coating with Otter wax.
- Otter wax is very long to cure, not hard to be applied but needs several hands -I'd say 3/4 without exceeding in none of them and waiting each time for curing at least 72hrs- to have to desired result, I put the first hand with fabric dressing, then retouched it, and others with bars. One of my intermediate hands has been done with Greenland bars, I don't find it useful to be used as the only coating, but that wax helps to give a bit more stiffness (adding it in small proportion starting with extremely light hand and waiting, to understand how much you desire) and weight/sturdiness to the cloth,but also speeds up a bit the wax drying time;for Greenland, a careful use of the dryer is mandatory, it won't be enough to use the hands as I did on some retouches after the first hands, to push it through the fabric and make it absorb it properly, it needs the dryer; I didn't find the same great result with Barbour wax, maybe it is more effective on duck canvas, I finished a tin anyway to improve the coating especially on the back of both my Bep and SR, but it is clear to me that, at least on these two types of cloth, Otter (and in case, a bit of Greenland) has a greater effect and I wouldn't have needed Barbour wax too.
Do not care to what instructional says: for me, it takes at least about a month to completely and properly cure, and what indicated about 48/72hrs is for the prominent part, but it still remains slightly damp for a long time, imo it's better to wait and avoid it absorbing too much dust by going around wearing it immediately.
- maybe it sounds bad to someone, but I personally find my final result, after have tried all waxes and in the end fully agreed with
Mechanismo as well as many noticeable ones who said the movie coat is waxed, superior to the original coating I had from SR: with this, I mean SR is a particular unique beautiful coating but I wanted more of a "filled",saturated weave and make it also stronger to elements, so that I gave a couple more waxing hands (make it quite strongly waxed too) on my SR after the first lite I did at the beginning, and the effect is a more SA and sturdy feeling (I'm sure that will also assure me my SR have a way greater resistance to time, I don't wanna risk it to be never easily scratched or any damage by using it).
Leaving aside for a moment SA, I find that the my coats now have great practicality for about every activity and situation (except using it as a pure training apparel, I definitely won't be delusional wearing my k coats when skiing or running sessions), but if rain or heavy fog/cold wintery situations occur, my solution with the nylon hood, now I thought it wasn't stilysh enough at today, so I created a couple cotton skullies, colored in the same hue of the coats, and coated at perfection with the waxing methods I found work best, they are very easy to be folded and carried in a internal pockets of the coats, and when the coat is fully closed, they definitely work to withstand also a rain a bit more than just lite (even if not comparable to a gtx sporty hardshell).
Waxing those cottons, waiting couple days and then exposing to a bit of sunlight, helps cure properly even if the sun tends to bring out a lot of excess dry wax (which will be visible with whitish streaks, which will require further work to make them reabsorb or to remove them), but by repeating with light hands several times, in the end you will have a good result.
Probably it might also be enough to use radiators in winter to dry the wax properly, but I chose summer and these methods also because I want to have my clothes already nice, ready and finished, when this time cold season will come.
See u next!
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