Now I have no complaint at all with modern fashion garments. Though when fashion takes hold of the traditional working wax jacket the garment can be compromised to the point that it becomes in many cases not fit for purpose.
In the photographs is my Wax Jacket from days past when you could purchase your jacket made to measure from a number of suppliers, at just a little more cost than purchasing a readymade one. Other than Barbour there where a number of other small companies who also manufactured Waxed clothing for the Farming community and the outdoor sportsman whatever their pursuit, and in my humble opinion made a true heavy duty and reasonably good looking working mans product rather than bowing to the fashion market.
Given this jacket of mine has been in regular use and regularly waxed for forty five years now and so far it is as good as the day it left the makers all those years ago.
Its basic design is as good as it gets for a wind and rain proof jacket, also the outer Cotton fabric made from long staple Egyptian Cotton this type of Cotton is acknowledged as the finest hard waring but soft Cotton material available here in Brit land.
Starting at the top the Corduroy collar is sized to what we would call a Choker made tight about your neck to stop water from running down your neck passing the collar and wetting your under garments, this does take a little getting acclimatised to. You can see a row of press stud fasteners set in to the collar this is to attach a separate hood to keep your hat on in high winds also keeping the rain out of your ears or just the wind out.
The jacket has four front pockets the two mid line pockets being hand warmer pockets very well insulated and deep taking your hands plus gloves. The two lower pockets are of bellows design that can swallow a 25 box of 12 gauge cartridges in each pocket and still have room to spare.
The heavy-duty metal zip opens top to bottom and bottom to top making it easy to retrieve items from your internal pockets, the zip is also covered by a placket secured by press stud fastening keeping wind and water out. On the subject of the press stud fasteners they have bronze caps, that are so unlike the modern jackets with a bright Chrome finish in consequence you are covered by a dozen or so miniature light reflectors giving away your position if you pigeon shoot. The tightly knitted sleeve cuffs are set high internally in the sleeve to the point that if you clench your fist your hand is covered by the sleeves bottom so placing it out of the wind and rain
Inside the jacket it has been given a very deep bottom waterproof skirt to stop water soaking up from your trousers into the Wool and manmade fibre lining an all wool lining would have given up by now . You can see an internal game pocket known here as a poachers pocket this is made of waterproof material inside and out to stop blood from your kill soaking into the jacket, also there is a stowage pocket inside this to keep the hood when not in use.
The last picture shows how truly pliable this wax jacket cloth really is and how much of a difference the Petroleum Jelly makes to the cloths pliability, the jacket is folded reasonably tightly with the hood included, the mug is there to give some size perspective.
The jacket has performed so well over the years and may be Barbour may get some stiff competition from a traditional maker some time in the future.
And finally I use a multi folded cotton pad to apply wax to the jacket, and heat the area with a hair dryer to enable the wax to melt fully into the cloth fibres.