Thrifting Back Home

Living in Denmark's second largest city makes thrifting, which is one of my favourite pastime activities, a bit more difficult. There is a lot of competition by bigger hipsters than myself and the prices are normally hiked a bit too much for my liking. Therefore I like thrifting in smaller towns all across Denmark, when I get the chance. I especially like doing back home, when I visit my parent's. Not too long ago I went home and I had the chance to do a bit of thrifting and I had a bit of luck. Here are some highlights.

First of an old Danish made workwear jacket by Gerco with some nice details. This one has already found a new good home and I hope the new owner enjoys it. The cut and details of this jacket makes it very wearable and it resembles a classic safari jacket a bit.

Green bartacking

My favourite kind of workwear buttons. This type of button is removable and is secured with a small brass split on the back. 

Selvage on the placket. And some very nice slub in the fabric.

The stitching on the collar makes it stand up.

Felled seams, triple stitched and chain stitch.

I also found two denim workwear jackets, which are almost identical as the one I featured some time back. The only difference is the fact, that this one features snap buttons by Stocko, which is an old German company (that Nigel Cabourn also uses), that makes quality hardware. The denim is also slightly different in colour and it's a bit more irregular and hairy. The two jackets were donated to fellow Danish denim enthusiasts Thomas of Denimhunter and Henrik of Brund and according to my sources, the one I gave to Henrik is now being displayed in the shop.

I also managed to scoop two vintage t-shirts by a Danish underwear company called BHI (short for Brødrene Hansen Ikast), which is long gone. I mostly bought them because I liked the text on the back, which says "Real men wears BHI" and of course they were deadstock.

I also managed to find this hunting/fishing/outdoor parka by a company called Laksen (Salmon in English). It's probably the thing, that will go straight into my jacket rotation due to it's perfect olive colour and the fact, that is 100% Danish made, as the fabric was woven at Grenaa Dampvæveri.

The functionality is also great on the jacket with it's numerous pockets and hidden hood of some terrible, yet waterproof nylon fabric.

Suede shoulder and elbow patches.

Lastly I managed to find a nice coat in one of my favourite fabrics ever, Loden or Loden Cape from Austria. Unlike many coats made of Loden this jacket is actually somewhat fitted and short, which makes it a lot more wearable to me.

Nice, thick leather football buttons.

Leather trim in pockets and on the cuffs.

Waist adjusters and zipped vents.

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Crafts - Mil-Spec Lanyard

Here's a small piece of custom leatherwork, that I did for my good friend, Rasmus. He requested a new key hanger or lanyard, as his old (shitty) one finally gave up.

I know, that Rasmus is quite into jeans, so I made him a lanyard with some very nice details, that would go well with a pair of jeans. I'm actually quite satisfied with it. So much I'm making one for myself now.

These pictures were taken after a couple of weeks of use and it looks like it is evolving quite nicely. The leather I used is a 3mm thick vegetable tanned leather from Germany. I oiled it quite a few times with Neatsfoot oil, just to get the process going.

The hardware is a bit more interesting. It's from the Danish military and it is made of steel/nickel, that has been enameled. The buckle is deadstock, so there is no chipping whatsoever, but the snap has been used - heavily - so it has plenty patina. I'm hoping, that they resemble each other a bit more with wear. 

I secured the snap using a 6 ply waxed Irish linen thread. Sewn by hand, of course. And here you can see my custom maker's stamp. I've come to the conclusion, that it's too hard getting it perfectly centred, so now I'm just quickly punching it. So it always gets a bit crooked, but that's just charming, I think.

All edges have been rounded slightly and burnished using beeswax and good, old elbow grease. What you can't seen from these pictures, is that the buckle has been set using two solid copper rivets. This is a very rugged solution, and it adds to the character, once the ageing process really kicks in. Nothing goes as well with vegetable tanner leather as solid copper rivets. 

All photos by Rasmus Jakobsen and all words (and work) by Simon Tuntelder

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