Although this will probably make serving squaddies cringe I come to sing the praises of the Jerkin, Protective, combat.
I picked up one of these direct decsendents of the Great Wat leather Jerkin at the recent somewhat damp Abingdon airshow, £3.99 from, a box of brand new ones.
Looking for a picture I found silvermans was flogging them off for not much more
http://www.springfields.co.uk/clothing/jackets-jumpers-coats/?id=384
I've been using it while humping logs around and as a general protective garment in the shed (stops the wires flying off the wheel as I derust another piece of junk nicely!) and its been great. Mines a 190/112 and fits over my 50 inch chest fine with a couple of layers underneath.
At one point you could get the post war Belgium version of the leather jerkin quite cheap but with the blanket lining they were always very sweaty and heavy. Brit ones are now collectors items and you don't see even the 1960s PVC version very often in surplus stalls anyway.
I've no idea if the mesh back is fire retardent or how well the zip handles heat (looking at the way its sewn on it would be a doddle to replace it with a heavy duty brass one anyway) but for general work its just the job.
Wish I'd bough a few more now.
ATB
Tom
PS Just noticed they make reprodutions of the WWII version
http://onlinemilitaria.net/shopexd.asp?id=1021&bc=no
I picked up one of these direct decsendents of the Great Wat leather Jerkin at the recent somewhat damp Abingdon airshow, £3.99 from, a box of brand new ones.
Looking for a picture I found silvermans was flogging them off for not much more
http://www.springfields.co.uk/clothing/jackets-jumpers-coats/?id=384
I've been using it while humping logs around and as a general protective garment in the shed (stops the wires flying off the wheel as I derust another piece of junk nicely!) and its been great. Mines a 190/112 and fits over my 50 inch chest fine with a couple of layers underneath.
At one point you could get the post war Belgium version of the leather jerkin quite cheap but with the blanket lining they were always very sweaty and heavy. Brit ones are now collectors items and you don't see even the 1960s PVC version very often in surplus stalls anyway.
I've no idea if the mesh back is fire retardent or how well the zip handles heat (looking at the way its sewn on it would be a doddle to replace it with a heavy duty brass one anyway) but for general work its just the job.
Wish I'd bough a few more now.
ATB
Tom
PS Just noticed they make reprodutions of the WWII version
http://onlinemilitaria.net/shopexd.asp?id=1021&bc=no
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