The jacket arrived in a bin liner with three others, none of which we kept. It was a 1980s cowhide, brown, boxy, with the brass closure that turns up on maybe one jacket in forty. It was also stiff enough to stand up on its own, which is what puts most people off.
Day one: assessment
Stiffness on its own is not a problem. Stiffness with cracking is. The difference is what you find when you fold a panel back on itself: a hide that has dried but held will crease and recover, and one that has gone will show a white line along the fold that does not close.
This one creased and recovered everywhere except a patch at the left cuff, which we noted and photographed.
Day two and three: cleaning and feeding
Forty years of wear does not come off in one pass. It comes off in four, with a pH-neutral cleaner and a lot of patience, and you stop when the cloth stops coming back brown rather than when the leather looks new.
Then it gets fed. Conditioner goes on thin, three coats, twelve hours apart, and the hide takes what it needs.
Day four: the seams
The original thread had gone at the left underarm. It was restitched by hand in a matched weight so the repair reads as part of the jacket rather than as a patch.
Day five: grading and photography
Graded very good. The cuff patch stayed, so it went into the listing with a close-up. The scuff on the lower right panel stayed too. Neither of them is a reason not to buy the jacket, but both of them are a reason to say so.