Random questions to which you seek an answer

[Mizmazzle]

I was wondering, how is the black over dye process different from the indigo black process. The black ODs fade to a sort of washed out grayish blue, while tie IB seem to turn all the way back to blue…how is each applied that they would fade away in such different ways?

[pmadison95]

@Mizmazzle The way I understand it is that an indigo x black fabric has an indigo dyed warp yarn and a black dyed weft yarn. These two yarns are then woven together on the loom. The over dying process happens after the fabric is already woven together. So in this case I think they take a "regular" blue denim with and indigo warp and a white or off white weft and dip it in a black dye.

[Giles]

Correct….

[Gammaman]

I don't know if anyone has asked this question before but are all the Iron Heart buttons all made of brass and coated in another metal like copper or aluminium oxide as the silver ones underneath look brassy with wear?

[Daniel San]

why are the collars of the 526 vests smaller compared to the jacket collars ?  ::)

[Nocturama]

Does hickory denim, by definition, only use indigo as the dye colour, or is ‘black hickory’ a thing? Or any other colour, for that matter….[emoji848]

[Daniel San]

@Giles
@Alex
found this on ebay classifieds Germany
is it original?

[Giles]

Yes…..H makes a few (very few) each year, how on earth it got on to eBay, I don't know...

[Daniel San]

@Giles
Where are they sold ? It says only 100 made , is that correct ?
You were faster

[Alex]

Who is selling it, @Daniel San ? A German, or are you seeing a Japanese for sale listing on the German eBay?

[Daniel San]

@Alex
Its a german seller on the german Ebay he is from Nürnberg

[Alex]

Can you send me the details via PM please @Daniel San

[Daniel San]

Of course , one minute please

[scooter]

[Giles]

@Daniel:

Where are they sold ? It says only 100 made , is that correct ?

They should not have been sold, they were giveaways, primarily for Japanese retailers.  No idea how many were made.

[jerkules]

Just noticed that, since the forum change, I’m back to being “Raw and unwashed”. My post count is over 600. Any way to get me “upgraded” to my rightful status ?

[Dmart]

@jerkules i had the same issue. You can change it in your profile. I had to post at least once that the groups have been updated.

[jerkules]

@Dmart thanks buddy, managed to find it. Never would’ve looked there!

[Mizmazzle]

Question…when an IH item goes into production, does that include the creation of the fabric as well? For example, sometimes someone will ask when a restock will be, and it’s said it just went to production so could be months until ready. I’m curious what the steps of “production” are?

[Giles]

It means that we have sent in an order and Japan have OK'd it. Sometimes the fabric will not be woven because they do not know how much to weave until we place an order. The factories we use get quiet (er) and busy at different times, we try to place orders for stuff for factories that we know are quiet, but it is an imperfect world, so that does not always work and a factory gets super backed up all of a sudden and we have to wait for a very long time.

Over the last few years, we have suffered massive delays in ordering indigo 21oz selvedge garments. We simply could not weave enough of the denim. We had 4 dedicated looms running all the time just for this denim, Haraki has managed to convince the mill to increase that to 6 (all their looms are busy all the time, so it meant "stealing" those looms from someone else's denim production). So now we should have relieved the problems caused by the lack of denim, but that just means the bottleneck is now in the factories which sew up the 21oz garments, and it will take time to sort that out. You don't just turn a "make more" switch, it requires massive investment in new (old and hard-to-find sewing machines), staff and infrastructure.